| How do you see the industry evolving over the next five years? | Obviously, we’ve seen a huge amount of growth in online business especially over the last couple of years. You’ve already talked about how that’s affected EdTech to date, but how do you see it evolving further over the next few years? |
What are the biggest misconceptions about your work? | You mentioned that as a CEO, people always seem to assume you have all the answers or that you’re an expert in every field. What other misconceptions do you think people have about what you do? |
What makes your job exciting? | I think we can all tell you love your job, Jenny, so let’s get into that a bit more – what makes building a website for teachers so exciting? Where does that passion come from? |
What mistakes did you make then that you wouldn’t now? | What you said Jenny about being naive seems very understandable for someone starting out. Were there any specific lessons you learned – what mistakes wouldn’t you make now, or what would you know to avoid? |
What other factors made a difference to your choices? | So having a pool of expert teachers was crucial to building the resources, but what influenced your choices on resources to create, or how to develop the platform? |
Would you make the same decision again? | Even though your decision there was clearly a good one, would you make that same choice now? Has your decision-making process changed since then? |
What to avoid when questioning your guest speaker for a virtual event
There are no concrete rules on what not to do or ask during a virtual event. However, it’s usually best to avoid religion and politics. It’s also a good idea to tread carefully when it comes to potentially personal or sensitive subjects.
To be sure you’re on safe ground, consider connecting with your guest before the event starts. Ask if they prefer to avoid any areas of discussion.
During the event, don’t feel you have to urgently fill any pauses with your own thoughts or further questions. Instead, give your speaker the chance to think and reflect before giving you a response.
Also, don’t forget that the success of any virtual event depends on engaging your audience . While your speaker’s presentation will likely do a great job of that, you can also encourage audience participation wherever possible.
Question upvotes and multimedia shares are both great ways to encourage video engagement . With Livestorm you can also create polls to get the audience talking and see how much they agree or disagree with your guest on a particular subject.
Livestorm also supports reaction emojis during live events. Ask attendees to use them to express their support for or thoughts about webinar topics in real time.
Engage your guest and your audience
Your goal with a guest speaker should be a relevant, engaging, and unique conversation. So the importance of careful guest research and interview preparation can’t be overstated.
Where possible, explore their professional history and see if you have any shared experiences you could touch on. You might uncover a surprising fact or opinion that serves as the starting point for your entire discussion.
To make the event more memorable for your audience, involve them in the Q&A process. Livestorm’s question upvotes, polls, and emoji reactions make it easy to involve attendees.
With thorough research, great questions, and audience participation you can host a successful, engaging virtual event.
Frequently asked questions about guest speakers for virtual events
What questions should i ask a guest speaker.
Ask your guest speaker open questions about their career choices, the hurdles they overcame, and their plans for the future. You can also ask fun questions as icebreakers or to break up the conversation. Always listen carefully to your guest speaker, and ask follow-up questions that delve deeper into subjects they’ve raised.
What are good questions to ask a speaker?
Craft questions that directly relate to the speaker’s experience and topic of discussion. Invite the audience to suggest questions so they can engage directly with the presenter.
Avoid asking questions the presenter can answer with one word. Instead, raise open-ended questions that allow for deeper discussion.
How many questions should you ask a speaker?
Ask enough questions to fill the allotted discussion time. Depending on the length of the presentation and the amount of extra time, anywhere from five to 10 questions may be appropriate.
What are good questions to ask a successful person?
Most successful people have had to work hard and negotiate struggles or failure, so ask them questions about those challenges, what key moments made a difference to their fortunes, and what advice they’d give to their younger selves.
How do I find a guest speaker for my virtual event?
Build a network of contacts through work, forums, and social media – especially LinkedIn, where many professionals are also looking to grow their contacts and find partnership marketing opportunities.
When you identify a subject you’d like to discuss, search out specialists within those networks, and consider podcast hosts, influencers, and friends of friends. The best guests are experienced speakers, so also work out your budget and schedules before making contact with a potential guest.
Drive attendance
We share tips to write emails for every step of your event to drive attendance.
