Tip 240: Make eye contact and smile
When you are delivering your presentation, be careful that you don’t blankly stare at the back of the room or the floor. Also, do not just cast a general gaze around the room. Avoid the bad habit of randomly scanning around the room without looking at anything or anyone in particular.
Do not stare at the lectern or your notes!
When you are nervous, you tend to talk 5 feet above your audience's heads. This is a quick way to disconnect from your audience.
To make a powerful connection with your audience you have to look people in the eye. What's a conversation without eye contact?
Your audience will connect with you if you talk to individual people rather than scanning the group. When you are talking you should be looking directly at someone in your audience as if you are engaging in a normal conversation with him or her. Talk to this person holding their gaze for a few seconds, then move on to someone else. Speak every word into the eyes and heart of each person.
Look into people’s eyes with a soft gaze; don't force it or stare. And while you're maintaining great eye contact, don't forget to smile as well. Unless your topic is very grim, a smile can be a very powerful thing.
This eye contact is made harder if you have bright lights in your eyes, but you can usually still make out people in your audience, or at least imagine members of your audience being there.
Be careful not to ignore one side of the audience. Many speakers “side” unconsciously, looking always to the left or to the right half, or only to the front or the back of the room.
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