Tag: interactive presentations

Interactive Presentations: Using Twitter to Break the Fourth Wall

audience

interactive presentations

presentation tips

presentation tools

Twitter

Dec 18, 2014

Incorporating live interaction into presentations can greatly enhance audience engagement, and Twitter offers a real-time platform to do just that. By using Twitter to “break the fourth wall,” you can encourage audience participation, gather live feedback, and create a more dynamic experience. Here’s how to use Twitter effectively in interactive presentations.

1. Create a Custom Hashtag

A custom hashtag is a simple and effective way to organize audience participation. Encourage attendees to use the hashtag during your presentation to ask questions, share thoughts, or respond to prompts.

Why It’s Important:

  • Encourages Participation: A hashtag allows the audience to engage with your presentation in real-time.
  • Organizes Responses: It provides a way to track and manage responses during and after the presentation.

How to Do It:

  • Create a unique, memorable hashtag related to your presentation or brand.
  • Display the hashtag on every slide and encourage the audience to use it throughout the presentation.

2. Display Live Tweets on Screen

You can integrate live tweets directly into your presentation by displaying a Twitter feed on-screen. This allows the audience to see real-time reactions and questions, creating a more interactive atmosphere.

Why It’s Important:

  • Increases Engagement: Showing live tweets encourages more participation from the audience.
  • Makes the Audience Feel Involved: Seeing their tweets displayed on screen gives the audience a sense of contribution.

How to Do It:

  • Use tools like TweetBeam or LiveTweetApp to display live tweets during your presentation.
  • Select and display tweets in real-time, and respond to questions or comments as they come in.

3. Run Twitter Polls for Instant Feedback

Twitter polls are an excellent way to gather audience opinions or test knowledge during your presentation. They can be used for icebreakers, quick quizzes, or gauging audience sentiment on key topics.

Why It’s Important:

  • Fosters Interaction: Polls provide an interactive element that keeps the audience engaged.
  • Offers Insight: Real-time feedback from polls can give you insight into the audience’s understanding or preferences.

How to Do It:

  • Set up polls before the presentation or during, and share the links via your slides.
  • Discuss the results live and incorporate audience feedback into your presentation.

4. Encourage Questions via Twitter

Instead of relying solely on a traditional Q&A session, you can encourage attendees to submit questions via Twitter throughout the presentation. This allows for a continuous flow of feedback and ensures that even shy participants have a voice.

Why It’s Important:

  • Inclusive Participation: Twitter allows everyone to ask questions, even those who may feel uncomfortable speaking up.
  • Gives Real-Time Feedback: Continuous question submission enables you to address concerns or points of confusion as they arise.

How to Do It:

  • Prompt the audience to submit questions using the custom hashtag.
  • Monitor the Twitter feed during your presentation, or assign someone to select questions for you to answer in real-time.

5. Create a Post-Presentation Discussion

Twitter can also be used to keep the conversation going after the presentation. Encourage attendees to continue using the hashtag to ask follow-up questions or share additional insights after the event.

Why It’s Important:

  • Extends Engagement: Keeping the conversation going post-presentation fosters ongoing interaction and learning.
  • Creates a Community: A dedicated hashtag can serve as a hub for further discussion and networking.

How to Do It:

  • At the end of your presentation, remind attendees to continue using the hashtag for follow-up questions.
  • Engage with participants by responding to tweets or sharing additional resources.

Final Thoughts

Twitter is a powerful tool for breaking the fourth wall in presentations and making the experience more interactive and engaging. By incorporating live tweets, polls, and Q&A sessions, you can create a dynamic environment that encourages audience participation and fosters real-time feedback. Whether you’re presenting in-person or virtually, Twitter can help you build a deeper connection with your audience.

Designing PowerPoint Decks for the Smartphone

interactive presentations

mobile-viewing

online presentations

PowerPoint Design

smartphones

Sep 24, 2014

Millions of Americans are glued to their smartphones. According to data gathered by Statista Dossier, there are currently around 163 million smartphone users in the US. The numbers are also expected to rise to 220 million by 2018. This comes as no surprise, considering that industry giants like Apple and Samsung release innovative new designs almost every year. In fact, Apple just released the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of work to make sure that your PowerPoint decks are compatible for viewing on smartphones. All you have to do is follow these four basic rules:

1. Big and bold text

sample slide for smartphones 01
Matthew Smith / Note&Point

Even if the iPhone 6 Plus has a screen size of 5.5 inches, that’s still a lot less room than where you’d commonly show a PowerPoint deck.  Make sure that the font type and size that you use is extremely readable. Go for 30 points or higher. Stylized fonts should always be larger than your usual sans serif text. You don’t want the audience to squint just to read what you’re trying to say.

