Fed up with colleagues and clients yawning through your presentations or checking their phones every two minutes?

Well, humans sometimes have the attention span of goldfish and get bored easily.

Plus, we’re talking about work here, not their favorite TV series. 

So, how can you change that?

Easy! By holding an interactive presentation.

Now, take a seat for some pointers on what this means and how to make a presentation interactive.

Let’s begin!

What is an interactive presentation?

Ever wondered what makes a presentation not just seen but experienced?

An interactive presentation is a type of presentation that uses interactive elements to create an engaging experience and encourage audience participation.

Forget about old-school PowerPoint presentations and think TED Talks — a more engaging and dynamic way to tell a story that makes people actually listen to what you have to say. 

But we’re talking about multimedia elements and Q&A sessions.

Instead of putting people to sleep with a long and boring lecture, it’s time to invite your audience members to an open discussion. The secret to this is to be honest, check in regularly with your workers, and act on their feedback. 

What do you get out of this? Your employees will speak their minds without fearing you won’t listen to them. 

And the best part is that this works just as well in person as it does online due to all the powerful tools that technology bestowed upon us.

Now, let’s see why you should make your presentations interactive.

Why should presentations be interactive?

Now that you’ve got your definitions straight, let’s explore why interactive presentations are worth your time.

Here are the three main benefits:

1. Attract your audience’s attention. If you enhance your presentation with data visualization, animations, and video clips you’re far more likely to keep your audience engaged compared to giving them static text-heavy slides. 

2. Engage your audience. It’s difficult to engage people when you talk at them instead of with them throughout an entire presentation.

It’s like that friend who constantly talks about their problems, but never bothers asking about yours. 🙄

But once you begin asking your audience ice breaker questions and seeking their feedback, you turn them into active participants whose opinions matter.

3. Help the audience understand your points better. Remember those complex math problems that sounded like a foreign language to you?

Well, clients and teammates could feel the same way about the information you’re presenting. 

However, one of the main interactive content benefits is that it helps your audience understand it better. 

Plus, by seeking audience input you’ll be able to determine which part of that complex math problem is still unclear to them and explain it better.

Ultimately, this interactive experience will make your presentations memorable and boost information retention.

So, let’s see how you can turn into the best presenter at your company. 😎

Top 14 ways to make your presentations interactive

You’ve got plenty of powerful tools to help you turn bored clients and colleagues into adoring students.

Today’s class will focus on 14 of our favorite and most effective interactive presentation ideas, but there are many more.

Let’s dive in.

1. Start with icebreaker questions

How you begin your presentation sets the stage for the entire interactive experience. It’s an engaging way for people to get to know each other before the session, encouraging them to be active participants in the talk. Plus, you energize them, shifting their mentality from passive to active. 

Don’t fret; it’s easier than it sounds.

You just need to come up with a thought-provoking icebreaker question or divide your audience into small groups for a surprise icebreaker game.

Here are some great icebreaker questions you can use:

• What's the best piece of career advice you've ever received?
• What’s your #lifehack of the week?
• What's your go-to productivity hack when you're feeling overwhelmed?
• What’s your favorite question to ask during a job interview?

As for icebreaker games, you can try trivia, charades, or two truths and a lie.

For instance, let’s take two truths and a lie. Each person says three facts about themselves, but one is a lie. The others need to find the lie to win. 

If you want to play this game at the office, make everyone sit in a circle. One person shares their statements and the others discusses and votes on which one they think is a lie. 

When it comes to playing this game virtually, it’s also super easy to do. You only need to use a video conferencing tool (like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.). The host selects the chosen one and the participants use the poll feature to vote on the lie. 

What if you have 100 people in your company? Create smaller groups! Easy, right? And totally doable! This rule also applies to any other game. 

The purpose? It will engage your audience from the very beginning and pique their interest.

Likewise, it will help you create a more relaxed experience, in which your learners will feel more comfortable becoming active participants.

For example, you can use a shocking fact or a personal experience to create a context, then ask a related question that your participants can relate to.

2. Tell a story

Remember how much you enjoyed fairy tales and other stories as a kid?

Well, surprise, surprise: Grown-ups enjoy them too!

According to Harvard Business Publishing, “storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas.”

So, here are two ways you can use storytelling in your next presentation:

• Tell a personal story that attracts the audience’s attention, taps into their emotions, and makes the content of your presentation more relatable and easy to understand.
• Present complex information in the form of a story. Whether it’s data, figures, or statistics, storytelling makes it easier for non-specialists to follow, comprehend, and remember them.

3. Use video in your presentation

Let’s make one thing clear: We’re not saying you can no longer use PowerPoint slideshows. Just avoid linear presentations and add interactivity into the mix.

For instance, one of the easiest ways to create interactive presentation slides is to embed video clips.

According to a study published in Science Direct, “participants claimed to be more engaged during video watching as it elicited more emotions than texts.”

Think about all those funny TikTok videos and Instagram reels you watch every day. They’re dynamic and short, making it easy to consume as you get almost instant gratification. Plus, they’re relatable and authentic, capturing real-life moments or reactions that make us all warm inside. 

