3 easy tricks to engage your audience during a presentation

We’ve all sat through our share of boring presentations. It’s mind-numbing to be forced to listen to dry content that’s delivered (or worse, read) at us, rather than discussed with us. Often, all this talking is in vain anyway. Studies show 91% of listeners at business presentations admitted to daydreaming, and an impressive 39% to downright falling asleep at some point.

Having audience interaction makes our presentation more interesting. Make sure to involve your audience early and often. People will pay attention if they know that at some point, they’ll have to participate.

Here are 3 easy tricks to engage your audience:

1. Ask for interaction

Maybe it sounds obvious, but starting your presentation by telling the audience you want their opinion and questions is a way of telling them you expect interaction.

2. Ask a great question at the beginning to get peoples attention

When it comes to presentations, most of us are used to being talked to, rather than being asked to share our own thoughts. Opening with a question turns this idea on its head. You can ask the audience what they’d like to get out of the session or why they came. You can poll the group for their opinion about a topic.

3. Use technical advantages

Let’s face the facts, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, people will still peek at their phones, tweeting and answering emails. Instead of seeing this as something negative, use it to your advantage. Allow the audience to interact through their mobile phones. With todays technology it is easy to manage large votes as well as offer the participants to ask questions directly through their phones.

Source: www.forbes.com

Photo: www.thebighornresort.com