Eye contact is important

Public speaking success rests on a number of easy-to-learn basic rules. I don't really like to call them rules, so maybe principles is more appropriate.

Eye contact with your audience is an absolute must
Public speaking is different from having a conversation with your best friend in two main ways. First, there are more people listening. Secondly, when you're making a public presentation, not many people are speaking back to you. Except if it's an interactive type of lecture or a seminar in which you want the audience to speak.

I only mention the conversation with your best friend because the way you talk to her/him is the model you need to use when you're speaking to a room filled with strangers. Think about it. You look at your friend's face, you smile, you look into her eyes - without staring. You basically communicate with your eyes, that you are paying full attention to him. Right?

Eye contact tells your audience that you're interested in them
Some public speaking courses and some speech coaches make this part of public speaking success out to be akin to rocket science. It's not. It's very simple and straightforward.

Simply find three people in the first five rows of your audience, or three people in the circle if you're addressing a workshop of people sitting in a single rowed circle. Look at each person for about three seconds. Look into their eyes, as if they're the only person there. Then see if you can make eye contact with people ten rows back. That's not always possible, but when it is it gives you greater scope to individualise your message.

Please vary those people in the course of your talk. Start out with three, move then to another three people, either in the first row or the first few rows. Move your eyes back to the first three and so on. To give your poor eyes a rest, you can always look a the top of the head of person at the back of the hall.

As in all communication skills, it's a two-way benefit. The members of the audience with whom you make eye contact feel special and that you're talking to them. You benefit because you begin to realise that you are communicating with your audience in a truly authentic way.