With an ongoing digitalization, the need for a workforce that easily adapts to a fast-changing world, becomes more eminent. On one hand many jobs will get lost because of digitalization. On the other hand, some workfields will see a higher demand in jobs. E.g. in IT- and Customer Service related jobs. Plus, a lot of jobs do not even exist today; new jobs will be created that can tackle tomorrow’s challenges.

Manpower Group, the third largest staffing firm in the world, calls it the “skills revolution”. Employees that upskill themselves and employers, out of a visionary leadership, facilitating their employees as such. In recent studies Manpower interviewed 18,000 employers in 43 countries. According to this group, employers state that problem solving skills belong to the top-3 most valued skills of future employees.

Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem solving activities for small and large groups


Team games, puzzles and other fun activities


Leadership-related problem solving activities

## We came up with the following team building activities that can contribute to curiosity and innovation within your company:

**Stranded at the workplace.** Maybe not one the likeliest scenarios, but imagine a small group to get stuck in the office. Let the group decide which 10 items in the office are needed to survive for the coming days. And let the items be ranked in order of importance.

**A Lego challenge.** For teams that you like to challenge with activities that involve listening skills, you might want to consider good old Lego building blocks! Divide your group into smaller teams. The facilitator will build a Lego construction, but only individual team captains can see both the building process, as well as the final result. The team captain then has to instruct his team to come up with exactly the same structure without the person touching his team’s construction. It’s all about communication from here.

All of the activities listed have a common element, which is solving a problem. For that, several steps have to be taken. First of all defining and analyzing the problem, followed by determining what to do and deciding how to implement a solution. The final step is to evaluate what went well and what can be improved. Even the most fun activities, can be evaluated in a serious way, leaving a team with great lessons learned. It all starts with leaving your desk and to get out of your comfort zone;

## Problem solving activities for small groups:

Out of your comfort zone, away from your desk!

**Crossing the line.** Clearly one of the more serious exercises for a large group is “Crossing the Line”. In a room, draw or make a line in the middle. Then ask people to cross that line, based on questions whereby attendees have to answer yes or no. The set of questions is carefully formulated at forehand. During the exercise no sound is permitted and there’s respect for everyone in the room.

**Escape Room.** An increasingly popular problem solving activity, is visiting a so-called escape room. These commercial venues are often found in large warehouses, farms or old buildings. The concept is simple: a group has an hour to get out of a room that is locked. The often themed rooms [like a prison, a wild west saloon or a an operating room] are full of hidden clues, codes and keys. With every riddle solved, the group is a step closer to escaping! No worries for those not picking up on the clues; after an hour the room gets unlocked again. From there you might want to analyze how the escape went. Is there anything you can tell from it that for example relates to leadership within your group?

### Problem solving activities for large groups:


**Scavenger Hunt.** The principle of the scavenger hunt is simple but fun. In advance you formulate a list with items that the groups have to collect; without purchasing them! Because none of the items can be bought, it will force the groups to be creative and to bring all problem solving skills to the table. The scavenger hunt items can be located in the office, outside or even in nature. The group that brings back all items, in the fastests time, wins.

**Group Timeline.** Visualize a timeline and on it mark each person’s date of birth. From here let each person think of 3 moments in their life, happy or sad, that made an impact. Examples can be the day you got married, the day you’ve started a business, got your first pet or very different scenarios. Briefly let everyone write down the moments on post-it notes and take a short moment to position the moments on the timeline. Not only will this tell you more about your colleagues, it can also be interesting to now question how this timeline impacts the functioning of a team. Clearly one of the more serious activities to execute with your team – but one that can lead to interesting outcomes!


### Problem solving: activities, games, fun activities (100-150).

**Taking a personality test.** To better understand yourself, your colleagues and even to understand the type of leadership present within your team, a personality test can be of great value. There are dozens of tests out on the web. From fun tests [often for free] to in-depth tests like a color test or the well-known Myers-Brigg Type Indicator [MBTI]. With many of these tests, consultants and trainers come with it. You might want to invite such an expert to your next team meeting. Somebody who facilitates a session about personalities with you. An external professional [an outsider], sometimes has the ability to zoom in better and more objective, than you yourself or one of your colleagues. Out of this session you can even distill what kind of leader is needed for your team and how you can agree to a path of getting there (be it through personal development activities or in a next set of team building activities).