And that’s definitely a feeling you want to capture in your presentations. 

Long story short, include such assets in your slide deck to refocus your audience’s attention throughout the presentation and spark open discussions.

Plus, you might have visual learners in the audience, in which case a short video clip can increase information retention.

4. Include interactive quizzes

Simply put, quizzes can help you create an engaging experience, serving as both icebreakers and a way to measure engagement. As icebreakers, quizzes can make participants more comfortable with each other by asking personal questions or allowing them to share their experiences. 

On the other hand, you can use quizzes throughout the presentation as a way to “wake people up” or check their knowledge. For example, sprinkling quizzes here and there encourages active participation from your peers, which is a lot better than passive listening. 

Plus, they are a lot of fun because they don’t involve getting grades like they used to in school.

Now, you can create a fun contest and even reward the quickest answers to ensure audience interaction.

You can use quizzes in several ways throughout your presentation:

• Assess your audience’s knowledge level at the beginning of the presentation. As such, you can adjust your language and examples accordingly.
• Create an icebreaker introduction that encourages audience participation.
• Check the level of understanding of your audience throughout your presentation and offer additional explanations if needed.
• Boost information retention towards the end of your presentation.

It’s ‘imagine’ time! 

Let’s say you’re giving a presentation on the basics of digital marketing. Your goal is to make sure the info is relevant to all participants. So, pop a quiz. Ask your participants: 

“What is your experience with digital marketing?” 

• Total noob
• Need to train more
• I’m a master at it, but I want to learn more
• I’m the sensei of digital marketing

Based on the results, you can adjust the way you address your audience. For example, if people in your audience are mostly beginners, you might spend more time explaining unknown terms.

Tip: An interactive presentation tool, like Ceros, can come in handy here as it can help you design an online interactive quiz without any need for coding knowledge.

5. Fostering interactions through questions

Wondering how to foster meaningful audience interactions when presenting? Here are two easy steps to follow:

Ask your audience questions

In addition to quizzes, you can also ask questions that create an interactive experience and engage your participants.

A good example here is the traditional “what if” questions that invite your audience to reflect on a specific scenario and come up with their own solutions.

Here are some examples:

• What if you were put in the client’s shoes? How would you solve this problem?
• If you were a consumer learning about this product for the very first time, would you understand its capabilities from this ad? What would you change about it?
• If we are to exceed this year’s target sales, what would be your goals for next year?
• When you’re scrolling through your social media feed, what type of ads attract your attention and why?

To make this even more interactive, you can separate your audience members into small groups, ask them to have an open discussion, and then choose a group representative to present their conclusions.

Open the floor for questions at the end of (or during!) your presentation 

Keep in mind this is not an interrogation where you ask all the questions.

Your audience members should feel comfortable asking questions whenever they don’t understand something to increase comprehension and retention.

You should let them know from the very beginning that it’s ok to interrupt if something’s unclear.

At the same time, you should make time for a Q&A session at the end of your presentation.

6. Use interactive infographics

Even if you have the best presentation skills in the world, it’s still hard to get non-specialists to understand complex topics and lots of figures.

And even if people understand them, they may easily get bored.

However, by using interactive infographics you can get your message across quickly and effectively before your audience loses interest.

Here’s an example from Ceros’ gallery: 

Also, this strategy helps your audience visualize the data, which makes it easier to understand and retain.

Now, we get that you might not know how to create interactive infographics. We suggest teaming up with an interactive presentation software, like Ceros.

Ceros can help you create eye-catching infographics using its unique templates. Then, you can animate your infographics with delays to make them more visually engaging.

Image source: Ceros

7. Take polls and surveys

Seeking audience input on the topics of your presentation engages your participants and improves comprehension.

But just like classrooms, meetings are often full of quiet and shy people.

So, how do you turn them into active participants?

A good solution is to organize live polls or surveys that everyone can take part in anonymously.

Once you get the results, start an open debate and ask your audience to share their opinions.

8. Add animations

Forget about static presentations and make them dynamic with animations.

Anything from visual effects to sound effects will spice up your presentation, attracting your audience’s attention and sparking their curiosity.

If you’re using Microsoft PowerPoint, you can use the Animation tab to choose the effects you want.

But if you want to really give your presentations that wow factor, you should join forces with Ceros. We’re all tired of PowerPoint’s preset animations that, between you and me, look kinda dated. 

Ceros, on the other hand, has fully customizable and dynamic options that make your presentation look *chef’s kiss*

Ceros offers 150 pre-loaded interactive presentation templates and the option to add interactivity, layers, and movement to your designs. They’re also suitable for any industry, whether you’re in healthcare, marketing, or finance. 

What makes Ceros special from other competitors is the complex animations and hover effects, as well as the multimedia integration (video and audio). 

So, everything you want your presentation to be can become reality.

9. Include interactive timelines

If only history teachers had known about interactive timelines back in the day. This would’ve made all those boring history lessons so much easier to understand and remember.

