Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. Pausch delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University (where he was a Professor) on September 18, 2007. In the seminar series, professors were challenged to deliver the message of a lifetime as if it was their last lecture. The irony makes his words that much more poignant. The Last Lecture has become one of the most viewed lectures on the Internet. There is no denying that the context makes the speech memorable, but that quality is enhanced by five timeless presentation techniques exhibited by Randy Pausch. Each of these helps you connect with your audience and help them remember your words into the future: Introduce the elephant in the room, define the scope, conclude strong, show enthusiasm- immerse yourself, get personal.
Randy Pausch opens his lecture in the best way possible for this lecture, this audience, and this venue — by relieving stress. Following an easy joke about the title of the lecture series, he introduces the elephant in the room; that is, he spends a minute discussing his pancreatic cancer. Then, he raises the emotion in the room by doing a series of pushups. If he had not opened this way, the audience would have been distracted for the entire lecture, and unable to fully immerse themselves in the powerful lessons to come. From my point of view he made a good start to get the audience attention and gave the audience a reason to listen to his topic. I think the key point over here is that if there are issues distracting your audience, address them sooner rather than later. He created his first impression of the speech very quickly, because if the introduction does not capture the audience attention and cast the speech in a favorable light, than the rest of the speech may be wasted on them so, overall he had a fabulous introduction part.
Pausch then proceeds to define