Q&A for How to Give a Seminar

Connect with their pain. I once had someone in my emotional intelligence seminar who was upset because her boss made her go to my seminar! I opened my seminar by explaining to the group, "Everyone needs training on emotional intelligence, unfortunately, the people who really need it aren't here today." This made the group laugh, and the hostility decreased even more, when I told them they would be learning things that would help them deal with those less emotionally intelligent people.

Just remember that your audience doesn't know what you are about to tell them. As far as they are concerned, everything they hear is what they should be hearing. They will not know if you make a mistake or skip a part. This should help with the nerves.

Do not be afraid to briefly pause the presentation and have a sip of water. It is common to get a dry throat during a presentation, and so it generally won't be a problem for you to bring a bottle of water with you. A method for avoiding a dry throat is pausing after one or two sentences and glancing around at the audience.

Try to be interactive, such as using hand gestures and pacing a little--but don't over do it, or you will appear erratic and nervous. You also want to maintain good posture, but standing up straight, tilting your shoulder's back, and holding your head up. This will show that you feel comfortable and confident.

First tell yourself that others will not hurt you. Speak your mind. Try to recall what you want to say and plan it out before you speak.

Always look at your audience members. Do not stare, but casually glance around at individuals and make very brief eye contact for about 1 to 2 seconds.

Before giving a seminar be sure to study and be sure to tell yourself that you will try your best and you will give a good seminar.

Try to relate to your audience. For example, if your audience is mostly teenagers, consider telling them how the topic is related to the latest trends. Also, encourage your audience to ask questions.

You can present your seminar using a chart paper with all the content needed for your speech. You can also include interactive pictures based on your topic. You can present a seminar without graphics, but it will not be as interesting to the audience.

The best way to calm your nerves is to practice your presentation many times in advance. You can ask your friends and family to give you speaking tips as well. Taking a few deep, calming breaths immediately before your presentation, and perhaps stretching a bit, will also help.

It can be used if all your audience is familiar with it; although I wouldn't recommend it unless you're very fluent in that language, as it could make your seminar look unprofessional. Try to use Hindi or English, or any international language that is easy to understand. If you still want to use a regional language, do it in chunks instead of giving all of the seminar in it.

Generally, no, although it very much depends on your discipline and the desired format of the seminar. If you are going to speak directly from a paper, try to memorize most of it so that you can keep up eye contact with your audience. It is also helpful if you change your tone of voice and speed of speaking at times to keep your audience from getting bored.

Prepare a video as a support tool that will take up some of the time and will catch the central concepts you're worried about forgetting. Use Screencastify and perhaps also YouTube.

Ask frequent questions and allow your audience to ask questions as well. You can crack some jokes to loosen up yourself and the audience.

The main thing you must do is be interactive with the audience. Speak in a casual way. You can pace across the stage, but not too often.

You can follow essentially the same steps as listed above. However, you may want to personalize your presentation, so that it catches the interest of your classmates and teacher. You can refer to your classmates by name and try to ask them direct questions as well as part of your seminar. You can also connect your content back to your class material.

You can clear your throat, practice speaking loudly and clearly, and drink water or warm tea to help.

Never be tense, because it reflect in your face and the audience can recognize it. Speak your mind confidently. Use hand gestures suitably. Speak slowly and clearly. Modulate your voice accordingly. Maintain proper eye contact with the audience. Give necessary gaps among sentences. Stick to the allotted time.