**Challenging Perspective.** Before gathering, ask attendees to register the last 10 minutes of getting to the meeting space or venue. Once you meet, write down your most remarkable, interesting or beautiful observation. No matter how big or how small. Now, make pairs and exchange experiences. Then have a plenary evaluation and randomly pick somebody reflecting out loud on his/her observations from the other person [let’s call him John]. Now let somebody else reflect on John’s appearance today. Another person now tells John one thing to improve on. Finally, a last person reflects on all three previous colleagues: what does their analysis say, not about John, but about the group and their way of looking at people? Is there anything that can be said about problem solving and the way the group approaches this? This can be a fun, yet also confronting game.

### Problem solving leadership activities:

**Company Concentration.** As a child we all played the memory card game. One of the puzzles whereby cards with pictures are flipped. You take turns and per turn you’ll have to memorize where the individual cards are positioned in order to form pairs of the same pictures.

**What’s my name.** A sweet problem solving game is “what’s my name”. Let one or more people come up with names of well-known people: still alive or from the past. Now write the name down on a sticky note, put it on someone’s forehead and let that person walk through the room asking individual team members yes/no-questions. A playful way to interact with new colleagues and learning how to ask the right questions!

**If you could ask one question.** In advance think of roles, challenges or activities someone fictively should execute. For example, plan a wedding, getting the Olympic Games to your country, make the world’s largest apple pie or other scenarios that involve problem solving. From here the attendees should write down only one question of which the answer potentially should be sufficient to let someone do the job. The group can now discuss the individual questions and decide as a team what would be the best question to ask.

**Do-it-yourself challenge.** Give different groups one assignment and 30 minutes. The assignment would be to come up with a team-building activity that is realistic in terms of budget, time and effort and that serves leading current themes of the organization. Not only does this result in your own team generating valuable proposals, it also says something about values, perspectives and desired directions.

With an ongoing digitalization, the need for a workforce that easily adapts to a fast-changing world, becomes more eminent.

Team Building Problem Solving Activities | Sendsteps

Did you ever think of your presentation as a first time date? Imagine – it’s really not that different. Upfront you are busy with what to wear, what to say and especially what not to say. You don’t need an awful lot of dating experience to know that in the end a date always goes different than expected. But nevertheless, we often feel we can never do without a proper mental preparation.
It requires a similar approach to keep an audience engaged during a presentation. And to steal their hearts. When you aim for an interactive and inspiring presentation, then attention to many details is needed. In this article we explain you more on how to keep audience engaged during presentation.

How to keep an audience engaged during a presentation.​

… through the use of PowerPoint during presentation?

… by facilitating fulll audience participation during presentations?


**We do so based on these questions – how to engage your audience:**

**Start personal.** Make the stage and the vibe yours. Share something personal and from there build the bridge to your theme. By doing so, you relate to your personal drive and motivation and you give context to your story. This makes it easier for an audience to engage with your topic and to understand the bigger picture.

**Know your audience.** When in a restaurant with your date – you don’t start talking out of the blue. By knowing the other, it helps to find the right tone, to underline similar shared experiences and to create mutual understanding. Ask a few questions to individual attendees before starting your presentation. Or conduct a short pre-event survey and use the input for your presentation. People often aren’t interested in speeches, but they do like an inspiring conversation instead.

**Treat time as precious.** When given a time slot of 30 minutes – use 25. No matter how interesting your presentation is, spare time is often considered as a little present. But how to use time in other valuable ways? From a more strategic angle you can use time to underline your message; Take a 3-8 seconds pause before telling the really important part. Even the worst smartphone addicts will pay attention now. It might feel awkward in the beginning, but then notice the impact, you’ll get the hang of it!

Every speaker is different, each story carries a different energy and each time an audience changes; that is in size, in experience and in culture. Many ingredients influence the course of your public speaking performance.

