Any event can be a grand success only when it manages to engage the audience. Ensuring that you have substantial attendance is the stepping stone and satiating the audience through the event is the secret for success. Many presenters fail to engage the audience at various levels. Here is a list of the five common mistakes that most presenters commit. Avoid these to ensure optimum attendee engagement.

• Do not indulge in a monologue. Many presenters keep talking and they don’t really pay heed to whether the audience is paying attention. The audience needs to be attentive for optimum engagement. Monologues are not engaging, unless the presenter is a role model or an icon in a certain industry and every attendee is dying to hear what she or he has to say. Most presenters would have to establish themselves through the presentation and thus the audience would not be very forgiving of lengthy monologues. There is a quintessential need to ask questions, to probe and to understand the audience. A presenter needs to put forth the material in an interesting way and that can only happen when the presenter gets to know the audience. Simple interactions can be sufficient to initiate attendee engagement.
• It is incumbent upon any presenter to use facts and statistics. However, a presentation cannot be all about facts and stats. Statistical mumbo-jumbo would lead to a boring presentation. It is necessary to weave an interesting story so the entire presentation has a narrative. Facts when revealed in context would be better understood. Else, they are just numbers or statements and those are hard to remember or engage with.
• Anyone would want to emphasize his or her firm grasp over the subject matter and one way to do that is to use some jargons that are unique to an industry. Using such jargons is necessary but an overload of the same would not be ideal for the audience. Not everyone attending the event may be as specialized or aware as the presenter. Alienating a part of the audience with jargon overload would impair engagement.
• Long buildups should be avoided. Presenters must get to the point. Often, there is more blurb than concise takeaways and that is always a waste of time. If the audience gets time to think and let their mind wander then attendee engagement becomes elusive.
• Technology is at the crux of any event today. But overusing technology will backfire. Don’t have too many distractions as that will come in the way of organic attendee engagement.