As presenters, we want to be remembered as being influential. Before planning and preparing your presentation write down how you want to influence those attending. What action steps, thoughts, fears and/or lessons do you expect them to leave with, remember and be influenced by?

Being a knowledgeable expert gives credibility and creates interest and influence.

Last year I attended a Security Summit. It was obvious to me at the sessions I attended that each of the presenters had, "been there, done that." I wonder if you have ever experienced a presenter who is obviously speaking about a subject that he or she has possibly read a few books about, but has never lived. An example is someone telling us how to start our own small business, yet has never started a successful business. Another example often cited is a young, recent graduate speaking to a crowd of CEOs about leadership.

At the Summit, a lawyer presented the session that concerned SPAM,which, along with the inconvenience, comes with inherent viruses and the illegal use of stolen e-mails. He brought us up to speed on the legal ramifications and what is being discussed from a legal standpoint, and certainly had both the credibility and knowledge to influence us.

He gained our interest immediately with a game of Jeopardy, using numbers as answers. The numbers surrounding spam e-mails are staggering, but became even more so when we were involved in guessing what the answers stood for. We were influenced by knowing how many spams go out a second, how many fake addresses are generated and how much money the spammers are making (it works, that's why it continues).

In the session on "How Hackers Break in through Internet Applications," the presenter had the expertise to explain the why, the what, the where, and the how of retrieving dynamic information -- in other words, our user names and passwords, our credit card information and even how to change and use our name in an on-line banking account.

He obviously knew what he was talking about, not that he is a despicable hacker, but someone who has followed the steps and the thinking that goes behind these break ins. He made it look so sensible and straight-forward, it was scary and again has influenced me to check out the websites where I do interactive buying, selling and banking. How? You ask.

This pseudo-hacker started by pointing out and, in a non-condescending approach (most in the room were developers), talked about why dynamic applications -- including databases -- are often vulnerable to hacking. He then walked us through two websites that on the surface seemed to be impenetrable (with firewalls and virus guards), but turned out to be easy (if you thought and worked like a hacker) to enter, change and from which you could gather all the information you wanted. I am not a developer of application code, but his hands-on examples were easy to follow and understand -- we saw every step a hacker would take and try up on the big screen).

Both of these presenters influenced me with their knowledge, sharing of experience and clever examples. Do the same, and you will be known as an influential speaker.