As a meeting planner, you have built your reputation by recruiting the most effective speakers to deliver the most motivating messages to your members. But what happens when you're called on to give a speech yourself, either to a roomful of colleagues or a convention-size crowd? The following advice will help you tap into the skills of professional speakers to lay the groundwork, quickly and easily, for an effective presentation of your own. (Need help making introductions? See "Making Effective Introductions.")

1. Understand your audience. To whom are you speaking? What specific information are they seeking? This is your "carrot." As early as possible in your presentation, assure listeners that you will deliver what they want to know.
2. Start at the end. In school we wrote papers with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Each paragraph started with a topic sentence supported by facts and statistics; a presentation follows the same easy, 1-2-3 organization. It differs, however, in a few key respects. Primarily, write your conclusion first, simply because this is the only part of your talk that most people will remember. Ask yourself what action you want your audience to take as a result of your talk, then address this action powerfully at the close.
3. Engage your listeners. While our teachers had to read our reports, your audience may zone out. Want an easy, surefire technique for capturing their attention? Tell a story. Stories are popular because they help listeners relate your information to their own experiences or visualize a situation in a memorable way. Use them to underscore key points throughout your talk--the same way you use facts and statistics.
4. Make your presentation interactive. To get your audience involved instantly, begin with a question or ask for a show of hands. If appropriate, use this technique throughout your presentation. Remember, your objective is to communicate with, not talk at, your audience.
5. Employ vocal variety to enhance interest. Most of us automatically vary our pitch, speed, and volume when telling stories to children. Even though the members of your audience are decades older, you'll do a better job of holding their interest if you load your words with meaning. (Tip: Use onomatopoeia, the naming of a thing or action by imitating the sound associated with it, as with buzz, boom, and hiss.)
6. Repeat phrases to encourage retention. When creating a magazine, the typesetter skillfully uses headlines, paragraphs, and spaces between sentences to direct the reader's eye. When you speak, listeners must decipher all of this themselves--even as they mentally race to keep up with what you're saying. Help them retain more by repeating key phrases. This is smart for three reasons: It gives them an opportunity to catch up with you, provides orientation to where you are in your presentation, and increases retention.

   The best phrases to repeat come in two varieties. Begin the first by saying, "My first point is . . ." or "First, we will . . ." Conclude your point with, "Now that we've discussed the first issue, let's move to issue two."

   The second "repeating phrase" depends on your audience and message. A motivational talk will benefit from repeating a short key message, especially if you can make it rhyme, as in "walk the talk." Or turn a phrase into a cheer. For example, if you are trying to help an audience find items on the Internet, call out "Keyword search!" over and over.

7. Use gestures to add visual interest and enhance retention. Instead of standing stiffly behind the lectern, hands at their sides, good speakers routinely use natural gestures. But they also determine in advance how gestures can underscore their spoken points. For example, if you're talking about how disparate parts of your global association can work together, bring your hands together in a "handshake" position to demonstrate solidarity. Or to underscore your numerical phrases, raise a single finger when announcing your first point. Continue this for each numbered point you make.
8. Prepare visual aids to enhance retention and stimulate interest. Listeners remember more when information is presented visually as well as orally, and the most convenient visual aid is your body. Leave the lectern and get in front of your audience. Try to use your whole body when telling a story. Pantomime anecdotes for added richness and visual interest.
9. Use PowerPoint with care. If you use PowerPoint, practice until you can speak to the audience, not your slides. Also, an image with a key word or phrase works better than several long sentences. A trend in PowerPoint slides is using metaphorical images to tell a story without words or with a single phrase. For example, in the March 2003 issue of Presentations, author Ellen Finkelstein illustrates this concept with a PowerPoint slide: a pair of dice, the word "Probability," and "What are the chances of getting two sixes?"
10. Create an emotional bond with your audience. At the end of your presentation, listeners may have trouble remembering your PowerPoint slides or your carefully organized points. But if you connect with them emotionally, they'll retain your message.

Believe in your subject, then convey this belief through the tone of your voice and the way you look at your audience. Be sincere. Be yourself. And you will be remembered.

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