how to make zoom presentation interactive

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15 Tips for Engaging Zoom Presentations + Examples

Your next Zoom presentation is a week away. And your mind is racing.

What presentation software should you use?

What if the other attendees can hear your neighbor’s loud music?

Will they find your presentation boring?

Relax and take a deep breath.

You don’t have to figure out the answers to these questions by yourself. This guide will cover everything you need to know about planning and delivering engaging Zoom presentations without stress and anxiety!

After reading this article, you’ll be brimming with confidence and competence on your next Zoom presentation.

Table of contents :

The science behind your Zoom presentation anxiety

• Downloadable Zoom presentation checklist

Part 1: Tips on how to plan and prepare for your Zoom presentation

Part 2: tips during your zoom presentation.

• How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom
• Present with ease on Zoom using Piktochart presentations

Before we get into all the other Zoom presentation tips, perhaps the most important is to deal with your Zoom presentation anxiety. And you’re not alone – anxiety over Zoom presentations is more common than you think . 

A  2021 paper  on why students have difficulties learning during synchronous presentations over Zoom found that 80 percent of the students polled experienced anxiety and trouble focusing during their virtual classes. But what causes this worry? In a peer-reviewed article, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the  Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab , highlighted the  results of their research  and cited four primary reasons behind Zoom fatigue, stress, and anxiety:

• Your brain interprets excessive amounts of close-up eye contact during video chats as an “intense situation.”
• Like looking at the mirror, you become more critical of yourself as you see yourself on camera.
• Limited movements while you’re chained in your chair and table.
• Video chats require a higher cognitive load than face-to-face presentations. 

“You’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you agree with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate,” shares Bailenson.

Finally, you have to consider tech troubles and presentation software fiascos, as well as dealing with the pressure of public speaking.

15 Zoom presentation tips and tricks to help you own the room like a pro

Now that you understand why Zoom presentations give you sweaty palms, let’s go through 15 actionable steps to prepare for the slides.

We created a checklist of the Zoom presentation tips so you can cross off each task.

Prefer video learning instead? Watch the video below.

The success of your Zoom presentation is the result of thoughtful planning and preparation.

Get ready for your online class, product webinar, or job interview on Zoom with the following pre-presentation tips:

1. Decide on the scope of your Zoom presentation

Before presenting on Zoom, ask yourself — what one particular idea or insight would you want your audience to learn from you?

“Defining the scope is the most critical step. What are the boundaries, what are the deliverables, what is the topic that you are covering?”, recommends Linda Parry Murphy , CEO of Product Launchers, Inc.

Trying to cover every subject will only make you more nervous.

Remember the Stanford study earlier about too much cognitive load as one of the reasons behind Zoom presentation anxiety?

Limiting the scope of your presentation can significantly reduce your cognitive load while keeping your audience focused on the key points.

2. Plan for the structure of your online presentation

It’s important to master the sequence and structure of your presentation as part of your preparation. Creating a framework guides the meeting participants so they understand what the data means, why it’s important, and what the implications are in this situation.

A solid structure in place also makes it easier to go back to what you’re saying. As a result, you will feel more confident because you can keep track of your talking points with a quick glance at your outline if you lose your train of thought.

Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in Organizational Behavior and author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out , recommends the following examples of presentation structures that you can use:

• Past-Present-Future – review a process or share a timeline
• Comparison-Contrast – show the benefits of a certain idea, insight, product, or service
• Cause-Effect – explain the rationale behind a decision
• Problem-Solution-Benefit – motivate or convince your audience
• What?-So What?-Now What? – convince people to do a specific action after your presentation

Another simple presentation structure you can work on is to start with an introduction, the meat of your presentation where you can highlight 3 points, and wrap up with the summary and call-to-action.

3. Prepare your presentation visuals

Plenty of research and evidence shows that including images is more effective in getting your message across than written text or oral communications alone.

For instance, a captivating visual is  four times more effective  in conveying information than words alone. People remember 80 percent of what they see and do, compared to 20 percent through reading and 10 percent through hearing, respectively.

If your goal is to convince your audience during your Zoom presentation, you’ll also be delighted to know that using visuals can help you become more persuasive.

A Wharton School of Business research found that around a third of the audiences they polled felt that presenters who used visuals were more persuasive.

So remember that well-chosen images, even stock photos, can do wonders to augment your slides.

When making visuals for your presentation, use these questions as your guide:

• Is there an icon, illustration, or image that could represent your point in a more meaningful way?
• What types of diagrams , such as a timeline, flowchart, pie chart, arrows, or graphs, will help get your point across to your audience?
• Who are my target audiences? When choosing visuals for my presentation, are there certain cultural taboos or inappropriate humor that I should be aware of?

One more thing – consider using bullet points if you find slides with walls of text. They’ll be easier to digest without taking the focus away from you.

4. Eliminate clutter in your surroundings

Staying in one place with no room to maneuver probably doesn’t spark joy for anyone. KonMari your environment by eliminating clutter on your desk and in the space around you. This means extra keyboards, unused notebooks, pens, food boxes, and books can go.

Eliminating clutter gives your brain the impression that there’s more room for you to move around during your Zoom event.

If the space you’re presenting in makes it difficult to clear off clutter, you could find a plain wall to present against. And if that’s not an option, you can use a clean virtual Zoom background . Keeping your surroundings out of sight means it’s out of mind for you and your audience; one less thing to worry about while presenting.

5. Do a tech prep

Presenting in Zoom while you’re at home or traveling is a technological wonder in itself. But technology can be frustrating at times too.

Spending some time optimizing your Zoom settings by clicking in the toolbar while you’re in a Zoom meeting. Under video settings, you’ll find a few options that can help with the visuals, such as focus assist.

Before your presentation, double-check the following:

• Make sure that your laptop, computer, lighting, headset, webcam, microphone, and internet connection are working. Have backup equipment if possible.
• Familiarize yourself with the Zoom app and other relevant software you’re going to use during the presentation.
• Close unnecessary browsers, applications, or software before the presentation. Turn off your laptop or desktop notifications. The goal is to optimize and speed up the device to have a smooth presentation.
• Prepare a PDF version of your presentation slides and have an extra copy of your presenter notes in case of technical mishaps with your slides. It also makes sense to have a short link to your presentation that you can share with the audience.
• Position your notes in the right spot so you know where to find them while presenting.
• Check Zoom settings and do a quick audio and video check.

6. Rehearse your presentation

After taking care of your surroundings and equipment, the next step is to prepare yourself.

Practicing your Zoom presentation in advance can help boost your confidence. Here are some tips to help you rehearse well for your presentation:

• Screen record yourself. Afterward, check your recorded video for technical issues, your body language, and whether or not your voice is audible or not.
• Practice with a family member or friend who can give feedback on any distracting nonverbal communication habits like too many hand gestures.
• Rehearse in the same room where you’ll be presenting. Use the same lighting, computer setup, and everything.
• Practice speaking to the camera, not your computer screen.

If you’re not used to face-to-face presentations, you could record your presentation and watch it back. I know, I know – it can feel so uncomfortable watching yourself. But a quick analysis will reveal if you use too many hand gestures, that can be distracting, and also if you need to reposition your camera so it shows your upper body while presenting.

The time has come for presentation day! You already know the ins and outs of your presentation, and you’ve practiced your Zoom presentation skills to a T. A couple of checks you can do before you start are:

• Make sure you’re in a quiet area to minimize any potential interruptions.
• Do a test call with a friend to check the internet connection and if you’ll stay connected.

Take note of the following tips and hacks to make your Zoom presentation engaging and anxiety-free during your webinar or talk:

7. Dress the part

Wear clothes that are appropriate for your presentation and audience. It also helps to be more mindful of your accessories and hairstyle. The outfits and accessories you wear during your Zoom meeting will speak volumes about you as a person.

For example, if you’re presenting to your coworkers, wear work clothes. If you’re pitching to a group of angel investors, wearing a tie can help convey that you’re serious and trustworthy. However, this may not be a good idea if you’re presenting to a group that is more open to change and tends to be more relaxed when it comes to conventional standards.

Another benefit of dressing the part is what you wear actually impacts how you think. Wearing formal clothes can improve abstract thinking and give you a broader sense of perspective, which is influential in helping you make better decisions.

8. Ditch the chair

Standing up when presenting in Zoom rather than sitting down helps you become more confident because you’re not hunched down on your chair.

Standing straight with your shoulders back also enables you to breathe easily, making your voice sound more powerful and confident. Finally, it allows you to move more and make explanatory gestures which is a charisma boost.

The more confident you appear in your presentation, the more confident you’re likely to feel.

“When your mind starts to feel more confident and powerful — it starts to see those challenging situations not as threats but as opportunities,” shares Harvard psychologist professor Amy Cuddy.

If you can’t stand up during your presentation, try to sit straight in your chair and back up your camera a little to show your upper body and not just your face.

9. Have a memorable introduction

National best-selling author and founder at Science of People Vanessa Van Edwards specifically recommends opening your presentation with IISSAAQQ to make it more memorable. IISSAAQQ stands for: 

• I cebreaker
• I llustration
• S hort story
• S tatistic or surprising fact
• A nalogy or metaphor

Bonus points if you can weave in humor with some background information with a relevant fact. Research found that more popular talks used humor 12.92 times, whereas less popular talks used humor only 3.92 times on average.

You don’t have to force a joke – humor could just be a play on words or surprising the audience with a funny image or meme that contrasts with a statement. Nothing breaks the ice better than laughter.

10. Look your audience in the eye (or rather your webcam)

Looking your audience in the eye is easier during face-to presentations than Zoom presentations. It can be a little tricky during online meetings because we tend to look at people’s faces on the computer screen. Maintain eye contact by looking into your webcam.

“A good idea is to lower the monitor camera a little so that you don’t have to tilt your head back to gaze up at it. If you can’t help looking at someone’s face on the screen instead of their camera, it helps to move the Zoom window to the part of the screen nearest to the camera so at least you’re looking at approximately the right place when you’re looking at their face,” shares Carol Kinsey Goman , Ph.D., executive coach and international keynote speaker.

You could treat the camera as if you were doing a face-to-face presentation. This way, it’ll be a bit simpler to hold eye contact with your audience when you’re not looking at your notes.

11. Think happy thoughts

Find ways to boost your mood before your presentation. Aside from helping you feel good (which in turn can boost your confidence), you’re also likely to smile often with happy thoughts. 

When you smile at your audience, they will also likely “mirror” your action and think happy thoughts. 

“Mirroring is relevant to our tendency to be empathetic. When I see you smiling, my mirror neurons for smiling fire up, and I get your state of mind right away. I feel it as you feel it. We need that mirroring in order to create a full empathic response to other people,” describes Marco Iacoboni , author of  Mirroring People  and UCLA professor. 

When you’re having a good time and sharing enthusiasm with your audience, they’ll reciprocate through their nonverbal communication. This means fewer folded arms and blank stares and more nodding along and smiles.

12. Delegate the chatbox

Have someone else take care of Zoom chat or manage the waiting room to keep you from being distracted. This person could be the meeting host, a colleague, or someone you trust who has your back during your presentation.

13. Engage your audience

A boring presentation is when there’s no interaction, and you’re being spoken at (hello, university lectures). You’ll be able to tell from everyone’s body language in the meeting room.

Make your presentation a two-way street. Here are some ways to encourage interaction and participation amongst your audience during your Zoom meetings:

• Ask questions. For example, if you’re presenting a team productivity software in Zoom, ask your audience about their top productivity problems at work. You can also use this time as an opportunity to transition to your next presentation slide.
• If you have a small audience, remember each person’s name and address them using their first names.
• Use visuals like illustrations, infographics, or a short video clip in your slide show. Tool recommendation : Use Piktochart Video to transform a long video into short clips.
• Use interactive quizzes while presenting online to change the pace and keep your audience engaged.

14. Talk like a human and avoid too much jargon

Alright, what does talking like a human mean in Zoom presentations?

For a start, avoid talking too much jargon and corporate speak. It makes you more relatable, keep your audience’s attention longer because your points will be easier to understand, and also helps you stand out from other presenters.

Just because you’re presenting in virtual meetings doesn’t mean you’re not talking to people. The only difference is you’re sharing your presentation in front of your camera instead of in front of the lecture room.

Next, improve your visual storytelling skills . Your presentation will be more memorable if you briefly share a story and pair it with visuals. Sign up for our free visual storytelling course . Check out the teaser video below.

15. Slow down

When you’re anxious and not too confident about your Zoom presentation, you’ll tend to speak fast, which in turn will make you more nervous. It’s a vicious cycle.

When presenting in Zoom, be mindful of your pace. Slowing down will not only take the edge off your nerves but also make you appear more confident.

Don’t be scared of pauses or gaps between your statements. Sometimes, you might need a sip of water to hydrate your throat. Other times, you could use the pauses as extra emphasis to drive key points.

Slowing down and changing up your talking pace will help you deliver an impactful presentation because you’ll have more control and be better able to drive the point home.

5 presentation examples and templates

To make presenting your Zoom presentation easy, here are some presentation templates and examples for inspiration.

Quarterly finance update

Have a big meeting coming up where you need to share sales performance and revenue figures? We’ve got you covered with this template.

It’s equipped with graphs where you can easily drop your revenue figures in and share performance with customizable graphs. There are also template slides for customer feedback and if your team is planning to introduce new processes.

Marketing strategy plan template

This marketing strategy slide deck is perfect if you’re onboarding a new client and want to walk them through your research, analysis, and proposed actions.

Group project

Presenting your collaborative project in a Zoom meeting to your classmates? Take the worry off so you can focus on sharing the results by using this science group project template .

Despite the name, you can use it for any kind of school or university project because the structure works for any type of research presentation. The template has slides for:

• Group introduction
• Your hypothesis/basis for the project
• Your theory
• How you tested the theory
• Key takeaways

Buyer persona template

The customer buying journey is always evolving, and you might need to present a case study to leadership or your team on recent findings. Our template makes it simple to share your customer’s story, as the template has slides for:

• The customer profile
• Motivations/goals
• Personal insights
• Responsibilities

Team update in the all-hands meeting

It’s common for managers, or project leads to update the company with their results in company meetings. In these cases, you might just need a single slide to share your progress.

This work breakdown structure template does the job, giving you space to share what your team’s objectives were, what the key results were, who was involved, and what the shipping date was for these goals.

How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom 

Step 1 : On the Piktochart editor, click Share to get the link to your presentation. 

By default, your presentation is not publicly visible.

Step 2 : Copy and paste the link into your browser bar. Then, click the Show Presentation button. This will launch in fullscreen presentation mode, and now you’re ready to shine. 

Step 3: Click Share Screen on your Zoom account and choose the browser with the Piktochart link.

For a visual demonstration, watch the short tutorial below with detailed instructions.

Ready to deliver your presentation? 

That’s it for our Zoom presentation tips; now over to you.

You have a brilliant idea or insight to present, and you need to share them with your audience in your next Zoom presentation. It’s high time you nail it with the virtual presentation tips we outlined in this guide. 

Take Piktochart for a test drive  today and create your next presentation slide minus the stress using our free presentation maker .

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7 Fun Ways to Make Zoom Meetings More Engaging and Interactive

One semester in college, (yes, I know it has been a couple of decades, but I still remember it,) I had an 8 AM marketing lecture. At any given moment in the class, I could look around and see 60%+ of the class drifting off to sleep. A lot of my classmates showed up to the class in their pajamas. Very few actually showered and/or made themselves presentable. (Sound familiar?)

The next year, I drew an 8 AM Business Law class. I was expecting the same type of atmosphere. This class was totally different. No one wore a suit, but the entire class dressed in what is now known as business-casual. The professor didn’t just lecture us. Instead, he asked us questions. In fact, in each class, we were speaking almost as much as he did.

So my question is, which of these examples describes your Zoom meetings?

1) Give Your Team Clear Instructions Ahead of the Meeting.

You can do this in the Calendar invite. Here is an example…

Doug Staneart has invited you to a Zoom Meeting. This will be an interactive meeting delivered entirely through Zoom. To participate, it is best to login via a computer or laptop versus a phone or tablet. Your computer will need to have video and microphone access to be able to interact with your teammates. We will try to wrap the meeting up within 30 minutes. See you there!

Usually, this warning ahead of time will fix many of the pajama, muffled hair, and 80’s Rock t-shirt challenges. If you find that one of your team members has a less than professional appearance, talk to that person personally. It’s okay to give a global suggestion during the meeting if multiple team members are creating a distraction.

For additional tips on virtual meeting fundamentals, see How to Deliver Great Virtual Meetings . This post gives a lot of great tips on how to organize the meeting and how to pick the right camera and microphone, etc.

2) Create an Agenda And Assign Roles Ahead of Time to Make Your Virtual Meeting More Engaging.

Identify the three to five major points that you want to cover in the meeting. Then, add these meeting points to the calendar invite. Don’t assume that just because you put “Project Reports from Team Leaders” into the agenda, that your team leaders will prepare a report. Instead, after you send the invite, contact each team leader to prep them. This can be done in a simple Slack or text message like, “Jane, can you give a 2-minute update on the Permian Project in the meeting tomorrow?”

If you don’t do this, you will get a lot of, “Nothing new to report,” or “Things are still great,” reports.

3) Break Up Non-Engaging Monologues with the “Can You Give Me An Example?” Question.

“That sounds interesting. Can you give me an example?”

This light coaching interrupts the boring recitation without embarrassing the speaker. Typically, you only have to do this a couple of times before the team catches on. Many of the upcoming speakers will start thinking of examples for their reports as well.

Here is an example.

“We have cut expenditures on all of our marketing campaigns because of reduced return on investment. The positive return is coming from social media, but it is small right now. Our marketing team is brainstorming new ideas though.” “Can you give me an example of what we are doing on social media?” “Yeah, the video team recently created a YouTube video that we really like. In fact, here, let me pull it up and show it to you…”

4) Use Zoom Breakout Rooms to Get Participants to Engage with Each other More.

For instance, let’s say that you have people from sales, marketing, logistics, and finance on the Zoom call. Each group has five or six team members. You as the leader can break the group into breakout rooms by their department. Give them five minutes to come up with the top three things that have happened since the last meeting. Have them nominate one team member (not the team leader) to give a report to the group based on the discussion.

This is just one idea. You can get creative and use the breakout rooms in really effective ways.

5) Use Collaborative Cloud Apps to Make the Meeting More Interactive.

For instance, you can set up a simple spreadsheet with the weekly sales revenue. Then each sales rep can enter his or her sales while the meeting is going on. As the numbers get added to the sheet in real-time, the total increases. Then, the sales manager can give positive comments as new additions are made.

You can also use PowerPoint or Google Slides as a storyboard. Participants can enter their ideas during a brainstorming session by accessing the document on their own computer. As they add ideas to the storyboard the entire team can also see these new ideas.

6) Make the Zoom Meeting More Engaging by Opening the Zoom Whiteboard.

If you have a touchscreen computer, this tool is pretty awesome. Just share your screen in Zoom, select the whiteboard, and start drawing on your screen. (By the way, if you don’t have a touchscreen, just logon a second time from your phone or tablet.)

Showing something on the screen from time-to-time breaks up the monologue. It gives your participants something else to focus on.

You can also use this as a way to poll the group without forcing their choices. When you use the poll function of Zoom, you have to pick the answers that people are likely to give. It is a multiple-choice option. However, using the whiteboard, you can ask an open-ended question and log the responses.

7) Add a Game to Make the Virtual Meeting More Fun and Engaging.

Create three different games that each have a “top-five answer question.” For instance, “What were the top five industries that we sold to last year?” Or, “What were the five most popular words that appeared in customer reviews last year?”

Divide the group into two teams. Flip a coin to see which team goes first. Give the winner the option to “play” or “pass.” If they decide to “Play,” send them to a breakout room for two minutes (or less) to come up with team answers. Make sure they know to list the answers in order from most-popular to least-popular. The Playing team gets to give answers until they get three strikes.

The other team can “Steal” if the first team gets three strikes and they can uncover one of the remaining answers.

If you want a list of fun games to play on Zoom with your team , click this link. This post from The Leaders Institute ® gives a few free games that you can play along with a few of the best premium games available.

Get Creative and Make Your Zoom Meeting More Fun and Interactive.

The key to online meetings is similar to in-person meetings. The more that the leader talks, the more the participants will hate it. So if you make your Zoom meetings more engaging (get the participants talking,) you will make them more interesting as well!

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Blog Marketing 15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

Written by: Krystle Wong Aug 04, 2023

As attention spans continue to shrink, the challenge of engaging audiences in a short timeframe has never been more significant. Let’s face it — grabbing and keeping your audience’s attention can be quite the challenge, especially when time is ticking away. But fear not, I’ve got the perfect solution: interactive presentations!

Believe it or not, creating an interactive presentation is easier than you might think. In this guide, I’ll show you how to effortlessly turn ordinary slides into captivating experiences with 15 interactive presentation ideas that will leave your audience begging for more. From quirky polls and fun games to storytelling adventures and multimedia magic, these ideas will take your presentation game to the next level.

Venngage is a game-changer when it comes to empowering interactive presentations. With just a few clicks, users can customize their favorite presentation templates , add multimedia content and create immersive experiences that leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or a newcomer, get started with Venngage to elevate your presentation game to new heights of engagement and creativity.

Click to jump ahead:

What is an interactive presentation?

15 ways to make a presentation interactive, 7 best interactive presentation software, what are some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive presentations, interactive presentation faqs, how to create an interactive presentation with venngage.

An interactive presentation is a dynamic and engaging communication format that involves active participation and collaboration between the presenter and the audience. Unlike traditional presentations where information is delivered in a one-way manner, interactive presentations invite the audience to interact, respond and contribute throughout the session.

Think of it as a two-way street where you and your audience have a friendly chat. It’s like playing a fun game where you ask questions, get live feedback and encourage people to share their thoughts. 

To make a good presentation , you can utilize various tools and techniques such as clickable buttons, polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements to transform your slides into an interactive presentation. Whether you’re presenting in-person or giving a virtual presentation — when people are actively participating, they’re more likely to remember the stuff you’re talking about.

Interactive presentations leave a lasting impression on the audience. By encouraging active participation and feedback, interactive presentations facilitate better understanding and knowledge retention. Here are 15 innovative 5-minute interactive presentation ideas to captivate your audience from start to finish:

1. Ice-breaker questions

Start your presentation with intriguing and thought-provoking questions or a fun icebreaker game. These questions should be designed to pique the audience’s curiosity and encourage them to think about the topic you’ll be covering. By doing so, you create an immediate connection with your audience and set the stage for a more engaged and attentive audience.

For example, if you’re giving a business presentation about management and leadership training, you could ask audience questions such as “What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received, and how has it impacted your career?”

2. Live polling

Incorporate live polls during your presentation using audience response systems or polling apps . This allows you to collect real-time feedback, opinions and insights from active participants. Live polling encourages active participation and involvement, making your presentation feel like a collaborative and interactive experience.

3. Q&A sessions

Encourage the audience to ask questions throughout your presentation, especially for pitch deck presentations . Address these questions in real-time, which fosters a more interactive and dynamic atmosphere. This approach shows that you value the audience’s input and promotes a two-way communication flow.

