The people you’re afraid will judge you are too busy worrying about being judged themselves.

The audience you are imagining is not paying the attention you think it is. Almost everyone in that room is running their own version of the same loop, checking how they look, replaying something they said earlier, hoping nobody noticed. The scrutiny feels total because it is coming from inside your own head, where you are the only subject available.

Test it. Try to recall what the person beside you wore or said two weeks ago. The blank is the point. You are far less observed than you feel, and that turns out to be good news.