### Yet, here are some basics that are universal and yet powerful to be aware of:

How to engage an audience in public speaking

**Games to engage an audience.** The most popular games to play are often quizzes. Through the use of audience response systems [like Sendsteps], you can easily setup a digital quiz. As such you can quickly see the scores are and there’s no unclarity about the winner. Add a timer for each question and a little background music to get the quiz buzz going! As for the quiz itself: relate the [multiple choice questions](/en/questions/multiple-choice/) to trivia to keep it light or make it more interesting and dive into your subject. Add a little product placement [clever when sponsors are involved] and the winner leaves the venue with a nice price from the organization or the sponsor!


**Fun ways to engage an audience.** Next to a quiz, there are other ways to keep people’s attention during presentation and meetings. Here are some ideas and fun ways (to engage):

**Pre-recorded video interview.** Before your event, script an interview and then record it with yourself and imitate someone popular or interview somebody else. When live on stage, show the video and ask the scripted questions and let the person on the video reply. Show your creative side and imagine how hilarious this can turn out!

**Build a Word cloud.** Through the use of an audience response system you can start [building a live word cloud](/en/questions/wordcloud/) with your audience. Ask for everyone’s participation and let attendees send in a one-word reply to a fun question. “What did you want to become when you were 10 years old?”, “Who would you like to spend a coffee with?”.


**Play Live Music.** Surprisingly music is not often an ingredient of a corporate event, or part of a presentation. But why not? It’s a nice neutralizer in the midst of all the content shared. And it opens the mind for any of your ideas shared in your upcoming presentation.

**Creative activities to engage an audience.** Apart from single event ingredients, like a word cloud or a quiz, you can also work with a [sidekick](/en/professional-event-services/). A person who constantly monitors the sentiment within the audience. As attendees cast votes, send in remarks or ask questions [through their smartphone]; the sidekick is the first person to see all of that coming in. On scripted or spontaneous moments, he puts forward the most intriguing contributions. Not only does it help the chairman for orchestrating the audience response better, it also adds a nice dynamic throughout the event program. Attendees feel heard, can respond with honest thoughts and you’ll be sure that based on your audience input that you’ll get to the core. The role of sidekick can be executed by a professional sidekick or by somebody from the own organization. Be aware that this requires good skills in terms of listening and simultaneously scanning large volumes of incoming content, plus presenting skills for bringing the content forward lively and clear.


A game element during a presentation requires that you’re in tune with the vibe of your event. A game can make or break it. The more serious the topic, the less inviting it is to go ‘out-of-the-box’, let alone to get funny. Then again, if you know how to introduce it with confidence and flair, then you might get your crowd on the edge of their chairs!

Games to engage audience during presentation

## How to engage audience in powerpoint presentation

As much as PowerPoint can have a negative connotation, it still is the most used presentation tool worldwide. Some people can lose themselves in the preparations, some feel safer using it and others pull of a great performance. So how to come up with a presentation that will engage your audience and foster participation?

**How to make presentation interactive?** The quickest and best way to use Sendsteps is to add a number of multiple choice questions. Use it as an icebreaker, or test your crowd’s knowledge or make an audience profile based on a number of profiling questions. Or do you dare to let attendees respond openly through their smartphone? Enable the audience to voice their opinion, to raise questions and to share ideas. Either allow all responses directly on the presentation screen, or filter messages through your tablet or smartphone and from there assign a selection to the screen. The mix of open content and polling will result in a lively session! Click here to watch a short tutorial and get yourself going!

**Interactive presentation ideas for college?** How to get a conversation going in larger classes? For interactive college ideas you’ll quickly notice how Sendsteps can help you mobilizing an entire class. Without singling out any of your students – even not the quiet ones. Use the open question “what do you expect from today’s course?”, let students come up with associations on a theme and put it in a live wordcloud, play a quiz based on the discussed content or let one of the students be sidekick on behalf of the class. Dare to experiment and to design your class slightly different. With it you’ll see that there’s more to asking “are there any other questions”!

**Less is more.** Challenge yourself and write as little as possible on your slides. Or simply skip all text and make use of images instead. Spend your time on browsing powerful images, rather than on formulating clever texts. Are you planning on using video? Make sure to test it before and in the venue itself again!

