You are dead in the water if you must speak from notes on a cruise ship. No pun intended.
The listeners are not stupid, but they do not want the material to be so deep that the special interest lecturer must read from notes.
Indeed the professional speaker must be a master of their material.
I spoke at a conference in Orlando not long ago. I had 43 slides/images to show during my presentation. I had rehearsed the presentation in my mind so many times that I had all 43 slides memorized. No kidding.
Related: 23 Thoughts on Improving Your Presentation Skills
Once I started the presentation I no longer needed to look at my slides because I KNEW what was in them. I didn’t need the slides to tell me what I was going to talk about next. The slides were there to reinforce a point I was making.
I could talk and click or click and talk and never take my eyes off of my audience. It was pretty cool for my listeners to see me speak with confidence in my material and my presentation tools.
I did look from time to time, just to be sure. But as it turns out, I didn’t need to.
Master your material if you want to be a master speaker.
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