#MSIgnite Session: How to Become a Rock Star Public Speaker in 5 Steps

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Want to catch up on other Ignite sessions? Check out the rest of our coverage below:

• #MSIgnite Keynote Recap: Satya Nadella on Tech Intensity
• #MSIgnite Session: Transform Your Workplace with Microsoft 365 Recap
• #MSIgnite Session: Jeff Teper on Content Collaboration in the Modern Workplace
• #MSIgnite Session: How to Achieve 90% Microsoft Teams Adoption in Three Months
• #MSIgnite Session: Modern Teamwork with Microsoft 365
• #MSIgnite Session: Non-Compliant Apps in #Office365 GCC #MicrosoftTeams Store
• #MSIgnite Session: How to Ensure Operational Governance for Microsoft Teams

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It’s becoming increasingly apparent that IT professionals need to learn new methods for teaching their users how to adopt new software. A major part of that is becoming an effective public speaker and presenter. Sound impossible? You might be surprised.

Dux’s session taught attendees how to command a crowd and get their points across as effectively as possible. He begins the presentation by describing the role of being a presenter. He identifies presenters as being learning managers, technical resources, company representatives, coaches and hosts. The steps to being a rockstar are:

Step 1: Intentional Preparation

Dux recommends starting off developing a catchy abstract that has a short and relevant title, and to be as specific as possible with your description.

He even provides a guideline for presentation development!

Step 2: Proactive Opening

Dux goes on to explain that an opening is the only time in your presentation when you will have the most of your audience’s attention. Within 30 seconds that attention span starts to erode quickly. It comes back sporadically, but it only stays a few seconds.  So, if you only have them for a minute in the very beginning, you need to make the most of it.

Check out these 5 simple tips to help improve your public speaking! Click To Tweet

He suggests welcoming guests immediately to engage in conversation, exercise your host role, establish your expertise and set realistic expectations.

Step 3: Interactive Delivery

When it comes to providing an interactive delivery, Dux recommends presenting with analogies that are relatable, share experiences like describing pain points you’ve had to deal with, promote lessons learned and showcase best practices.

Step 4: Facilitate Engagement

After the interactive delivery, Dux highlights the importance of keeping the audience engaged. He recommends doing so by having the audience ask questions, learning activities and demos. A big key to the engagements is effectively asking questions, which he highlights:

Step 5: Motivational Closing

Dux closes out the steps by instructing everyone to include a motivational closing that summarizes the presentation, provides a call to action, and a session evaluation. Not only does he recommend a good closing, he recommends connecting beyond the presentation by providing resources, including your social handles to network and engage with your audience.

And there you have it! The five steps it takes to be a Rockstar public speaker. Are you ready to take these steps?

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