4. Clickable buttons

Add clickable buttons to your slides, allowing the audience to navigate to specific sections or external resources at their own pace. For example, you could include links to your social media accounts or extra reading materials in your education presentation to give further information about the topic and get your students engaged.

By providing this autonomy, you empower the audience to explore areas of particular interest, creating a more personalized and engaging experience through your interactive slideshow.

5. Storytelling

Incorporate anecdotes or personal stories related to your topic. Storytelling is a powerful way to emotionally connect with your audience, making your presentation more relatable and memorable. A little storytelling along with a set of creative slides draws the audience in and keeps them engaged as they follow the narrative.

6. Interactive charts and graphs

Use interactive charts and graphs that respond to user input to make your presentation interactive. For instance, allow the audience to click on data points to view more detailed information or to change the displayed data series. Creating charts with interactive visuals help the audience interact with the data, fostering better understanding and engagement.

7. Animated infographics

Add animations to your infographics, making them visually dynamic and progressive. Animated infographics reveal information gradually, keeping the audience curious and attentive. This transforms complex data into an easily digestible and engaging format.

Venngage’s extensive library of infographic templates is a powerful tool to visualize data and elevate the interactivity of your presentations. Personalizing the visuals ensures a cohesive and professional look throughout your interactive presentation. The templates are highly customizable, allowing you to adjust colors, fonts, and styles to match your presentation’s theme and branding. 

8. Gamification

Introduce an interactive quiz, puzzles, or challenges related to your presentation content. Gamification adds an element of fun and competition, motivating the audience to participate actively and boosting their learning experience. Here are some gaming presentation templates you could use. 

9. Virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR)

If applicable, leverage VR or AR technologies to provide immersive experiences. These interactive presentation tools transport the audience into a virtual or augmented environment, making your presentation more captivating and memorable.

10. Collaborative whiteboarding

Get your audience involved in your presentation by utilizing digital whiteboards or collaborative tools to brainstorm ideas collectively. This fosters teamwork and creativity, enabling the audience to actively contribute and feel a sense of involvement in the presentation.

11. Hyperlinked text

Keep the information in your slides minimal with a simple presentation and incorporate hyperlinks to direct viewers to relevant websites or blogs , resources, or additional information. This encourages self-exploration and gives the audience the opportunity to delve deeper into topics of interest.

12. Role-playing

Engage the audience in role-playing scenarios to explore different perspectives. Role-playing promotes active learning and helps the audience relate the content to real-life situations, enhancing their understanding and retention.

13. Embedded videos

Include video clips in your slides to provide visual explanations, demonstrations, or interviews. Videos add a dynamic element to your presentation, enriching the content and keeping the audience engaged.

14. Audience-generated content

Encourage the audience to contribute ideas, stories or examples related to your professional presentation . Audience-generated content fosters a sense of ownership and involvement, making the presentation more interactive and personalized.

15. Slide transitions

Use slide transitions to create smooth animations between slides. Well-planned transitions maintain the audience’s interest and keep the presentation slides flowing seamlessly.

Interactive elements aside, enhance your presentation with these guides on how to summarize information for a captivating presentation and how to make a persuasive presentation to captivate your audience. 

If you’re looking to create engaging and interactive presentation slides that captivate your audience, these presentation software options are sure to elevate your game:

Prezi is renowned for its dynamic and non-linear presentation style, enabling users to craft visually stunning and interactive presentations. With an array of templates and animation effects, Prezi enhances audience engagement, making your presentations more captivating and memorable.

2. Mentimeter

Mentimeter serves as an audience response system, empowering real-time interaction during presentations. Users can create interactive polls, quizzes, word clouds and more, allowing the audience to respond using their smartphones or other devices. This fosters active participation and provides valuable feedback instantly.

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is a free cloud-based presentation software that not only offers collaboration features but also enables real-time interactions. It includes add-ons and third-party integrations to further enhance interactivity, making it an excellent choice for collaborative and engaging presentations.

4. Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint, a classic presentation software, has evolved to incorporate more interactive features like live captions, real-time collaboration and interactive elements such as quizzes and forms. With its familiar interface and versatile functionalities, PowerPoint remains a reliable choice for interactive presentations.

5. Prezentor

Prezentor caters to sales-oriented presentations focusing on interactive storytelling and data-driven content. It offers analytics to track audience engagement and behavior during presentations, allowing you to fine-tune your approach and keep your audience hooked.

6. Opinion Stage

Opinion Stage is a visual and interactive data collection tool designed to engage and excite audiences whether sitting in a lecture hall, participating in a live Zoom, or watching an on-demand webinar. The Opinion Stage tools are simple and intuitive, making it easy to create attention-grabbing quizzes, surveys, and polls in minutes. A great way to spice up any presentation, encourage audience participation, and collect authentic feedback.

7 . Venngage

Venngage stands out as a versatile design tool that facilitates the creation of interactive infographics, data visualizations and presentations with ease. Offering various interactive elements and animations, Venngage empowers you to craft visually appealing and engaging presentations effortlessly.

With these interactive presentation software options at your disposal, you can unleash your creativity and deliver presentations that leave a lasting impact on your audience. So, go ahead and make your presentations interactive, captivating and memorable!

For more presentation software options, check out this blog on the 12 best presentation software for 2023.

Creating interactive presentations can be a game-changer for engaging your audience and enhancing your presentation skills, but steering clear of common pitfalls is essential. Here are some key mistakes to avoid when crafting your interactive presentations:

1. Overloading with interactivity

While interactivity is fantastic, bombarding your audience with too many interactive elements can backfire. Strive for a balanced approach that enhances engagement without overwhelming your listeners.

2. Ignoring audience relevance

Failing to tailor interactive elements to your audience’s interests and preferences can lead to disconnection. Make sure your interactions resonate with your specific audience for a more meaningful experience.

3. Not testing interactive elements

Skipping thorough testing of interactive features before showtime can spell disaster. Avoid technical glitches by diligently testing all interactive components in advance.

4. Poor timing and pace

Timing is everything, especially with interactive activities. Ensure seamless integration by planning your key points and the timing of your interactive elements carefully.

5. Lack of clear purpose

Every interactive element should serve a purpose and contribute to your presentation’s objectives. Don’t add interactions just for the sake of it — ensure they add value and align with your message.

6. Failing to engage beyond interactivity

While interactive elements are powerful tools, remember that content is king. Combine your interactive features with compelling storytelling and valuable insights to create an immersive and impactful presentation.

Incorporating animated slides into your interactive presentations enhances the overall appeal and interaction, turning an ordinary presentation into an engaging experience. Try it out with one of our animated presentation templates to get started. 

How do you start an interactive presentation?

Begin by grabbing the audience’s attention with an intriguing question or a surprising fact, setting the tone for a dynamic and engaging session.

Which type of presentation is the most interactive?

Workshops and seminars are often the most interactive types of presentations as they encourage active participation, discussions and hands-on activities.

How can interactive presentations enhance audience engagement?

Interactive presentations foster a two-way communication flow, involving the audience through polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements, leading to increased interest, attentiveness and better retention of information.

What are some common interactive elements to include in a presentation?

Common interactive elements include clickable buttons, hyperlinked text, polls, quizzes, interactive charts, multimedia content and audience participation activities.

Can interactive presentations be used for educational purposes?

Absolutely! Interactive presentations are highly effective for educational purposes as they promote active learning, encourage critical thinking, and provide real-time feedback and knowledge exchange opportunities.

Need inspiration on how to give an engaging presentation ? Here are 120+ presentation ideas you could use. 

Venngage makes it easy for anyone to infuse interactivity into their presentations. From clickable buttons and hyperlinked text to interactive infographics and dynamic charts, Venngage offers a diverse range of interactive elements to captivate and engage the audience. Here’s how you can make your presentation more fun and interesting with Venngage:

• Sign up or log in to Venngage to access the platform.
• Choose a presentation template or start with a blank canvas to begin designing your interactive presentation.
• Add and edit slides in the Venngage editor to structure your presentation content effectively.
• Customize the design by selecting themes, fonts, colors and backgrounds to match your style and branding.
• Use interactive elements like buttons, links, pop-ups and hover effects to engage the audience during the presentation.
• Enhance engagement by incorporating interactive media such as videos and audio clips.
• Preview and test your entire presentation to ensure everything works smoothly before presenting it to your audience.
• Save your interactive presentation on Venngage and share it online or download it in various formats for presenting purposes.

Well, I hope these 15 5-minute interactive presentation examples can help unlock a new level of audience engagement for your next presentation. From fun quizzes and interactive storytelling to multimedia magic and gamified challenges, the possibilities are endless. So, don’t be afraid to experiment, tailor the ideas to suit your audience members and let your creativity shine.  

That said, remember to strike a balance and keep the interactivity purposeful and relevant. Some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive slides include overloading the presentation with too many interactive elements and failing to align the interactive elements with the overall presentation goals and content. 

Got it? Great. Now let’s turn that boring presentation around!

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5 ways to make zoom presentations engaging and irresistible.

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Dry. Dull. Boring. Exhausting. Painful. Waste of time. Forgettable. Those are the words and phrases that came up when I asked people this question: What word would you use to describe the Zoom Presentations/webinars you attend?

And it’s true, most webinars are likely to be uninspiring … and forgotten shortly after you attend them. They aren’t wildly engaging, and their impact on your success is likely minimal. One thing that impedes their ability to wow is that they aren’t very different from other meetings you attend online. Also, those who create and deliver online presentations neglect the importance of understanding the medium. Online presentations have to do a lot more work to captivate you simply because:

• The screen is a poor substitute for a real person standing in front of you
• The temptation to multitask is heightened
• Participating by yourself reduces the energy and emotional connection
• Other things we watch on these very same screens—from Netflix to YouTube videos—have very high production value

To counteract the challenges that this medium imposes, consider these five enhancements:

1. Sizzle from the start

If your opening is similar to the one from the meeting your audience attended an hour before your presentations, you’ve already lost them. You need to make it clear from the moment you kick off that this is going to be different. Fun. Engaging. Valuable. Interesting. First impressions are so important. Now that everything has moved online, your presentation is being lumped into the five other meetings and events that your audience is participating in each day. You need to dazzle your audience from the very first second of your presentation. Make your start surprising, and your viewers will sit up from their slouch and take note.

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2. Banish the bullet

If the slides you’re presenting have more than 15 words on them (I challenge you to have 12 or fewer), you’re adding an extra helping of the ingredient called boring to your webinar. Bulleted slides are not effective for inspiring people or engaging them in your content. If you have information you want to share that requires the use of lots of words, make it available as a supplemental resource. Nothing says “it’s time to tune out” like a slide with 10 bullets on it. Think tantalizing tweet, not wordy whitepaper. When you do display words, use 32-point font or greater on every slide. This provides two huge benefits: First, it ensures you can’t get too many words on the slide. And second, it makes it easier for participants to see. Your slides are small on the devices of your audience members—especially if they’re using their phone.

3. Fluctuate the format

When you’re delivering a presentation online, you have to deal with one major challenge that’s much less prevalent in live sessions: the temptation to multitask. When you’re physically in a room of people, they’re less likely to answer an email while you’re presenting. But when you’re delivering online, it’s almost an invitation to multitask; after all, the device they’re watching you on has all these other tools to keep them busy: email, Instagram, instant messaging. That’s a lot of competition. To keep people from checking out other things on their device, you need to keep things dynamic. The best way to do this is to vary the way you convey your content. Move between stories, information, data, models, formulas, lists, etc. In fact, change the content format every two to four minutes to keep things dynamic and magnetic.

4. Heighten the humanity

If you’re delivering a presentation from a stage, it’s automatically more visceral and emotionally compelling. When you’re beamed onto someone’s laptop or phone thanks to the power of the internet, your humanity is diluted. The screen they’re watching you on serves as a scrim to suppress your scintillating style. To counteract that, you need to amp up the energy, double the empathy and exaggerate your expressions. Just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to seem like a parody of yourself like this.

5. Maximize the media

You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, and according to Gartner Research, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. When you use rich media, you make your presentation more persuasive and potent. And you make it much more visually interesting too. So as you build your presentation, ask yourself: Where can I replace words with pictures and video? Then go through it again when it’s done and ask the question again. Your audience will thank you for replacing the 26 letters of the alphabet with meaningful, magnetic media.

You need to be more deliberate when you deliver a virtual presentation if you want to have real impact on your audience. When you build and deliver your presentation with these five elements in mind, you’re sure to stand out, make your mark and add a giant deposit to your personal brand bank.

William Arruda  is a founder of  CareerBlast  and co-creator of  BrandBoost  - a video-based personal branding talent development experience.

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Home Blog Business How to Ace Your Zoom Presentation: Tips for Successful Virtual Presenting

How to Ace Your Zoom Presentation: Tips for Successful Virtual Presenting

It’s your turn to speak during a Zoom social event in your company when your cat decides to make an impromptu appearance, climbing onto your keyboard and causing a flurry of emojis to flood the screen. Thankfully, everyone loved your feline co-worker and joked about the hilarious scene.

But what if it happens in a more meaningful setting, like a virtual sales pitch you’ve been looking forward to for weeks? You wouldn’t want to risk losing a client – and your job – just because a pet rains on your parade.

In this article, we will provide you with essential tips and tricks on how to ace your Zoom presentation like a pro. From preparing your visual aids and keeping your audience engaged to handling technical glitches with finesse, we’ve got you covered.

Table of Contents

Preparing Your Zoom Presentation

Tips for delivering a successful zoom presentation.

• How to Share PowerPoint on Zoom

Handling Technical Issues During a Zoom Presentation

Follow up after a zoom presentation.

Like in-person presentations, a successful Zoom presentation requires careful preparation to ensure you can send your audience the right message. Here are some tips to help you prepare presentations for Zoom.

Use Relevant Visuals

There are many ways you can present information besides plain boring texts. Sixty-five percent of humans are visual learners , so your audience might retain the information you share better if you present them in charts, graphs, images, or other visualizations.

You may use several types of visuals throughout your Zoom presentation, but make sure they are easy to understand in a virtual setting and are relevant to your subject.

For instance, if you present a new product, you may record a video demonstration highlighting its features. Using Zoom’s built-in video player, you can then embed the video into PowerPoint or play it during your presentation.

Use a Simple Presentation Template

A simple presentation template can help you create a cohesive and professional-looking presentation on Zoom. Choose a template that complements your content and aligns with your branding, but avoid overly complex designs that may distract your audience.

You may use a roadmap PowerPoint template or include an agenda slide to set the timeline of your presentation and provide an overview of the topics you will cover. Aside from it keeps the presentation flowing smoothly, it helps your audience orient their thoughts on what will happen in the meeting.

Make It Interactive

Just because you are the presenter doesn’t mean you have to do all the talking – you can let your audience speak too! One of the key aspects of delivering a successful Zoom presentation is to make it interactive and engage your audience.

Think of some icebreakers that will keep your audience involved. It can be a simple open-ended question or a poll to stimulate discussion. You can also use breakout rooms to facilitate small group interactions or collaborative activities.

Interactive presentations help to break the monotony of one-way communication and make your Zoom presentation more dynamic and engaging. Having no activities encouraging interaction makes losing your audience’s interest during virtual meetings easier.

Practice the Presentation and Timing

Aside from the content of your presentation, you also have to worry about the technicalities of presenting on Zoom, so having a dry run before the real thing is important to ensure a smooth delivery.

Practice your presentation multiple times before the event to ensure you are comfortable with the content, pacing, and timing. This will familiarize you with the Zoom platform and its features, such as screen sharing, chat, and breakout rooms.

You have a killer Zoom PowerPoint. Now it’s time to focus on delivering it effectively. Here are some Zoom presentation tips:

Use a Neutral Background

Your background in a Zoom presentation can impact how your audience perceives your professionalism and credibility. Choose a neutral background that is free from distractions and clutter.

If you have an office space at home, that will work even better. Pick from Zoom’s virtual backgrounds, preferably plain and clean. Make your background boring so your audience’s attention is drawn to you. Stay away from bed!

Dress Appropriately

Even though you may be presenting from the comfort of your home, it’s important to dress professionally for your Zoom presentation. It’s not bad to wear your usual duds when attending a casual game night with your team. But if it’s a formal setup, like a business proposal, you must suit up to invite success.

Dressing up smartly may improve your mood and confidence. In a 2014 study , two groups of male subjects were asked to put on business suits and sweatpants before engaging in a negotiation task. Those who dressed up obtained more profitable negotiations than the other group.

As a rule of thumb, avoid wearing loud colors or busy patterns that may distract your audience.

Keep an Eye Contact

Maintaining eye contact is essential in any presentation, whether in person or on Zoom. Making eye contact helps you connect with your audience and convey your message more effectively.

The common advice you’ll get to achieve this on Zoom is to look directly into the camera to create the impression of eye contact with your audience. We agree with these, but as the speaker, you also have to read the facial expressions of your audience and see how they react to what you are saying.

If you are using a desktop or laptop, the simplest solution to achieving these two is to reduce Zoom to a smaller window and place it directly below your webcam. This way, you can glance at their faces occasionally while keeping the illusion of eye contact.

Keep Your Notes Minimal

If you are an expert in the topic you are presenting, it would be best to ditch your notes during Zoom events. Constantly looking down at your notes can be distracting for your audience.

But if the need calls for it, make sure to keep your notes minimal and stick them in the right place. You can use a second screen or a tablet, or position your notes close to the camera to refer to them without breaking eye contact. This way, you can stay focused on engaging with your audience and delivering your presentation smoothly.

How to Share PowerPoint on Zoom (Step by Step)

How to present on Zoom? Once you understand what Zoom presentations are and the tips for Zoom presentations, it is time to give the presentation using Zoom. Let’s see this step by step:

Step 1. Open the PowerPoint file you want to present.

Step 2. Join the Zoom meeting and click on the Share Screen icon in the meeting control panel at the bottom of your screen.

[Optional] You can customize who can share their screen in the Zoom meeting. Click on the small arrow in the corner of the Share Screen icon and select Advanced Sharing Options.

Select Hosts Only or All Participants.

Step 3. Select the window you want to share – in this case, the one that contains the PowerPoint slide – and click on Share.

If you are playing audio or video within your presentation, make sure to tick Share sound and Optimize for video clip.

Step 4. Click on the Slide Show tab in the PowerPoint window and begin the presentation by selecting Play from Start or Play from Current Slide.

Step 5. To stop screen sharing of PowerPoint, hover over the meeting controls at the top of your screen and select Stop Share.

It’s not uncommon for technicalities to derail a live Zoom presentation – video, Wi-Fi, or audio may fail. But there are things you can do to prevent them, or at least minimize their impact on your presentation when they happen.

First, test your equipment before your presentation and make sure everything is in place. You can join a meeting test on Zoom to check your internet connection, camera, audio, and microphone.

You may also send a PDF copy of your presentation to the attendees before the meeting if sharing your screen won’t work. This will allow you to carry on as you or your technical team figures out the problem.

If the technical issues persist, you should have a good Plan B and be prepared to continue on a different platform like Google Meet. Send the alternative link with the meeting invitation and give clear action steps when technical difficulties happen.

Following up after a Zoom presentation is a crucial step in maintaining momentum and maximizing the impact of your presentation. For example, if you are selling a product, you can use a follow-up email to make the final push of your sales pitch.

Start your email by expressing appreciation for their participation and summarizing the key points of your presentation. Include any additional resources, such as presentation slides or a video presentation recording, to reinforce your message. Offer yourself as a resource for further questions or discussions, and encourage feedback or comments from your audience.

Here’s an example of a well-executed follow-up email for a Zoom workshop event:

Conducting a virtual presentation sounds overwhelming as you must consider technical aspects in addition to delivering your message and keeping it engaging.

Remember, there’s no such thing as overpreparing when you have bosses or potential clients to impress. Follow the tips in this article to nail your next Zoom presentation!

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Zoom presentation tips to bring human connection into virtual meetings

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Līva Luriņa November 01, 2021

Gartner has acknowledged Zoom as a leader in meeting solutions for the sixth year in a row. That’s well deserved, as it’s pretty challenging to find a person in the digital world who’s never joined a Zoom meeting.

In a sea of countless Zoom presentations , it’s crucial to stand out in order to succeed. But what’s the best way to tell your story, engage your audience, and avoid virtual meeting fatigue ? Through personal connection.

Read on to learn the nine best Zoom presentation tips to help you build a human connection in the era of virtual meetings and discover 11 handy Zoom hacks to advance your Zoom presentation skills.

1. Do your homework

The most important Zoom presentation tip is to think about your audience before thinking about the slides. You need to understand their expectations to bring value and build a real connection.

Consider things about your audience such as:

• What do they need or want from your Zoom presentation?
• Challenges or fears they face
• Tone of voice or vocabulary that is the most appropriate to use
• Examples or stories can they relate to

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can design your presentation accordingly. It’s a good idea to modify your presentation each time you face a new group of people.

2. Tell a story

There’s no better way to create an emotional connection with the audience than telling a story. Including storytelling in presentations will also help them better understand and remember information that’s important both in business and education.

But how do you actually include a story in your presentation? To really unlock all the potential, the storyline has to be connected to your main goal and, following the best Zoom presentation tips, carried throughout the whole presentation.

First, clarify what emotion you want to evoke, whether it’s surprise, joy, desire, anger, or anything else. Think of relatable examples, statistics, jokes, or experiences that will resonate with your audience. When you see people nodding their heads, that’s usually a sign that you’re nailing the presentation, and you’ve made an emotional connection with your audience (or they’re practicing active listening skills :)).

Elena Valentine, CEO of Skillscout, uses Prezi Video to show the importance of storytelling in presentation and shares some tips to help you hone in on using story as the ultimate attention grabber. Learn all about it in here video.

3. Visual vs. textual information 

Zoom presentations with visual aids are 43% more persuasive than those without. The human brain loves visuals – they make it easier to quickly process the message compared to slides with text. Also, ideas presented graphically are easier to comprehend and remember than those presented through text alone.

To bring the human connection to your Zoom presentation, you need all eyes on you. If your audience is focused on reading lines or bulleted lists on the screen, they are more likely not paying attention to what you’re saying.

That’s why it’s important to include visual information in your slides. Here are some Zoom presentation tips about types of visuals for your slides:

• Data visualizations. Charts and graphs are your best friends if you want to communicate data and numbers. Prezi’s data visualization tools can help you with that – easily create designs to support your story and make your presentation more delicious.

• Maps . Turn geographical data and insights into interactive maps for cities, regions, or even whole continents – our brains love the data associated with reality.
• Images and videos. These visual assets are a must-have in presentations to explain how things work, emphasize the idea, or draw attention to your message. Your choice of images will impact the emotional connection with the audience, so choose them wisely.
• Graphic elements. Flowcharts, diagrams, icon blocks, notes, and other features are excellent ways to communicate processes, plans, or ongoing situations. Combine your story with these elements, and you can be sure your message will be apparent to everyone.
• GIFs and stickers. Sometimes one GIF can express more than words could say. They are super helpful if you want to create an exact image in the audience’s head. For example, imagine a presentation about monthly sales performance and this GIF on the first slide:

This celebratory GIF is a great way to kick things off and get your team excited to hear the rest of your presentation. 

4. Let your audience hear and see you

Another Zoom presentation tip regards what your audience can see and hear. It’s best to come off as professional as possible.

