An audience with a limited understanding of your subject

Ask yourself:

How can you convey your main message to an audience that is unfamiliar with your topic, but is prepared to listen to you?
How much time do you have to talk?
Should you select only your main conclusions or do you need to give more background information to place your conclusions in context?

Are you presenting to an informal audience...

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..or a more formal audience?

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An audience of your peers

Think about how much information you need to provide to keep your audience engaged.

Ask yourself:

Is this a specialised paper?
Or is this a general paper where your fellow students have different areas of expertise?
Do you need to give more background information?
If you use jargon, will your audience understand or just be confused?
How long is your talk?

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When you present to your peers, they are usually just as worried about their own talk as you are about yours!

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Image source

Adapted from: Outdoor Lessons. [Photographer]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. http://quest.eb.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/images/115_2673108

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Audience at a conference in your field

Does this conference cover a narrow subject area, such as Forams (only discusses research around foraminiferids - Protists with shells)? Or does it cover a broad subject area, such as the American Geophysical Union, which has twenty thousand participants?

Think about the following questions:

What does this audience already know about the topic you are presenting?
Is the use of specific terms okay? How well do I have to define those terms?
What aspects of your subject would be more interesting for your audience? To what level of specificity should you go to?
What has motivated the participants to come to your presentation?
What do you want them to know at the end?

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Prospective employers

Out of all the presentations you will give, this is probably one of the scariest. This audience can be tough, and you will have to sell yourself and your skills. You need to think about some of the following questions:

What type of company/industry is it?
What language is appropriate?

For example, if it is a technical job, it may be beneficial to use specific terms to demonstrate your subject knowledge. If you will be dealing with customers, you may want to demonstrate how well you communicate complex ideas to the general public.

Who is interviewing you?

Are your interviewers from the company and have an in-depth understanding of your discipline? Or are they from a recruitment agency and have a more general understanding of your skills?

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In an interview situation it pays to do some background research on the company.

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Selling your "product" to prospective customers/investors

A prospective customer/investor is most likely the audience where you will have to be able to communicate effectively with someone that doesn't have specific knowledge of the technical part of your work. In this case you might have to think of:

Do customers/investors have knowledge of the product building process? Can they understand these steps or do they have to be explained? Will it be sufficient to show the final product and its functionalities?
Can you explain the limitations of the product and how to further develop it?
How far can you go with what you can offer?
Is there anyone else that can complement your presentation and show other sides of the product building or marketing?

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Your customers may not have an in-depth understanding of your product or service.

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