Audience rules

Communication has little meaning if it is unheard, unread or unseen. So although it is important for us to get our message across, to be heard and to impact, I would suggest that the audience rules in the sense that every one of our communications is sent to a specific audience.  This audience determines whether the presentation is successful.  This success can be judged by how much the specific audience changes as a result of the presentation.
Imagine a spectrum ranging from a completely mechanical presentation to a completely organic one.  The completely mechanical one would be a pre-recorded PP presentation.  The button is pushed initially, a recorded voice drones, the slides are shown at a pre-determined rate.  The audiences leaves when the last slide has been shown and the words 'The End' appear on the screen.  An organic presentation ís when the presenter establishes good rapport with his or her audience, some stimulating and well chosen slides, appropriate to this audience, are shown,  the presenter tells some stories which are adapted to his or her audience and finally, the audience feel included and involved in some way or other.
The decision as to where your presentation will lie on the spectrum depends on a number of factors.  It can however, be interesting to start the planning of a presentation by firstly taking into consideration what the audience wants and needs to hear. Then add in what we want to say to them.  This then becomes a constantly shifting process between the two.  So, although it is an exaggeration to say that the audience rules absolutely, it is equally dangerous to ignore what they want and to plough on paying no attention to their initial goals and their subsequent reactions to what we deliver.