**Ask for feedback.** Although a presentation itself can be rehearsed with somebody giving you feedback, this might be a time consuming project for you or at least the other. Still, if you have the chance – why not! But spreading your PowerPoint around with a few of your colleagues or peers: that’s an easy task with almost always some valuable input!

### Make a presentation interactive

With help of Sendsteps [audience response system](/en/audience-response-system/) you’ll bring your presentation to a new level: an interactive one!

Here are some ideas to play with:

Aiming for an interactive and inspiring presentation? Learn how to keep the audience engaged during a presentation.

How to Keep an Audience Engaged During a Presentation

Infographic about preparation makes introverts the best presenters

Preparation makes introverts the best presenters

Chances are you would be described as an introvert. There is no need to worry. Famous introverts like Audrey Hepburn, Emma Watson, Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi and Warren Buffett got used to being in the public eye despite their shyness.

There is a common belief that extroverts are the best presenters. They might have character traits which make easier to be in the spotlight. Otherwise, creating a compelling presentation and delivering a message smoothly is not impossible for introverts either. Introverts’ strengths are taking the time for preparation and focusing deeply on one subject. Being prepared gives you confidence to tackle any presentation-related fear. We collected useful tips to turn any introvert into the best presenter.

Do you feel that you are not confident enough to step onto the stage?

Do you feel that you are not confident enough to step onto the stage? Chances are you would be described as an introvert presenter.

Preparation makes introverts the best presenters | Sendsteps

Manager explaining something to an employee

This interactive map of leadership styles will make you a smarter leader

## Draw attention

Is an effective leader visionary or democratic? Maybe both? We believe that the most successful leaders are able to adapt their leadership styles to business situations and they can switch among leadership styles as needed. Different management style is suited for strategic planning process and crisis management. Powerful leaders can also behave differently in each phase of the business cycle. However, there is only so much any person can change. And character traits are closely associated with leadership styles. They determine for a great deal the typical attitudes of any leader.

Looking at popular quotes easily found on the internet we plotted a couple of famous –  in the news –  leaders. This way an interesting pattern emerged.

## We, myself and I
There is the collaborative leader on one hand of the spectrum. On the other hand you have the visionary captain taking all the decisions by (mostly) him self. That doesn’t mean collaborative leaders can’t be visionary but it tells a lot about how leaders try to reach their goals.

## It just feels right vs first principles
Another pattern that emerged was the way decisions are being made. You can take logical thinking and data gathering to an extreme (Elon Musk’s first principles approach) making you data-driven. Or you can have an instinct strong enough to create Steve Job’s famous “reality distortion field’.

## Loosely fitting life cycle
Two dimensions lead to four quadrants. And they put interesting companies together. In a start-up phase a founder team often works together closely on a shared dream. They feel they are on to something: Intuitive, WE. If things go well they want to grow and start gathering data to see how that works best. But still nimble enough to be able to make decisions that reflect the entire company culture the decisions are made by a larger group. Data-Driven, WE. Then in order to sustain growth and keep the then ROI hungry investors happy there is often a transition period. Money needs to be made, though decisions need to be taken. A power struggle emerges and a Captain arrises. Taking decisions based on data. Then, when a company has made money for years innovators dilemma catches on. This is a situation that requires a captain willing to take a visionairy decision on the future of which she has no data yet. Based on intuition. Intutive, I. Obviously this is just a way of looking at it and by no means science. But I think it does show that it can help to be conscious about your leadership style. Being aware of what kind of leadership you are portraying can give insight in the phase your company is in. We are always open to your feedback so if you think we should change something about this map, or have other remarks please let me know.



We believe that the most successful leaders are able to adapt their leadership styles to business situations and they can switch among leadership styles.

Interactive map of leadership styles | Sendsteps

A powerful presentation is fueled by audience interaction moments. Many of us will agree. Yet most of us struggle with the actual implementation of these interaction moments. An event professional will ask: “When during my event do I engage with my crowd?”. A speaker will ask: “When during my presentation do I ask a question to the attendees?”. Prevent over asking, but cover all your information needs. We identified 5 key interaction moments that will result in a balanced scheme of speaking ánd interacting!