Good lighting conditions don’t mean spotlights all around you. Natural light is the best tool to look good in a virtual presentation . Make sure you sit near the window but avoid having it behind your back as it will create a shadow. If the natural lighting isn’t an option, play around with your lamps – even a cheap ring light can make a huge difference. Watch this video to learn how to create the best video lighting and more.

Now, when your audience can see you, make sure they can hear you as well. There’s nothing worse than watching a Zoom presentation when the speaker has disruptive noise in the background or a squeaky mic.

In the video below, we explain the best ways to make a crisp and clear sound when you’re presenting. Even more, Zoom has several ways you can improve your audio – look for more Zoom presentation tips and hacks at the end of this article.

5. Make sure your Zoom presentation flows

This Zoom presentation tip works well with storytelling. Everything you say and show should have a good segue – both your story and your presentation slides.

Rather than transitioning through slides linearly, use Prezi’s presentation templates to have a more conversational presentation. You can create various flows and zoom in on a topic to go deeper. Or, let the conversation guide you and jump straight into the most relevant topics that your audience is interested in.

In his video, Brian Fanzo, Digital Futurist and keynote speaker, covers how to avoid coming off as scripted in an online presentation. Watch his video here for more: 

6. Body language is worth a thousand words

Body language has an enormous impact on how your audience perceives your Zoom presentation. Jessica Chen, Founder and CEO of Soulcast Media in her Prezi video explains that body language determines up to 60% of how we receive the information presented, whereas the choice of words makes only 7% and tone of voice only 33%. 

There are many ways you can mindfully use your body language during presentations. One of the top Zoom presentation tips is to stick something eye-catching next to your laptop camera so you can hold eye contact with the audience. To look confident and persuasive, move slowly, fluidly, create space between your shoulders and ears, and keep your head straight. And most importantly – use your hands, especially at the start of your video call. It will create a warm and safe place both for you and your audience.

7. Don’t hide behind the slides

It’s hard to make your presentation personal if you’re just a small rectangle in the corner of the Zoom window. All your audience can see on their screen is a giant slide with information and data. 

Using your body language is a key Zoom presentation tip, that’s why you should forget about sharing your screen and display your content right next to you. This makes a more memorable experience and impactful presentation. Prezi Video is the right tool for that – easily drag and drop the content you’d like to show or use our templates to build presentations that will amaze your audience.

8. Activate your audience

Another great Zoom presentation tip to keep your audience engaged is through conversational presenting with interactions. Once in a while, stop presenting to talk with your audience and allow them to ask questions or clarify something. Encourage them to use the Zoom chat or respond to a poll .

Zoom breakout rooms are an excellent choice for online workshops or training sessions. Participants can discuss the topics from your presentation in greater detail and express their ideas, enabling collaborative learning and knowledge sharing.

However, not everyone feels comfortable speaking up. Using Prezi Video during online meetings allows your audience to share instant reactions – images, GIFs , text, or stickers. By organizing that kind of interactivity in your Zoom meeting, everyone can participate and raise the level of energy in the meeting.

For more tips on activating your audience on Zoom, watch this Prezi video by Rich Mulholland, founder of the presentation company Missing Link: 

9. Create, rehearse, present

You can agree on or not with Malcolm’s Gladwell “ 10,000-hour rule “, but one thing is clear – the more you present, the better you become at it.

Once you’ve created your presentation content, rehearse it. You can use Prezi Video to record yourself before going live to Zoom so that you can see yourself in action. Practice where you’ll add pauses, ask the audience a question, or make a joke. Think about what tone of voice you should use to keep the audience focused and what your body language is saying.

You can even record your presentation and review it later to gauge how you can improve it. Practice makes perfect.

Selling on video expert, Julie Hansen, shares Zoom presentation tips for more effective sales meetings in her video here: 

11 Zoom presentation hacks for even better meetings

Add prezi virtual camera.

Download Prezi Video desktop app and connect Prezi Virtual Camera with your Zoom . After that, you can instantly share your content and ideas with you on screen, making everything from internal updates, trainings, and sales pitches more interesting.

Change your Zoom virtual background

To jazz up your Zoom presentation, you can create and upload your own virtual background image . Surprise coworkers with your office’s picture in the background, join a meeting from a sunny beach in Spain, or create a professional-looking background as your business card. Use one of our virtual background templates to get started.

Test the sound

It’s always a good idea to test your mic before joining a Zoom meeting. Go Zoom Settings > Audio and test both your microphone and speakers. This way, you can avoid that awkward “Can you hear me?” moment at the start of your meeting.

Spacebar to mute/unmute

Forget about those awkward moments when you’re trying to find the mic to unmute yourself and say something quickly. One nifty Zoom presentation tip: hit the spacebar and hold it to unmute yourself as you speak.

Turn off video and audio by default

Avoid that “first look tension” when joining a Zoom meeting. Go to Settings > Audio and mute your mic when joining a meeting to control the first sound. Under the Settings > Video settings, check the “ Stop my video when joining the meeting ” so that you can always greet your team with a smile and a wave.

Hide non-video participants

During large team meetings or all-hands, it’s nice to see other coworkers in your Zoom window. To avoid a cluttered screen with static images and videos, you can hide meeting participants without video from the gallery view. Go to Settings > Video and click Hide non-video participants . Now you can enjoy live reactions and people around you all meeting long.

Hide your self-view during Zoom presentations

In Zoom meetings, we tend to pay too much attention to how we look. It can be a real distraction and steal the focus of the presenter. To avoid that, press the three dots button on your video and choose Hide Self View . This will create a more natural feeling, as you most likely wouldn’t look in the mirror during a face-to-face meeting.

Share your screen with confidence

Eliminate notifications like messages or ads popping out when you’re sharing your screen. If you’re using a Mac, we recommend turning on Do Not Disturb mode , and for Windows users, use Focus Assist to avoid unnecessary pop-ups.

Mute all participants

It’s common for someone to have their mic on by accident, which can cause unwelcome distractions like background conversations, traffic sounds, or a barking dog. Skip these moments and mute everyone: hit Command+Control+M on Mac or Alt+M on PC.

Ensure the best visual quality

To ensure the best presentation quality, always go on Fullscreen mode . It’s especially important when presenting data during a meeting or explaining complicated graphs with small text.

Use reactions to interact

Small things matter, especially when you want your virtual presentation to have more human connection. Though Zoom allows you to use reactions like applause, love, thumbs up, and others, you can unlock even more interactivity with Prezi Video. Encourage your audience to share comments, GIFs, or any image during your presentation, allowing them to react and give feedback without unmuting or affecting meeting time.

Put these Zoom presentation tips into action

With more presentations happening online than ever before, it’s important to understand the basics of Zoom and how it affects your presentations. Learn more Zoom presentation tips when you visit the Prezi Video Gallery or get started by creating your first Zoom presentation today.  

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How to turn boring Zoom presentations into engaging virtual meetings

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How to present on Zoom and keep your audience engaged in virtual meetings

Repurpose your zoom meetings, add webcam recorder footage, deliver a virtual meeting that will have an impact.

Do words like boring, slow and repetitive come to mind when thinking about your upcoming Zoom meetings?

Love them or not, Zoom presentations are here to stay. It’s a new form of communication in our virtual world. But if virtual meetings aren’t executed correctly, they can be extremely unproductive and painful to sit through.

If you’re delivering a virtual meeting and worried that your audience is yawning behind their turned off cameras, there’s a better way. 

Explore how to improve your Zoom presentation abilities to suit a virtual audience below.

Fight the temptation to multitask during Zoom, Google hangouts and Microsoft teams presentations and keep your virtual meeting audience entertained and engaged by using the below tips.

1. Plan your presentation content in advance

The biggest part of running a successful virtual meeting is to prepare the presentation ahead of time. Why exactly are you hosting the Zoom meeting? What do your meeting participants need to know or do before the meeting starts? Are there any spreadsheets or documents that can be shared? Pre-asked questions? 

Without proper planning , your virtual meeting might not be so effective. Make sure you keep your target audience in mind and develop a presentation that is directed to them. Plan your content to appeal to your audience and demographic. Do they enjoy the use of storytelling, GIFs or short videos? 

2. Deliver a strong introduction about yourself, the topic of discussion and why it matters

Forget about holding “ice-breaker” sessions at the beginning of a Zoom presentation. They’re time consuming and overused. Instead, briefly introduce yourself and any important people who will be speaking or making an appearance during the meeting. This is especially important to external virtual meeting audiences as they may not have ever met you before.

Next, outline what you’ll be talking about to give participants a clear picture of what is going to be discussed. Keep your introduction short and sweet, but direct and to the point.

3. Make “eye contact” through your Zoom webcam

When hosting a Zoom virtual meeting, don’t let your attention wander elsewhere. Avoid looking at yourself on the screen or spotting something outside your window. Direct eye contact into the camera gives your participants the feeling that you’re engaged in the conversation. Make sure your video and audio are clear. 

Webcam positioning is also a key element to consider when hosting a Zoom virtual meeting. Your camera and computer should be at eye level so you can simulate the eye-to-eye connection with participants. Avoid having your camera too high or too low. No one wants to see up your nose!

4. Add interactive Zoom polls to vote on topics

Adding in polls midway through your Zoom presentation is a great way to gauge topics of interest and add an element of engagement. Zoom’s poll feature allows you to create single or multiple-choice poll questions displayed during the virtual meeting and gather responses from your attendees. A downloadable report is also available, as well as the option for anonymous polls. 

Polls are a great way to find insights and valuable information about your audience that will inform the rest of the presentation. They don’t require verbal participation, and they’re accessible on all devices. 

5. Use branded or fun Zoom backgrounds

Add character to your virtual meeting by adding a customizable Zoom background. From themed videos to company branding, the options are endless. 

Changing up your Zoom backgrounds can really enhance your Zoom presentation by keeping your audience engaged and focused on the call, rather than clicking onto another tab.

You can also play some fun online icebreaker games together like “guess that destination”. Replace your original virtual meeting background with a holiday destination of your choice. 

Zoom offers a couple of virtual background options to get you started, but here at Clipchamp, we’ve gone one step further. Choose from thousands of different royalty-free Zoom presentation backgrounds and presentation templates . From under the sea to Christmas , sandy beaches, Halloween or professional offices, we have a Zoom background for every occasion. 

6. Ask for participation in Q&As 

Encourage virtual meeting participants to use the “Raise Hand” function on Zoom. Team members can ask questions or make a comment on the virtual meeting topic. Make sure your meeting is as interactive as possible so your audience understands the agender and raises any questions they might have. 

Taking advantage of this interactive feature may even stop participants from zoning out when they don’t understand something. 

7. Embed entertaining video content

Video can make your Zoom presentation go from boring to fun. It’s a key attention-grabbing element that can help keep your audience engaged and attentive throughout the meeting. Your attendees may even generate their own personal discussion after watching the clip. 

Visuals are a great way to break up your speech and give you a moment to check your notes. Just like in Google Slides , embedding video within Zoom is easy and effective. 

It’s always beneficial for team members to be able to re-watch past virtual meetings and Zoom presentations. 

At Clipchamp, we’ve made it easy to elevate your video presentations and repurpose them for internal company calls or even sales. Zoom Pro, Business and United Business users can import Zoom cloud recordings for use in their Clipchamp video projects.

Upload, edit and export. It’s that easy. Cut out all the unnecessary chatter using our online video editor. 

If you’ve completed your virtual meeting and forgot to share some important information with your team, don’t stress. Our webcam recorder tool allows you to webcam record a new clip while you’re editing your virtual meeting and add it to your video. All repurposed Zoom presentations will have the added webcam recorder footage included. 

When you plan and deliver your next Zoom presentation, remember to refer to Clipchamp's top 7 tips to have a real impact on your audience. Stand out from all the other boring Zoom presentations and make yours memorable. Interact with your audience and ask questions to keep them engaged. 

When you're ready, just drag, drop and edit your Zoom video in Clipchamp .

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of the first things schools did when shifting to remote learning was to hold regular video meetings with their students. These can vary based on the ages of the students and the frequency of when a teacher interacts with their students, but most teachers realized quickly that they can’t use the same behavioral strategies (like proximity) that they use in a physical classroom. This can lead to a lack of student engagement and involvement in what is trying to be taught regardless of age.

These 25 strategies listed here are not meant to take the place of deeper learning. That kind of learning is generally better when done with a mix of asynchronous learning. That said, in order to get our students to that deeper state of learning with greater depth of knowledge (DOK) levels, we need to make sure they are engaged when we have synchronous conversations and discussions. Some of these strategies take little set-up while others might take more time and energy to make them really successful. The purpose of these tools is to draw students into the lesson/activity and make them engaged and looking forward to your next virtual class meeting.

While there are a lot of video meeting solutions out there, I’m going to focus many of the tools around the Zoom platform as it has some of the best interactive features and seems to be the most widely accepted in K-12 schools across the country. However, as many of these strategies can be used with any video platform or device, I only focused on Zoom-centric ideas on the first 5 strategies, the rest you can use on any platform. Also, kids (especially teenagers) can say and do that darnedest things, especially when being remotely hidden behind a screen. As you would with the physical classroom, I would strongly encourage teachers discuss norms when it comes to interacting over video chat with their students prior to any of these strategies.

Here are 25 strategies to engage students on your next Zoom meeting:

1. share your screen .

I’m going to start out with one of the basics. While you may be doing many of your chats with just video, don’t forget that you have the ability to share part or all of your screen with your students. This can be something as simple as sharing a question of the day to an entire slide show. If you have a slideshow that you’ve already created for use in your classroom, don’t recreate the wheel, just launch it on your share screen and use built in Zoom tools like ‘raise hand’ or the chat room to have a floating backchannel as you go through your slides. One bit of advice, check what items you have on your desktop and in your “favorites” bar of an internet browser before you share that with your students. There’s nothing more embarrassing than you students seeing your latest beach pic or maybe your bookmark for you favorite drink recipe.

2. Use the Whiteboard feature

Of course, if you don’t want to share your screen you can always use the built-in whiteboard feature that comes with Zoom. This feature can take some getting used to, especially if you are using a mouse or trackpad. To use it, simply go to share your screen and choose “whiteboard”. A little tip – if you have tablet like an iPad, install the Zoom app and then join the meeting with your iPad as well. This works better for drawing especially if you have a nice stylus or Apple Pencil. (just be careful you have one of the devices muted to avoid echoes) Of course, as you get more comfortable with Zoom and student expectations, let your students also use the whiteboard feature to share their understanding. If you are not using Zoom, a tool like Classroomscreen.com has a bevy of tools including a whiteboard if you share your screen with your students.

3. Enable the Annotation Features

4. Create breakout rooms for collaboration

My favorite of all the Zoom features for learning is the ability to create breakout rooms for your students. Unlike whiteboard and annotation features, the ability to create breakout rooms are not enabled by default. You’ll want to go into your account settings to enable this ability before using it with your students. Once enabled, you can have Zoom either automatically or manually assign students into rooms. Even if it’s automatically assigning, you can swap students out depending on group dynamics (note: it helps to have your students put their name on their Zoom login). You can even rename the rooms depending on group names or topics before assigning certain students to each room. The great thing about these rooms is that it can create a more collaborative setting than the large whole-group zoom experience. As the moderator you can float around and join rooms to check in on the discussion, post an announcement to all rooms, or even place a time limit on them. Once you ask students to rejoin the whole group and end the breakouts, they’ll have 60-seconds to wrap-up their discussion and rejoin. A powerful way to enable collaboration remotely! Check out the video below for a quick how-to:

5. Virtual backgrounds can be more than just fun

If you’ve been in any Zoom meeting the past couple of months, you’ve probably seen all sorts of crazy and fun virtual backgrounds. These can be hilarious but also distracting so some educators have disabled this feature for their group meetings. However, there could be some productive uses of these virtual backgrounds. Some examples of using virtual backgrounds might be re-enacting moments in history with the appropriate backdrop, selecting a geographic landmark they might be studying or “visiting” virtually, or just having students select either a solid green or red background to quickly show if they agree or disagree with a topic (hint: use Grid view for this). No matter the reason, virtual backgrounds can be much more than everyone acting like they are a character from The Office.

6. Play “I Spy” Backgrounds

If you really want your students to focus on everyone in the classroom, play a game of “I Spy” backgrounds. You can do this either with or without virtual backgrounds, but in essence you are describing things that you notice in the background of someone’s zoom call. Students then quickly have to search all the attendees and see which student’s background is being described. A fun, 5-minute way to get students hooked into their next Zoom meeting.

7. Scavenger Hunts

Probably one of the most popular games to play with students is a virtual scavenger hunt . The premise is simple, you have a list of items and then ask students to run through their house or apartment attempting to find the items and show them on the screen. A quick word of advice on this is to be sure you are not picking exact objects for them to find like “a toy cell phone”. Rather, create a category that could involve all sorts of different objects that qualify like “an object with numbers on it.”  This will reveal a lot of different interpretations of the clue as well as not limiting what students can find around them. You could also use software like Eventzee or Goosechase to do a virtual scavenger hunt throughout the day or week where students capture items you’ve identified with their camera.

8. Live Quiz or Trivia

Last week, I got to host a virtual trivia night via Zoom. We had over 150 people during the event that drew lots of positive feedback for keeping them engaged while also doing something fun during this stressful time. I used a pro-level software called Crowdpurr to run my event, but I could just as easily do something similar using a tool like Kahoot ! or Quizziz . These quizzes or trivia can either be done live or student-paced. Having the scores decrease as time dwindles down on each question also prevents students from “googling” the answers as it will affect their score. Check out the latest “ Challenge ” feature within Kahoot to create more of a self-paced challenge for your students that might have limited access to technology or can’t participate synchronously.

9. Survey your students

In the classroom, we use the classic “raise your hand” to gather feedback from students. In Zoom, it’s no different as there is a “Raise hand” button available to students, but some savvy teachers have also figured out that the chat room can act as an impromptu survey as long as it involves brief responses. For better tracking, you could always use a tools like Nearpod , Polleverywhere, or Peardeck to gather feedback via a second screen or browser tab. Playing a game like “would you rather” would work well to test this out before using it more in-depth in later lessons.

10. Brainstorming ideas 

Gathering feedback in polls is one way to interact with students, but you could also use a shared collaborative space like a Padlet or Ziteboard to have students discuss and brainstorm ideas on shared spaces. You could also combine this with the breakout rooms (#4 from above) to have each group brainstorm a topic while you navigate from board to board. A tip here is to create the “walls” or spaces for the students to collaborate on so that you have a live link to what they are working on. Once you’ve split them into groups, share your link to each group to work on.

11. Interactive presentations

Yes, you can share your screen and even your slides with your students via a tool like Google Slides, Keynote or Powerpoint. But since you have them live, why not use a tool like Nearpod to actually guide them through the learning with you. Ideally, this would work best with two screens, but since everything these days is web-based you could guide them through the presentation on one screen while they follow along to your voice on the other. Doing this on an iPad? Share the join code with your students and then have them switch to the Nearpod app while leaving the Zoom app open in the background so they can hear your voice while following along. Of course, one of the best parts of using a tool like Nearpod is all the extra features like Virtual field trips, 3D models, Microsoft Sway, collaborative boards and more. One thing I’ve tried that worked well was embedding a PollEverywhere poll within my Nearpod. That way students didn’t have to jump out of the app ever.

12. Embrace the pause

Silence can be awkward in the classroom. It’s even more awkward when you are looking at more than two dozen teenagers on the screen. That said, it’s important to let students pause and reflect throughout the lesson. Using a countdown timer either on a slide, video or on a tool like ClassroomScreen.com helps students know when they should break from their pause or reflection. As I will mention on my next point, students need breaks from lengthy instruction throughout their day whether they be on a screen or not. If you are hosting a 50-minute lesson online, build in a 5 minute break for students to stretch or get a glass of water to keep their brain active.

13. Brainbreaks

Taking breaks throughout a lengthy lesson are important whether it be for a reflective pause or just an opportunity to stretch. Using tools like GoNoodle, teachers can lead a virtual dance party in their remote classroom to get the kids up and moving. One word of advice here, if you are playing a video through your system speakers, make sure you don’t have headphones on or adjust the audio source in Zoom by clicking on the up-carrot symbol next to “Mute” to change your selection of audio output. (see image on the right)

14. Reveal your answer

With everything being digital, it’s also nice to take a break from digital as you already have a Zoom meeting occupying the students’ screens. There are a wide variety of analog strategies you could use with your students by using paper and pencil. One might be sharing a math problem on your screen while students work out the results. Then, countdown and have them reveal their answers to their cameras at the same time. I’ve also seen teachers have success doing a “directed drawing” by pointing their webcam or phone camera down to a sheet a paper while they give instruction and then have students share their creations at the end.

15. Box of Lies

A big struggle with online learning via video is keeping students focus and attention, especially to the finer details. The game “Box of Lies” was made popular by Jimmy Fallon (video below) and would be a creative way to see if students are paying attention. The premise would be that the teacher or student has an object out of camera view and then has to describe the object. You could do this with all sorts of other ideas from historical figures to using descriptive words in another language.

16. Monster drawing

Taking that directed drawing from #14 to the next level by doing a Monster drawing. In this activity, a teacher or student read aloud descriptions of their drawing but don’t let other students see it. They have listen for information like “my monster has a rectangle body” or “my monster has 5 eyes, one of them is big and in the middle” to figure out the drawing. This helps kids both with descriptive words but also with listening and translating. In the end, have students show their creations on the screen to see who got closest to the description. This activity could be used in other areas as well such as re-creating a story character or describing a graph in math.

17. Organize projects online

Distance learning doesn’t just have to be about kids filling out digital worksheets or playing online learning games. Students can still do long-term projects either individually or in groups even though they final results may be different than what was done traditionally in the classroom. Using online project management and productivity tools like Trello , MeisterTask or ClickUp can help students struggling with organization and timelines. Coupling those tools with video meeting check-ins can help kids learn how to collaborate and complete a project online over a length of time.

18. Breakout a Digital BreakOut EDU

BreakoutEDU has always been one of my favorite ways to engage students of all ages by creating a series of clues and challenges that the students have to uncover. For the last couple of years they’ve been offering Digital BreakOutEDU as an online version of their platform. Teachers could leverage the “breakout” room feature of Zoom with a Digital BreakOutEDU and have teams solve the challenges within a certain timeframe. The great thing about their platform is they have already done most of the heavy lifting in creating the BreakOuts for you based on subject and age level. You can also check out this “ Build Your Own ” resource if you don’t have the funds to purchase a subscription.

19. Who’s who?

A fun non-tech game to play is “Who’s who?”.  In this game, students privately message the teacher some facts about themselves and then the teacher reveals the clues. Students then write down their guesses as to who the person is based on the clues. This could also be turned into “Two truths and a lie” fairly easily. Other adaptations could be students sending clues about historical figures, book characters, etc. that the class has to figure out.

20. Play BINGO

Who doesn’t love a good game of BINGO? While this isn’t the classic game with numbers, balls, and clever calls, it is using the set-up of Bingo as a way to review facts, geographical locations, scientific terms, or even mathematical applications. Using the Flippity.net BINGO tool, you create what goes in the squares and then you read out the clues while students fill out their own digital square or by printing a game card. Flippity actually lets you send out the cards via link or QR code as kids can fill in their cards digitally. Then when it’s over, have them share their screen and review their answers to see who wins!

