Updated
Everyone in your audience hears the same presentation through a different point of view shaped by age, background, country and role. The practical move is to acknowledge that out loud, say how the material applies to different groups, and ask questions so you can customize as you go.
One presentation, several different "rooms"
Today's presentation strategy is about point of view. Not yours. Theirs.
What is the point of view of the people in that audience? How are they thinking about what you are saying while you say it?
Depending on your topic, men and women may hear it slightly differently. People from other countries may hear it differently. Somebody much older or much younger than you may have a completely different point of view. And so does any other factor that changes how a person sees your material: their role, their tenure, whether they have been burned by this before.
You are delivering one presentation. The room is receiving several.
So what do you do about it?
The answer is not to water the talk down until it offends nobody and moves nobody. It is to acknowledge the difference out loud.
I call that calling the moment. You say something like: I know we have people of different ages here, and different backgrounds, and people who have worked in very different countries. Here is how this works for each of those groups.
The instinct is that naming it makes you look uncertain. It does the opposite. Ignoring something the whole room can see reads as unaware at best. Naming it reads as a leader who knows exactly who is in front of him. There is a fuller treatment of the technique in calling the moment.
Three ways to use it
1. Name the split, then serve both sides
If half the room has done this for twenty years and half arrived last quarter, say so, and say what each group should take from the next ten minutes. Both halves relax, because both now know the session was built with them in it.
2. Ask questions so you can customize
Ask the audience questions early, and tell them you are going to use the answers to tailor what you cover. Then do it. That is how you find out the point of view you did not anticipate, which is usually the one that would have quietly cost you the room.
3. Translate the same point more than once
The same idea often needs two examples: one that lands for the people who run the numbers, one that lands for the people who run the floor. That is not repetition. That is the point arriving twice at two different addresses.
Do the homework before the room
Most of this is easier if you know something before you walk in. Ask the organizer who is attending and what they are dealing with. Ask attendees, as they arrive, what would make this worth their time. Ten minutes of asking beats an hour of guessing.
Always keep your audience's point of view in mind. It changes what you say, what you leave out, and which example you reach for. For the wider habit this sits inside, read audience centered communication.
If you want your team's presentations built around who is actually in the room, get a quick quote.