Interactions moments with your audience | 5 key moments

## 1. Opening | An entertaining multiple question

Ask a simple and light opening question upon the opening of your session. This will get everyone in the mood for interaction and on the moment suprême you can be sure of high response rates. People will remember how they can participate. As an example let attendees respond to a multiple question and with it let them rate their neighbour for “their degree of innovativity”.

## 2. Presentation intro | A clarifying multiple choice question

When starting a presentation you can choose an icebreaker in the form of a [multiple choice question](/en/questions/multiple-choice/). This sets the context for the rest of your story line. You’ll know if you’ll need to convince your crowd or whether you’re surounded by like minded souls. “Sustainability needs more attention on individual level, rather then on a corporate level” A) Agree B) Disagree – is a great introduction to a presentation on corporate social responsibility! 

## 3. Presentation body | An in between energizer

Regardless of how interesting your story is – the attention span will start to decrease after 15-20 minutes. Built in a multiple choice question, just to shake up your audience and put them into a pro-active mindset. Check how a theme is alive

(or not)
within ones organization e.g. “I’m proud of the small ecological footprint that my company leaves” A) Agree B) Disagree.

## 4. Presentation closing | Inspiring Q&A interaction moments
Allow your audience to send in questions throughout your presentation. Either pause and schedule interaction moments after every 5-10 minutes or save all the input to deal with after your presentation. Show all questions or only publish a selection on the screen. Let the chairman ask the questions or have a [professional sidekick](/en/professional-event-services/) take on this role as “voice of the audience”.


## 5. The End | An evaluating wordcloud
Time to check in for one more last time. Ask the audience how they evaluate today’s event. Either with a [live word cloud](/en/questions/wordcloud/) or otherwhise with a short online survey. Why wait till tomorrow? Built an evaluation moment into your program and get a high response rate. And better scoring evaluations. You can choose to share outcomes or simply keep them to yourself and use it internally within your team. It’s up to you!

Inspired? Time to turn your inspiration into exciting questions and add them to your PowerPoint presentation with help of the Sendsteps solution!

A powerful presentation is fueled by audience interaction moments. Many of us will agree. Yet most of us struggle with these interaction moments.

Interaction moments with your audience | Sendsteps

Man explaining something to his colleague

How powerful questions inspire you to grow

We watched 35 videos to help you ask better questions, and then selected the 5 most useful and inspiring of them. To save you time you’ll find a summary for each one below. These videos try to make you a better listener, questioner, and leader….

Embrace emotions like uncertainty, anxiety, and stress

Ask “What could we do?” instead of “What should we do?”

Mike Vaughan’s thoughtful presentation gives valuable insights into why we should ask better questions. The way of getting from automatic and reactionary thinking to deep thinking:

1. Mike Vaughan

Don’t pontificate. Let others respond to your opinion.

Go with the flow. That means thoughts will come into your mind and you need to let them go out of your mind. While your partner talks to you, listen to what he says and don’t think about something else.

If you don’t know, say that you don’t know.

Don’t equate your experience with theirs. All experiences are unique.

Leave the details out. People don’t care about the years, the names, the dates.

In her funny and entertaining presentation, Celeste Headlee collected 10 basic rules for having a better conversation.

2. Celeste Headlee

Pay attention to the sound. How many individual channels of sound can you hear?

Enjoy mundane sounds like a coffee grinder.

RASA stands for Receive, which means pay attention to the person; Appreciate, making little noises like “hmm,” “oh,” “okay”; Summarize, the word “so” is very important in communication; and Ask, ask questions afterward.

Julian Treasure advised us to do 5 simple exercises in order to improve our listening skills.

3. Julian Treasure

Where are you looking to anticipate the next change to your business model or your life?

What is the diversity measure of your personal and professional stakeholder network?

Are you courageous enough to abandon a practice that has made you successful in the past?

In her thought-provoking presentation, Rosalinde Torres declared that leadership in the 21st century is defined and evidenced by three questions.