2. High-contrast colors

sample slide for smartphones 02
Idan Gazit / Note&Point

Another way to increase the readability of your PowerPoint designs is through high-contrast colors. Use either a dark background with light-colored text or vice versa. Similarly, avoid using colors that are too bright. Try for a more muted palette with only a few vibrant pops of color every so often.

3. Powerful images over bullet points and paragraphs

sample slide for smartphones 03
Stephen P. Anderson / Note&Point

Don’t overwhelm your target audience with too much text. Visualize your key points with powerful images instead. This will help keep your PowerPoint deck simple and straightforward. Don’t try to discuss too much concepts at one go. Explaining complicated concepts will require more sentences and paragraphs. If you feel like there’s something in your content that needs further explanation, simply link to other resources instead. You can also try to make a flowchart or an infographic using free online tools like Piktochart.

4. Simplicity

sample slide for smartphones 04
Stephen P. Anderson / Note&Point

Despite the need for visuals, it’s also important that you don’t complicate your PowerPoint designs. Remember, you don’t have much space to work with. Always be mindful of white space and maintain balance in your design. You can still add some animations and transitions, but keep them to a minimum. Aim for a seamless viewing experience. Having too many elements will cause your presentation to lag.

The Takeaway

Smartphone users love the flexibility and convenience it offers. From your phone, you have access to a host of information. If you want to settle a silly argument, you can simply ask Siri for the answer. If you want to keep your work on track, there are plenty of apps that help you organize your ideas and to-do-list.

Among the other things you can do on a smartphone is deliver and view a presentation. You can share your PowerPoint deck through SlideShare or Brainshark.

In the boardroom, you won’t have to set-up a laptop and projector. With interactive apps like SlideShark and SlideKlowd, you can share your presentation directly to your audience’s devices.

 

Reference

“Smartphone Users in the US 2010-2019.” Statista. Accessed September 24, 2014.

Tweeting Your Way to Engaging Presentations: Unleashing the Power of Twitter in Interactive Talks

interactive presentations

powerpoint add-on

presentation tips

social media

Twitter

Aug 12, 2014

In recent years, the word ‘tweet’ has come to mean more than just the chirping of a small bird.

Since its successful launch in 2006, Twitter has become one of the most popular social media platforms on the Internet today. It recorded 500 million registered users in 2012, and the numbers have only been growing since then. It’s time to consider that a majority of your audience make part of this huge number.

Incorporating elements of social media in your presentation makes it more interactive and relatable, especially to a younger crowd, who may be more active in the social media scene. But for users of all ages, an interactive presentation is an effective presentation.

Twitter gives you the ability to reach out to people who aren’t even in the auditorium with you. Twitter can be a valuable presentation tool if you’re presenting at an industry event (or any other occasion where you expect to have a large audience).

Use a hashtag (or two)

Hashtags are a bit tricky for social media beginners, but it’s the most useful Twitter tool for your presentation. It’ll help create a back channel of discussions. Presentation coach Lisa Marshall suggests the use of two hashtags: one that’s unique and specific to your presentation or the event you’re speaking at, and another that covers the general topic you’re covering.

The first one is moderates all discussions about your presentation into one place, while the second allows non-attendees to see the tweets about your presentations. Just remember that the hashtags you choose shouldn’t be too long or complicated. Flash them in bold letters in your PowerPoint presentation.

It’s also become the norm to have hashtags for events. If that’s the case, ask the audience to use the official hashtag instead of trying to come up with your own. Their tweets can be seen by those watching out for the event at home.

Display a Twitter feed in your PowerPoint presentation

Here’s how you can have a real conversation with your audience: Refer to their tweets at the end of your presentation.

Include a twitter feed in your PowerPoint presentation by following this tutorial by Liz Gross. (It might seem a bit complicated, but the hashtags you specified will make things easier.) You don’t have to go into each and every tweet, but try to address some of the conversations that came out of the points you raised.

And if you’re really interested in expanding the conversation, you can encourage your audience to follow your (or your company’s) Twitter account. Address any other questions or comments there. This will turn your interactive presentation into a full discussion outside the auditorium.

References

Curtiss, Kristen. “How to Create a Hashtag to Build Engagement at Your Event.” Constant Contact Blogs. 2013. Accessed August 12, 2014.
Hiscott, Rebecca. “The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag.” Mashable. Accessed August 12, 2014.

Featured Image: Shawn Campbell via Flickr