Speech

The 5 Metrics You Need to Know to Give a Great Presentation Noah Zandan is the co-founder and CEO of Quantified Impressions, the leading global provider of personal, professional, and organizational communication analytics. Noah and his team analyze presentations to provide public speakers with feedback on how to become more effective. Here are his top five metrics that are essential to giving a great presentation that engages your audience and drives results: 1. 15 seconds—the amount of time you have to make a positive first impression on your audience. From the moment you step on stage, your audience will make an assessment of you and then look for evidence to confirm their first impressions. 2. 5 minutes—the average audience attention span. Our attention spans have decreased from 12 to 5 minutes in the past ten years. The nemesis of audience engagement is boredom, so you must keep your presentation interesting. 3. 10%—Get to the point! This metric is especially important given the short attention span of your audience. Audiences are selfish.