4. Rosalinde Torres

**Professor David Clutterbuck** believes that powerful question is powerful because it has an impact, that is why the context makes the question powerful.
He created an acronym for defining a powerful question: **PRAIRIE.**
**P** stands for **Personal** because it relates to you.
**R** stands for **Resonant** because it hits you emotionally and intellectually.
**A** and I stand for **Acute** and **Insensitive**, which means it gets right to the point.
**R** stands for **Reverberating** because it keeps coming back to haunt you.
**I** stands for **Innocent** because it doesn’t have the agenda of the person asking it, it’s solely for the benefit of the person who’s being asked.
**E** stands for **Explicit** because it’s simply expressed.

5. David Clutterbuck

Sendsteps believes that everybody should be able to speak up during presentations. We make free PPT software that allows your audience to vote and send messages live on your slides using their phone. Do you want to give it a try?

We have selected the 5 most useful videos that can help you ask better and powerful questions for your presentation.

How powerful questions inspire you to grow | Sendsteps

You’re about to present. Some of us like it. Some of us can’t sleep anymore. Speaker cue cards are there to give you support and trust throughout your presentation. From TV presenters with years of experience to junior professionals that have to give their first presentation. Regardless of your experience, the following 8 tips will help all of us:


8 tips for your speaker cue cards

**Prevent yourself from writing down entire sentences.** In essence you know what to say. Trust yourself with that. Remember that YOU are the expert on your subject.

## 2. Whitespace

**Keep sufficient whitespace on your cards.** It is calmer to the eye and will help you to easily browse through your keywords. Next to that it allows you to scribble down last-minute thoughts.

## 3. Speaker names

When you’re in charge of announcing or thanking speakers, then **write down names.** In the heat of presenting, you can easily forget the most logical things.

## 4. Speaker pictures
In line with the previous tip, you might also want to **add [LinkedIn] portrait pictures of speakers.** This way you won’t mix up names with people.

## 5. Slide screenshot
A tiny slide screenshot **reminds you of where you are in your [PowerPoint] storyline.** Plus it helps you not to forget to click through to the next slide.

## 6. Time indication
On paper a story is always shorter than when telling it out loud [!]. **Write down your time slot per item in the top right corner.** Nothing is as stressful as having to catch up time.

## 7. Personal presentation
Don’t hold a crumpled piece of paper, but **use a carton card** instead. The backside of your speaker card can carry the logo of the organisation. It’s all about that first [professional] impression!

## 8. Tablet alternative
A tablet, compared to carton speaker cue cards, can be a little challenging to hold and operate while you’re presenting. Especially when also holding a microphone. **Cards are easier to hold**, to store and to put aside throughout your presentation.

1. Keywords

In addition to the tips mentioned above, technology can also provide solutions to enhance your presentation experience. Sendsteps.ai is an [AI presentation maker](/en/ai/) that allows you to engage with your audience in real-time, making your presentation interactive and more memorable. With Sendsteps.ai, you can create interactive presentations that your audience can participate in using their mobile devices, creating a more dynamic and engaging presentation. It also provides real-time feedback, allowing you to adjust your presentation as needed. With Sendsteps.ai, you can transform your presentation from a one-way communication to a two-way conversation, making it more impactful and effective. Whether you are a seasoned presenter or a beginner, Sendsteps.ai can help you deliver a more engaging and memorable presentation.

Bonus tip: use technology

You’re about to present. Some of us like it. Some of us don't. Speaker cue cards are there to give you support and trust throughout your presentation.

8 tips for your speaker cue cards | Sendsteps

Launching your message. Making sure it not only reaches many people their minds, but also their hearts. It is a marketer’s challenge to get a message across – to let it resonate with the listener: be it in print, on the Web or through any other form of media. Public speaking however is often a form of communication that lacks the professional marketing attention. Presentations are often made by ourselves, on a late evening, alone, isolated in one’s cocoon, and without the support of a critical colleague. Some of us even getting lost in the design of PowerPoint slides.
Yet, a little more awareness about the different types of audiences in a presentation can already make a significant difference. It makes it easier to boost your persuasive speaking and to reach your target audience. In this blog we’ll therefore address the question: *"How to relate to your audience in the best way?"*

Types of audiences in presentation and public speaking

Is there some sort or hierarchy in the group that needs to be addressed?

Are there any cultural differences to take into account?

How formal or informal do I address my attendees?