First off, an interactive timeline helps you visually display a series of work processes or events, making it easier for your participants to remember the key points.

Moreover, it includes interactive elements that offer context and additional info about the main timeline processes or events, facilitating a deeper understanding.

Whether you include pop-up descriptions or multimedia elements, you’ll make your content engaging and memorable.

This may sound a bit technical, but, again, you don’t have to go through this alone. 

You can use Ceros to help you with creating interactive timelines. 

Here’s how it’ll work:

10. Combine interactive diagrams with product demos

Sometimes, communicating complex ideas and their product applications to clients is like trying to explain quantum physics to literature majors.

So, to make things easier for them to comprehend and ensure they don’t fall asleep during your presentation, combine interactive diagrams with product demos.

Interactive diagrams allow you to display complex ideas in a simpler, visual manner that facilitates retention.

Then, by integrating short product demo videos that showcase functionality and features in action, you can better explain how the complex ideas apply to the product.

Ultimately, these visuals will captivate and engage your clients and simplify complex information into bite-sized content. It’s going to be easier to digest and participants will leave your session with something to chew on. 

11. Use social media and hashtags

Instead of letting your audience scroll randomly on social media (which they’ll do!), use it to your advantage to create real-time discussion groups.

For example, if your audience mainly uses X, create a hashtag to spark a conversation. Or create a group on LinkedIn where people can share their opinion about the presentation. 

This way, even remote participants can pitch in and become active participants.

Also, you can create a hashtag for your presentation so that participants can share important info they discovered or ask additional questions directly on social media.

12. Use humor

People will always remember the funny teacher who spiced up their lessons with good jokes.

Why?

Well, according to the Management Library, humor helps the audience relax and connect with the speaker and piques their interest.

As such, they’ll feel much more comfortable asking questions and giving their input.

Plus, if you make people laugh while explaining a complex issue, they are much more likely to remember it later on.

13. Make eye contact and be aware of body language

Remember those high school colleagues of yours who used to read their presentations from a piece of paper and never made eye contact?

Avoid that!

Eye contact and confident body language show your audience that you know what you’re talking about and help you create a connection with them.

So, move around and make eye contact with all the participants to attract their attention and keep them engaged.

14. Have Q&A sessions

We’ve already mentioned that getting your audience to ask questions boosts comprehension, retention, and engagement.

Thus, you should always include a Q&A session in your presentations.

However, to break from the linear presentation pattern, hold Q&A sessions at the end of every section of your presentation instead of at the very end of the whole thing.

Giving real-time answers along the way is more engaging and helps you identify problem areas that need further explanations.

Plus, your audience will likely be too tired or in a rush at the end of the presentation to pay any more attention to the questions and answers.

***

There you have it, 14 tips on how to make your presentation interactive.

But wait, there’s more!

Check out the pitfalls to avoid below.

Mistakes to avoid when creating interactive presentations

While you might encounter small hiccups during your first interactive presentation, you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it as this takes a little getting used to.

We want to help you make a good impression on your first assignment, though, so we’ve prepared a list of common mistakes you should avoid:

• Not tailoring the presentation to the audience. Interactive elements are effective as long as you tailor them to your target audience.

For instance, you might have to oversimplify complex ideas for clients, but doing the same for your team members might offend them or make them feel bored.

• Overloading slides. Whether you’re using static or interactive presentation slides, try not to overload them with text or interactive elements.

Instead, use short slides that clearly present the key point you want them to remember.

• Failing to test interactive elements. Technical issues can occur at any moment. 

But while you have no power over your laptop breaking down when you least expect it, you can make sure the interactive components of your presentation work properly before the big day.

• Forgetting clear instructions. If you’re sharing your presentation with your audience so they can interact with it directly, you should clearly explain how it works.

Otherwise, your audience won’t know what to do and get frustrated or disengaged.

• Interactive elements with no purpose. Every interactive element you use should attract attention, increase engagement, or enhance comprehension and retention.

If it doesn’t serve any of these purposes, it’s simply distracting.

• Neglecting audience feedback. Pay attention to your audience’s reactions, comments, and questions, and adjust your presentation if needed.

For example, be open to your participants asking burning questions before the Q&A so you don’t miss a good opportunity to interact and connect with them.

As long as you steer clear of these mistakes, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Now, before we finish today’s class, we want to give you an extra tip. 😉

Listen closely.

How interactive presentation software can help 

If you want your interactive presentation to stand out, using the classic PowerPoint slide templates and animation effects won’t do the trick.

You need to come up with something fresh to keep your audience guessing and wanting more.

That’s why teaming up with interactive presentation software, like Ceros, can help you become an interactive presentation master.

Ceros is very friendly and will gladly offer you plenty of interactive presentation templates to choose from, as you’ve seen a little further up. 😉

Once you get the hang of it, you can start building your own templates and add more and more interactive elements to your presentations.

Want to get to know Ceros before teaming up? Just book a free demo.

We promise you’ll enjoy your new assistant.

Class dismissed! See you next time!