Creating an engaging presentation - whether it be in a team meeting or a training session - is a thought that is always on top-of-mind with presenters. Many believe that if their topic is relevant and interesting, it will be enough to keep attendees attention for the duration of the presentation. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. The age old way of presenting (I talk, you listen) has become sub-optimal for most learners. This article explores useful tips and techniques to boost audience engagement for more effective presentations.
Engagement
When people are engaged in an activity, they are actively participating, thinking, sharing ideas, and discussing the topics at hand. Presenters want audience members to be active and involved throughout their entire presentation. Attendees want to participate beyond one way communication. They want to engage with the speaker, the content at hand, and each other - to find out what their peers know about a particular subject matter. According to Corenet Global, active listening occurs when the listener is involved in more than just listening to a lecture. The listener is involved - whether it be in the act of problem solving, discussion, or some of form of participation.
Here are some tips and best practices for creating more audience engagement:
Solve Real Problems
Often listeners are hoping to have a question answered or a problem solved. Many are attending primarily to gain practical knowledge or understanding about specific subject matter from experts or peers in the field. This provides presenters with an opportunity to pose questions to the audience, share real world examples and organize sub-group discussions to foster idea exchange.
Great presenters give audience members the opportunity to look at their own real world experience along with the experience of their peers in the room. Attendees can use the information presented to come up with solutions. When presenters are able to help identify solutions or put someone on the path to finding a solution, audience members are sure to rate the presentation as being more effective in meeting their needs.
Tip: Use case studies to help solve real world problems that attendees face in their current practice or situation. Presenting best practices in each case study will help build a bridge between the audience member and useful mastery of the subject matter.
Link New Knowledge to Old
Creating a great presentation involves an exchange between presenter and audience. If a presentation can link new knowledge to existing understanding or experience, the group will be more engaged. Audience members are listening to hear something that relates to a problem or situation they face. If a presentation can build upon the experience of those in the audience and associate that experience with new information, attendees will value the presentation and work to apply what they have learned later.
Tip: Issuing a pre-test to identify prior knowledge will allow for a more effective presentation tailored to the audience’s levels of understanding. This is a sure way to keep the audiences’ attention from the beginning to end of the presentation - personalizing the interaction experience.
Process Information by Asking Questions
It is a well known fact that people are engaged in a certain activity if they are actively participating in it. One way to achieve this is by asking audience members’ questions - using interactive participation technology such an audience polling system. Sometimes these are referred to as an audience response system (ARS).
By using wireless keypads or smartphone polling, presenters are able to use interactive polling and participation to achieve a higher level of audience engagement. Typically, the audience uses wireless voting "clickers", phones or tablets to answer questions, give feedback, and participate in surveys or assessments. An audience response system used by a knowledgeable presenter will provide attendees with an opportunity to contribute their ideas, ask questions and communicate best practices throughout the presentation. Whether the purpose of the sesion is adult learning or team building these tools result in interactive meetings that better address core business needs.
Fact: Interactive meetings are shown to improve attendee attentiveness up to 88% and increase retention as much as 27%.
The key to creating an engaging and effective presentation lies in the ability to communicate and connect with the audience. By identifying the learning needs of the audience and using interaction to leverage existing experience, presenters can boost presentation impact. Interaction connects the dots by asking and answering questions using audience polling tools and discussions. Tap the knowledge of your attendees and deliver more effective talks.
To find out more about audience polling, the effective use of audience response systems, and tools to create more engaging and effective presentations, click below.
