Eye contact is mandatory when giving a public presentation.

The goal of public speaking is to connect with your audience. Visit with your audience. Have a conversation. When you are making eye contact with one person, when you are having a conversation with one person in the audience, the entire audience feels as if you speaking directly to them individually.

If you do not make eye contact with anyone, your credibility and trust factor plummets to less than ZERO!

Have you ever had a conversation with a person who wouldnt look at you? They may have been staring at their shoes or looking over your shoulder. How did you feel? Did you feel uneasy? Did you want to continue having a conversation with that person? Stand up straight and look em in the eye.

I know, looking all of those people directly in the eye is intimidating for new speakers. One popular piece of advice that has been offered is to make eye contact with a spot on the back of the wall because then you wont have to actually look at anyone. WRONG! This will only make your audience wonder what is so amazing on that spot on the back of the wall. If you do this you will actually see people begin to look over their shoulder to see what you are looking at.

If making eye contact is intimidating, get over it. if you dont make contact you will not connect With the people.