P is for Presentation
Transform the Sage on the Stage to Engage from the Stage: Five Interactive Presentation Tools
Finally, there seems to be a growing awareness that everyone in the room has a contribution to make. And many are searching for a new archetype and experimenting with new technologies to bring forth participant intelligence, curiosity and wisdom.
We were at David Fox’s dazzling Leed Platinum Victorian house in San Francisco (highest level of energy efficiency and sustainability) for his Interdependence Day Party. Among the delightful, forward thinking was Julie Sammons, from the San Francisco Biomimicry community. Julie commented: “everyone is tired of the Sage on the Stage form of presentations”.
Another guest, a leading 3-D web designer and gamer, stated that even in conferences covering the leading technologies, the same old, often boring power point presentations, and “talking heads” panels are at play.
We (ParCenTra) have been working for a long time to identify, create, and breathe life into this new archetype: Engage from the Stage. So, we are excited to see the conversation expanding.
When you find yourself up in front, rather than ask intermittent questions that only engage the audience briefly, start to use low-tech ways to get people more engaged and participating. The effect is to charge up the learning field, get the energy resonating, and the information flowing back and forth in the presentation rooms with as much vitality as the group has during breaks.
Here are five low-tech ideas that presenters can use to get the interaction flowing, and to engage participants in your content.
Who Is Here?
With a show of hands, or even better, by stand up and sit down, find out who is in the room. You get a quick demographic read relevant for shaping your remarks and possibly can refer to it later. Depending on the mood you want to create, it can go in the direction of fun, or of affinity groups, or as a support to help people to find out related interests. And it helps wake up the brain – gets it ready to receive the content. Some questions we like:
Who traveled more than 100 miles or ___hours to get here?
How many people: take photographs, write fiction, compose poems, sing, sculpt, ride bikes, ski or surf, etc. (This gives you a different side of the audience and helps audience members find others with similar interests.)
Who has children?
How many people have been to more than x countries?
Who would enter a contest for a seat on the space shuttle? (points out risk takers)
Questions that elicit what else you would like to know about the audience?
Or, anything else you would like the audience to know about itself?
And, you can ask the audience for anything else they want to know!
Who relates?
Ask for a show of hands, shout out, or stand up to reflect understanding. Some question seeds:
Who understands this?
Have you ever had this thought?
Is this something you care about?
Is this something you can use?
What do you think?
Ask people in pairs or trios (buzz groups) to discuss a question for a short time. Let them know how they will report out and how you will signal them to complete working. Make sure that everyone who wants to be in a pair has a partner. Encourage them to introduce themselves to each other.
Some questions we have used:
How would you apply this information in your field?
Have you heard of another place this has been applied?
Is there some aspect of this topic that you find inspiring (or challenging or surprising or moving)?
How can we energize?
Our intent is to have movement function as a brain energizer and as a transition to a new topic. Two examples:
We are about to stretch your thinking - then do a series of stretches. (A face stretch usually gets people laughing.)
We are going to try to harmonize some key points - then assign a section of the room a sound and have them practice. Then assign another section another sound, and so forth. You orchestrate them so that it becomes a round as each comes in, gets louder or softer or faster or slower at your direction and then stop on cue.
How can we use data?
If you want people to remember a presentation, find a way for them to use it or extend it soon after.
Here’s a specific example. A keynoter at a West Cast Green Conference spoke about her vision for creating Not So Big Houses and in turn asked participants to write their dream or interest on a 3 x 5 card. With help from another speaker, we categorized the cards and posted them on a wall in the Conversation Café for people to use to connect with one another. They were popular and enabled people with similar passions to find one another.
These are five from our collection that we have found useful. We have others to use with large groups, such as informal quizzes, guided imagery, prototypes and props, pasting things (information, prizes, thought provoking quotes, etc.) to the bottoms of chairs, and having items to toss around the room. Let us know if you would like to hear more.
We’re are dedicated to inventing, finding, and using methods that evoke and include the intelligence of every participant.
Do you have favorites you have used or experienced? Please drop us a line. High tech or low tech, we’d like to know.
Last modified July 20, 2017