21. Host a Game Show

Amongst some of the other Flippity.net tools is the classic Jeopardy-like game show. A great way to review information for a unit or novel study, you can fill in the back-end answers using a Google spreadsheet and then share your screen with the game board. Students can play individually, or you could pre-assign teams and then send them to breakout rooms to discuss what they think the answer might be.

22. Story Progression

You remember the “telephone game” or maybe the game “one-word stories”? This is a similar concept where you start the story and have random students add the next line. A story could start with “Once upon a time….” and then you could select the student by unmuting their mic. By doing it randomly rather than in a specific order, you cause all students to be thinking of a response rather than just waiting until their turn. Mix it up with story recaps or historical fiction to see what they come up with.

23. Autodraw Slam

For those of us that are not budding artists or struggle with drawing with a mouse, I’ve long been a fan of Autodraw.com . This web-based application has you draw out a shape as close as you can while the AI guesses what it might be. When you see an object that is close to what you are drawing, you select it to place into your drawing. One fun thing I’ve tried with this is having students draw their favorite movie scene and then putting the picture on a Padlet wall for everyone to guess the movie.

24. Digital Flashcards

Flashcards can be pretty boring, especially if you are just using them yourself to practice terms, definitions or maybe even a foreign language. Now that we are remote, it becomes even more challenging to find a partner or group to practice with. Using tools like Fishbowl and Quizlet Live can be leveraged to create fun and energizing ways to have kids practice their terms either as a group or in breakout rooms.

25. Polygraph Questions

One of the hidden nuggets I always love showing teachers is the Polygraph feature contained within the free, web-based math app called Desmos . This tool acts creates a “Guess who? ” like game where 2 students are randomly paired up via a join code you share with them on the screen. You create the cards and student A choses one of the items to be their “mystery item”. As you can upload any image, the mystery item could be a person, place, thing, word, math problem, etc. Then student B has to ask yes or no questions and decide which items they can eliminate. Polygraph creates a private loop between the students and the teacher can see the questions and guesses that each student is making to better check for understanding.

Additional Resources:

Want more of these kinds of resources? Check out my new course The Remote Learning Coach ! Most of these are mentioned in my module centered around student engagement. The course also includes modules around assessment, collaboration, and more!

While most of these activities I either have done with students or teachers (both live and online), there are hundreds of other resources and games out there available to use freely with your students as you teach remotely. Here are two that I’ll give shout-outs to as I found them while writing this post:

TCEA Tech Notes – Zoom Games – This post came out while I was writing this post and contains many other games like the scavenger hunt and Pictionary that teachers could benefit from using.

Quarantine Games – This google doc compiled by @ihartnia has pages of board games, card games, and other things that you can play online.

I hope you enjoy my list and please feel free to share any other games or ideas you have in the comments below and give my new course a look. Here’s an infographic with all 25 of the strategies (ironically) on a Zoom call. 🙂

Stay safe and stay sane!

Share this:, 28 comments on “ 25 strategies to engage students on your next zoom meeting ”.

Brilliant. I am an old fashion teacher (67y.o) class based, with minimum clumsy IT knowledge (i get by in classroom – IWB whiteboard, video on YouTube etc.. but this new online teaching is very new to me. So many ideas but i need to learn how to handle the zoom.us platform technique first. I can see the fun potential for learning languages. Thank you for your post. Christine Ugur Christine [email protected]

Thanks so much for the ideas! I teach K so Zoom meetings are pretty interesting and busy. I have a theme for each meeting. Tomorrow is We Love Animals Day. Bring an animal toy, use Play-doh to create one, draw a picture, or wear one on your shirt. Be ready to tell us a cool fact about your chosen animal. Gives each busy kiddo their own moment.

Great ideas!

Thank you, this is very useful.

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Great resource to make Zoom a more useful tool! As someone who’s working remotely for the foreseeable future, tools such as this and Google Hangouts have been commonplace. Those tools can be daunting at first, but in time, they become seamless.

These are amazing! Thank you so much, after 4 months of leading virtual social skills groups via zoom, I loved some new ideas you listed here and am excited to try them with my middle school groups.

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Nice variety. Had a mentor who began the course with a classmate bingo session. Yes, we became more attuned to our peers as a result.

Thank you so much for these! ZOOM was becoming a bore and there’s only so much you can do with the breakout rooms. Once I began reading, the ideas started to flow. Thanks for the inspiration!!🥰🥰🥰

Thanks for taking the time to write a note! Glad these will be of some help or you and your students!

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Thank you! Shared it because I know other teachers will appreciate it!

Thank you for sharing.This is helpful

You presentation was awesome! Very helpful. Quick question, how did you get the 60 sec timer that you used between each strategy? Thank you!

It’s basically built in Keynote. You can download a timer off of YouTube and put a frame around it. That’s all that is. 🙂

Thank you very much for the ideas. I cannot wait to use them.

very usefull information to online teaching and learning

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Another fun game to play on Zoom is the 9 Truths Game. In the game, players anonymously answer True/False questions on their laptop, phone, or tablet, and then guess how many of the other players also answered “True”. Points are scored based on how close you are to the correct number, but the real fun of the game is stories that go along with people’s answers. And the best part is that it’s free to play and there are no ads. 9 Truths Game – http://www.9Truths.com

Thanks for these tips! I teach university classes, but many of these are applicable for young adults as well.

Great tips for engaging students. I enjoyed, I spy, Scavenger hunt, Box of lies, Reminder for brainbreaks. Who’s Who looks fun, and Story Progression.

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This is a really great content, I can see how detailed you have gone through and explained about 25 strategies to engage zoom. I love this article, thanks for producing such great contents. I love your posts always.

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Is there an interactive way to do an attendance (rather than a report after the lesson).

Polls are great for this. I’ll have them answer a poll question at the beginning or even post a comment or meme on a Padlet wall.

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10 (Realistic) Ways to Make Your Virtual Meetings More Interactive

Melissa Chua

December 5, 2022

You’ve been talking into a laptop camera for 10 minutes straight. You look over the faces of your fellow attendees on screen and they look bored, disengaged, or distracted. You ask a question and silence reigns, so you grit your teeth and barrel through your presentation, hoping to get things over as quickly as possible.

As remote work becomes the new normal, virtual meetings are now an integral part of employee engagement and interaction.

But virtual meetings have a prevailing pain point – without in-person interaction, it’s harder to create a communal atmosphere and easier for people to get distracted and tune out.

In one study of in-person meetings, 91% of respondents admitted to daydreaming while 39% have even fallen asleep! Can you imagine the results for virtual meetings?

So how do you make virtual meetings more interactive?

First, make sure you actually need to hold a virtual meeting.

To get your attendees to interact, you need to ensure their voices and opinions are actually being solicited.

This means: cut the monologues. If you’re making an announcement or sharing information that only requires your audience to listen, consider simply sending out an email.

Once a virtual meeting has been deemed necessary, try implementing these 10 realistic tips (read: does not require fancy new software or expensive meeting tools) to banish boredom, keep things interactive, and encourage participation.

1. Set expectations

Before the meeting even starts, allow attendees to get into the right mindset by setting expectations for their participation.

Present a problem in the agenda and ask everyone prepare and present ideas for solutions; request that all attendees be on video mode and in a quiet (or at least a private) space during the meeting; and set ground rules for conduct, such as “thou shalt put away phones and not work on other tasks”.

2. Dedicate time to checking in

Remote work can get lonely and isolating, so take some time before the meeting proper to let everyone share what they’ve been up to. Ask them about the highlights of their week or what challenges they’re currently facing. Better yet, get everyone to show appreciation to their fellow colleagues .

Social bonding keeps team members engaged and encourages creativity, teamwork, and collaboration, so be sure to cultivate it even when on virtual platforms.

3. Let people take ownership

Assign people with tasks like time keeping, facilitating, and note taking. If you’re running an ice breaker or conducting a warm up (see below), you can assign one of the attendees to be in charge.

Also, ensuring that every attendee has a role – whether it’s decision maker, adviser, recommender, or executor – helps you keep meetings small, which is great because the more people at a meeting, the less engaged each person will be . 

4. Start with an ice breaker

Jumpstart communication and break through awkwardness with ice breakers ! Conducting a fun ice breaker will help activate the right brain , set the stage for creativity and participation, and get your attendees comfortable with speaking and interacting with each other – the perfect conditions for an effective virtual meeting. 

5. Jazz up your material

Did you know that visuals increase engagement by as much as 94% ? They also help increase audience attention and memory, boost feelings of inclusiveness, and encourage interaction.

Try using visuals throughout your meeting to give context, illustrate a point, or provide levity. If you have a presentation deck, here are some ideas on how to leverage videos and photos to drive engagement and capture your audience’s attention.

6. Get physical

Simple warm up exercises are a great way to break through sluggishness and get people comfortable with interaction.

At the start of the meeting, try a unique vocal warm up exercise that will (literally) loosen up your attendees. Or take a break half way through and have everyone do some stretches for 2-3 minutes to relieve muscle tension and give the brain a jolt.

The University of California Irvine has a Guide to Healthy Meetings & Events that outlines some easy desk stretches.

Treat your virtual meetings like panel discussions and appoint a moderator to facilitate interaction and keep attendees engaged.

Like at a conference, the moderator’s responsibilities in a virtual meeting can include calling on individual attendees to share their opinions; asking questions that provoke discussion; and managing everyone’s talk time by keeping discussions on track.

8. Conduct fun interactive polls

Break the monotony with live polls and surveys and show off your results in real time. Beyond being a fun activity to keep your attendees engaged, polls and surveys can serve as a decision-making tool in virtual meetings, where attendees can vote on follow-up actions and next steps.

Try this out with Pigeonhole Live, which offers a huge range of polling and survey formats that are beautiful, fun, and interactive. Our platform even integrates seamlessly with many video conferencing tools, including Zoom , Microsoft Teams , Cisco Webex , and BlueJeans , which means added convenience for you.

9. Collate and collaborate

Actively soliciting ideas and getting people to collaborate is a sure-fire way to keep your virtual meetings interactive. There are lots of free digital tools to help you with this.

Conduct brainstorming on free virtual whiteboard apps or sticky note tools like Miro and IdeaBoardz . Implement collective note-taking on Google Docs or Confluence so that everyone gets involved (and invested) in meeting outcomes.

10. Use gamification

Gamification techniques are a good way to embed two-way communication, boost participation, and incentivise active listening in meetings, and it can be supremely easy to implement. Here are some ideas:

• Randomly insert Wally in your presentation slides and ask how many times he appeared at the end of the meeting
• Collect quotes from attendees throughout the meeting and conduct a “who said this?” quiz at the end
• Throw in some misspelled or incorrectly used words and phrases, and get people to list them down; the one(s) with the most correctly identified errors win(s)

Have fun and keep your energy up, and be sure to follow these other simple tips for more effective virtual meetings !

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20 Ways to Create an Interactive Presentation That Stands Out

Written by: Chloe West

When you’re putting together a presentation, you want it to be engaging. Whether you’re presenting it live or embedding it on your website, you want to keep your audience entertained.

The best way to do that is by creating an interactive presentation that holds audience's attention and even allows them to participate.

Sitting in a boring presentation where the speaker simply talks at their audience can make eyes glaze over and cause the speaker to lose their listener.

Adding interactivity to your presentation is the best way to spice up your speech, engage your audience and stand out from other presenters. The best part is, it doesn't have to be more work!

With these 17 ways to create an interactive presentation, you’ll be sure to grab your audience’s attention and keep them entertained throughout the entire presentation.

Here’s a short selection of 10 easy-to-edit job presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

• An interactive presentation is a dynamic type of presentation that supports increased engagement and interactions with the audience.
• Try integrating media techniques like video clips, audio narratives, music, and interactive quizzes.
• Involve your audience by polling them, encouraging movement, getting them to ask questions, letting them lead the direction, and asking them to share with a hashtag for social interactions.
• Play with non-linear and other creative transitions, animations, and even props.
• Include animated data visualizations and stories to enrich the interactivity in your presentation.

Before we jump right in, let’s explain what an interactive presentation is

What is an Interactive Presentation

An interactive presentation is a dynamic type of presentation that supports increased engagement and interactions with the audience. It involves using interactive elements to create a more personal and engaging experience with your audience.

Whether you’re doing a live or pre-recorded presentation, there are various interactive tools for presentations and interactive ways to present information. It could be as simple as embedding audio and video in your presentation. Or, it could take the form of using charts, surveys, navigation, transitions, hyperlinks, hotspots and other elements in your presentation.

If you ever wondered how to make a presentation interactive, this is your opportunity to try out a variety of techniques. Implement one or two ideas first and see how it fits with your brand guidelines.

Remember that any interactivity you add to your presentations must make sense with the rest of the content, otherwise, it could be distracting instead of engaging.

If using Monday.com , create and share your presentation and collaborate easily inside your workspace using our account integration. Also, take advantage of our wide range of integrations to boost productivity.

Here’s how to make an interactive presentation

1 Start your interactive presentation with an icebreaker.

The first step is creating a rapport with your audience. You can do this by helping them to get to know you a little better and get to know each other as well.

The way you go about this will depend on the size of your audience. If you’re presenting in a small group setting or workshop, you can easily go around the room and have everyone share a bit about themselves.

However, if you’re speaking with a crowd or at a conference with a larger audience, it would make more sense to simply have your audience introduce themselves to a neighbor or two before you dive in.

You could ask the audience to answer a question out loud or to their neighbor, ask them to prepare a few questions about your topic or a list of things they'd like to learn or put together a fun icebreaker game.

Visualize the icebreaker question on a slide using text animations. Your Visme editor offers a variety of eye-catching movements for your textual content. Choose from options like typewriter, rise up, ease in and more.

Here are just a few icebreaker games you can choose from for your next interactive presentation. Also, read this article on how to start your presentation and 12 ways to keep your audience hooked.

2 Use video clips in a slide or two.

You don’t have to be the only one talking during your presentation. Videos are one of the most effective interactive learning tools for presentations.

Embed a video into one of your slides to switch up your audience’s focus. With Visme's animated presentation software , you can easily embed a YouTube or Vimeo video into your slide for your audience to view on their own or for you to feature during your interactive slideshow. Here's how you can do that.

Simply go to the Media tab in the left sidebar of your Visme editor and click on Insert Video.

Add a video from anywhere, your computer or your phone. Download the Visme iOS app and add videos to your presentations in minutes. Edit your presentation effectively by resizing, placing into shapes, trimming with the timeline editor and selecting playback settings.

Sharing video clips can be a great way to further emphasize your argument by bringing in other opinions or even to just add a break for your audience during longer presentations. You can also share a video of yourself demonstrating how to do something.

If you’re embedding the slideshow on your website, adding a video to a slide or two allows your audience to take a break from reading and jump into a different way of consuming your content.

There are so many other types of content you can embed into your presentation with Visme as well, like quizzes, surveys and more!

3 Add Animated Icons

Create interactive slides with unique touches like animated icons. Using vibrant design elements like beautiful icons that move your audience’s attention to the areas you want them to notice. Also, using icons instead of text offers white space for the viewer to feel a sense of balance on the slide.

Here’s how to do it:

Choose a slide where you’d like to add an animated icon. In terms of options, you have two; use the native, animated icons or animate static icons with the animation tools.

On the left toolbar, click on graphics and select the icons you want. The animated ones are at the bottom next to the animated illustrations, customizable characters, avatars and 3D arrows.

Place the icon and click on the Animate button on the top right. Select the style of animation and duration for each icon and ensure everything is balanced and not overdone. You might not need more than one or two repetitions for each icon.

4 Add Pop-Ups with Extra Info

A great way to inspire your audience to interact with your presentation is to add popups with extra info using hotspots. This is how you can do it.

Click on a text, shape or object you’d like to add a popup and hotspot to and click on the Actions button on the top right. Add an action and choose the function; it can be another slide, or a popup that you can design from scratch.

Add visual hotspots as markers for the audience to know there is something special going on.

Watch this video to learn how to create interactive pop up effects in Visme

Make your popups more interesting by using AI-generated graphics prompted by your visual brand guidelines.

5 Make your interactive presentation non-linear.

Not every slideshow you create needs to simply flow from slide to slide. Get creative with it and see if it makes sense to add in a non-linear flow. So, what exactly is a non-linear presentation?

When you create links between slides so you can click around different areas of your presentation, you’re putting together a non-linear presentation.

You’re not going from slide one to slide two to slide three, and so on. Instead, you’re creating an interactive way for you and your audience to jump around your presentation.

You can create a table of contents page and link it to the slides that start each section. If your presentation is embedded, this allows your audience to navigate in their own preferred order.

It also gives your presentation a different edge from the regular flow, and can keep readers intrigued about what’s coming next.

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6 Have a Q&A session.

Want to get the audience involved? Ask them questions! This is a must-have interactive tool for presentations.

It’s also one of the most popular ideas for interactive presentations.

While many presenters always plan to host a Q&A at the end of their presentation for the audience to ask questions , it can go both ways.

You can easily put together a few slides where you’re asking your audience questions throughout your presentation. Before you move onto the next section, ask your listeners what they think first.

Don’t make it intimidating, like a pop quiz. A simple “What do you think about..?” can work wonders.

You can also take several breaks throughout your presentation to give the audience a chance to ask you questions. If you had them write down a few things they want to make sure they learn from you at the beginning of the presentation, this is a great time to ask.

7 Create an interactive quiz.

Take it a step further and actually create a quiz in your interactive presentation. This engaging presentation idea works well for both live and embedded presentations.

In Visme, you can link elements in your slide together so that one element appears when another element is clicked. So ask your audience a question, gather their answers and then click to expose the correct answer.

If you’re embedding the presentation, make sure you include a button that says something like “Click to see if you’re right!” so that your viewer knows they’re able to interact with the slide.

While you don’t necessarily want to use this as a way to sneakily check if your audience has been paying attention, it can be a fun way to gauge expertise in your audience and understand how much information you should cover.

Struggling to generate content for your quiz? Use Visme’s AI writer to generate high-quality content for your presentation, quiz or other aspects of your presentation.

8 Add a Flipbook Effect

Add another dose of interactivity for the audience’s viewing experience by using Visme’s flipbook effect . Mixing a physical “flipping” action with a digital document or presentation makes it easy for the audience to swipe from slide to slide. It’ll also create an emotional association with magazines and books, these are generally positive associations.

All presentations made with Visme, when shared via a live Visme link, will be viewable as a flipbook. You can turn the option and off in the sharing settings.

Flipbook isn’t just available for presentations, any document and even whiteboard can be shared as a digital flipbook. All your audience has to do is swipe and the slides/pages will flip like a magazine.

Like Kimberly Barrett, Wellbeing Consultant at Ameritas says, “You can do everything within Visme, you don’t have to use multiple tools to get something completed and delivered. Everything is just in one place, and it’s all-encompassing.”

9 Bring props along to your interactive presentation.

Want to really grab your audience’s attention? Want to really grab your audience’s attention? Props are also useful interactive tools for presentations.

Bringing props along with you to help you demonstrate and visually tell your story can be a great way to keep people watching and listening.

The first thing to keep in mind when deciding which props to help convey your story is that they need to be relevant. Don’t bring random props that are interesting but are a huge stretch to fit in with your content.

Instead, bring props that intrigue your audience but still make sense with the information you’re sharing.

Here’s a great example of a prop that definitely secured the audience’s full attention. Bill Gates released a swarm of live mosquitos into the audience during his TED Talk on Mosquitos, Malaria and Education.

Sanitary? Maybe not. Attention getting? You bet.

10 Tell your audience a story.

One of the most interactive ways to present information is storytelling. It’s an undeniable strategy for drawing your audience into your presentation. Even if your topic covers a lot of data, facts and statistics, your speech doesn’t have to be dry.

There are many different ways to incorporate stories into your presentation effectively.

A good story helps to create an immersive effect , bringing your audience in and making them feel like they’re a part of your presentation. It taps into their emotions, causing them to hang onto your words, making your presentation much more memorable in the long run.

Here's a great example of a presentation filled with data that still hooks the audience in with great storytelling.

11 Add an audio narrative.

You don’t have to speak the entire time. Much like videos, audio and sounds are helpful interactive tools for presentations.

In fact, sometimes, it can be nice to give yourself a break and pre-record some of your slides. This is also a great strategy to include for embedded presentations.

With Visme’s presentation maker , you are able to upload audio files that play in your slideshow. You can also record your own audio directly inside the Visme editor.

Some Visme users even create pre-recorded webinars using the software.

Adding audio into an embedded slideshow can be a great way to create an interactive presentation experience. You can add music or sound effects to slides to make them stand out. Or you can add an audio narrative that talks about your slide content in even more depth than your slide design allows.

12 Poll your audience.

Looking for other activities for presentations to keep your audience engaged?  Get your audience involved in your presentation by polling them. Give them multiple choice options to see which one is the most popular. Ask them to raise hands.

You can even use a polling software and have your audience input their answers via their smartphone and watch the results come in live on your screen.

Have fun with it. Ask your audience about their favorite football team, which ice cream flavor they’d choose between vanilla and chocolate and more. This is a great way to do icebreakers, as well as break up your presentation with some mindless fun.

Of course, you can also have polls relevant to your presentation topic . Consider all of the ways you can use a poll in your next interactive presentation.

13  Include discussion questions.

If you’re still searching for how to make a PowerPoint presentation interactive , consider adding discussion questions in. You can break your audience into small groups to discuss your questions or simply have them discuss it briefly with their neighbor.

Seminar presentations are the perfect setting for discussion questions, and this can also work well if you’re putting on a presentation to a group of people that are sitting at tables.

All you need to do is put a discussion question up on the board and ask your audience to go around their table with their answers. This creates an interactive environment with very little effort on your part.

14  Encourage movement in your audience.

Another way to create an interactive environment is by encouraging movement within your audience.

This can be as simple as taking an intermission during a longer presentation or giving your audience a few minutes to get up and stretch their legs.

Other methods include asking your audience yes or no questions and having them answer by raising their hands or standing up, having your audience move to different seats and introduce themselves to new neighbors, or calling people up on stage to participate.

15  Get your audience asking questions.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, having your audience take time at the beginning of your presentation to list out their questions on your topic is a great idea.

It’s a proven technique to make your PowerPoint presentation interactive.  

Several times throughout your presentation, take a pause to ask for audience questions. Allow your listeners to ask questions about the slides you’ve already covered and the ones that may be coming up.

Getting your audience to ask questions, and letting them know that there will be several opportunities to do so, is a great way to ensure they continue to pay attention, take notes and write down potential questions throughout. Make sure you set some time aside at the end of your presentation for the rest of their questions.

Worried that people won’t speak up? Have a few allies in your audience that start the question asking.

No, this is not sneaky or shady. Sometimes people need a bit of encouragement, and asking a friend that you know will be attending to start off the questions can help.

16  Let your audience decide the direction.

Again, your presentation doesn’t have to be linear. You can have a slide setup with your four (or however many you have) main points and ask your audience which one they want to hear first, second and so on.

This makes it fun for the audience because they actually get to participate in the order of your presentation.

