What should you do when the lights are so bright that you can’t see your audience<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n

1. Make sure you know where the audience is and look in that general direction with focus and confidence. The audience won’t know that you can’t see them. In other words, press on. (This seems obvious but see story below for details.)<\/p>\n

2. Find something to focus on. Windows or EXIT signs have worked for me. Talk to the EXIT sign on the left, on the right, and then in the middle. The audience will think you’re looking at them.<\/p>\n

3. Leave the lectern, if possible, and step to the front of the stage, where you will most likely be able to see those in the front row. Talk to them.<\/p>\n

4. Look for another spot on the stage where the light will not be so bothersome and you can connect with your listeners.<\/p>\n

5. Ask to have the lights lowered, especially if you have slides on display and the bright lights are washing out the images.<\/p>\n

6. If none of the above works, follow the advice in recommendation #1. Focus your eyes for at least three-to-five seconds on the darkness in different quadrants of the hall–left, right, forward and back. You will feel like a deer in headlights, but you look more confident and persuasive<\/a><\/strong> when your eyes are focused. So, despite seeing nothing, you will be seen as authoritative. (This reminds me of Machiavelli saying, “All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.”)<\/p>\n

To elaborate on the first point–“look in the general direction of the audience,” I include an embarrassing story.<\/p>\n

I once arrived late to speak at a large event. The host rushed me out onto a thrust stage, where I was immediately blinded by the light. I assumed the stage was surrounded by seating on three sides, as all thrust stages are. Bravely I positioned myself in the middle, then moved to my extreme right to address those who might have been seeing my profile, and then to the left edge to do the same for those seeing my left side. I continued to move in this way throughout my talk.<\/p>\n

When it was over, polite applause came from the middle of the theater. The house lights came up, and I saw, to my chagrin, that the small audience was clustered in the middle section of the hall. Not a soul sat to the left or right of the stage. I had been talking to the vacant, interstellar spaces, and not one member of the small audience had spoken up.<\/p>\n

I was blinded by the light, and they were silenced.<\/p>\n