Do you remember sitting through a lecture that almost dozed you off to sleep?
Most of us will remember going through that in our schools and colleges. But as kids, it was a compulsion to sit through that, and we did. Does the same obligation apply when you grow up? No.
As a presenter, if you stick to a conventional monologue, you might add to people’s list of boring sessions where being attentive seems too much of a task. Boring speeches make people wander away, and instead of paying heed to the presentation, the audience prefers to send text messages, check email, or doze off.
But as G.K. Chesterton, the English philosopher, said – There are no boring subjects, only disinterested minds.
So, here are some ways that will help you engage your audience in the best way possible, irrespective of the subject at hand.
Tips to Turn Your Presentation into an Engaging and Dynamic Conversation
An interactive presentation would mean, irrespective of the size of the audience, there would be back-and-forth communication and dialogue between the presenter and the audience.
An interactive presentation will help people connect with you and improve their comprehension. You will be able to give a more personalized experience, improving engagement and cooperation from the audience.
Let’s see how you can create that feeling.
1. Have Conversations Before
“The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.” – George Bernard Shaw
Have brief conversations with audience members before you start the presentation. It will help you establish common ground, goals, and inclinations. Conversations are personal, and they will directly benefit you and the audience. You will get to map out any shared experiences, mutual connections, occupations, and anything that could become relevant.
It will also help you break the ice, and you can use the opportunity for some fun and thought-provoking icebreaker questions and activities.
2. Don’t Just Read the Presentation
Do you know why we read bedtime stories to kids? It has a sleep-inducing effect, which lulls them to sleep. We wouldn’t want the same to happen to our presentations, for sure.
Keep a reference note card handy to help you stay on track and not miss out on anything important. But never read from the slides. Your speech should be organic and shouldn’t sound too rehearsed and robotic. Therefore, talk as if it’s a conversation with a regular bunch of people.
You can also use humor to lighten the air and build a good rapport with the audience. People are more likely to remember and connect with you if you make them laugh.
3. Share through Stories
When you prepare your presentation, you get ample time to collect facts and get comfortable with the figures and statistics. But your audience sits with you for a specific timeframe.
Dumping them with a lot of information during this time will only force them to tune out. Anecdotes and stories are actually an antidote to that boredom.
The moment you weave something in a story, you have everyone’s attention because stories connect us to a deeper part of ourselves. So, try to incorporate your content into catchy anecdotes that will help people connect better to your content and keep them involved in your speech.
4. Let Your Body Talk
Doesn’t it feel weird when people don’t look you in the eye while making conversations? Or when you see someone on the podium standing like a robot with arms on the sides the entire time?
Normal interactions with people involve these body gestures where you use parts of your body to forge a connection and add emphasis to what you are saying.
The same applies to when you are presenting. Make eye contact with as many people as you can, and don’t look over their heads to some random corner. Also, use your arms and body to occupy the space and make gestures. It will make you look human and involve people better in your dialogue.
5. Ask, Follow Reflective Listening, and Respond
You don’t make conversations by making the other person a victim of your verbal barrage. You give the person the space to process everything, respond, and so on. Presentation speech, too, should be like that.
Rather than going on in a monotonous tone, make it conversational by speaking slowly and letting people process everything. Similarly, you can give people the space to ask questions and interact with you (in between breaks).
Reflective listening and responding, not just replying, to their doubts and questions will help you forge an instant connection and make them feel heard and respected. You will also get valuable insights, data, and takeaways from the audience, like ways to improve.
Also, you should ask questions, too. It will help you measure the effectiveness of your presentation, i.e., whether people actually paid attention or not.
6. Try a Non-Linear Presentation Software
Rather than going through slide-by-slide, you can let people take control of the flow of the presentation. You can show the slides – the relationship between your ideas, and give the audience a bird’s eye view of the topic.
Let them know all the main points and choose the topics they want to go to – based on their interests. It will create a custom presentation for people where they constantly interact with you non-verbally.
Also, at the beginning of the speech, explain what’s in it for people and why the presentation is important. It will keep their interest heightened.
