Prior to the meeting:
Interview some members of your audience (if possible).
Ask for permission to interview three to five members of your audience. Try to get as much variety as you can. By variety I mean younger employees and the veterans, the local heroes and the “trouble makers”. It is very desirable to interview some of the top management. Ask for permission to quote everybody you interviewed and quote them in your presentation.
This technique gives you a number of advantages: you get a good idea of what is important to your audience and can then customize your presentation to better answer their needs and concerns; you make your audience members the heroes not you and you make friends in your audience even before you start your presentation. Interviewing management gets you the access to the economic buyers meaning people that are signing the check.

Interview the organizer of your presentation
The organizer of your presentation can be a well of useful information and he/she can be an irreplaceable source for getting you your important interviews.

Go online for company information, people in charge, etc.
The Internet is becoming a more and more important portal for useful information. A company’s website may contain its services and products, as well as information about its key people. It may also contain very useful company information. Some of the points to look for may be company size, a mission statement, a revenue statement and services offered. How company is doing on a stock market if the company is public company.

Interview previous presenters (if possible)
Previous presenters are an invaluable source of information. Find out what worked for them, what didn’t. What type of audience/environment did they encounter. Was the audience friendly? Did they react well to humor? Although you will probably have a different collection of people, you can get a very important general idea about the environment and audience.

Local or regional press
Find out if there were any publications in local and/or regional press. Make sure to review these articles.

Chamber of commerce
The local chamber of commerce may have very interesting and useful information on the company and its people.

At the meeting:
If there is enough time
If you have time and the group is small enough, you can do individual quick intros. It is always very good practice to take thorough notes and ask pertinent questions. Some of the information you may want to know is: name, position within the company, department, expectations they have from the presentation, previous similar training and presentations, likes and dislikes from previous experiences.

If there is no time for individual introductions
Do a quick poll and ask some pertinent questions.

If there is no time for a detailed polling
If you are very stressed for time, ask general questions and ask for a show of hands.

You may find that all these ideas may work for you or some of them or none of them. That is OK. I am describing the general ideas that worked for me and many of my colleagues and friends. You are welcome to take these ideas and develop your own. Keep on speaking and have fun doing it!