Make Your Speech a Journey of Active Discovery

By breaking your  teaching points down into questions and discussions that lead to your point, you can help the audience go on a journey of active discovery, instead of passive listening. The question-answer approach naturally builds in points for the audience to absorb and process your ideas. Your audience will be more engaged and, as a result, retain more information. They'll also have more fun along the way. And so will you.

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Make Sure Your Panel Discussion Includes Some DISCUSSION

When running a panel discussion, it's usually a good idea to have some DISCUSSION. If you are a moderator, you need to constantly be looking for ways to keep the audience interested. Try to listen to your speakers with the ears of an uninitiated audience member: What context does the audience need? What about the topic is most interesting to the audience?

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Call-outs

Instead of thinking of your adult audience members in your presentation as “students”, you should think of them as “participants”. Instead of thinking of yourself as a “teacher”, think of yourself as a “facilitator”. Your job is to draw out your participants' expertise and interest by establishing an environment that invites their ideas, opinions, and experiences.

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