While this means you need to be extra prepared for whatever route your presentation may take, it creates a fun, interactive setting that your audience will remember for years to come.

Try a unique presentation structure like this, or one of these seven that your audience is sure to love.

17  Share a hashtag for social interaction.

If you’re speaking at an event that already has a branded hashtag, encourage your audience to tweet about your presentation using that hashtag. If you’re hosting a standalone presentation, come up with your own hashtag for your audience to use.

Your viewers can then share tidbits from your presentation as well as use the hashtag to ask questions for you to monitor and answer throughout.

Not only does this help to get your audience engaged, but it even helps to get their audiences engaged, learning about who you are, and interested in your content and presentation.

18  Add music to your interactive presentation slides.

Create a different ambiance by adding background music to your slides. Or get your audience pumped for new and exciting information with a pop song transition.

With Visme, you can easily upload audio files, including music clips, so that you can create an interactive experience for your audience. Your entire presentation doesn’t have to be centered around the sound of your voice. Adding in a music clip is a great way to refocus your audience on your content.

Plus, it can be a nice added touch in an embedded presentation.

19  Play with transitions and animations.

There are so many different ways to animate your slides , each more exciting than the next. You can animate different elements in your slides, like in the animated slideshow below.

You can also create seamless transitions between your slides by having each one of your elements slide in on its own, like in the presentation example below. To see the effect in action, click on the arrow buttons to transition to the next slide.

You can even add animated graphs and charts to your presentation slides . Animation should be fun, and toying with different ideas can make for great interactivity.

This is actually a big mistake that most people make while creating a presentation. If you're using a software like PowerPoint, you might go overboard with all the different options you have. Use a tool like Visme so you can access handpicked, proven animation and transition styles, like in the examples shown above.

Just remember to be consistent with your animations and transitions. Keep the same look and feel throughout your entire presentation rather than a million different animation types.

20  Use data visualization in your interactive presentation.

Last, but certainly not least, use data visualization to showcase your information in an engaging and easy-to-understand format.

Whether you’re a data expert, business leader, or trainer, interactive data visualization is a staple. It’s one of the most interactive ways to present information, especially when detailing with figures and statistics.

Data visualization can be anything from a chart or graph that visually represent actual statistics and numbers to an icon or graphic that represents words.

Visualizing your points can be a great way to argue your point, and creating charts, graphs and other figures helps your audience digest your content that much quicker and more easily.

Plus, Visme offers tons of ways to visualize data within your presentation slides.

Choose from one of our many data visualization tools, such as animated charts , graphs and data widgets, to start visualizing your facts and figures in a more interactive format.

Once you’re satisfied with how your presentation looks, you can share it online using a live link or download it in multiple formats, such as PPTX, PDF, PNG, JPG, MP4 and more. Also you track the performance (views, unique visits, average time spent and completion) of your presentation using Visme analytics .

Interactive Presentation FAQs

Q. why is interactive content better.

Interactive content is more effective because it grabs attention and provides an engaging and immersive experience that keeps users hooked on your content. This attribute makes it a brilliant strategy for educating your audience, increasing audience participation, boosting engagement, and improving their overall learning experience.

According to a DemandGen report , up to 90% of marketers admit interactive is effective in educating buyers but other marketers use it for lead generation (58%), brand awareness (57%) and conversion (49%).

Q. What Is the Best Interactive Presentation Tool?

There are many interactive presentation tools out there. Visme is the best, primarily because it offers a user-friendly interface, a full suite of animation and interactive tools, multiple customization options, an extensive library of templates and much more.

You can access animated 2D and 3D graphics, icons, illustrations and special effects that level up your visual content, as well as, animated enter and exit effects for your text and other design elements.

In addition, you can create a clickable menu or interactive table of contents, ink slides, pages or content blocks to objects on your canvas, and create hover effects or clickable pop-ups that reveal information when users take action.

The best part? Visme offers a variety of interactive templates and ready-to-use graphics that help users save time and create high-quality presentations quickly.

Q. Which Type of Presentation Is the Most Interactive?

When it comes to interactive presentations, there are several types that can be quite effective.

However, one of the most interactive types of presentations is one that involves the audience directly in the discussion and allows for active participation.

This can be achieved by using interactive presentation examples and tools such as videos, live polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, interactive games, and hands-on activities. By engaging with the audience in this way, presenters can create a memorable experience that not only educates but also entertains.

Q. How Do I Make My Presentation Stand Out?

There are a few things you can do to make your presentation more memorable.

First, make sure you have a clear and concise message you want to convey to your audience. This will help you stay focused and avoid getting sidetracked during your presentation.

Next, use visuals like images, graphs, and charts to help illustrate your points and break up the text on your slides. Don't be afraid to use humor or storytelling as well, as these can help engage your audience and make your presentation more entertaining.

You can also consider adding animations and interactive elements to your presentation to make it more engaging. Interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, or games, can also help to engage your audience and keep them interested in what you're saying.

Animations can be used to bring your content to life and keep your audience's attention focused on the screen. For example, you can use animations to highlight key points or to add a bit of visual interest to your slides.

Finally, practice your delivery and try to be confident and enthusiastic when you present. This will help you connect with your audience and leave a lasting impression.

Q. Are Interactive Presentations More Effective?

Interactive presentations can be more effective than traditional, static presentations because they engage the audience and keep them interested throughout the presentation.

When the audience is hooked, they become active learners and are more likely to retain the information.

Interactive presentations can also be customized to meet the specific needs and interests of the audience, making them more relevant and impactful.

Overall, incorporating interactive elements into a presentation can help to create a more dynamic and memorable experience for the audience.

Q. Is an Interactive Presentation Different From Interactive Content?

Yes, an interactive presentation and interactive content are two different things.

An interactive presentation is a type of content that conveys engaging information using multimedia elements such as videos, animations, and interactive graphics.

Interactive content, on the other hand, refers to any type of content—such as quizzes, polls, and games— that requires your audience to participate actively rather than consume the information passively.

Visme: The Best Interactive Presentation Software

Before now, you were probably thinking of which option you would use for your presentation to engage your audience. Before now, you were probably thinking of which option you will use for your presentation to engage your audience or how to make presentations interactive.

So now you see? Your next presentation doesn’t have to be boring and predictable. By incorporating these interactive presentation ideas , your audience will be engaged and their phones will be put away.

Visme offers tons of interactivity features right within our presentation software . Sign up and create a free account today to start trying them out. And if you’re running out of time, you can use AI Presentation Maker to create your presentation in minutes.

Beyond presentations, Visme offers an all-in-one visual content platform. You can use our infinite online whiteboard to brainstorm and build projects collaboratively, create marketing material, schedule and share it on social media right from the editor and access tons of design elements and tools to create powerful content.

Try Visme today and make your presentations interactive, entertaining and successful.

Did you find this article helpful? Which interactive presentation feature is your favorite? Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below!

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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18 Ways to Make Your Presentation More Interactive

November 10, 2017 - Dom Barnard

It can be difficult to hold your audience’s attention for the entire presentation. According to a  Prezi study , half of the respondents said they did something other than listen during a co-worker’s presentation, including:

• Sending a text message (28%)
• Checking emails (27%)
• Falling asleep (17%)

An interactive presentation is much more likely to keep your audience’s attention and build rapport with them, and there are a few simple ways to achieve this, from live polling to asking questions throughout.

This article explores several different effective strategies for making the audience feel fully involved in your presentation and keeping your audience’s eyes away from their smartphones.

Why involve your audience?

Listening to a presentation for any length of time can be a difficult process. If you don’t involve the audience, they’ll start to play with their phones, talk to colleagues and generally lose track of what you are saying. Once this happens and you start seeing that the audience would rather be somewhere else, you’ll start feeling anxious and might try to speed up the presentation.

To engage a  large audience  fully, the presentation needs to be energetic, purposeful and staged, as if it is a direct conversation between both you and your audience. That way, they’ll absorb your ideas and insights and they’ll have learnt something in an enjoyable way.

1. Plan from the audience’s perspective

Before you start  writing your presentation , think about these points:

• What are the most interesting parts in my topic?
• How much will the audience know about my topic? What level do I target it at?
• Which members of the audience will most likely be disinterested?
• How can I help them learn and understand my topic?
• What is the size of the audience?

You can do this by researching the event or conference, investigating other speakers at the event and even contacting the organisers to find out more about the demographic.

By asking these questions about your audience and identifying answers, you are starting to think about your audience’s interests and needs. Remember, the aim is to give the impression that your presentation has been planned according to your audience’s specific interests.

2. Use an easy-to-follow structure

When building your presentation, focus on giving it a structure which people can easily follow. Start by introducing the core concepts and goals, then elaborate on the various points in a bit more detail, draw logical conclusions and leave your audience with a clear takeaway message. You want to flow naturally from one part to the next like you are telling a big story chapter by chapter.

3. Get the audience immediately involved

You audience will come to your presentation in a range of different moods. Try using a simple ice-breaker to re-energise them and get them focussed on your presentation.

For example, ask people to stand up and introduce themselves to their neighbours, or have them identify two or three questions they would like to hear addressed during your presentation. By starting with an ice-breaker, you show your audience that your talk will be interactive and require their participation.

4. Ask the audience questions during your presentation

The audience’s attention drops to zero after just 10-15 minutes of your presentation. To get their attention back, take a break from your presentation from time to time and interact with your audience. Ask for their questions and answer them during your presentation. This will help clear up any confusion the audience might have.

When planning your presentation, identify opportunities in your material for your audience to ask questions. If you’re not comfortable breaking the flow of your presentation, mention that you’ll be taking  questions at the end  so the audience can prepare some questions.

Asking rhetorical questions as you move through your presentation involves your audience by stimulating their own thought processes. This technique also helps move between sections of your presentation as it establishes a clear transition from one point to another.

If you’re comfortable with taking questions throughout your presentation, use a tools such as  Slido , which allows your audience to ask questions anonymously at any time, so even shy people can participate in the discussion.

Example of what can go wrong with audience interaction

Audience interaction:

Watch how the presenter tries but initially fails to get the audience to interact with the presentation. Notice how he encourages them to get involved and eventually they do join in.

5. Use storytelling to make it more memorable

Since our early ancestors, stories have always been a huge part of human culture and civilisation. Storytelling is the most universal way to captivate your audience’s attention, no matter where they are from or what they do for a living.

Stories are much more engaging and memorable than lists of facts and figures, but you wouldn’t think so looking at the majority of presentations (particularly academic ones).

People automatically tune in when you  start telling your story  because they want to know what happens next. A popular storytelling technique is when you present the status quo and then reveal an improved path to that end goal.

Think of your presentation as one arching narrative. As we mentioned earlier, give it the proper structure with a clear beginning, middle and end. Introduce conflict and provide a powerful resolution that reinforces your key messages.

6. Use non-linear presentation software

Instead of flipping through slide after slide, you can show the relationships between your ideas and give your audience the “big picture” view of your topic. Try letting your audience drive the presentation by laying out all of your main points, and then let them choose which topics they want to go to. Your audience will get a truly custom presentation based on their interests, which they will appreciate and more easily remember.

Prezi, shown above, is a popular non-linear presentation tool.

7. Add in a short video

Billions of hours of YouTube are consumed each month and advertisers have identified videos as having a high  retention rate  for users. However very few presentations ever use videos to engage with their audience.

Find a short video clip that reinforces your story or explains a concept better than words can. You can either embed the video directly into your presentation software or include a link to an external website. Just make sure you test your method on the day of the presentation and have a backup on a USB just in case you need it.

8. Invite people onto the stage

If you’re preparing a particularly long presentation, consider having other people to come on stage and talk for a bit. This will help you narrate the story and make the whole presentation more interactive.

Steve Jobs never pulled off the entire presentation by himself; he always invited several speakers, including designers, partners, and other executives, to help him introduce their latest product. Of course, this technique should always be arranged with your colleagues in advance.

9. Poll the audience

Polls are similar to quizzes in that they engage the audience during the presentation. Polls encourage participants to think not only about your questions but also about their answers. Moreover, live polls help create mental breaks, so your audience can regain attention and stay focused throughout your presentation.

By including everyone in answering the question, you also create a group experience that leaves the audience feeling like they all have been part your presentation.

10. Use (appropriate) humour

Some of the best speeches and presentations in the world feature plenty of humour. No matter the subject, a great speaker will use natural charisma, humour and language to convey their points and get the crowd excited about what they are saying.

A great example of building rapport with the audience through the use of humour is Barrack Obama talking about the government building Iron Man.

Another example is when  Morgan Spurlock  offers individuals the opportunity to buy the rights to name his TED talk—which he refers to again at the end, where he reveals the title. He peppers the entire presentation with humorous commentary that nonetheless supports his point.

Create relevant jokes or find a way to bring out the humour in your subject, and your audience will be much more engaged and more likely to remember your words.

11. Practice your delivery, again and again

Practicing is the most important part of delivering an interactive presentation. You’ll need to practice where to use live quizzes, when to accept questions, which points to emphasise with body language and many more. There are several options for practicing:

Practice Presentation Skills

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• In front of a mirror  – great for seeing and improving your body language, however it can be distracting to what you are saying.
• To friends or colleagues  – a useful way to get feedback on your presentation, try and action the feedback straight away to improve on it. You can also give the person some key areas to focus their feedback on if you believe you are weaker in those areas.
• Virtual reality  – practice in realistic  public speaking environments , whether it be in a virtual conference room or boardroom. Receive feedback on your speech with voice analysis technology.

With all three of these, you’ll want to work on your tone of voice, accent, pauses between sentences and facial expressions. The most important thing is to talk slowly and loudly enough to be heard and understood clearly.

A list of the best presentation skills courses you can practice with:

• Presentation Skills Training Courses

12. Try and relate to the audience

Make comparisons to events from everyday life that most people are more than familiar with. By making things look simple, not only will you help your audience get a better understanding of the subject by enabling them to visualize the information more clearly, you will also draw a connection between you.

After all, you are all just regular people with similar experience, you just happen to be performing different roles at the moment.

13. Strong body language (position, posture and gesture)

Non-verbal communication plays a large part in how we construct meaning, so it makes sense to consider how to use it in your presentation. You can make things more interesting for your audience by using  your body language  to enhance what you’re saying.

Body language goes beyond reinforcing your messaging – it’s useful from a biological standpoint. As discussed in her  body language TED talk , Amy Cuddy’s research found that using ‘assertive’ body language released testosterone and reduced cortisol in both men and women, thereby increasing confidence and decreasing stress.

An effective presenter pays close attention to the physical relationship with her/his audience. If you stand hidden behind an overhead projector or stand too far away from your audience, they will not develop a bond with you and this will limit the effectiveness of your presentation.

Your posture will also dictate levels of audience involvement. If you’re too relaxed and sit slumped in a chair to deliver your talk, the audience might drift away. Find a comfortable but purposeful position in relation to your audience and adopt an upright sitting or standing posture that allows for movement and gesture.

Audiences respond well to the physical energy and enthusiasm being conveyed by a presenter, and thus the use of clear and controlled gestures will greatly enhance your presentation. Gestures that are open and reach out to your audience serve to extend your presentation to them and thus help them feel more involved.

Examples of good body language:

• Use hand gestures when delivering key points
• Use calm, deliberate movements when highlighting certain information
• Keep arms and legs uncrossed

14. Maintain eye contact with all sections of the audience

Making eye contact is one of the most  powerful techniques  for involving your audience. If used well, eye contact can serve to make your address much more personal and thus more effective. If eye contact is avoided, the presenter can appear to be nervous and unconvincing.

It is important to share eye contact with all members of a small audience or all sections of a large audience. Avoid making eye contact with just the people you know, taking particular care not to deliver your entire presentation to the person who’s assessing your work. Remember that you will need to involve the whole audience if you are to make an effective presentation.

If you are nervous, eye contact can be very difficult to establish and maintain. Remember that some eye contact is better than none and that you should try to build your confidence over time.

15. Use live quizzes to better understand your audience

Live quizzes are a great way to understanding your audience better get them engaging with the material.

For example, if you’re giving a presentation on autonomous vehicles, you could ask questions such as:

• When do you think autonomous vehicles will become mainstream?
• Are you concerned by safety issues?
• If someone is injured or killed by the car, who is to blame?

These will surely create some interesting results which you, as the presenter, can talk about and discuss.

16. Use physical props if possible

You don’t need to be giving a product demo to use props during your presentation. Props are a great way to help the audience visually picture what you are talking about. While talking through your presentation, you can refer to the prop at certain points to highlight your point or make it clear to the audience.

Kenny Nguyen  does this will in his TEDx talk on ‘The Art of Saying No’. He refers to the “sword of yes” and “shield of no.” Naturally he picks up a sword and shield from the table to help demonstrate his points.

Another great example is when  Jill Bolte Taylor  brings a real human brain on stage during her TED talk to explain to what happened to her when she had a stroke. She touched the audience with this demonstration and left the audience in complete awe.

17. Extend your usual vocal range

Your tone of voice, your volume, and other vocal aspects affect how people listen and hear your message.

Julian Treasure’s  TED talk on ‘How to speak so that people want to listen’ is all about this, and at the end offers several tips ‘in our toolbox’ for how to master the use of voice, from changing your speaking pace to speaking in a different pitch.

Get feedback from a friend or colleague to see what works best for you.

18. Use language and literary techniques

Your use of language has a huge influence on the way you engage your audience. It’s important to use language your audience understands and is familiar with.

Avoid using language that is too formal or informal, too technical or too simplistic depending upon the nature of your talk and the knowledge base of your audience. Pitching your presentation at the right level can be a challenge but it is very effective for making the audience feel involved.

There are various  literary techniques  you can use, such as the Power or Three, to give greater impact to your message.

Involving your audience is essential to making an impact. Your presentation should pull them in, get their attention and stimulate their thoughts and understanding. This can be done in a number of ways.

The way that you plan your presentation will be critical in terms of using language and ideas that your audience will understand. You must also ensure that there is sufficient time for questions and discussion. The way that you deliver your presentation should create a bond with your audience.

Your use of eye contact, body language, spoken words and energy should  communicate effectively  and enthusiastically with all areas of the room, thus ensuring that the audience receives positive messages about you and your material.

The Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom

Part 1: an introduction to giving virtual presentations on zoom.

PART I Introduction 1 – Cool Zoom Features 2 – Virtual Presentation Do’s 3 – Virtual Presentation Don’ts PART II 4 – Presentation Purpose 5 – Structure & Flow 6 – Slide Design PART III 7 – Connect with the audience 8 – Audience Participation 9 – Sharing Content PART IV 10 – Video & Audio Recordings 11 – Post-production 12 – Your Phone as a Webcam PART V 13 – When Things Go Wrong 14 – How to Ground Yourself PART VI 15 – Advanced Techniques 16 – Zoom Webinars vs Meetings 17 – 23 Essential Settings

There are three things I hate about Zoom…

#1 the super awkward must-click-two-buttons-to-leave-the-meeting debacle.

You say goodbye, search the bottom-right corner of the screen for the red button, click the red button, continue to stare awkwardly at the corner of the screen because the call is still open and you need to click a second red button.

Never fear, this can be turned off. In General Preferences simply uncheck the “Ask me to confirm when I leave a meeting” setting and poof! One-click exits. You’re welcome.

#2 Inviting someone and never knowing what the difference is between these two options: “Copy invite link” and “Copy invitation”.

I can sense you nodding along with me.

Just remember that it’s “invite link” you want 99% of the time vs “invitation”, and you can set an option that copies the link to your clipboard as soon as you start a meeting.

#3 The dropdown to change video settings is part of the “Stop Video” button. What the actual?!

Are you trying to make me screw up my presentation?

I also love Zoom.

Why? Because it works.

A year into our forced isolation, Zoom fatigue has set in. We’re avoiding calls and talking about concepts like Zoom holidays, just to get a break.

But the answer isn’t fewer Zoom calls, it’s better Zoom calls. Almost every Zoom presentation is boring, ugly, terribly structured, poorly executed, and designed to make you fall asleep.

In this guide I’ll show you

• How to create beautiful slides that communicate with clarity and class
• Unknown and awesome features of Zoom that you can use to your advantage
• How to overcome your nerves and survive technical problems
• And how to look like a total pro every time you give a presentation—or run a meeting—on the platform we all love to hate.

Note: for the sake of brevity, unless I’m talking about Zoom-specific functionality, these tips are applicable to any platform that offers meeting and presentation software such as GotoMeeting, Google Meet, Webinar Jam etc.

There are instructional videos throughout the guide to demonstrate the best parts in more depth. You can binge watch the videos on the “Presenting on Zoom” video channel here , or read on for the word and pictures.

If you want to stand out from your peers it’s good to understand the full power of the platform and know the features most people don’t know about.

#1 Set up your own configurable ‘personal meeting room’

It can be really distracting to hear a bunch of people talking over one another when you kick off a meeting. A good solution is to use what’s called a Personal Meeting ID (PID) which gives you control of the Zoom environment right from the start.

Features of your PID include:

• Using the same invite ID and URL whenever you start a meeting, bypassing the need to repeatedly check the settings. Note: because it’s a permanent URL,you should uncheck the “Allow participants to join anytime” setting to prevent randoms dropping in unannounced.
• Placing participants into a “waiting room” which lets them in when you are ready to begin– either individually or all at once.
• Automatically recording your meetings on your computer. Having a video of your presentation is always a good idea so you can re-use your content.

#2 Press the ‘spacebar to temporarily un-mute yourself’

You can help to ensure a quality audio recording by placing everyone on mute by default. And while this feature is more appropriate for meetings vs. presentations, it’s a great thing to know about – and to tell your audience about. It’s easy to use, hold down the spacebar to un-mute yourself and let it go to turn your audio off again. It prevents people from forgetting to re-mute when they walk off to do something else forcing you to listen to their snoring dog or screaming baby.

Even if it doesn’t get used during your presentation (unless it’s a workshop you won’t want people to randomly chime in), many of your audience will thank you for learning this tip.

Note: You may need to enable it in your Zoom Preferences.

#3 Record ‘separate audio files’ for each speaker, host, or panelist in the presentation

If you have a host or a co-presenter there will be content in the session that’s not yours. Having separate audio recordings lets you use only the audio that was from your part of the presentation.

You can enable this in Preferences > Recording.

#4 Enable the ‘non-verbal feedback’ feature to allow audience interactions

Cool zoom feature #4 – enable non-verbal feedback.

To make your presentations interactive you can enable the non-verbal feedback feature. This allows participants to express reactions to your presentation.

This is not to be confused with ‘meeting reaction emojis’ which are temporary reactions that disappear after 5 seconds. To be honest, it’s hard not to be confused when there are two sets of interactions with different names.

Non-verbal feedback is for direct feedback to the speaker or host that others can agree with by clicking the same icon. The result is that the speaker can see how many people are expressing the feedback.

The options for non-verbal feedback are shown in the image below:

An example of how this would be used in a presentation is to ask the speaker to speed up or slow down. This might seem like a weird thing to be told during your talk, and if it’s just one person asking you’d most likely ignore it. But if 50 people are saying to slow down, that’s a pretty good indication that your current presentation style isn’t working for them.

It provides a pretty amazing insight – something I wish I’d had that feedback during an on-stage talk.

