Well that’s a lie, of course I do. I’m not a monster (I don’t think) so of course I care about audiences while I do presentations… What I mean is that I’d like to put forward an alternative line of reasoning to the more-or-less ubiquitous mantra of “We’re here to serve our audience”. Sounds like a good mantra for presenters and speakers, doesn’t it, but it has a number of implied corollaries such as “We need to give our audience what they want” and so on. I believe it’s all tosh.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s effective tosh, as proven by Donald Trump at the moment. The Donald is experiencing very considerable success by presenting what they want to hear. But he’s not serving them. (He’s using them to serve him, perhaps. It’s an ego thing.)
I believe presentations are about the content. Above everything else it’s about the integrity of what you say. By all means tweak it to help your audience, but don’t compromise your message.
Obviously there’s no point in having the best material in the world if there’s no one there to hear it (trust me on this, I’ve spoken to almost empty rooms!) but similarly there’s no point in ‘serving’ your audience if what you’re serving them with doesn’t hold water.
You best serve your audience by giving them ‘a useful truth’ – not by some nebulous idea of being there for them.
Unless you’re an entertainer, whose job it is by definition to entertain, you’re not there to entertain. You’re there to get a message over and entertaining your audience is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Serving your audience doesn’t mean keeping them happy at all costs… it means being true to your material whether the audience like it or not. What is true is true, no matter how your audience want you to ‘serve’ them.
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