Speaker's Guide

give a successful interactive presentation

10 TIPS FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS

1. Ask Purposeful Questions There should be a clear purpose for every question you ask. It should cause the audience to think about an issue, clarify group ideas and beliefs, quantify interest or uncover misunderstandings.
2. Ask Meaningful Questions There is nothing better than a question where the participants are just as interested in seeing the results as you are. All too often questions are of interest to the presenter but of only marginal interest to the audience.
3. Be Ready for all Possible Results One way to know if you are asking truly interesting questions is that you can’t really predict how the results will turn out. Be prepared to discuss reasons for strong group consensus or vastly differing opinions.
4. Acknowledge Audience Polling Results Discuss the results with your participants; even though everyone sees the same data, many interpret it differently. In small groups, ask participants to interpret what they see. The cardinal sin is to ask your participants a question, then proceed as though you never asked.
5. Break Down the Data by Demographic Category Showing poll results separately for different demographic categories is often the most interesting and powerful thing you can do. Participants assign themselves to demographic categories through the audience response systems. Then, the results of a poll can be shown separately for each category (e.g., females vs. males, marketing vs. sales, etc.).
6. Keep Questions Verbally Short and Conceptually Simple Long or complicated questions take participants a long time to understand and respond. Questions should be concise and the audience response choices need to be equally clear.
7. Rehearse…At Least a Little Get a sense of timing. It takes 15-30 seconds to collect audience responses. Know when you intend to cut off audience polling and show the results … it is usually not a good idea to wait for every participant to respond. Results can be presented in a variety of ways. Make sure they are presented in a format that both you and your audience can understand. If you intend to use impromptu questions, know how to incorporate them. If you intend to show demographic breakdowns of the polling data, know what the options are.
8. Don’t Overuse Audience Polling, Especially when Repeating the Same Methods Like anything else, too much of a good thing ends up not being good at all. Use a variety of methods to keep audience polling fresh.
9. Use Familiar Methods Use the same audience response choices as much as you can. Use scales that are familiar to your participants (for example, 1-5 where 1=worst and 5=best).
10.  Keep the Polling Screens Clear Don’t use unnecessary screen elements and backgrounds or colors that make the question and results hard to see.