Will attendees respond anonymous or non-anonymous to my questions?

How do I create a sense of safety with help of my room setup?

This immediately raises the question; **What’s the role of your audience, as a group and as individuals, and in what context are they listening to your presentation?** In marketing plans a primary audience, a secondary audience and even tertiary audiences are defined to predict and measure the impact of a message. These different ‘layers’ relate to how far your message will end up. That is, beyond the venue in which you give your presentation. As it is already challenging enough to relate to your primary audience, we’ll therefore will stick to this group (but when you’re a frequent speaker – you might want to dive into these theories).

Based on example(s) we’ll take a tour along different crowds that are potential listeners to your story. From uninformed audience to subject experts and from students to board members. Based on your audience analysis, which you’ll notice almost is a psychological analysis, you’ll be able to make smaller and larger strategic decisions with regards to your presentation. **For instance on questions like:**

“How to relate to your audience in the best way?”

Just like a professional marketer; find out who is listening, twist and tweak your story or even make radical changes and leave a lasting impression with your audience!

### Types of audiences in different types of communication
A presentation always carries a message and a trigger to some sort of action. You might want to entertain, inform or instruct people or maybe you want to sell something. Interactive presentations are an effective way to clarify the message you want to send to your audiences and ensure that your message is not only heard, but also remembered. With the help of technology like Sendsteps, speakers can gather real-time feedback from their audience, by adding for example an [open ended question](https://www.sendsteps.com/en/questions/open-ended/) to the presentation and use it to adjust their message accordingly. Read [this blog](/en/blog/get-real-time-feedback-during-course-with-live-polls/) on how you can use [Sendsteps](https://web.sendsteps.com/) and gather feedback from your audience. 

**As a speaker you carry authority** based on your specific achievements, knowledge or based on a specific social status which your audience doesn’t have yet. This makes you and your presentation unique and it’s the reason why you are given the floor for your presentation;

Authority however, in whatever form has a certain **energetic impact** on an audience. There’s never a complete neutral attitude of the audience towards you and your story. People can be a big fan of your ideas or they can almost be hostile towards them. This can already start with how you’re being anounced during an event or within an event program. It’s important to be aware of this;

**It helps to ask a short set of [live questions](/en/questions/) to your audience.** To sense their energy, to relate to their knowledge level and to get a better demographic/psychological analysis and understanding. You can do so by asking people to sit or stand up as a mean to reply to your question, or they can cast votes through an [audience response system](/en/audience-response-system/). The system lets you create [polls](/en/sms-polling/), [quizzes](/en/questions/quiz/), and surveys that can be displayed on the screen, and attendees can respond using their mobile devices. This will help you to define the types of audiences in presentation. Plus, it is interesting for the attendees themselves too!

**Anonymous Voting,** in certain cultures it might be a bit exciting to answer [live questions](/en/questions/) from somebody higher in the hierarchy (e.g. in parts of Asia). In such a case anonymous voting already helps to lower a barrier for an audience to give authentic feedback. Discover on the spot how your attendees relate to your topic and as such finetune your onward story. Speak with authority or maybe temper it somewhat – sense from the first minute how the rest of your story can have a smooth landing!

A platform with a speaker and an attendee in an audience, **easily triggers the resemblance with a parent** telling something to his or her child. During public speaking, a neutral [audience] approach is almost impossible. Therefore the understanding of the Parent-Adult-Child model, a psychological model, can help you to further gain insight in your persuasive speaking style;

The model implies that every person carries three characteristics within oneself: **a Parent, an Adult and a Child.** None of the roles is right or wrong, but in the very moment one role can be more effective than the other. A boss presenting to its employees, can easily be recognized as a Parent talking to a Child. Being aware of this analysis, can for instance help to adjust your tone more to an Adult, which also triggers the Adult character within the audience. Or more concrete: as a boss don’t tell employees what to do or what not to do, but address their own capacities and **create a sense of empowerment** instead. You can turn this into a live action by asking the audience: “How would you solve this?”. Let attendees discuss with their neighbour, to create ownership within the audience, and let them reply live or anonymous. After that, reflect on the input and give your idea maybe not as the solution, but as a suggestion. You’ll notice that analyzing the types of audiences, letting them play a role in your story, often results in a more well-received story and it supports your persuasive speaking.

