Some more presentation tips: engage your audience

I came across this great post by Neil Patel. I can relate to these tips and it's worth reading. Keeping up all these principals across days of training is not an easy task, but it's the only way if you want to really educate people and leave a residue.

I want to focus on talking with the audience rather than to them. Some people may find it hard at the beginning. So here's my tip: Plan discussions in advance. Find the spots in the presentation where you can turn it from talking about your material to discussing a topic.

Here's some pointers:

• Look for points (decisions, opinions) that may be controversial and ask the audience what they think. If the decision looks trivial, play the devil's advocate and show them the other side, eventually reaching the correct conclusion.
• Ask instead of tell. Before presenting your solution, ask for their solutions. The best thing is to lead the audience to your solution, but be prepared to accept other solutions as well.
• Turn audience questions back to the audience. Unless the question is about pure facts, the person asking probably already has an opinion. Hear it. Let others react. Even if the answer is plain facts, maybe the audience can deduct the answer. This only shows you're broadcasting on the same wave length.