[2012 trends] What to expect in public speaking and presenting

Sure, the Greeks added a trick or two, dipping sentences in logic - before going on to collapse the European economy - but speaking is speaking, right? Not true.

In the last couple of years alone, the world of speaking and presenting has morphed and grown considerably. Watch a professional motivational speaker from, say, 20 years ago, and it will look somehow... silly.

And it's not just changing by the decade. It's changing by the year. There will be changes this year too, both through advances in technology and due to trends in what is and what is not fashionable.
Here are my forecasts for the evolution of speaking, in 2012 and beyond:

1. The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer

   The skills gap between professional speakers (who are attuned to the latest global thinking on presenting), and the dinosaurs (whose bad habits are becoming incestuously entrenched; think meaningless phrases such as "All protocol observed"), will increase.

   In other words, good speakers will say more and more of value. Poor speakers will say less and less, over longer and longer periods. The contrast, of course, is good news for professional speakers.

2. The nodding audience will become the norm

   Audiences will spend less time looking at the speaker and more looking at their laps. Ironically, they will be paying greater attention.

   This is because presentations are increasingly being consumed in a different way; instead of taking notes, audiences are tweeting.

3. iPresenting will gain momentum

   Many speakers are already using iPods and iPads to facilitate their message. As a simple example, you can now use an iPod Touch as a virtual mouse, glancing down at your visuals and changing slides without having to turn your back on the audience to see that the next slide is up.

   It might not be long before the necessity of holding a device at all will be redundant. Instead, imagine something like a holographic, virtual touch-screen. The speaker can see it, and change slides on it in the air like an orchestra conductor, while the audience cannot.

4. Feedback will become more agile

   Audience voting systems have been around for a while - think of the one in the show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' - but their use and sophistication will increase. The speaker will ask, "How many of you use that idea right now?" and within moments, the exact percentage will appear on the screen.

   Some conference conveners are already projecting live Twitter streams [Twitterfalls or Twitterwalls - managing ed] onto the screen, to generate dialogue real-time, a trend which we'll see more often.

5. There'll be less regurgitation

   "One day, a man was walking down a beach, when he saw a youth, tossing starfish back into the sea..." You've heard that story? You'll hear less and less Starfish stories, as organisations like the Professional Speakers Association (affiliated to the American National Speakers Association) become stronger.

   These bodies encourage members not to reuse tired old adages, but rather to develop their own stories and content. Rehashing will be increasingly condemned.

   You'll 'get' more from presentations

   Value is a big deal in most industries these days and, in the non-tangible world of speaking, it is particularly important. The world-wide financial squeeze has also ensured that meeting planners want demonstrably higher levels of value from speakers.

   This means less waffle, and more useful, implementable ideas.

   You'll be able to consume a speaker's ideas through multiple platforms

   There is a growing trend for speakers to see themselves as 'experts who speak, write and train' on their area of expertise. After a presentation, you will be able to buy the book, audio CD or online course version of the topic you have just heard.

   As with VW's 'pick a size' approach to cars, in which the different models all look fairly similar and differ mostly in proportions, you'll be able to consume topics in a hierarchy of depth and duration, ranging from the mini video blog (vlog) (like this example), up to speeches and workshops, all the way up to boot-camps and year-long training programmes.

   Speakers will hang hyperlinks in the air

   As speakers develop greater knowledge in their niches, it will become harder to convey all of that knowledge in one-hour keynotes. Consequently, speeches will become like a man showing you a set of rabbits, then setting them free.

   Those who are interested in more can follow any rabbit they want as far as they'd like to pursue it down that trail. Each idea will be like a hanging hyperlink to more.

6. Dry will become wetter

   Because no one can tolerate boredom in the name of education, there has been - and if heaven is merciful - will continue to be an increase in the use of humour, stories and metaphors to make cardboard-dry content come alive.

And a final prediction that's perhaps more of a prayer? I hope we'll see the death of the bullet-point, which has never had any place in oratory. As trainers of proper presentation skills, we'll keep fighting to relegate them to laundry lists where they belong.