Presentation Special Effects 1: Voice

As a presenter you need to capture the audience's attention.  Just as you watch a movie, special effects are used to captivate the viewers in addition to the storyline. 

You can have an interesting topic and good visual tools, but if you do not utilize any good special effects, you may lose the attention of the audience.

The first special effect is your voice.  Follow these guidelines:

• Vary the tempo (speed) by focusing on the rhythm of your words.  Think of a song - the melody and rhythmic patterns change.  If the song was in the same chord throughout the song, then perhaps it would not be very appealing to the ears.
• Place emphasis where needed.  You need to emphasize key words and also place emphasis in areas where you need to increase the pitch.  Visualize an equalizer.  You should reach the highs and lows in the appropriate places.
• Use pause to add drama to your presentation.  There are many reasons why pause is used.  Pause can be used to reveal something.  "And the winner is...Chris."  Pause can be used for effect.  "The tests showed...success!"  Pause can be used to seperate important/significant/exciting things.  "We have agreed to ...increase salary by 5%...and...provide two additional days of vacation...and...give everyone a bonus of...$10,000.00 for their hard work."  Also, using pause during sentences can be used for overall impact.  Pause can be short or long depending on the intended effect.
• Put emotion into words.  Do not speak in monotone.  If you are talking about something sad, your voice should lower by a few decibels, rhythm should slow and there should a sadness in the tone of your voice.  If you are speaking about something exciting, there should be an increase of a few decibels, increase in speed and you should sound excited.  Basically, our voice should reflect the emotion we are speaking about.  I have seen many presenters leave out the emotion during a presentation and the overall effect failed.