Want To Make Your Talk Memorable and Engaging? Do This! (Challenge Included)

We’ve all given talks where we go through slide after slide of information, graphs, and images. The message being presented may be good but is it engaging enough for the audience. We pepper in a few jokes here and there and even some funny gifs make their way into the slides to entertain the audience but how effective is it? How can we improve the odds of the audience really connecting with our message?

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” + “Have the man catch a fish in front of you to give him a taste of how great it is to fish.”

Want to make your talks more memorable? Add an activity to your talk.

You know the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” I suggest we extend it to include, “Have the man catch a fish in front of you to give him a taste of how great it is to fish.”

Activities for audiences range from having them solve problems, trying out a process step by step, having conversations with the person sitting next to them, etc. The possibilities are endless. Try experimenting to see which types resonate with your audience.

Tips For Adding Activities:

• Keep the activities short.
• Add multiple activities if time allows.
• Keep the activities relevant to your core message.
• Explain the objectives and learning outcomes of the activity so the audience is clear about why the activity is important.
• Decide on the materials you will need to provide:
  - Will a blank paper suffice or would it be better to have the activity printed on paper?
  - Will the audience bring their own pens or do you need to provide them. (Tip: Be prepared and bring extra pens)
• Bring a buzzer to announce the end of the activity. It can get loud with everyone doing the activity.
• Keep the attendees in their seats. The more movement there is the more time it will take to get people back in their seats to continue your talk.

Challenge: Create An Activity For Your Talk.

1. Think of an activity you can include in your talk to give your audience a taste of your message?
2. Write down the learning goal of this activity. What will the audience learn as a result of this activity?
3. Examine your presentation and find a point where you can insert this activity.

Bonus points: Challenge yourself to come up with multiple activities of different lengths. This way you can change up the activities depending on how much time you are given for your talk.

Adding activities into your talks will engage your audience like never before. Make your talks memorable by engaging your audience at a deeper level. Being actively engaged with your content will make your message stand out and help it sink in faster. After all, isn’t having the audience connect with your message your number one goal?

Do you already include activities in your talks? Share your ideas in the comments below.