It’s not just how still you stand that has an impact on your audience, it’s where you stand, which brings us to the effect of…

First, second and third position

First position

You’re said to be in first position when you stand relatively near the screen, so that the audience can see both you and your slides (or any other audio visual aid) at the same.

Second position

Second position is the one when your audience can easily and clearly see you and your audio visual aids such as slides – but not at the same time. It might be that you’ve moved off to the side of the room, for example, so people have to turn their heads to look at you.

Third position

This is an extension of second position, where you’ve got so far away from your audio visual aids that you’re actually sitting in the audience.

What are the different effects of the three positions and when would you use them?

This little video should make it clear for you… the password is 123.

Here’s a montage of these positions being used ‘in anger’ so to speak. The recordings are all real, live presentations, grabbed from the back of the room with whatever tech was to hand, to show the use of these positions without any setting up or ‘faking’. The password is first.