Hello All! Sheila B Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor here with even more good news about audience engagement! Last Saturday, I wrote this post introducing the new Audience Engagement Workbook, the new Potent Presentations (p2i) tool featuring the WHY, WHAT and HOW of audience engagement, along with 20 specific strategies any presenter can use with limited investment of time or money. Look for the workbook to be posted on the p2i site any minute now!
In just a moment, I’ll share another strategy from the book, but in the meantime, I want to let you know about another opportunity to learn about audience engagement. Are you excited? Raise your hand if you want to learn more! (Are you feeling engaged now?)
Hot Tip: Join me for an AEA Coffee Break Webinar* – Audience Engagement Strategies for Potent Presentations – on Thursday October 9 at 2:00pm EST where I’ll preview several key strategies appropriate for a variety of presentation types. Click here to register.
Cool Trick: Try a quote mingle. This requires some preparation in that you will gather quotes about a topic and print them out on cards – enough for each participant to have one (either print a few quotes on cardstock or on paper, cut apart, and paste to index cards). Use this activity as an icebreaker opportunity for participants to introduce themselves, or during or at the end of the session to have them make a connection to your content. Distribute cards randomly, and ask each participant to stand and get with a partner. Partners take turns reading their quotes, saying briefly what the quotes mean to them, and then introducing themselves, or answering your question, or relating the quote to their situation, etc. Once the exchange is over, call time and ask partners to exchange quotes, and find a different partner. Do as many exchanges as time permits.
Quick tip: You don’t need to gather as many quotes as participants. You can repeat quotes two or three times to produce larger sets of cards.
Caution: You will need a microphone or loud projecting voice to be able to call time to switch partners and to call an end to the activity. This activity will likely be very challenging with a group larger than 60-70 people.
Rad Resource: The p2i family of tools and resources to polish your presentation to perfection!
Hot Tip: Type”p2i” in the search box (just look to your right…see it?) and read some great aea365 posts from people who have used p2i tools to spice up their presentations.
*Coffee Break Webinars are free for AEA members. Not a member? Why not join now? Click here for more information.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.