You can also use it to ask binary questions to the audience that they can respond yes or no to – a great way to segment the audience so you can tailor your content based on their responses.

Combine this feature with a QTINTA audience participation question for a really engaging experience. You’ll have to watch the video to know what QTINTA means.

#5 Use the Zoom ‘beauty mode’ to soften your appearance

Zoom includes a “Touch up my appearance” filter in the “Preferences > Video” settings, which gives your skin a softer appearance. There’s a slider that lets you control how much it applies the effect. It can look weird if you crank it too much, but having just a little can really help – especially if you’re looking a big bedraggled.

Settings are maintained when you quit so you can expect to look the same way every time.

#6 Use Zoom ‘video filters’ to add a cinematic high-contrast appearance

We’re all familiar with Zoom backgrounds, but a more impressive feature in my mind are the video filters. You can access them via the “Stop Video” dropdown arrow. Yes, there are some silly ones which can be funny when in a meeting, but for presenting stick to the non-silly ones. They can help improve the quality of your on-camera look. I particularly like the first option “Boost” which kicks your contrast up a notch removing any bland washed out lighting, it also removed some warmer tones which I like as it reduces the redness I often have in my skin.

You can see that it increases the contrast but also cuts down on the redness in my face.

Unlike the “Touch up my appearance” feature, your video filter settings are not maintained between sessions, which is a frustrating extra step each time if you found a setting you like.

#7 Encourage attendees to use ‘side-by-side mode’ to view you and your slides

This can be a good setting if you want to make your talk feel more personal. It shows your camera video beside your slides, and viewers can resize the videos as they see fit.

It can be a good idea to point this out as not everyone will know.

E.g. “You should be viewing this presentation in side by side mode so you see me and the slides. If you want to make the slides bigger (or smaller) you can resize them by dragging the slider between my video and the slides.”

#8 Use Zoom ‘annotations’ to mark up your slides live, or a ‘whiteboard’ for a blank canvas

A really cool feature of Zoom is Annotations. This lets you write or draw on top of the screen you are sharing. Once the feature is activated , you can access it from the menu at the top when you are sharing your screen.

This is really helpful when you have a complex slide and you want to focus people’s attention on different areas of the screen as you talk. When presenting live on a stage you can gesture towards a particular area, but it’s not as easy in a virtual presentation which is why it’s handy.

There is also a Whiteboard feature that gives you, well, a whiteboard. This could be useful if you find that you need to dig into a point you’re making in a more detailed way or discover during your talk that you need a different way to explain it.

You might want to take a quick screenshot when you’re done if you happened to get some interesting ideas marked up.

Rock open a whiteboard and sketch a diagram. Having a tablet and pen would be very helpful for this, versus trying to draw with a mouse. It might be wise to use the non-verbal feedback feature to get folks to say “Yes” to a “Let me know if you’re ready to move on” question.

Note, this is a screen sharing feature, so in order to get to the whiteboard, you need to stop sharing your screen, then share once more but choose Whiteboard as the option. Then you’ll have to stop sharing and share your slides again. Make sure you’ve practiced this if you think you’ll be using it.

#9 Use ‘closed captions’ to increase the accessibility of your virtual presentation and video recording

Zoom has transcription features that let you add closed captions to your session. You can do it manually for free, but that means someone will have to type them live, which is a pretty specific skill to have, and requires someone to do it for you.

If you have a paid Zoom account (roughly $20/month) live transcriptions are included. An alternative is to integrate with a platform like Otter.ai, to add closed captions in real time. You can also use Otter for transcribing any other audio or video files you have which makes it a much better value.

There are several reasons why closed captions are a good thing to do.

• No headphones: if an attendee doesn’t have or forgot their headphones and they’re in an environment where they can’t have the volume on, closed captions are a life saver that could be the difference between them staying or leaving.
• Accessibility: Captions allow meetings to be accessible to all. For the deaf, hard of hearing, or non-native speakers, they are an absolute necessity to understand what’s going on.
• Attention and recall: closed captioning can increase the amount of your content that an attendee comprehends and remembers. This is because they are getting it using two senses, and you have to focus more intently when you are reading.

You can check out Otter here to set up live captions.

#10 Use Zoom ‘breakout rooms’ to split workshop participants into groups

Without question, one of the most popular Zoom features is Breakout Rooms. They are exactly as they sound, allowing you to break out attendees into separate rooms. This could be for hosting a multi-track event where there is a speaker in each breakout room, or more commonly it is to allow groups to work together away from the “Main Room” and then come back in to rejoin you as the speaker.

This is a wonderful feature if you are running workshops that require groups to work through some of your worksheets or tasks for example.

There’s a good demo of how to use Zoom breakout rooms here.

#11 Use a Zoom ‘waiting room’ to hold attendees before you let them in at the same time

Nobody shows up at the same time to a presentation, and you don’t always want to start until an acceptable threshold of attendees have arrived. Particularly if the beginning of your talk is fundamental to your big idea.

The waiting room is basically a holding area where attendees are listed as they show up. They get to see a simple welcome screen (annoyingly simple really – I’d much prefer to have the options to have a fully custom slide in there), and you can admit them one by one, or all at once, when you are ready to begin.

It also allows you to block people from entering, although for the most part there’s not much reason to do this when you are presenting to a large audience. Useful if someone becomes disruptive for any reason.

Caution: it’s very easy to forget about the waiting room and have people sitting around unable to get in after you’ve started. I recommend assigning this task to your co-host.

Cool Zoom Feature to Avoid – ‘Present with your PowerPoint or Keynote slides as a virtual background’.

This is an interesting feature that’s worth discussing both for why it’s cool and why it’s uncool.

What it does

Instead of a regular screen share, it takes your slide deck and sets it as the background much like any other Zoom background. As such it places a ‘mini you’ floating on top of the slides in cutout mode which is kinda fun. Kinda.

To access the feature (beta at time of writing) click the “Advanced” tab in the “Share Screen” popup, and select “Slides as Virtual Background”.

This is what it looks like from the attendee’s perspective. And yes, you appear twice on the screen. Once on top of your slides, and again beside them. Silly.

Note: you must download a local copy of your slide deck to your computer as it doesn’t connect to cloud-based slides.

If you have audio and video in your slides, checking the “Share Sound” option at the bottom-left of the share popup should make that transmit to the audience. However, it doesn’t. In fact I couldn’t get any video or audio to play at all.

There’s also a second “Split Video from Slides” option which kinda defeats the purpose. As you can see below, you are back with your regular background in a separate window, and you are only on the screen once.

With the split setting in place, it would be a fair to wonder why you’d use this feature as it looks just the same as the regular view.

There are however, a few key differences.

The major difference is that you don’t need to have your slides in fullscreen mode on your computer. In the screenshot below you’ll see that I’m looking at a Zoom window with my slides inside it. I can now move through my slides while having other windows open such as the chat and participant windows. This is actually pretty great as the audience doesn’t see your layout, they see what they would normally see.

A nice side effect of this setting is the audience won’t see the awkward moment at the start of your talk where your whole screen is visible until you start the slides.

Looking at the main window, you can clean up the view a bit by having attendee video off by un-checking “More > Allow Participants to Start Video” in the Participants panel, and then selecting “Hide non-video participants” from the “…” menu on one of the participant video boxes.

You can take it a step further if you select “Hide self view” from the … on your video thumbnail. This will give you a view of just your slides. As much as the layout annoys me (I’d rather pop the self view out to the side with the chat), it can be important to see yourself to make sure you’re not moving out of frame – particularly if you are speaking standing up.

However, at this point in the beta it’s just not usable enough to be a serious and professional solution because of a few technical failings:

• It’s buggy like most beta features are
• It doesn’t show any animations or slide transitions
• If you are recording the screen, the merge view while fun, is a little unprofessional looking
• Audio and video didn’t work at all for me, despite there being a setting to allow slide audio to work. I think this might be because the videos didn’t play.
• When you start the share it has to process the slides before it starts which causes a delay if you aren’t expecting it.

Overall, it’s a feature with some exciting elements, although to be perfectly honest, the good aspects are nothing to do with the feature itself, but are side effects. I’d prefer to see a new feature that allows you to avoid presenting in fullscreen to allow a much greater degree of presenter screen setup.

The chapter title says it all. Do these things and your virtual presentations will be better. If you don’t, your presentation won’t be better than the last one you did, missing an important opportunity grow your skills as a virtual presenter.

Seriously. Do these things.

#1 Test your slides from the ‘attendee perspective’ using another laptop or tablet

Your slides might look amazing on your retina laptop or 5K monitor, but not all screens are alike, and your super-detailed tiny-text “revolutionary new marketing method” process diagram might look more like a dot-matrix printout to someone with a lesser screen.

Viewing your slides on a smaller or alternative screen isn’t enough. You also need to view them on Zoom on that screen, because virtual presentation software tends to change things you wouldn’t expect.

The golden rule of presentation QA is to run through every slide on the platform you’re going to be delivering on (Zoom, GotoWebinar, etc.) watching out for the things below:

• Any virtual presentation platform will add small visual artifacts to the video stream—they’re imperfect degenerative medium where some quality will be lost in transmission. As a result, your slides will never be quite as sharp as directly viewing your slides.
• If you have audio in your slides, check that the audio levels are balanced and not too loud or quiet. Remember to also test it with headphones on as that’s a common listening scenario for your audience.
• If you have video in your slides it may not come across well when presenting virtually. There’s usually some lag or choppiness that makes it skip frames. This can make the audio look out of sync.
• If you have multiple slides with audio, set them at the exact same level so people don’t get deafened. A common problem in that scenario is that the attendees will turn down their audio if you blast them, and then the next time you have audio it’s too quiet to hear properly. Your presentation software will have a setting for the audio or video volume. The best way to make sure they are the same is to move your slides to be one after the other (you can reorder them afterwards), then step through them to gauge the balance.
• If you have complex animations or transitions, they may render more slowly or less smoothly when piped through Zoom and a wifi connection. If they don’t work the way you want them to, consider simplifying them (fewer animations) or removing them altogether – replacing them with static slides. You can still use a technique like the Progressive Reveal to create a pseudo animation effect.

To prevent an audio feedback loop when testing your audio and video slides, have your partner/friend/colleague be on the viewer/attendee side in another room.

Whatever your specific case is, there’s a good chance that on the viewer’s side it’s not as perfect. So double, triple, and quadruple check.

I guess you should also single check. Why does nobody say that?

“You should single check your work to make sure it’s awesome.”

The best way to QA is to record some video of it from the viewer’s perspective. Have your QA buddy record their screen (with audio). If you don’t have anyone to help you, just set up your extra laptop (hopefully you have one somewhere) in another room and record the screen from there. If you’re using a Mac, Quicktime is an easy way to get a recording. On a PC, you can use PowerPoint to do a screen recording (more on that later), or find some free screen recording software for a test.

If you do have a helper, you can also reverse roles where they present and you observe on their machine. This will give you the truest sense of what might need to be fixed. It’ll no doubt be quite hilarious to watch, unless they turn out to be better at it than you.

#2 Remove all hashtags from your slides

My typical advice regarding hashtags is to make sure you update them to use the current event’s hashtag if you’ve used this slide deck before. If you don’t it looks awful to the audience and makes them feel like you didn’t put in the effort to make a presentation just for them.

However, the main goal of this entire guide —primarily covered in chapters 10 and 11— is to ensure you create a professional-grade recording of your virtual presentation that you can repurpose over and over for multiple virtual events.

If you leave event hashtags in your slides they will be forever embedded in your recording, rendering it useless for re-use. And trust me, once you’ve created a high-resolution awesomely edited recording of your talk, you will feel amazing about it.

It may feel counterintuitive, but you should delete all the hashtags from your slides.

If the event mentions it and asks you why or asks you to include them, just politely let them know your rationale. I’ve found that many virtual events have interactive chat in the interface they use which tends to dilute the number of people hanging out on a Twitter hashtag anyway.

#3 Have a wired Internet connection

If attendees have a poor connection they can always leave and download the video and slides later on.

But the presenter is the one person who absolutely must have a great Internet connection, and the best way to do that is to have directly wired Ethernet.

A side benefit of this is that it will help you end the endless debate over who’s connection is causing the problem. I’m sure you’ve been in a meeting where someone suggests your Internet is slow, and you say yours is fine, and they say that theirs has been working brilliantly all week.

Just say “Yeah, but I have a hardwired Ethernet connection.” End of conversation.

If you don’t have a wired connection, work on getting one set up, and in the meantime tell your eager tech wannabe roommates NOT to reset the ******* wifi while you’re presenting.

#4 Have a backup audio input device

“Is this mic on? Can you hear me at the back?”

Sometimes your mic will stop working, and it’s one of the most uncomfortable panic-ridden things that can happen to a speaker (see When Things Go Wrong ). It could be a dead battery issue, or your headphone cable could be old and the internal wiring failed.

Whatever the cause, you need to have a way to deal with the problem.

If you are using a posh external mic that stops working, ditching it for the internal microphone of your laptop will likely degrade the audio quality significantly, but it’s better than nothing.

In a later chapter I do a deep dive comparison video about microphone options for virtual presenting .

Probably the simplest backup is another set of headphones. The classic Apple headphones are only $25 now. Make sure you get the ones with the 3.5mm jack, and not the lightning cable, (especially if you’re not an Apple person) as that’s only useful for your iPhone. And if you aren’t an Apple person, there are a million other options on Amazon.

However, be warned that these headphones are rife with audio problems such as noisy cables (you’ll need to sit still which sucks), and they should only be used on Zoom. When using them with any other audio recording software they have a horrific background hiss that destroys your audio, but Zoom’s noise removal feature (on by default) actually does a fantastic job of removing it, making them a viable last minute solution. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use them.

#5 Have a slide dedicated to encouraging non-verbal feedback

The non-verbal feedback feature of Zoom is a great way to make your talk more dynamic. But you don’t want to try and explain it in the middle of your talk as it’ll break the flow and screw up the fluidity of your recording.

Instead, consider which aspects of the feature you want to use, and have a slide at the start of your presentation (slide 2 for example) that focuses on this. You can quickly walk people through how it works, and tell them how you’ll be using it throughout.

#6 Have everyone muted by default

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. You don’t want attendees, whether it’s 5 or 500, to be chatting before or during your presentation. So this one is simple. Make sure you mute everyone. If you’re using your Personal Meeting ID you might have this already set up.

You can mute everyone in the Participants sidebar, or as a global default setting in the web portal administration settings “Settings > Schedule Meeting > Mute all participants when they join a meeting”.

#7 Wear confidence clothes

Just because you can present in your PJs it doesn’t mean you should present in your PJs. Treat it like an on-stage talk and get ready in your mojo outfit. You’ll gain confidence and look more professional.

Something I like to do when I’m on the road presenting, is lay out my clothes the night before. It helps me get in the right mindset and also saves time the next day when you might be stressing out.

#8 Close all of your other software to prevent your machine slowing down

Take a look at your computer right now and count A) how many different apps are running, and B) how many tabs you have open in your browser.

Here’s a screenshot of mine, for reference.

Tabs open in Chrome? 39. Apps open? 20

You need to be concerned about two things, the amount of memory and processing power being hogged by all the apps you have open, and the number of ways you might receive a notification during your talk.

For PCs running Windows 10, there’s a built-in function to silence notifications when presenting . But if you’re a Mac user the settings for this are horrendous (slightly better in Big Sur). Fortunately there’s a free app called Muzzle that silences all of your notifications as soon as you share your screen.

#9 Have two pre-made slides ready for Q&A at the end of your virtual presentation

It’s common for your host to ask questions that the audience has submitted in the chat window (or the Q&A window for Zoom Webinars) at the end of your session. The best way to utilize this opportunity—if you’re still in control of the screen—is to have two slides prepared.

The first slide should simply have Q&A written on it, really big.

The second slide should be a promo slide with a special offer you have.

I like to leave up the Q&A slide until the questions start, then flip it to the promo slide so it can sit there for the next 5-10 minutes. It’s a great way to have it visible for a long period of time without actually having to be salesy in your presentation.

It’s fairly common that an event organizer will ask you if you have something to promote, but if they don’t, ask them if it’s okay that you use a slide at the end like this.

#10 Build a background set to make your virtual presentations look professional

If you spend a lot of time on Zoom, instead of using a Zoom background, start thinking about how you can built a bit of a set where you do your presentations. Not only will it look more professional, but it will fill you with confidence and make you feel like you’re in presentation mode when you’re there.

I’m fortunate to have a space for my office/studio, and I’ve seen and felt the difference a well-designed environment makes when I show up to work. It took me months to get it right, so don’t think you have to suddenly have something perfect. Just chip away at it over time, turning on your webcam every day and giving a little thought as to how you can make the space more special. Small shelves with plants or books can work great, and Pinterest is definitely your friend for this type of thing.

Many folks won’t have a dedicated workspace to claim as your “stage”, but I’m pretty sure your significant other won’t complain if you make your home that little bit nicer.

Speaking of “stages”, I actually built a stage in my studio—almost burning down the house in the process —but that’s a story for another time. Like I said, it took months to get to this stage. I keep saying stage.

#11 Reboot your computer the night before your virtual presentation

Restarting your computer can help speed it up a bit, especially if you haven’t done it in ages. Any little performance advantage you can get is valuable for a live presentation. It will help clear out any processes that are stuck or hogging the CPU.

However, it’s best not to do this right before your talk, as you risk it doing some weird software updates that take hours to complete.

#12 Do a test Zoom meeting to check your camera angles and lighting

As Springsteen said in Dancing in the Dark—”I check my look in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.”—you should always check how you look on camera before the presentation starts. Adjust the angle of the camera for your most flattering look and the best view of your background, which of course is a well-decorated wall, and not a zoom background of a beach or mountaintop.

Make sure to turn on the lights you’ll be using to light your lovely face, wick away any sweat using blotting wipes, and apply some simple makeup to remove shiny reflections from your head. More details on those techniques in the lighting section .

Here’s the smart part, record your test meeting and play it back to make sure there are no weird things in the background, it’s often easier to analyze a recording as opposed to your webcam view.

#13 Double-check your audio for background noise

At the same time as your camera check, watch your test recording and listen very carefully for any noise in the background. You’ll be surprised at how oblivious you can be to background noise when you’re busy and/or nervous.

Sounds to watch out for:

• Laundry sounds: Depending on where your washer/dryer are it may not be an issue, but the low hum can travel far. Start a Zoom recording, making sure to use which ever audio (mic) input you plan on using, go turn on your washer or dryer or dishwasher, then come back and replay the recording to see if it’s discernible. Crank the volume to make sure. There is NOTHING worse than doing a badass presentation then finding out the recording is ruined by a persistent hum in the background, or the sound of someone’s hoody zip clattering round and round in the dryer.
• Tube lights: If you have any tube lights where you are recording, or even in a nearby room, turn them off. They can be soooo noisy. Then put in the effort to replace them with silent LED tube bulbs when you have time. It does require some rewiring, but it’s not that hard—I did it recently and I made sure to choose bulbs with the same colour temperature as the lights I’ll be using to light me up in the video–more on that in the A/V chapter .
• Ceiling fans: Another subtle and repetitive sound. Turn ’em off unless the resulting heat will make you sweat to the point of scaring the audience.
• Heating: Not all heating is noisy, but many houses in North America use what’s called forced air. It’s noisy. A low hum, yes, but it’s an audio killer.
• Noisy clothes: Your clothes can cause bad scratching sounds—even if you use a shotgun microphone that’s not attached to your clothes—which is an audio killer. What happens is that any loose clothing rubs against you when you gesticulate with your arms. Tighter clothes like a t-shirt are the solution to this. I go into more depth including a comparison video in What to do When Noisy Clothes Ruin Your Audio .
• Noisy shoes: if you’re wearing any kind of heels, they will cause irritating sounds if you shuffle your feet (while presenting standing up, which you should do). The simplest solution is to take them off and present in your socks (or bare feet).
• Analog watches: I’m kidding.

And make sure everyone in the house knows not to bother you while you’re presenting. If you are in a room with a door, hang a sign on it with the time of your event, and say not to disturb you until you take the sign off the door.

Guess what? Not every thing you can do as a virtual presenter is something you should be doing—I’m talking about you, speaker who likes to take a bathroom break while mic’d up, two minutes before the session starts.

Similarly, not every feature of Zoom has a positive impact on the audience or speaker experience. In this short and not-so-sweet chapter I’ll give you some tips about things to avoid so your talks go more smoothly.

#1 Don’t use a free Zoom account for your presentation

If you’re running the show yourself this is an important one. The free Zoom plan allows up to 100 attendees which is great, and more than enough for a small event, however there is also a 40-minute time limit, which would be very embarrassing if you didn’t know that and all of a sudden everyone gets kicked out of your virtual event.

#2 Try to avoid saying “Can you hear me?”

This is a classic intro statement that nervous presenters ask, but it makes you sound unprofessional. Instead, make a subtle change to how you position it, like this:

“Thanks {host name}, let’s get started, and let us know in the chat window if you have any issues hearing my audio.”

#3 Don’t use your laptop’s microphone if your webcam is sitting on an external monitor

When you do this, the laptop will be off to one side and your audio will be really quiet and sound like you’re in a different room.

#4 Don’t use stock photos in your slides

Just as you shouldn’t use a stock photo as the header background on your website, you shouldn’t use them in your presentations. To illustrate my point, it’s way too common for software companies to think it’s cool to use an overhead shot of a laptop and a coffee cup. It’s actually hilarious how prevalent it is. I recommend entering the URL of any image you’re considering using into tineye.com which will tell you how many times it’s been used.

If you absolutely have to use one, try hard to find one that’s not so widely used. Unsplash.com is a good resource for free photography that’s typically got less of a stock feel to it.

But all in all, the best way to avoid using stock photos is to develop an original content mindset (in chapter 6) .

#5 Don’t use a Zoom background. You heard me.

Zoom backgrounds can be fun in meetings, but when you’re presenting it can look unprofessional and can be really distracting. It can also make some of your head/hair disappear and speaking for myself, I need all the hair I can get.

#6 Don’t record the call without permission

This is a big no-no on certain types of call. For a presentation you can make a statement that it’s being recorded, as this is always helpful information for attendees to know (no permission needed) but if it’s a meeting with a client, customer, or coworker, you should be explicit that you are recording and why: “If it’s okay with you I’d like to record the call so I don’t miss any of the details.” This is important when you are a guest in an interview too. Asking for permission will add a level of trust and respect in the eyes of who you are asking – and in the very rare occasion that they say no, be graceful and say okay no worries. Then follow up with,”I may be taking notes throughout so bare with me if I’m scribbling”.

Also be aware, that if you  are recording the session, everyone on the other side will see a blinking “recording” signal in the top-left corner, so there’s no creeping allowed.

To recap, remember these rules when it comes to recordings:

• Meetings: Ask for permission, and don’t record if your guest is uncomfortable with it.
• Presentations: Let people know that it’s being recorded and that you will be making it available after. Ideally after some post-production enhancements in chapter 11.

#7 Don’t be the host if you might leave early

This is a nightmare as the other participants are suddenly without a meeting and they might not know why. Then they have to re-coordinate to set up a new meeting, which is always a chore and often involves Slack or text messages or even worse, emails.

