I’ve been working with ‘Jess’, a highly-motivated, high-achieving CEO with a presentation to 650 of her nearest and dearest at a fancy tech conference that she is organising.

It’s a BIG deal.

We’ve spent about six hours on her opening 10 minutes.

One aspect my client wanted to work on – her movement on stage.

Movement has become synonymous with polished presentations. You can thank TED Talks and Silicon Valley for that. If you are still hiding behind the lectern I have bad news for you – that’s not good enough!

Are you some politician or something?

Movement signals confidence, certainty and familiarity with one’s material – everything my clients want to portray and audiences find reassuring.

Movement may be seen to complicate the speakers’ task but it can also ease anxiety and there’s science suggesting that movement improves cognition.

Jess readily accepted that it was time to cut the umbilical cord between her and the lectern (hoorah!) but was concerned that she would appear to be “pacing” throughout her opening 10 minute welcome.

The Savoy Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne is large, wide and tiered. Jess was worried that wandering on stage would appear anxious as opposed to authoriatative.

So we swapped constant movement for relocation.

Now, instead of wandering the stage throughout, Jess will relocate across three positions on stage – right, left and centre. Each location is about 10 metres apart.

Each relocation coincides with another ‘chapter’ or segment of her presentation. This relocation ensures that the audience feels connected to Jess and underlines that we are moving through the content.

Beyond moving side to side, I recommend moving to the front edge of the stage to emphasise particularly important or exciting moments. In a way, it’s only natural to do this as it mirrors the way we might lean in to deliver a punchline or particularly piquant piece of gossip in a regular conversation.