About the author
Molly Hocutt - Content Manager
Molly joined Livestorm in 2019 as a Content Manager and manages written content production. Her work focuses on lead generation and organic website traffic.
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- 7 Tips to Encourage Audience Questions in Your Presentation Q&A
September 19, 2017
Ever seen a presenter ask “Any questions?” at the end of their presentation, and heard only crickets from the audience?
In my work as a professional emcee and trade show presenter , I see it often, and it always makes me cringe because it’s so awkward, and so completely avoidable.
Asking for questions and getting none kills a presentation’s momentum. It usually goes like this:
- The presenter, having run out of content, asks “Any questions?”
- The audience, having no questions, freezes in place.
- Everyone thinks they hear crickets, though there are none in the room.
- The presenter, getting no questions, says, “OK, I guess I’m done.”
OUCH. How’d that happen?
Chances are, you caught your audience by surprise. They didn’t know you’d take questions, so they didn’t think of any. When you asked, you caught them off guard.
I want your next presentation to end with a bang, not a whimper. So try these tips to encourage questions:
1. PREPPING YOUR Q&A: PRIME YOUR AUDIENCE
> TIP THEM OFF EARLY: As you start your presentation, tell your audience: “I’ll take all your questions at the end, so write down your questions as you think of them along the way.” That’ll get them active thinking of questions throughout your presentation.
> REMIND THEM: A few minutes before you take questions, say: “I’ve got one more slide to cover, then I’ll take your questions.” That’ll remind them to think of some questions if they haven’t yet.
2. STARTING YOUR Q&A: GIVE THEM A NUDGE
> LEAVE ROOM: Starting a Q&A with little or no time left discourages questions; your audience wants to leave on time too! Instead, carve out 5-10 minutes or more for questions (and cut some content to make room if needed; your audience prioritizes the information they want to get over the information you want to share).
> USE A PLANT: Have a “plant” in the audience who’ll ask the first question (one you’re comfortable answering), which encourages other audience members to ask (and saves them the awkwardness of going first) and gives them time to think of something to ask.
> CHANGE YOUR PHRASING: Your audience may interpret the phrase “Any questions?” as a sign that you don’t expect or even want questions, which discourages them from asking. Instead, encourage questions by phrasing your question with a more upbeat, expectant tone: “Who’s got a question?” or “Who’d like to go first?”
> ASK IT YOURSELF: Ask yourself a common question: “One question I get often is…” Then answer it. Again, this encourages the audience to follow suit, and gives them more time to think of a question.
3. ENDING YOUR Q&A: ADD THAT BANG!
Q&A or not, ending your presentation by saying you’re ending your presentation (“OK, I guess I’m done”) will end your presentation with a whimper. You can easily replace that whimper with a “bang” by restating your main takeaway and thanking your audience:
“Folks, I hope my presentation has shown you that when it’s raining and you want to stay dry outside, use an umbrella! You won’t regret it. Thanks so much for your time.”
And thank you so much for your time!
by Andy Saks
Posted in: Sparky Says: Presentation & Public Speaking Tips | No Comments
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6 questioning tactics to use in your next presentation that maximise audience engagementThe famous scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn said, “the answers you get depend on the questions you ask,” so if you’re not getting the answers, or audience engagement you want, maybe it’s time to take a look at the questions you’re asking. The art of asking the right questions helps you to gain deep insights, support informed decision making and develop effective solutions to any challenges or plug information gaps. You might ask questions for data collection, tests or research, but it’s important to note that the questions you ask can have a huge impact on the results you get. When it comes to asking your audience questions with a view to increasing engagement, there's several questioning tactics and question styles you can use, and we’ve detailed some below. Build rapport and warm up with IcebreakersIcebreakers should be easy questions that don't require too much thinking capacity. They might not be important from an informational point of view, but they have an important function for engagement. Our brain is highly social and thrives on interaction. By starting a formalised meeting with light-hearted questioning, dopamine is released which lights up the sense of reward in the brain, encouraging this positive behaviour. Using a live polling tool to ask your icebreaker ramps up the interaction and excitement, increasing audience engagement even further. Kick things off with: - Who will win the match at the weekend?
- What is your favourite movie?
