Addressing a group

1. Address the crowd according to your message and target audience. Use respectful titles, never titles labelled by religious affiliations or belief systems. Speak on friendly terms, but don’t assume a position that is too private. For example, don’t address the crowd by saying, “Good evening, friends,” unless you honestly do know most of the people personally and the reason for the evening event is of a sensitive enough nature that you can meaningfully address them as such.

2. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Don’t overdress or underdress.

3. Speak clearly but calmly. No bashing your fist upon the podium to get your point across, please.

4. Plan for technical glitches and for things to go wrong. Take problems with a smile and move on. The less you give these issues notice, the less the audience will.

5. Control the speed of your voice and keep to your time limit. Speaking too long will cause the crowd to glance at their watch too often and lose focus.

6. Stick to the organized topic at hand. Keep personal problems, the nerdy jokes or odd people you saw on the way to the conference out of the speech. They will only be distracting and make you look like an amateur.

7. Close the speech properly. How you end your speech is just as important is how you delivered it. It is always appropriate to thank audience members for their time and for listening.