How can I politely ask my audience to not use their cellphones when I am giving a talk?

Question

As a scientific researcher, I occasionally find myself giving scientific talks in the conferences, universities, and colleges. I try to make my talk as entertaining and understandable as possible so that people will become interested in it and won't get bored (say by seeing complicated equations). However, I still find that several people from the audience, probably because they are addicted to their cellphones, keep chatting or playing games on their phones. I find this very irritating especially because I try to make sure that my presentation is interesting and I put in a lot of effort into it. Sometimes I feel like saying this thing aloud during the presentation. This might be fine when I am talking in front of junior students. But when I am talking in a conference or something, I think that this could be insulting to senior professors etc. Nonetheless, since I find their behavior to be my insult, I feel like telling them in a just way so that it would look normal. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Great question!

I would recommend that at the very start of your presentation, you ask attendees to quiet or turn off their cellphones to focus on your message.

A couple of hints:

1. Make this "funny" to grab their attention ("At the end of my talk there will be a quiz, so don't keep looking at your cellphones - you won't do very well if you don't listen!") or -
2. "Let's work together to avoid distractions, so everyone can benefit from the information I'm about to present. The best way to really listen is to turn off or mute your cellphones. Thank you for doing this. I promise, you won't be bored!"

Answer 2

Great question. I feel that you need to give your audience a good reason to want to listen to what you have to say. WIIFM - What's In It For Me. If you can do a good job showing your audience the value of listening to you and continue to engage them and reinforce the value, I guarantee that will put down the phone and listen.