Intro Introduction to Virtual Presentations on Zoom

Chapter 1 18 Cool Zoom Features You Should Know About

Chapter 2 12 Things You Should Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 3 8 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 4 Defining Your Presentation’s Purpose

Chapter 5 How to Define Your Talk’s Structure, Story, & Flow

Chapter 6 41 Slide Design Tips for Virtual Presentations

Chapter 7 6 Ways to Make Eye Contact With an Invisible Audience

Chapter 8 How to do Audience Participation in a Virtual Presentation

Chapter 9 How to Share Content during a Zoom Presentation

Chapter 10 How to Create a Stunning Video and Audio Recording

Chapter 11 Using Post-Production to Add Value to Your Zoom Recording

Chapter 12 How to Use Your Phone as a Beautiful Webcam

Chapter 13 What to Do When Things go Wrong in Your Presentation

Chapter 14 How to Ground Yourself and Get Ready to Present

Chapter 15 Advanced & Creative Zoom Presentation Techniques

Chapter 16 The Difference Between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars

Chapter 17 23 Zoom Settings to Enable or Disable for a Smooth Presentation

How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation: An Expert Guide (Free Downloadable Playbook)

Zhun Yee Chew

Are your PowerPoint presentations lacking impact and failing to engage your audience? You’re not alone. I experienced that before. I used to spend hours carefully crafting the perfect PowerPoint presentations only to be met with disinterested faces.

In a world where attention spans are getting shorter, traditional PowerPoint presentations often struggle to hold the interest of the audience. So here’s the hard truth: unless you adapt and embrace interactivity in your PowerPoint presentations, your valuable hard work and content run the risk of getting lost in presentations.

Fret not, as in this comprehensive guide, we will share with you expert tips on how to make an interactive PowerPoint presentation through interactive animations, transitions, hyperlinks, quizzes, games, and many more.

And perhaps the sweetest part of the deal is that you will also have access to a downloadable playbook of 60+ pages with a wealth of tutorials, templates, cheat sheets, resources and tools to elevate your PowerPoint skills from average to extraordinary through interactive PowerPoint presentations.

Are you prepared to impress those who once found your presentation dull? If your answer is a resounding ‘yes,’ then let’s begin.

What is an Interactive Presentation?

What is an interactive powerpoint presentation.

Interactive PowerPoint presentations are simply PowerPoint presentations that are made interactive to convey information in a more dynamic and engaging manner.

Creating an interactive PowerPoint presentation involves deciding if you want to make your slide content interactive or if you want your audience to interact with your slides. 

Interactive PowerPoint presentations can generally be divided into two main dimensions: interaction with slide content through interactive elements and fostering interaction with the audience.

Interaction with Slide Content:

In the first dimension, PowerPoint presentations are made interactive through enhancing the slides content with interactive elements, usually native to PowerPoint. 

We will cover interactive elements including:

• Transitions
• Interactive data visualization
• Annotations. 

They function to enhance slide interactivity through adding movement to static objects, enabling non-linear slides navigation, as well as adding a dynamic touch to data and information presentation. 

Audience Interaction:

In the second dimension, PowerPoint presentations are made interactive through interaction between the presenter and the audience, usually with the help of PowerPoint add-in tools. We will cover: 

• Assessments
• Brainstorming
• Collaborative multimedia uploading

Once you have decided which strategy you would like to use, you can then follow  these step-by-step guide  and the following expert tips to turn your PowerPoint slides into an interactive experience!

Benefits of an Interactive Presentation

The fact that you are still reading this suggests that you don’t need further convincing on the benefits of interactive PowerPoint presentations. 

However, if you do, here are some quick statistics:

68% of individuals hold the belief that interactive presentations have a greater potential for being remembered. Webinar Care

This means that a simple action of making your PowerPoint slides interactive has a profound impact on how your presentation is received by the audience. From our years of experience creating interactive PowerPoint presentations, they generally: 

• Increases  engagement , motivation and knowledge  retention . 
• Result in better  impression  and more impactful messaging being conveyed.
• Allow presenters to better tailor their content or offerings to the audience or clients because they can gather  real-time feedback .
• Open up room for  creative   storytelling  and showcases.

Interactive Puzzle PowerPoint Templates

Master the tricks to turn your PowerPoint into an interactive experience today!

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – Before Presenting

1. add animations, but use them judiciously.

The first and most straightforward way of making your PowerPoint presentations interactive is through adding animations to your slides. However, so many people use PowerPoint animations the wrong way. PowerPoint animations are more than just making bullet points or images appear or fly in during your presentation.

Remember, using animations excessively in your PowerPoint presentation will only reduce the appeal and professionalism of your slides. The key is to use them judiciously and purposefully. Before you hit the “Animations” tab, ask yourself, “Does this animation enhance the message I want to convey to my audience?”  

2. Add 3D PowerPoint Animations Using PowerPoint Native 3D Stock Elements

Did you know that PowerPoint has free animated 3D elements you can use? We recommend you to try them up to instantly upgrade your presentation from ordinary to extraordinary. 

❓ How?  Simply go to Insert > 3D models > stock 3D models > animated models. And you will find a wide range of free 3D models ranging from food and animals to plants and characters, and many more. You can also select different animation scenes by heading to the Animations tab.

3. Add Animations With Triggers for Visual Excitement

You can take your PowerPoint animations up a notch by incorporating combining animations with triggers to create interactive pop-ups with extra information . These on-click pop-ups are valuable when presenting a map or when you want to explore specific aspects of an object or topic in more detail. You can also use these pop-ups as markers to alert the audience to exciting elements within different parts of the slide, as such: 

❓How? To create on-click pop-ups in your PowerPoint slides, first add shapes that will become clickable buttons, one to “open” the pop-up and the other to “close” the pop-up. Then, add text boxes with extra information you want to show, as well as entrance and exit animations. Combine the animations with “triggers” to activate the animations when the open or close buttons are clicked on. 

For a more detailed tutorial on this pop-up animation, download our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook  below. 👇

4. add non-linear slide transition.

A quick way to add interactivity to your PowerPoint slides is by using PowerPoint transitions. The first we want to discuss is PowerPoint Zoom. PowerPoint Zoom enables you to zoom in and out of and navigate to specific sections or slides on click, anytime during your presentation.

To  access the PowerPoint Zoom feature : click on Insert in the  PowerPoint ribbon  >  Zoom  > then choose  Slide ,  Section , or  Summary   Zoom . Each of these PowerPoint Zoom option serves slightly different functions:

• Slide Zoom: zooms into specific slides
• Section zoom: zooms into specific sections
• Summary Zoom: creates a summary slide for the different slides or sections in your PowerPoint presentation for easy navigation.

❓ How? To  set up PowerPoint slide zoom , select the starting slide where you wish to implement the Zoom effect. Next, click  Insert  >  Zoom  >  Slide Zoom . Here, you can pick the specific slide or slides you want to zoom in on. Click the Insert button, and thumbnails of the chosen slides will be added to your current slide.

Alternatively, for a more manual setup process, you can also set up a navigation menu at the beginning of your presentation that allows the audience to jump to different sections or slides using hyperlinks.  Read more in the Hyperlinks section below. 

5. Add PowerPoint Morph

Like PowerPoint Zoom, PowerPoint Morph empowers presenters to create dynamic transitions that elevate the visual storytelling in their presentations. But PowerPoint Morph brings storytelling to a whole new level and adds a layer of intrigue to your slides by simulating object transitions or evolution across slides. It functions similarly to animations but offers a smoother and more organic visual experience, without the need for complex setup steps. 

Personally, we think the outcomes generated by PowerPoint Morph are more professional and polished-looking as compared to traditional animations. And if you are looking for a more advanced-looking presentation, try this 3D morph animation In PowerPoint .

We’d also like to share with you the numerous applications of PowerPoint Morph contributed by our colleagues and PowerPoint professionals at ClassPoint:

• Moving background
• Rotating wheel
• Rotating cogs
• Photo gallery
• Slide Zoom with Morph
• Creative reveal
• Parallax effect
• Continuous slide transition
• Phone frame
• Movie frame

Gain access to free templates for all these PowerPoint Morph applications and effects by downloading our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook. 👇

6. add hyperlinks – they can link to so many more places than just websites.

Much like PowerPoint Zoom, hyperlinks enable presenters to create interactive menus and navigation structures, allowing audiences to jump to specific slides or sections effortlessly. However, while PowerPoint Zoom primarily focuses on creating a visual and interactive overview of content within a single presentation, hyperlinks extend this capability to connect with external resources, web content, or even additional PowerPoint files. 

There are a few ways you could add hyperlinks to your PowerPoint presentation to transform  it into an interactive experience effortlessly: 

4 Ways You Can Add Hyperlinks to PowerPoint: 

• Slide Transition : You can navigate to specific slides in a non-linear manner by simply inserting a hyperlink into your current slide. Head over to Insert > Link > This Document and select the slide you want to link to. You can apply hyperlinks to text, shapes, or pictures. 

• Interactive Navigation Menu : Adding an interactive navigation menu at the beginning of your presentation allows clear navigation between different slides and sections in your presentation. Head over to Insert > Link > This Document and select the slides you want to link to.

• Action Buttons : With hyperlinks, you can also create Action Buttons in your PowerPoint presentations to make your PowerPoint slides behave like interactive web pages, allowing users to navigate, explore, and engage with the content in a dynamic and user-friendly manner. Head over to Insert > Action Buttons and choose from the selection.

• Embedded Content : You can also hyperlink your PowerPoint slides to embedded content like PDFs, spreadsheets, and even web pages. Simply click Insert > Object and select the file you would like to embed in your PowerPoint slides. This way, you can remove the hassle of toggling between various files or windows during your presentation.

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – When Presenting

1. turn your powerpoint slides into interactive quizzes.

The traditional way to add interactive quizzes to PowerPoint is through an unfavorable process of combining complex animations with triggers and hyperlinks. Let’s be honest, it takes an eternity! Even though PowerPoint offers an extensive range of presentation tools, it does not have audience interactivity built at its core. 

The good news is, audience interactivity can actually be effortlessly achieved with the various PowerPoint add-ins as listed below: 

We will get to polls and games in a bit. For now, let’s show you how you can turn your PowerPoint slides into an interactive quiz in a just a few clicks with PowerPoint add-ins like  ClassPoint , which offers a wide range of interactive quizzes from  Short Answer  and  Word Cloud , to Multiple Choice questions.

How to Create An Interactive Quiz in PowerPoint In A Few Clicks

Once you have downloaded ClassPoint, you will have a suite of additional interactive quiz features added to your PowerPoint ribbon. 

To turn  your PowerPoint slide  content into interactive  quizzes, simply  click on any of the interactive quiz features and add them to your slide. Enter PowerPoint Slideshow mode and you can start the quiz immediately. 

2. Run Gradable Assessments inside PowerPoint

With the versatile PowerPoint add-in,  ClassPoint , you can also create assessments and collect real-time responses right inside PowerPoint. This is wonderful news for teachers! All you have to do is set up  interactive Multiple Choice questions  and enable  Quiz Mode . 

ClassPoint’s Quiz Mode introduces an  automatic grading  feature to your Multiple Choice questions within PowerPoint presentations created with ClassPoint. This feature not only automates the grading process but also includes automatic star ratings, the option to select difficulty levels, and provides a quiz summary along with an exportable quiz report, making it the perfect tool for classroom formative assessments in PowerPoint!

3. Incorporate Annotations During Slideshow

Another unique way to interact with your PowerPoint slides is through the use of annotations. With annotations, you as the presenter can interact with your slides to draw your audience’s attention to specific details, highlight key points, and tell a more coherent story. 

There are 3 ways you could use annotations in PowerPoint: 

• PowerPoint Draw Tab:  To utilize the PowerPoint Draw Tab, click on the “Draw” tab in your PowerPoint ribbon and begin annotating anywhere on your slides using built-in features like the pen, highlighter, and Ink to Shape. However, please note that PowerPoint Draw only allows annotation in Edit mode.

• PowerPoint Pen Tools:  Another option for native PowerPoint annotation tools that permit annotation during slideshow mode can be found by clicking the pencil icon located in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen during a presentation. You can use the pen, highlighter, or laser tools to annotate any part of your slides during the presentation.

• ClassPoint  Toolbar:  The ClassPoint toolbar serves as an enhanced, free alternative to PowerPoint’s existing pen tools. It offers a broader range of additional annotation features, including text boxes, shapes, spotlight effects, fully customizable pens and highlighters, and more. This enables you to transform your PowerPoint slides into a creative canvas that will captivate your audience throughout your presentation.

4. Run Ice Breakers and Brainstorming Sessions in PowerPoint

The uses of interactive PowerPoint add-ins like  ClassPoint  are not only limited to teaching and learning. Give your PowerPoint meetings and presentations a strong start with a collaborative and dynamic brainstorming experience.

You can enhance your PowerPoint presentations and turn them into an interactive brainstorming experience by incorporating  Word Cloud  in PowerPoint, inviting participants to instantly contribute ideas, keywords, or concepts. This allows everyone to dynamically visualize emerging trends and interesting ideas.

❓ How? To start a brainstorming session in PowerPoint, click on the “Word Cloud”  button in your PowerPoint ribbon once you have downloaded ClassPoint to add the “Word Cloud” feature in your PowerPoint slides. Then enter PowerPoint slideshow mode to start brainstorming! 

5. Add Draggable Slide Objects (And Why It’s Better than Animations!)

Similar to animations, draggable objects allow you to interact with your slide objects freely during slideshow mode, except than you can do so with full control of where you want the slide elements to go!

This dynamic presentation feature adds an element of visual interest that captures your audience’s attention and can be a valuable tool for explaining complex ideas. Moreover, it has the potential to serve various purposes, such as revealing hidden information or acting as a movable marker to indicate your position on the slide content. You can also use it for group drag-and-drop activities, such as matching, categorizing, sorting, and more. You can either perform these actions yourself to provide a visual explanation or engage your audience by letting them instruct the movement of images and text on the slide.

❓ How? Draggable objects is a unique tool that is possible inside PowerPoint with the use of the add-in ClassPoint. Download ClassPoint, free PowerPoint add-in, the select any shape, image, illustration, or text on your slide to become draggable by clicking on “Draggable Objects” in your PowerPoint ribbon, and toggling “Drag enabled” on the side panel.

In slideshow mode, click on the draggable objects hand from the ClassPoint toolbar at the bottom of your screen to start dragging your slide objects around!

6. Create Playable Games In PowerPoint (Without Animations or Hyperlinks)

Much like interactive quizzes, PowerPoint games add a layer of interactivity and fun to PowerPoint presentations. However, what sets PowerPoint games apart is their ability to introduce competition through gamification. 

Here are  3 ways  you can instantly gamify your PowerPoint slides with  gamification elements :

• Set Up a Point and Reward System : Define how your participants can earn stars and points, and  award stars  to them when they have accomplished a goal during your presentation. 
• Add  Levels and Badges  to PowerPoint : Every game benefits from having levels and badges, and your PowerPoint game is no exception. You can create a simple game within PowerPoint by incorporating  questions  into your slides and defining the points and scores needed to progress to higher levels. When it comes to badges, you have the creative freedom to tailor them to your audience. For example, in an educational setting, badges can be skill-focused, while in a social gathering, they can take the form of fantasy characters that participants aspire to collect
• Add a  Leaderboard  to PowerPoint : Leaderboards are essential to keep track of scores or points during a PowerPoint game. You can of course create a manual leaderboard using PowerPoint’s tables and hyperlinks, but an easier and more straightforward way of implementing a leaderboard in your PowerPoint is using add-ins like  ClassPoint  and  Vevox .

With these fundamentals of gamification in place, you are now ready to create fun and exhilarating games in PowerPoint. 

Here is a full walk-through on  how you can create a PowerPoint game  in a few simple steps. 

If you are an educator, this  free trivia PowerPoint template and these 5 interactive PowerPoint game templates tailored for the classroom will be useful for you.

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – After Presenting

1. run real-time polls in powerpoint.

Think of a memorable presentation you have attended? Did it use live polls? We bet it did! Live polling are especially helpful after a PowerPoint presentation to gather feedback for future improvement.

Traditional poll tools require presenters to switch between tabs during presentation. Thanks to PowerPoint add-ins such as  ClassPoint ,  Mentimeter  and  Poll Everywhere , this is no longer the case. And by eliminating the need to switch between different applications or tabs, the presentation experience becomes more fluid and engaging.

2. From Static to Interactive Data Visualisation

Incorporating interactivity through data visualization after a presentation concludes is a potent strategy for enhancing audience engagement and comprehension. Once the primary content delivery is complete, you can transition into a dynamic display of data or feedback you have gathered from your audience using interactive charts, graphs, or infographics.

This approach empowers your audience to explore the information at their own pace, dig deeper into specific data points, and ensure a two-way communication between the presenter and the audience. Whether it’s zooming in on specific trends, toggling between different data sets, or going through feedback, interactive data visualization encourages active participation and a deeper connection with the presented information. 

We recommend the following 2 ways to display data into your presentation:

• Insert tables, charts and graphs, and add a touch of interactivity through animations.

Below is a list of 10 PowerPoint animations most suitable for different kinds of graphs and charts: 

• Embed a website with data you want to go over. I’m not talking about a link that leaves PowerPoint for your default browser, but an actual embedded browser that loads your websites without leaving PowerPoint! Plus you can insert the page as a picture into your slide and start annotating on it!

Now that you have a collection of strategies and tips at your disposal, you are better prepared to leave your old and dusty PowerPoint toolkit behind and embrace these refreshing ideas. Whether your ultimate aim is to create a captivating classroom experience, deliver a memorable business pitch, or simply wow your friends and peers during  PowerPoint nights , don’t forget to: 

• Add animations, but use them sparingly.
• Make use of non-linear transitions and storytelling. 
• Turn simple transitions into stunning visual experience with PowerPoint Morph.
• Make creative use of polls, quizzes and games. 
• Make your presentation human with Bitmoji.
• Build anticipation with interactive presentation tools like annotations and drag and drop.
• Try out these 160 fun PowerPoint ideas for your next presentation!

To read more about Interactive PowerPoint Presentations, you can download our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook, which includes comprehensive guides, tutorials on various interactive PowerPoint presentation methods, cheat sheets, and a wide range of resources for mastering the art of creating interactive PowerPoint presentations.

About Zhun Yee Chew

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How to Make a Presentation Interactive | 2024 Revealed 7 Creative Ways

Lakshmi Puthanveedu • 08 April, 2024 • 16 min read

Are your presentations putting people to sleep faster than a bedtime story? It’s time to shock some life back into your lessons with interactivity🚀

Let’s defibrillate the “Death by PowerPoint” and show you lightning-quick ways on how to make a presentation interactive .

With these tips, you’ll be able to activate that dopamine drip and get butts in seats leaning in – not delving deep into the chairs!

Table of Contents

What is an interactive presentation.

• Why Use an Interactive Presentation?

#1. Create icebreaker games🧊

• #2. Make use of props 📝

#3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 🎲

#4. tell a compelling story, #5. organise a brainstorming session, #6. make a word cloud for the topic, #7. bring out the poll express, easy interactive activities for presentations, more presentation examples you could learn from.

Start in seconds.

Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

Keeping your audience engaged is the most critical and challenging part, regardless of the topic or how casual or formal the presentation is. 

An interactive presentation is a presentation that works two ways. The presenter asks questions during the production, and the audience responds directly to those questions.

Let’s take an example of an interactive poll .

The presenter displays a poll question on the screen. The audience can then submit their answers live through their mobile phones, and the results are immediately displayed on the screen, as shown in the image below.

Making an interactive presentation does not have to be complex or stressful. It’s all about letting go of the static, linear presentation format and using some tools and techniques to create a personal, more involved experience for the audience.

With software like AhaSlides , you can easily create interactive presentations with tons of interactive quizzes, polls, and live Q&A sessions for your audience. Keep reading to find out fired tips on how to make a presentation interactive 👇

Why Interactive Presentation?

Presentations are still one of the commonly used methods to pass on information. Still, no one likes to sit through long, monotonous presentations where the host doesn’t stop talking.

Interactive presentations can help. They…

• Increase audience engagement , allowing them to connect with you and the purpose of the presentation. 64% of people believe a flexible presentation with two-way interaction is more engaging than a linear one.
• Improve retention capacity . 68% say that it’s easier to remember the information when the presentation is interactive.
• Tips: Use a rating scale to gather feedback !
• Act as a break from the routine and allow participants to have an enjoyable experience.
• Interactive presentation ideas
• Interactive presentation games
• Interactive presentation techniques
• Interactive presentation ideas for students
• 11 Types of interactive presentation software

How to Make a Presentation Interactive

Whether you are hosting a virtual or offline presentation, there are many ways you can make it engaging, exciting and two-way for your audience.

Starting a presentation is always one of the most challenging parts. You are nervous; the audience might still be settling, there might be people not familiar with the topic – the list could go on. Get to know your audience, ask them questions about how they are feeling, how their day was, or maybe share a funny story to get them hooked and excited.

🎊 Learn: Use 180 Fun General Knowledge Quiz Questions and Answers to gain better engagement

#2. Make use of Props 📝

Making a presentation interactive does not mean you have to let go of traditional tricks of engaging the audience. You could bring a lighting stick or a ball to pass around to the audience when they want to ask a question or share something.

Games and quizzes will always remain the star of the show, no matter how complex the presentation is. You don’t necessarily have to create them related to the topic; these could also be introduced into the presentation as fillers or as a fun activity.

💡 Want more? Get 10 interactive presentation techniques here!

Stories work like a charm in any situation. Introducing a complex physics topic? You could tell a story about Nicola Tesla or Albert Einstein. Want to beat the Monday blues in the classroom? Tell a story! Want an icebreaker activity to start a presentation? 

Well, you know… ask the audience to tell a story! 

There are many ways you could use storytelling in a presentation. You could pitch an outline to the students and ask them to build the rest of the story. 

Or, you could tell a story till just before the ending and ask the audience how they think the story ended.

You’ve created a stellar presentation. You’ve introduced the topic and are mid-way through the exhibition. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back, take a break and see how your students put some effort into taking the presentation forward?

Brainstorming helps get the students excited about the topic and allows them to think creatively and critically.

💡 Get an engaged class with 6 more interactive presentation ideas

Want to make sure your audience gets the concept or topic of the presentation without making it feel like an interrogation? 

Live word clouds are fun and interactive and ensure the main topic is not lost in the presentation. Using a live word cloud generator , you can ask the audience what they think is the main topic for the production.

How do you feel about using visual aids in your presentation? It’s not anything new, right? 

But what if you can merge funny pictures with an interactive poll? That’s got to be interesting! 

“How do you feel right now?” 

This simple question could be turned into an interactive fun activity with the help of images and GIFs describing your mood. Present it to the audience in a poll, and you could display the results on the screen for everyone to see.

This is a great, super simple icebreaker activity that can help revitalise team meetings, especially when some folks are working remotely.

💡 We’ve got more – 10 interactive presentation ideas for work .

Whether you’re hosting something for your colleagues, students or friends, retaining their attention for a while can be a daunting task.

Games such as What Would You Do? and 4 Corners are easy interactive activities to help the audience get back on track with your presentation …

What Would You Do?

Isn’t it interesting to know what someone would do in a particular situation or how they would handle it? In this game, you give the audience a scenario and ask how they would deal with it.

