Its sounds obvious. It may sound a little gross. But it has to be said: make sure you don’t literally spit on your audience when delivering a presentation?

How could this happen? After all, few speakers care to show obvious contempt for their audiences.

Well, I was spat upon at no lesser a venue than a seminar at the National Speakers Association. The speaker was a wildly successful speaker/consultant who routinely spoke to business groups all over the world.

Here was the situation: I was sitting on the front row. The speaker was walking around various parts of the platform and the front of the room (as he should). The problem: he would occasionally come right up to me on the front row and then project loudly while looking at the back row of people. The result: spit was flung on my face! Yuck!

I didn’t say anything; and I am 100% certain the speaker did not realize he was doing this, but is was disgusting nonetheless.

If you are at a Broadway show and a star like Matthew Broderick or Nathan Lane spits on you, well, that can be written off as another exciting part of the show. But if you are accidentally spitting on your audience members during a business presentation, you may well be making a permanent, negative impression.

If you are going to get really, really close to audience members, make sure you are speaking no louder than in a normal tone of voice. If you are going to project to the back rows, then make sure you are at least 3-4 feet away from any audience member. That way, you and your audience will have some protection from any unwanted showers.