Eye Contact and Movement

Eye contact is one of the most important points when it comes to presenting as it tells your audience you are ready to present and allows you to have a connection with the audience as well.
No one wants to see a presenter just reading straight off a stack of cue cards, because not only does it make the presentation boring, but it looks as though you don't know your own presentation.
Of course I'm not telling you to go completely paper-less up in front of the audience, but here are a couple of points that can help you:

• Try to memorize most of your presentation and have your cue cards only as a guideline
• Bring some personality into the presentation. A little improvisations doesn't hurt

And now here's what we all know about eye contact : It can be uncomfortable, and as if presenting doesn't make one nervous enough, keeping eye contact makes it even more nerve-racking. And the knowledge of how important eye contact is, some of us become conscious of it and try to stare even more, however a couple seconds of eye contact and making sure too look at all your audience members can help. But if you are too nervous to that then maybe these points can help:

• Stare at the wall ahead
• Look at peoples foreheads
• Look at a friend or even just the teachers
• If you want to take it a step further then picture everyone in their underpants

Movement is also very important during a presentation. Make sure to not just stay in one spot as it can also make the presentation dull. Try to move around a little, walking back and forth between the aisles of the room, this way you can grab their attention a lot better.

Question

So how do you keep eye contact during a presentation and keep those nerves down?

References

Gonzales, H. (n.d.). How to Keep an Audience Attention. Retrieved from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/how_2308695_keep-audiences-attention.html