STAKEHOLDERS AND HIDDEN AUDIENCES

A stakeholder is any person or entity that has a vested interest in your presentation. This might be a client who hires you to conduct presentations within the organization, or the organization’s board of directors or shareholders. These same entities may also be a hidden audience for your presentation, not in attendance but fully aware of the presentation’s content and the audience who is there.

The Man in the Moon Test

When I teach, I tell my students to give their assignments the man in the moon test before turning them in. I say, if the man on the moon landed on earth and he was handed your paper, or your presentation, and he knew nothing about the topic, would he be able to read your paper and walk away with some understanding of what you were trying to say? If he only knew correct spellings, and couldn’t understand typos, would be confused by misspellings? This same “test” also applies to presentations. If the man in the moon were seated in the audience, would he understand?