Are you seeing fresh, youthful faces in your audiences? These twenty-something ' s are emerging into skilled job positions and sharing workspace with your typical audience of Baby Boomers and Traditionalists. Plus -your audience is peppered with Gen X-ers - (27-41 year olds).

You have spent hundreds of hours perfecting the timing, body movement, and intonation that have resulted in great success for the last 15-20 years, however, if this new audience is not giving you the standing ovations or high evaluations that you are used to, you can ignore the needs of the younger generations and watch your audiences shrink, or. . . learn about Gen Y (26 years old and under). If this is your scenario, then you would benefit from learning about a practical and effective solution to engage with this increasingly important and highly influential audience.

Gen Y

They have radically different concepts of filling time than previous generations. Reality TV, Ipods, Blackberries, blogs, digital cameras, 100+ channels of television; instant, online, digital, or compact everything means that this group tends to:

Evaluate

Does your speech connect with them? Does it need to? Do you have a series of 8-minute monologues? Do your visuals consist of you and a cookie-cutter PowerPoint? If this is you, maybe it is time to retool, or risk the Gen Y perception of Baby Boomers and Traditionalists as conservative, out of touch, and stale.

Revamp

Liven your presentation for this group by being "in the moment." Start by splitting your presentation into shorter segments to change the rhythm and spice it up. This audience needs a much faster pace. Could you go back to dial-up after using the high-speed broadband? No, of course not. Your Gen Y will be equally frustrated with slow-paced anything. Show them shiny new examples they can relate to, not the adages of their parents and grandparents. Performing tasks by hand without computers is difficult to fathom for Gen Y. Make the presentation fun and stimulating, otherwise they might start texting or surfing online with their cell phones or PDAs. That long hair might be hiding a pair of ear buds for their i-pod, with just enough volume to drown you out. When you see them nodding their heads, it could be emphatically with you or merely moving to the beat. They were brought up with choices and granted independence. Give them reasons to stay with you and not launch into cyberworld while physically in the room. Make it fun! Use the interactive techniques we learn in NSA, such as giving your audience colored index cards to vote with during your presentation, using physical mind benders to grab attention and anchor points, and the Pro-Match Matrix to connect audience members with each other.

You wouldn't be a speaker if you couldn't handle thinking on your feet, but are you as skilled as you want to be? How do you get comfortable with the concept of using high levels of audience interaction, spontaneity, and adjusting your presentation on the fly, so you can keep up with Gen Y?

A Fun and Effective, Stimulating Solution

IMPROV! In your city, there is an improv group teaching non-aspiring actors, such as sales reps, teachers, and shy people. Sign up and spend a few hours in a weekly class. Taking improv classes is unique training and will challenge a great speaker because it uses a different mindset. This training will help you keep up with the fast paced Gen X and Y. The gains from this experience are powerful as we have seen through the talents of our incredible speakers like Tracey Conway, Bill Stainton and Mark Scharenbroich who have theatre backgrounds. In improv, there is no script, nonsensical story lines, random characters, imaginary background settings, figurative props, and unplanned gestures are turned into solid defining moments. This type of learning is incredibly valuable for pushing your boundaries, making yourself vulnerable, and dealing with it. Here are benefits that will help address the different needs of your varied audience members:

Benefits of Improv

• •  Breaking routine
• •  Dealing with unknowns
• •  Handling obstacles
• •  Focusing on others
• •  Energizing yourself
• •  Trusting yourself and others
• •  Becoming more creative
• •  Learning to accept all outcomes
• •  Thinking differently
• •  Perfecting your timing
• •  Trying new things

Several years ago, as a guest on a popular television talk show, the audience demographics and their reactions surprised me. By nature I am structured, logical, and organized. This situation could have been a disaster, but because of my improvisational theatre training, I was able to rearrange my approach and language to connect with a potentially unreachable audience. The outcome of this connection moved people to action and changed both state and national legislation.

Improv will not solve all of your problems, but it will help increase your flexibility, confidence, and connectivity awareness with the audience. You will be equipped to make your presentation interactive and capture Gen Y with your ability to be "in the now."

Signed Gen X

For workshops addressing generation gaps, contact Jo@FunSpecialist.com

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Contact: Jolene at 425-489-1073 Jo@FunSpecialist.com