Say, for example, you are having a fun night with your friends and family. You could ask questions like, “What would you do if you could be invisible to the human eye?” and see how they handle the given situation.

If you’ve got remote players, this is a tremendous interactive Zoom game .

This is a perfect game for anyone with an opinion. It’s a great way to start a conversation on your presentation’s topic before diving into the meat of it.

You announce a statement and see how everyone feels about it. Each participant shows how they think by moving to one corner of the room. The corners are labelled ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘strongly disagree’, and ‘disagree’. 

Once everyone has taken their place in the corners, you could have a debate or discussion between the teams.

🎲 Looking for more? Check out 11 interactive presentation games !

The 5 Best Interactive Presentation Software

Making a presentation interactive is so much easier with the right tool.

Many interactive presentation websites let your audience respond directly to the content of your presentation and see the results on the big screen. You ask them a question in the form of a poll, word cloud, brainstorming or even a live quiz, and they respond with their phones.

#1 – AhaSlides

AhaSlides presentation platform will let you host fun, interactive presentations for all your needs, with quizzes, live Q&As, word clouds, brainstorming slides, and such.

The audience can join the presentation from their phones and interact with it live. Whether you are presenting to your students, a businessman who wants to hold team-building activities, or someone who wants to have a fun quiz game for your friends and family, this is a great tool you can use, with a ton of fun interactive options.

If you are looking for ways to boost your team’s creativity at your workplace, then Prezi is an excellent tool.

It is a bit similar to how a standard linear presentation would be but more imaginative and creative. With a huge template library and many animated elements, Prezi lets you create a cool, interactive display in no time.

Although the free version does not come with many features, spending a little on the tool is worth it to create content for any occasion.

🎊 Learn more: Top 5+ Prezi Alternatives | 2024 Reveal From AhaSlides

NearPod is a good tool that most educators would get a kick out of. It is specifically designed to cater to educational needs, and the free basic version lets you host a presentation for up to 40 students.

Teachers can build lessons, share them with students and monitor their results. One of the best features of NearPod is the Zoom integration, where you can merge your ongoing Zoom lesson with the interactive presentation.

The tool also has various interactive features such as memory tests, polls, quizzes and video embedding features.

Canva is an easy-to-use kit that even a person with no design experience could master in a few minutes.

With the drag-and-drop feature of Canva, you can create your slides in no time and that too with copyright-free images and a ton of design templates to choose from.

🎉 Learn more: Canva Alternatives | 2024 Reveal | Updated 12 Free and Paid Plans

Keynote for Mac

Keynote is one of the most popular bits of presentation software for Mac . It comes pre-installed and can be easily synced to iCloud, making it accessible across all Apple devices. Along with creating engaging presentations, you can also add a little bit of creativity by adding doodles and illustrations to your presentation.

Keynote presentations can also be exported to PowerPoint, allowing flexibility for the presenter.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i make my presentation more interactive.

You can make a presentation more interactive with these 7 simple strategies: 1. Create icebreaker games 2. Make use of props 3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 4. Tell a compelling story 5. Organise a session using brainstorming tool 6. Make a word cloud for the topic 7. Bring out the Poll Express

Can I make my PowerPoint interactive?

Yes, you can use PowerPoint’s AhaSlides add-in to save time and effort while still being able to create interactive activities like polls, Q&A or quizzes.

How can you make presentations interactive to get students involved?

Here are some effective ways to make presentations more interactive and get students involved: 1. Use polls/surveys 2. Use quizzes, leaderboards, points to make the content feel more game-like and fun. 3. Pose questions and cold call on students to answer and discuss their thinking. 4. Insert relevant videos and have students analyse or reflect on what they saw.

• Presentation outfit
• TED talks presentation
• Body language during a presentation
• How to get over Stage Fright
• Personality in a presentation
• Benefits of presentation software
• Zoom presentation tips
• Easy topic for presentation

To help you craft an impactful presentation, let’s explore some common pitfalls and how to overcome them

• Bad speeches
• Bad presentation at work
• Death by PowerPoint

Lakshmi Puthanveedu

A small-town girl enthralled by culture, languages, and sunsets. Casual artist and musician looking to make memories every step of the way. Now changing the way humans live and have virtual interactions with AhaSlides.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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• Certifications

PowerPoint Zoom: A Great Way to Make Interactive Presentations

• December 27, 2022
• 98 Comments

The PowerPoint zoom feature is a great way to make the presentation dynamic and interactive. When you use this feature, the slides are not presented in a usual order. This feature helps present slides in any order as one likes during the presentation making it more interactive .

This feature is available in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft office 2019. It is not available in other modules.

Have you read our blog on  80 PowerPoint Shortcut Keys

Understanding the Zoom Feature

Zoom feature can be leveraged in just 2 steps

Step 1 – Create basic slides

Create the slides you want to have in your presentation.

For our example, we have 5 slides showing the Presentation rules.

Step 2 – Insert the Zoom Feature

To insert the Zoom feature. Insert an additional blank slide. Then Go to  Insert > Zoom

Then Select  Slide Zoom.

Choose the slides you want in the Zoom Summary slide. Then  click insert.  You get the screen shots of the selected slides on one slide. This slide becomes your  Summary Zoom Slide .

Format the Summary Zoom Slide. Change the background (if required) and place the screen shots as required (Example shown below).

Now when you go to the presentation mode, you have the option to jump to specific slides and portions of your presentation by clicking on the relevant screen shot.

You can decide where to go based on the flow of the presentation . Summary Zoom Slide helps you control your presentation. You can get move ahead, skip a section, or revisit slides of your presentation without interrupting the flow of your presentation.

Now let us discuss a few other important points.

Here is  Free PowerPoint course to learn basic skills

Section Zoom

This feature is useful if your presentation has multiple slides in one section. In such case, divide your presentation to the appropriate sections. Then insert a blank Slide and Go to Insert > Zoom > Insert Section Zoom. Seen Screen shots below.

Once you  click insert.  You get the screen shots of the selected sections on one slide. This slide becomes your  Summary Zoom Slide .

Now you can choose specific sections you want to present based on the flow of your presentation.

Read our blog on  How to Create an Effective Business Presentation in 5 Steps

Change Image

Instead of screenshots (as shown in the example) if you want to use any other image, click on the slide screenshot then Click on  Zoom > Change Image

Once you click on Change image, you can select the images from a file , or select online. You can also use icons.

Once you make the relevant selection, the slide screen shot changes to the chosen image.

Return to Zoom

If you want to move to the Zoom Summary slide after discussing the chosen slide or section, you should select Return to Zoom.

Click on the slide screenshot then Click on  Zoom >Return to Zoom

You should repeat this step for all the slides in the Summary Zoom slide. For select slides/section, if you do not want to move back to the Summary Zoom slide then do not choose this option.

Zoom Transition

The Zoom Transition feature helps create an impressive visual effect when you move from one slide to the other. The default option chosen is Zoom Transition. If you do not want this transition effect, then Go to  Zoom> Deselect Zoom Transition

Want to  master in Presentation Skills , Join our  PowerPoint Online Course  right here.

There are multiple design options/border/effects options available in the Zoom Feature. These can be chosen to change the images on the Zoom Summary slide.

This is how we can make our presentation lively. Rather than following the usual flow of slides, with the help of the new Zoom feature we can navigate between slides depending on the flow of our presentation.

Keep learning new things and have fun.

Sign up for our  PowerPoint Presentation Skills Training Online

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Grow Your Business

How to design an interactive webinar, share this article.

Designing an interactive webinar helps drive audience engagement. But contrary to popular belief, webinar interaction goes beyond a webinar’s title or even its topic.

Interactive webinars are about resonating with your audience in meaningful ways, delivering high-value insight, and connecting with them on a personal level. For some, webinars are just a step in a marketing or sales funnel; for others, they’re a critical point of face-to-face contact with a community.

In this article, we’ll explore how to create an interactive webinar that captivates your audience, drives engagement before, during, and after the event, and utilizes effective interactive elements. Learn why making your webinars interactive is essential and how to implement strategies that enhance audience participation and overall success. Let’s begin!

Skip ahead:

Start with your audience (not your webinar)

Ask your audience questions, lead with interactive webinar content, create engaging titles , begin with icebreakers, leverage storytelling, incorporate interactive elements into webinar design, staff moderators for webinar engagement , designing engaging visuals and presentations, find your golden hour, challenge your audience , begin with the right webinar platform, final thoughts, 12 tips on how to make a webinar interactive.

Understanding your audience is the foundation of a successful interactive webinar. 

Sure, this article focuses on how to make a webinar interactive, but a truly interactive experience begins long before you brainstorm a webinar title or an outline. An interactive webinar starts with a deep understanding of your audience, what they want and need (even if they don’t know what they need just yet). 

Who’s your audience? 

Info you have on your target audience should include the following:

• Marital and family status
• Personal interest
• Personal or professional pain points 

Your webinar’s audience and your business’s target audience may vary slightly. In many cases, your webinar audience will be a subset of your overall audience. But, for smaller companies or those with one primary product, these two audiences may be the same. 

Webinars are often just one step in the larger buyer journey. In other words, they’re a part of your marketing and sales funnel, typically closer to the purchasing decision. This means each sales funnel may warrant its own webinar with its own unique audience and strategy. 

That’s why it’s critical to know how your general audience may differ slightly from the broader group, deviating from the general age, income, pain points, and other factors of your larger audience. You can’t create an engaging or interactive webinar if you misunderstand what your audience needs or wants, which brings us to the next question.

What does your audience want or need?

Anticipating your customers’ needs involves understanding them so thoroughly that you can identify gaps in existing solutions and offer refined or entirely new products to fill voids they may not even realize exist. By deeply analyzing market trends and competitor shortfalls, you can proactively address these needs and set your offerings apart. 

For example, Netflix saw a growing need for on-demand content and filled that void by transitioning from a DVD rental service to an online streaming platform, revolutionizing how people consume media and addressing an audience need no one else knew existed. 

Don’t know what your audience wants or needs? Then ask. 

Webinar engagement begins long before users sign into Zoom, and it begins by asking your audience the right questions. 

Ask questions before, during, and after your webinar, including when researching your target audience for your webinar.

Pre-webinar surveys allow you to get a pulse on what your audience wants from you or the challenges they’re experiencing. Live polls can help you gauge how your audience responds to content in real time. Post-webinar feedback will help you improve for future sessions and keep the conversation going on social channels, via email, or in community spaces.

Here are some examples of questions you can ask throughout your relationship with your audience:

Pre-Webinar:

• What questions do you have about our product or service?
• What challenges are you currently facing in ______? (Ex: fitness coaching, parenting, or marketing)

During the webinar:

• How familiar are you with ______? (Insert the topic of your webinar.)
• Which of the following strategies have you tried before?
• Can you think of any potential obstacles in applying these techniques to your work?

Post-Webinar:

• How familiar are you with ______ now? (Insert the topic of your webinar. This is an excellent follow-up if you asked this question earlier.)
• Would you like to suggest any topics for our next webinar?
• What resources can we provide to better support you in ______? (Insert action, goal, or other initiative. Ex: driving web traffic, improving customer onboarding, launching your podcast.)

Continuing engagement:

• How have you implemented strategies from our webinar on ______? 
• What challenges have you encountered since our webinar on ______? 

Once you’ve identified what your audience wants or needs from you, it’s time to begin thinking more deeply about the content of your webinar. As you review your list of topics, we recommend focusing on the naturally engaging topics first. These are topics that lend themselves to interactivity. 

For example, AI is a hot topic in most industries right now. A webinar discussing AI in ______ (industry) will likely generate natural questions throughout the webinar. 

Want another example? In our very own Trends in Action series , Maddie Spear led a webinar on leveraging micro-learning, a trend that really took off in late 2018 and early 2019. Naturally, our audience of online course creators was interested in how this trend could help them build their digital brand. 

Fostering interaction doesn’t end with your topic, though; you can also create webinar interactivity by leveraging various webinar formats. These include interviews, ask-me-anythings (AMAs), panel discussions, and case studies. 

Sprout Social recently hosted a webinar on building data-powered social strategies following the panel model. Adding to the interactivity, the webinar featured a celebrity guest host, Erin Throlopolis. Erin, also known as Corporate Erin, creates satirical content highlighting the dysfunction of corporate environments. Erin significantly boosted the webinar viewership and chat engagement.

Know what you’re going to talk about in your webinar? Then, you can finally create an engaging title. 

Notice how this wasn’t the first step? All too often, people get swept up in the “fun” parts of creating a webinar. However, similar to the backward-by-design approach to teaching, creating an interactive webinar means you have to focus on the meat of the webinar before moving on to the metaphorical dessert. 

When creating an engaging webinar title, you should consider three things: 

• SEO: Whether you’re marketing your webinar on your website or Instagram and YouTube, you should optimize your landing pages, webinar descriptions, and title for the search engines your content will live on. This will help it get discovered in the weeks and months leading up to the event. 
• Clarity: Your title should indicate what you’ll discuss. Bonus points if it also leaves your audience with a clear understanding of key outcomes. 
• Intrigue: If you’re hoping to create an interactive webinar, you need to show (not tell) how interesting it will be. This means creating a title that generates intrigue in your audience and a curiosity to discover more. 

Finally, as you brainstorm and refine your title, consider running A/B tests. This is where the only variable you change is your title. The rest of the content remains the same, whether that’s a description, imagery, graphic design, or some other element. This will allow you to test two titles, one called “A” and the other “B,” against each other. The one with the most engagement (likes, clicks, signups, you decide) is the one you move forward with for the best results.

“We’re going to give everyone a few more minutes to join.” We all know the corporate digital jargon. It’s boring.

So, instead of starting your webinar by having people waiting, have them interact with you and other participants immediately.

Some interactive and engaging ideas include beginning with trivia, introductory quizzes, or sharing fun facts about the speakers. You can also ask attendees about their expectations or previous experiences with similar topics. The goal is to engage your punctual audience members so they don’t feel like their time is unappreciated while balancing the feelings of those who may be running behind (possibly at no fault of their own).

Whether you choose to engage participants with an interview, panel discussion, or other form of engagement, one thing remains true: people are driven by stories, and we have been since the beginning of time. Lean into it. 

Here are three ways you can:

Follow a narrative structure

In the Trends in Action series we referenced earlier, Kyle Scott, President of SERHANT Ventures, leads a webinar titled “How to multiply your revenue through a value ladder strategy.” In his webinar, he begins by sharing some groundbreaking figures (in 2019, SERHANT Ventures was driving over 100K in revenue each day on the Thinkific platform). 

Scott leads participants past this initial point of intrigue (and awe) with narration, guiding viewers along the SERHANT journey, detailing what the business did to achieve this level of success and how you can implement a similar strategy. 

While it’s hard not to be intrigued at that level of success, Scott deepens the level of engagement by taking people along a personal narration of actual events. This method of storytelling is much more powerful than if he were to simply present the strategy.

Share personal stories

Imposter syndrome can creep in following a story like Scott’s. But just because your own story might not feel as “grand” doesn’t mean it’s any less inspiring. 

Personal stories allow you, your webinar cohost, or panelists to share bits of information that tie you to the topic of your webinar and make the content relevant for your audience. 

Unlike a narrative structure or case study (up next), personal stories can be short anecdotes that span the length of a slide. They can also last several slides or act as bookends, creating interest at the beginning of your webinar and closing the loop at the end.

Share case studies

Case studies, sometimes called customer success stories, are, well, stories. These stories typically fall on the more business (less personal) side of the storytelling spectrum but are stories nonetheless. 

A case study focuses on one client or customer who’s seen success with your product or service. It will dive into the details, covering the customer’s pain points and problems, what led them to you, how your solution helped, and the results they saw. 

Typically, case studies highlight facts and figures from your customer’s story. For example, this customer success story on George Pitts discusses his journey from struggling financially to becoming a seven-figure businessperson. 

While this type of story can be both interesting and interactive, it likely speaks to your target audience more directly than a personal anecdote or narrative will. Keep this method in your pocket for when you’re building a webinar for a super-specific audience who’s already traveled pretty far down your sales funnel. 

Incorporating interactive elements we’ve already discussed, like surveys and quizzes, can help keep your audience engaged. Other methods like Q&As, games, and breakout sessions can work too. Engaging content helps maintain audience interest and makes your webinar more dynamic and memorable.

So, if you’re wondering how to make a webinar interactive, here are some ways you can build these into your session for increased engagement:

• Integrating polls and surveys: Polls and surveys help you gather feedback or information during your event. While you can gather information for use after the webinar ends, don’t forget that you can also use this information to help you pivot in real time, catering to audience needs and interests in the moment. 
• Schedule time for webinar interactivity: Scheduled dedicated time for audience engagement in your webinar. Additionally, use your event time wisely by preparing for expected or frequently asked questions ahead of time so you can spend more time on questions you weren’t expecting. 
• Gamify your content: Gamifying your interactions can take basic polls and quizzes to the next level. Create teams, distribute awards to the best answers, highest scores, or something else. The goal is to garner audience investment and make the experience fun.
• Encourage audience participation: Prompt your audience to share their thoughts and experiences related to the topic. Use interactive whiteboards or live chats to facilitate real-time discussions.

As you think about adding interactivity to your webinar, don’t forget to plan with intention. Audience engagement shouldn’t be an afterthought, and slapping a 10-minute Q&A at the end of your webinar will make it feel like exactly that. 

Aim to engage your audience meaningfully every 5-15 minutes.

One often overlooked component in fostering webinar interaction is the moderator.

A moderator is the person running the show behind Zoom’s digital curtain. They’re responsible for most of the logistics during your webinar. Things like letting participants in, answering their chat questions, or navigating technical difficulties often fall to the moderator.

Best practice is to staff one moderator per 50 participants. That’s a pretty small number of participants, which is why so many businesses overlook this and fail to engage their audience properly.

Your moderators will help you ask questions, answer participant questions, display polls, and so much more, leading to an interactive experience for your participants. Moderators can also facilitate breakout sessions, ensuring smooth transitions and keeping discussions on track. Without moderators, hosts (you included) wouldn’t have time to juggle both being “on stage” and managing audience engagement.

As part of a marketing and sales funnel, webinars are a branded experience. That means the webinar should follow brand standards. This includes graphic design (imagery, logo, typography, etc.), voice, tone, and style.

But following brand standards doesn’t mean your webinar has to be boring. You can create a visually dynamic experience within your business’ standards. Not design savvy? No problem. Trusted platforms like Fiverr can give you quick access to thousands of professionals, from graphic design, copy and content writing, to webinar slide deck design.

Leverage engaging visuals like animations, videos, and infographics to break up text and maintain interest. Incorporate your brand’s color scheme and logo consistently to reinforce brand recognition. Don’t be afraid to tap into some of these digital resources to help you craft an engaging and interactive webinar.

Just like with social media, finding the perfect timing can significantly impact the success of your webinar. 

Consider time zones, daily routines, and the working environments of your webinar audience. 

A  webinar aimed at working professionals looking to start a side hustle may perform best on a weekend or weeknight when the target audience isn’t working traditional office hours. Targeting stay-at-home moms with little children? Consider wake-up times, nap times, or preschool schedules when scheduling your event. 

And if all else fails, don’t forget about synchronous vs. asynchronous options. Adults are familiar with the two meeting styles in a post-pandemic world and often recognize when asynchronous meetings make the most sense. 

Ultimately, finding your golden webinar hour will help drive the most attendance, which will then help drive interactivity and engagement. But you may need to offer various accessible options, whether that means different signup times or live vs. pre-recorded options.

Looking back on tip #2 (asking your audience questions), we mentioned “continuing engagement.” One excellent way to accomplish this is by implementing a challenge at the end of your webinar. 

Webinar challenges could look like the following:

• Goal setting: Encourage attendees to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals. For example, ask attendees to commit to making 30 well-researched cold calls in the next 30 days. 
• Peer review: Ask participants to connect with other attendees and meet up digitally at least once to workshop a specific project. For example, Diamond Lee could ask her students to meet within 10 days to workshop a sales funnel. 
• Success stories and progress updates: Set up a dedicated space for your attendees to bring updates and success stories. Ask them to share their own stories here by a specific date. 
• Reminder notifications: Some initiatives can’t be shared on public forums, so leverage email marketing as a private means to connect with your audience and help them progress toward your challenge. 

By implementing these challenges, you can keep your audience engaged long after the recording button on your camera has stopped flashing. As an added reward, public sharing of these challenges will garner even more public reach, social impressions, and brand awareness.

Hosting your event on the right (or wrong) platform can make or break your interactive webinar. Choose a platform that supports all of the features you need, is intuitive, and integrates seamlessly with tools in your current tech stack. 

While your webinar creation process begins with planning long before you need to input a date, time, or title into a platform, the actual webinar event requires a platform or video conferencing solution. By the time you start defining your webinar’s titles, outlines, and slides, you should have already considered, “How would you design a webinar that would be interactive?”

Will you incorporate interactive polls, quizzes, or Q&As? How many attendees are you expecting, and how many moderators will you need? Will you require breakout rooms or mid-webinar pop-up forms?

Having the answers to these questions will help you weed out webinar platforms that aren’t the right fit, saving you time and technical troubles on the day of your event. 

There you have it: 12 tips on how to design an interactive webinar. 

Looking for the right platform to host your webinars? Try hosting a webinar with Thinkific using Live Events or Multimedia lessons.  intuitively built into the easy-to-use platform and function naturally with Thinkific communities and online courses. 

Multimedia lessons allow you to create interactive webinars and engage students asynchronously, while live events let you see attendees face-to-face in real-time. With multiple forms of customer support, integration with major tools like Zoom, ConvertKit, and MailChimp, and the ability to scale your digital business as it grows, Thinkific is the perfect platform for webinar interactivity and more. 

Andrew Baldino is a Freelance Content Writer specializing in SEO blog posts. In his free time, he can be found biking, kayaking, or binge-watching his favorite shows.

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Digital classroom: Tech-friendly academic model for teaching english

• Sravanthi, Ch.
• Maloth, Upender

Technology based digital classrooms hold a leading position in teaching in many educational institutions in India which offer innovative and creative ways of teaching to the learners. Digital classrooms provide an opportunity to the learners to learn English. However, it's a big challenge to the teachers to handle the digital classroom and teach with the help of digital tools. The technology-based classroom creates interactive teaching and learning environments by using digital tools such as google classroom, zoom, khan academy, google forms, and ted-ed etc. digital classroom is productive for the students to explore beyond the traditional classroom. The digital classrooms can be of two types: firstly, synchronous learning creates an opportunity for the students to interact with the teacher online and ask their queries. Secondly, Asynchronous learning, the students have the flexibility to learn and listen to the classes at their convenient time and place. The characteristics of digital classrooms are collaborative, affordable, accessible, interactive, flexible learning, innovative content, upgraded learning, ease of teaching process, and ease of communication. Digital technology is adopted by teachers to address the needs of the students. Language teachers make use of technology-assisted instructions to enhance the quality of the content by using power point presentations. They use technology to teach grammar, vocabulary, storytelling, functional English, dialogue writing, comprehensive reading, role play etc. In contrast to the traditional methods of teaching, the digital classroom generates a situation which enables the students to explore knowledge without any limits.

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