Presenting to Different Audiences
In the workplace, oral presentations may be delivered to fellow workers, colleagues, managers, clients, or others. Knowing this, instructors may ask that you tailor your talk to a mock (practice) on-the-job audience, with your classmates serving as stand-ins. The types of audiences you will likely address on the job include the expert or insider audience, the colleagues within the field audience, the lay audience, and the mixed audience; Table 31.1 on the next page describes each type of audience. The nearby checklist Tips on Presenting to a Mixed Audience offers guidelines on addressing one of the most common types of audiences.
TABLE 31.1 Types of On-the-Job Audiences
| Type of Audience | Characteristics |
| Expert or insider audience | People who have intimate knowledge of the topic, issue, product, or idea being discussed (e.g., an investment analyst presents a financial plan to a group of portfolio managers). |
| Colleagues within the field audience | People who share the speaker’s knowledge of the general field under question (e.g., psychology or computer science) but who may not be familiar with the specific topic under discussion (e.g., short-term memory or voice-recognition systems). |
| Lay audience | People who have no specialized knowledge of the field related to the speaker’s topic or of the topic itself (e.g., a physical education teacher discusses a proper diet and exercise regimen with a group of teenagers). |
| Mixed audience | An audience composed of a combination of people—some with expert knowledge of the field and topic and others with no specialized knowledge. This is perhaps the most difficult audience to satisfy (e.g., an attending surgeon describes experimental cancer treatment to a hospital board comprised of medical professionals, financial supporters, and administrative personnel). |
TIPS ON PRESENTING TO A MIXED AUDIENCE
Find out as much information as you can about the audience and gear the talk according to their level of knowledge and interests.
- Avoid highly technical terms or specialized terms and explain any that you must use.
- Pay special attention to constructing the introduction, making certain to identify the central idea and main points of the talk. If possible, present as a compelling “story” listeners can learn about if they stay the course.
- Alert the audience to the order of your coverage: “I will first focus on the big picture and on marketing/sales issues. I will then present design specifications and data analysis.” In this way, each audience segment will know what to expect and when.
- Consider devoting half to two-thirds of your time to an introduction or overview of your subject and saving the highly technical material for the remaining time.1
- Include everyone. Try to address different levels of knowledge and different perspectives in turn.
- Be clear about the level at which you are speaking: “I am going to present the primary results of this project with minimal detailed information, but I’ll be happy to review the statistics or experimental results in more detail following the presentation.”
- Be alert to audience reactions. If you notice that your listeners are experiencing discomfort, consider stopping and asking for feedback about what they want. You might then change course and opt for a more in-depth, high-level approach, depending on what they say.