Presentations have come to acquire an important role in today's world of high voltage competition, and therefore it has become imperative that these leave a lasting impact on the audience. The audience in a presentation could comprise of interviewers looking to hire from a talent pool, the bosses listening to your annual plans, salesmen taking inputs for selling a new product, trainees in a company ready to absorb new thoughts or a mixed general audience viewing a presentation on a particular topic. As all these situations could have a decisive impact favorable or otherwise on an individual's life, it is very essential that proper planning is done to deliver an interesting presentation.
Research studies have shown that the attention span of an audience is only for around 20 minutes as can be seen from Exhibit. In this short time actually available for a presentation, the presenter's message has to reach the audience and leave a lasting impact. In the case of longer presentations, it has to be ensured that the speaker is able to retain and sustain the interest of the audience. One of the most potent and powerful weapons to enhance the delivery of a presentation is humor. Injecting a pinch of suitable humor to any presentation gives it the much needed punch and serves the purpose of sustaining the interest of the audience. However, many presenters are averse to using any form of humor perhaps due to their bad past experiences. At the same time, adding inappropriate humor to any presentation can totally ruin the same, and even worse it could offend many in the audience. Therefore, humor needs to be used very carefully in a presentation. Using humor in presentations is an art that could be applied for a great impact.
In today's world of information overload, every presenter needs to find a way to make the presentation memorable, so that it is not lost in barrage of messages that hits the human species today. Humor comes to the presenter's rescue. Adding humor to a presentation serves many purposes. It enables the presenter to connect instantly with the audience. It immediately brings the attention of the audience and arouses interest on the topic. Humor serves the purpose of retaining the audience's attention, thereby preventing the tendency of human minds to drift. Boring presentations could induce the audience to think about myriad matters like "who is next?," "when is lunch?" etc., totally nullifying its impact. The aspect of humor becomes all the more important in today's context of heavy advertising wherein, people are conditioned to think for a very brief period of a minute or even less. By using humor, the presenter could also become very popular with the audience and overcome resistance or negative thoughts that any member of the audience could have about him. Humor makes the audience visualize a funny situation in the mind, thus resulting in an overall pleasant feeling. Humor is a powerful emotion and its role as a therapeutic in reducing stress among the audience has been proved medically also. Psychologists have also confirmed the efficacy of humor in releasing tension in human beings. Used suitably, the audience would enjoy the presentation and release them momentarily from their day-to-day pressures.
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