7. Follow a Decent Structure
Don’t confuse people with your content. Your presentation slides should follow a simple structure that’s clearly defined. Keep all the essential details in the slide deck, and don’t stuff it with unnecessary but interesting information. Excessive information can become overwhelming for people, making them tune out.
Also, in the urge to look professional, you might want to use industry jargon. But you don’t need to bombard the audience with a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo to make them take you seriously.
You will have a better chance to make them understand and connect by being conversational and simplifying your content as much as possible.
Also, try to plan your presentation from the perspective of your audience. The level of their knowledge, topics they will be interested or disinterested in, size, how you can help them learn, etc., can be some of the parameters you can keep in mind when designing the content.
8. Add Attractive Visuals and Videos
Visuals and videos are there to help your presentation be more than just plain talk. Now, you might wonder – how incorporating visuals can help the presentation become conversational.
Well, images, graphics, videos, and other multimedia elements immediately get the audience’s attention and turn them into passive listeners. You can also use pre-designed templates equipped with all the necessary design elements to take your presentation a notch high.
9. More Control and Incentives
Conversation isn’t just verbal. Your audience can communicate through gestures as well. Give them more control by sharing presentation slides with them. It will enable people to navigate through the slides, and they can communicate with you through likes and hearts as you speak.
You can learn in real time what people like and how they are responding to your content. This pattern works best for online presentations as it will help bridge the gap of the digital space, enabling connection and communication.
10. Make Use of Quizzes, Surveys, Word Cloud, and Polls
Live poll questions will help you get your audience thinking and debating. If it’s short, succinct answers you seek – word clouds are a great way to add some brevity and reflection to your presentation. Quiz competitions can be used for educational purposes or as a game of trivia.
Post-event surveys will give people time to reflect and share their thoughts and opinions with you. It will serve as feedback to work on later.
You can use these fun methods to make your speech interactive and lively.
11. Invite People on Stage
You can invite the audience or guest speakers on the stage to add a new perspective to the presentation. There will also be a change in the presentation style that can re-engage people.
However, plan it properly as you wouldn’t want to corner anyone by springing it last minute or mid-way in the presentation. You can keep the floor open by inviting people to contribute or add anything if they wish to. It will keep your audience alert and interested in the content as they get to actively participate, too.
12. Include Things Irrelevant to the Presentation
You can include something irrelevant, like a holiday picture or some common event, and initiate conversation around that. It will serve as a break for people, get everyone talking, and help keep everyone’s attention aligned.
It is particularly helpful when your presentation involves a heavy topic.
13. Build the Illusion of Conversation
Sometimes, the format is too restrictive and doesn’t allow the presenter the time and space to include a lot of interaction. In that case, rhetorical questions are the best way to create an illusion of conversation. It is when you ask questions and answer yourself on the stage.
Rhetorical questions can be accompanied by both open-ended and closed-ended questions. It will help people feel active participants in your presentation and keep them hooked.
You can use the following formula –
- Making a point – Public speaking is difficult.
- Ask a question regarding that – why is it difficult?
- Giving an answer – It is difficult because we are conditioned to believe so.
14. Demonstrations and Props
Physical props and demonstrations can help you enhance the communication aspect of your presentation. It can help people see and understand the content more clearly, thereby enabling them to connect better.
Jill Bolte Taylor, in her TED talk, brought a real human brain on stage to explain what happened to her brain when she suffered from a stroke. The demonstration touched people and left them in awe.
15. Practice Well
Practice your presentation so you are thorough with the placement of your interactive elements. You should know when to introduce live quizzes and polls, how to seamlessly invite and accept questions, how and which points to emphasize with the body language, and more.
You can practice in front of the mirror or take the help of friends and colleagues. Thanks to the technology, you can practice in a virtual conference/boardroom and get feedback with voice analysis technology.
To Sum It Up
Unless you want your presentation to be a lullaby, it would be wise to incorporate elements that make it conversational and interactive. The tips will help you create an engaging format to enable you to deliver an impeccable, informative, and entertaining presentation.
You can take the help of interactive presentation software to create the collaborative experience you seek.
