Get them involved and you'll have them!

By Rutger Mollee

Sure, everyone wants to develop and learn from others. But if we have to listen to speeches and presentations, people are also picky creatures. Because, it turns out: we only stay awake when we are allowed to participate.

Adrian Segar also saw this. This American physicist professionally attended many scientific conferences and analyzed why he usually felt deeply unhappy there as an audience. He changed course and today is one of the leading speakers and writers on audience participation.

And since I naturally want to continue to develop as a day chairperson, I took a training course from Segar. According to him, conference visitors have two basic needs: "a need for connection" & "a need to be heard."

With much interaction, he gave us how to engage visitors more in presentations. Here are his three most important tips:

1. Show of hands? No, opt for body voting!

Speakers often ask their audience to raise their hand after a question.

Try using body voting. People vote with their bodies.

TEDx speaker Kris van der Veen, at a later performance of his Talk on Bullying, asked everyone in the room who had ever been bullied to stand.

Almost half of audience stood up...

The impact was huge and the magnitude of the problem literally became apparent.

2. Give your audience a role on stage.

Jimmy Nelson is a world-renowned photographer and a master storyteller.

In this talk, he shows us how using audience members can make your talk even stronger. Jimmy gives people in the audience roles from the story he is telling.

The effect is amazingly powerful.

3. A speech? No a live interview.

Totally hip in America right now: coming up with the slide "Are there any questions?". Instead of a talk, you then put your audience in the role of the interviewer. Of course you have a core message and you start telling prepared stories, but they stem from the questions you get from the audience. In the Netherlands, Ali-B did this recently at the "Moving Stories" event. Magic and your audience in the driverseat.

Want to read more from Adrian Segar?

Read his books "Conferences that work" and "The power of participation".