Audiences today want an interactive experience. As a presenter, you can:
- Ask them questions
- Answer their questions
- Organize small group exercises
But you can do more.
You can also integrate your audience into the presentation itself. For example, you can create a menu slide that links to other parts of the presentation (or other presentations) and let your audience decide the order of the presentation. I explain one way to create a menu slide here.
Another way to get the audience involved is to create mini-quizzes on your slides. You can also provide additional explanation if an audience member wants it. These techniques work well when you are presenting in front of an audience but also allow you to create interactive presentations that audiences navigate on their own in front of a computer.
You can do this with PowerPoint’s Trigger feature. (At the end of this post, there’s good news if you have a Mac!)