A lot of people are talking about the benefits of interactive presentations . This is when speakers don’t simply pontificate to their audie...
A lot of people are talking about the benefits of interactive presentations. This is when speakers don’t simply pontificate to their audience. They find ways to get everyone involved in the process. Unsurprisingly, people tend to respond quite well to this—assuming it’s done the right way.
Following are the top five creative tips and ideas for conducting a seamless interactive presentation at the workplace, university, college, or school.
1. Keep Things Consistent
Establishing cadence and flow is important in delivering an effective interactive presentation. With non-interactivity, you’re just imparting information to the audience. This isn’t as interesting or helpful as an interactive presentation. People tend to stick to this format, however, because it requires less work.
People will get confused, and timing will get off if you don’t find an organic pace for your presentation. What does this mean? Don’t rush through a Q&A session to move on to your next point, where you go into painstaking detail about something people don’t understand know because you cut off their questions. Find a cadence that works for you, your subject matter, and, most importantly—your audience—then stick to it.
2. Avoid Lecturing
It’s tough to totally cut out lecturing when you’re presenting new ideas to an audience. However, you should revert to lecturing the bare minimum amount. This type of presentation is overwhelmingly ineffective. People don’t learn as well through lecturing as they do through active experiences. Not to mention, the lectures are just boring. You probably can’t sit through a lecture without losing focus unless you’re listening to a world-class speaker talk about their area of expertise. And the thing is, most world-class speakers know better than just a straight lecture.
If you use too much lecturing in your presentation, it’s going to discourage interactivity when you want it.
3. Use Technology (The Right Way!)
Technology can be hugely useful for creating an interactive presentation. There are a lot of tools out there that can be seamlessly integrated into your slideshow or other visuals. But the positive effects of these can be overruled if you use them incorrectly. PowerPoint and Google Slides can both be incorporated into an interactive presentation. However, you can’t expect people to respond well to your efforts if all your slides are crammed full of text.
Poll and survey apps are one of the best ways to integrate an interactive section into your work. It should come as no surprise that live interactive audience participation is an effective method for engagement. Poll Everywhere, for one, offers users the ability to integrate surveys and polls directly into a presentation. These can be accessed through people’s smartphones and other devices. There’s even an option to make all answers anonymous. A strong list of features and streamlined usability make this a strong choice for interactive technology.
No matter if you use a live poll or any other kind of tech, you need to know exactly how it works. Nothing derails a presentation quite like the speaker having a technological malfunction during a crucial moment.
4. Know How to Transition
Interactive presentations often incorporate several different modules. It’s key that you transition effectively between these. No one should be confused as to why you’re moving on to the next section—even if it takes a completely different format. If you’re trying to incorporate some sort of non-linear design into your presentation, make sure you explain that to people. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a lot of confused audience members. And once you lose people while presenting, it’s tough to get them back.
5. Practice
Practice is the best way to ensure the seamlessness of your interactive presentation. You’re never going to get it perfect. But you can get it pretty darn close to that. All the aforementioned sections can be improved with practice. It’s important to practice like you’re going to present. Otherwise, you’re going to miss weak areas that will show through during the real thing.
Giving a presentation isn’t easy. It’s not surprising most of them are completely forgettable. You should strive to make your work interactive. This won’t happen, however, without a concerted effort to streamline your presentation.
Following are the top five creative tips and ideas for conducting a seamless interactive presentation at the workplace, university, college, or school.
1. Keep Things Consistent
Establishing cadence and flow is important in delivering an effective interactive presentation. With non-interactivity, you’re just imparting information to the audience. This isn’t as interesting or helpful as an interactive presentation. People tend to stick to this format, however, because it requires less work.
People will get confused, and timing will get off if you don’t find an organic pace for your presentation. What does this mean? Don’t rush through a Q&A session to move on to your next point, where you go into painstaking detail about something people don’t understand know because you cut off their questions. Find a cadence that works for you, your subject matter, and, most importantly—your audience—then stick to it.
2. Avoid Lecturing
It’s tough to totally cut out lecturing when you’re presenting new ideas to an audience. However, you should revert to lecturing the bare minimum amount. This type of presentation is overwhelmingly ineffective. People don’t learn as well through lecturing as they do through active experiences. Not to mention, the lectures are just boring. You probably can’t sit through a lecture without losing focus unless you’re listening to a world-class speaker talk about their area of expertise. And the thing is, most world-class speakers know better than just a straight lecture.
If you use too much lecturing in your presentation, it’s going to discourage interactivity when you want it.
3. Use Technology (The Right Way!)
Technology can be hugely useful for creating an interactive presentation. There are a lot of tools out there that can be seamlessly integrated into your slideshow or other visuals. But the positive effects of these can be overruled if you use them incorrectly. PowerPoint and Google Slides can both be incorporated into an interactive presentation. However, you can’t expect people to respond well to your efforts if all your slides are crammed full of text.
Poll and survey apps are one of the best ways to integrate an interactive section into your work. It should come as no surprise that live interactive audience participation is an effective method for engagement. Poll Everywhere, for one, offers users the ability to integrate surveys and polls directly into a presentation. These can be accessed through people’s smartphones and other devices. There’s even an option to make all answers anonymous. A strong list of features and streamlined usability make this a strong choice for interactive technology.
No matter if you use a live poll or any other kind of tech, you need to know exactly how it works. Nothing derails a presentation quite like the speaker having a technological malfunction during a crucial moment.
4. Know How to Transition
Interactive presentations often incorporate several different modules. It’s key that you transition effectively between these. No one should be confused as to why you’re moving on to the next section—even if it takes a completely different format. If you’re trying to incorporate some sort of non-linear design into your presentation, make sure you explain that to people. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a lot of confused audience members. And once you lose people while presenting, it’s tough to get them back.
5. Practice
Practice is the best way to ensure the seamlessness of your interactive presentation. You’re never going to get it perfect. But you can get it pretty darn close to that. All the aforementioned sections can be improved with practice. It’s important to practice like you’re going to present. Otherwise, you’re going to miss weak areas that will show through during the real thing.
Giving a presentation isn’t easy. It’s not surprising most of them are completely forgettable. You should strive to make your work interactive. This won’t happen, however, without a concerted effort to streamline your presentation.
COMMENTS