ce, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful Making a presentation in front of international audiences is not for the fainthearted. People from different cultural backgrounds with varying language skills are definitely more challenging than a homogenous local audience. Are international audiences any different from local audiences? From a biological point of view, there are almost no differences as all humans behave similarly in response to basic stimuli like hunger and heat. The differences become crucial when one considers cultural conditioning.

Let us take the classical example quoted in many places. If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include: 584 Asians, 124 Africans, 95 Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 52 North Americans, six Australians and New Zealanders, and 55 people from the former Soviet republics. They would speak more than 200 languages and reflect an astounding mix of different cultures. Fortunately, you would most likely never get such a mixed audience. Remember, what works in one culture doesn't always work in another. How can you make your presentation a success among people from different parts of the world?

Many factors influence audience behaviour e.g., culture, profession, gender, age, reason for being in the audience, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful

t of view, there are almost no differences as all humans behave similarly in response to basic stimuli like hunger and heat. The differences become crucial when one considers cultural conditioning.

Let us take the classical example quoted in many places. If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include: 584 Asians, 124 Africans, 95 Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 52 North Americans, six Australians and New Zealanders, and 55 people from the former Soviet republics. They would speak more than 200 languages and reflect an astounding mix of different cultures. Fortunately, you would most likely never get such a mixed audience. Remember, what works in one culture doesn't always work in another. How can you make your presentation a success among people from different parts of the world?

Many factors influence audience behaviour e.g., culture, profession, gender, age, reason for being in the audience, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful

would include: 584 Asians, 124 Africans, 95 Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 52 North Americans, six Australians and New Zealanders, and 55 people from the former Soviet republics. They would speak more than 200 languages and reflect an astounding mix of different cultures. Fortunately, you would most likely never get such a mixed audience. Remember, what works in one culture doesn't always work in another. How can you make your presentation a success among people from different parts of the world?

Many factors influence audience behaviour e.g., culture, profession, gender, age, reason for being in the audience, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful

ever get such a mixed audience. Remember, what works in one culture doesn't always work in another. How can you make your presentation a success among people from different parts of the world?

Many factors influence audience behaviour e.g., culture, profession, gender, age, reason for being in the audience, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful

ce, state of mind, time of day and year and general mood. In fact every audience is unique. An audience of insurance salesmen in Germany is very different from an audience of German chemical engineers. So whenever a typical behaviour is associated with certain nation states, you have to be extremely careful with these stereotypes.

The language barrier plays a very important role, both for the speaker and the listeners. Many people in your international audience actually have jumped over large chasms of language and cultural divides in order to be there in that very audience listening to you. "Can I understand everything that is spoken there as they are speaking in English and my English is very bad?" or "What if someone asks me a question and I can't answer it in French in this seminar held in France?" These are typical fears that many people have overcome before they turned up in the international gathering.

In mixed audiences the language used is bound to be a foreign tongue for someone, if not for the speaker. Deficient language skills might considerably limit their ability to grasp much of the presentation and they have no way of dealing with that frustration with themselves. The fear of losing face in front of other people is very common, more so in Asian cultures. Many people think in their mother tongue and speak with the help of simultaneous translation. Many ideas are very challenging to be put into another language. So the task of the presenter is to make sure that central ideas come across easily and