5 tips to make your presentation interactive

Waiting for a sign of recognition, you try to make eye contact with the participants: languid eyelids and drooping corners of the mouth, utter concentration or sheer boredom? Do you see a phone there? A shopping list? You wonder if you're doing something wrong....

How do you actively engage your listeners in your presentation? You can use a variety of work formats. We give you 5 tips.

1. Ask questions

A very simple method to get more interaction during your presentation or training is to ask questions of the group. You can do this by asking the question without looking at anyone in particular. To make it more playful, you can choose to throw a ball into the group (not too hard of course!) to give people a turn.

2. Consult with your neighbor about a question

Can a question provoke discussion or several answers? If so, have students consult with their neighbor. Also nice as an icebreaker in the group. For larger groups you can ask to consult with the back neighbor: the persons in question usually do not know each other.

3. Use a tool like Mentimeter or Kahoot

When presenting with PowerPoint, you can easily add a poll or a "wordcloud" with a tool like Mentimeteror Kahoot. You can invite your students to use their phones during the presentation to answer a question. The result of all the answers is then immediately displayed on the screen and you can gauge the audience's opinion.

Be sure to formulate a sharp statement or question and choose a light-hearted topic that still invites discussion. Also test the use of this tool beforehand. That way you will not encounter any surprises during your presentation or training.

4. Use red/green settings

Yet another way to discuss different statements in a group is by handing out red and green cards. Each student gets a red and a green card. You give several statements in which the student, by showing a color, indicates whether they agree or disagree with the statement. Then you can ask some students to explain their opinion.

5. Start a placemat discussion

In a placemat discussion, hand out the "placemat" below. In groups of 3 the trainees deal with a statement or a question. Each student chooses a box: box 1, 2 or 3 and writes down the answer to the question. Then the trainees discuss the answers with each other. The best answers and conclusions are written down in box 4. Finally, ask one of the trainees per group to briefly present the answer. The placemat discussion is also very suitable for training in a small group.

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