- How did you get here today?
Why not download our ready to use PowerPoint icebreakers to poll your audience with? Ask open questionsQuestioning, with a view to increasing engagement, becomes even more effective when you use open questions - especially good if you’re using a word cloud polling tool . Open questions prompt your audience to consider their personal opinions and beliefs in their response, bringing them closer to the subject matter and naturally increasing interest and audience engagement. Get your audience to open up by asking: - What has been your most memorable part of the day/session?
- What will you do differently as a result of this session?
- Describe your feelings about the proposed changes in one word...
Try the 5 W'sBasic though they may be, asking questions that begin with one of the five ‘W's will almost guarantee you an answer that isn't too taxing for the audience to come up with, perfect if you’re looking for data. Combine one of the 'W's with one of these other techniques and you'll amplify the effectiveness. Why not try... - Who, do you find inspirational?
- What, is your biggest challenge?
- When, do you feel most productive?
- Where, should we hold the next event?
- Why do you think (this resource/product/book/technique) is so popular?
You don't need to get too deep and meaningful with your audience but prompting them to reflect can be a powerful engagement tool for both you and them. Often, we all spend so much time looking forward, that we can forget to take a look back to find lessons or inspiration to help us acknowledge, grow, progress and continue to engage. Ask your audience to ponder on these... - What has held you back?
- Who has helped you the most with this project?
- What would you tell your younger self?
- How would you approach this differently now you have experience?
Make a statement, provoke a reactionRhetorical questions are often used by coaches or public speakers for effect, to get the audience thinking. Why do they work? Typically, rhetorical questions can be blunt or provocative, they can stop the audience in their tracks and prompt them to pay attention or re-engage if asked midway through a presentation or speech. Rhetorical questions can also resonate strongly, as each audience member ponders the question in the context of their own reality, increasing the poignancy of the question. How about asking... - Why does this even matter?
- How do we overcome this?
- What does this say about who we are?
- Where do we go next?
Democratic decision making We're huge fans of democracy (current politics aside) and nothing engages an audience more than the knowledge that their contribution affects the outcome. Whether you're hunting answers from your audience for the sake of data, to gauge opinion, or to actually make a real-life decision, the use of live-polling will get the crowds engaging. Multi-choice polling is really effective and increases engagement by giving your audience a sense of autonomy over the decision at hand by providing them with the answers to choose between. Poll the audience with… - How often should we hold these sessions? Weekly, monthly, annually?
- Where should we go for our next social outing? Pub/restaurant, mini golf, bowling?
- How is the room temperature? Too hot, Too cold, Just right?
So, now you’ve got 6 question types to try out and engage with your next audience. As a last piece of advice, an engaged audience is a natural bi-product if the information you’re sharing is interesting, relevant and the audience can learn something from you, or about themselves. Related articlesFrom the blog. 30 fascinating facts about USA Universities4 of the best free alternatives to Aha SlidesThe top 4 Microsoft Forms alternatives |
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COMMENTS
Asking the right questions after a presentation can open the door to better understanding and stronger connections. Whether you’re presenting or listening, thoughtful questions help everyone learn more and keep the conversation going.
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Learn how to prepare for and handle questions at the end of your talk with confidence and ease. This article offers tips on changing your mindset, anticipating audience concerns, and engaging...
Learn how to prepare for and answer typical questions from the audience after your conference presentation. Find out what to say and how to react to common queries about your research contribution, relevance, process, limitations, and future directions.
Presentation questions are any inquiries following a presentation like a speech, seminar or meeting. Attendees might ask questions to clarify information they learned during the presentation or to expand on something that requires more discussion.
Learn how to engage with an expert and entertain your audience with these questions for virtual events. Find ice breakers, deep dives, follow-ups, and closing questions for different topics and situations.
Learn how to prime, nudge and end your Q&A session with your audience to avoid awkward silences and get more engagement. Find out how to prepare, phrase and restate your questions to encourage participation and feedback.
Learn how to use different types of questions to increase audience participation and interaction in your presentations. Find out how to ask icebreakers, open questions, 5 W's, reflective questions, rhetorical questions and democratic questions with live polling tools.