How to Avoid Dead Air and Bring Your Performance to Life

My gorgeous wife and I had the great joy of attending SummerSalt Music Festival in Ballarat yesterday. 8 hours, 6 acts, too much sunshine, a fabulous atmosphere all in a (relatively) COVID safe environment.

It was quite obvious as to who were the Musicians and who were the Entertainers.

One of the key differences was the “Dead Air” or lack thereof.

It is the same with presenters – both in person and online. The Entertainer and professional presenter will use silence to highlight anticipation, build suspense, or reinforce a point they are making.

The musician or the speaker can often have awkward silences or dead air as they get their power point or guitar ready. This dead air builds a level of discomfort in the audience you just don’t need.

The best people at handling dead air are Radio DJs. They know dead air means changing channel and that means lower ratings, loss of revenue and “a conversation with the boss”. They have become masters of saying nothing in an engaging manner and using a lot of words and sounds doing it.

If you are presenting, hosting, facilitating, be careful how you use silence. It can be a great tool but don’t let it become “Dead Air”.

Alternatives to Dead Air

• Ask for responses from the audience eg What do you feel when you hear this statement <insert relevant statement>?
• State what is happening but encourage input eg Hey as we are waiting for everyone to come into this breakout room, let me know what it is you want to know about additive manufacturing?
• Start a story giving some background on what is about to happen. eg What I was working for <company> they had significant staff turnover. It was costing them a fortune. So it became my job to work out why and how to solve it. That’s what today’s session is all about.
• Get the delegates to so something unexpected. eg Ok before we get started on this virtual session. I want you to go to the third drawer down in your kitchen, you know the one with all the random stuff in it. Quickly find your favourite thing in there and bring it back. If you don’t have a kitchen where you are, any third drawer down will do. GO!

Silence is golden but dead air is lead and it will drag you and your event down! Make sure you avoid it.

If you want more ideas on how to make your online and hybrid events come to life, check out my 7 Keys for a Successful Online Presenter.