### In public speaking, persuasive speaking; The Parent-Adult-Child Model


Once you know better who your audience is and once you’re more aware of how you’re being perceived as a speaker, then **relate your contribution to the right Parent-Adult-Child character** and address a yet uninformed audience. From there the form and tone of your presentation develops almost automatically and strategic choices flow more natural.

Dealing with uninformed audience

**Less hierarchy?** Do you want to prevent being perceived too much as an authority? Then take away the lectern to stand behind. Or leave the stage completely and stand in the middle of the room. Instead of your audience sitting in rows, seat them around you in a circle on an equal height. Almost as having a cat walk. Do you sense that actually more authority might help your message, then of course make use of that lectern, stage and seating in rows.

**Safe environment?** Do you want to take away an unsafe feeling (e.g. when discussing personal or very strategic subjects)? Use an [audience response system](/en/audience-response-system/) and allow students, business relations, members or employees to reply to questions anonymous. The use of such a tool also allows an online audience to participate in your presentation and discussion. During brainstorms for instance, it requires a lot of trust to share an idea. Plus you also like to foster creativity the Child role in a group, so the use of anonymous replies can help building an energy of trust. At the end of the session you might not even need a tool anymore, simply because everyone will feel safe and will start to share freely annd happily!

Because of your knowledge about the audience now, some of these choices can be made so much easier. You’ll be able to tailor your story better to the crowd and its dynamics. Taking some time to figure this out, will help you to deliver a story that won’t be forgotten easily! In short, you’ll leave a lasting impression! So, what do you know about your audience?

In conclusion, knowing your audience and adjusting your message accordingly is key to delivering an effective presentation. By using an interactive presentation tool like Sendsteps, speakers can engage their audience and gather real-time feedback, making it easier to tailor their message to the needs of the audience.

Launching your message to the right audiences. Making sure it reaches many people their minds and hearts.

Types of Audiences in Presentation and Public Speaking

11% of Amsterdam-based freelancers feel “seriously lonely”. Think of web designers, copywriters or musicians. Professionals who are passionate in what they do. Far from ‘people shy’, but the nature of their work often involves a high level of solitude.
Some freelancers deal well with that, they even like it, but 11% simply struggles with it. Visiting a Starbucks, doesn’t necessarily do the trick.

Safe Room Amsterdam

**Recognition.** To what extent do you yourself recognize the challenges around the subject?
**What can you do about it yourself?** In little groups talking through concrete solutions.
**What can others do about it?** Reflections from expert speakers that talk along with the audience.

Safe Room Amsterdam: the concept

## Fixed characteristics 
Next to that, every Safe Room edition always contains a few fixed characteristics:

### Safe Bubble
A small living room pre-event with 8 attendees to talk through the topic and finetune the content for the actual event.

### Facilitation
The actual Safe Room event is hosted by two facilitators; a man and a woman.

### Audience response technology
The event makes use of Sendsteps to participate anonymously. This fosters people to share without having to speak in public.

### Role of expert speakers
The speakers are seated among the rest of the audience. They’re not invited to give a presentation, but are there to reflect out loud and think along together with like-minded attendees. Expert speakers come from different backgrounds. Through their input, the subject gets a 360 degree perspective.

During the “recognition” part, Sendsteps was used to ask the audience: **“To what extend did you feel lonely last month?”.** A [too] direct question to ask a group that has just met and doesn’t know each other. Yet, the fact that attendees can [respond anonymous](/en/blog/anonymous-feedback-helpful-for-these-3-meetings/), allows the facilitators to immediately start a dialogue on a substantial level.

There’s no need asking “who responded a,b or c?”, **the result on the screen is all that counts.** From there you can easily ask clarifying questions like “Who likes to elaborate on this?”. Or, “Who recognizes this?”. The anonymous responses on the screen often work as a trigger to many attendees to share a little from their own experiences. From there, the expert speakers can easily tap into the discussion and the talks become lively and dynamic.

## Group talks in a safe setting
With taboos it is easy to lose yourself in negativity. **Yet, Safe Room encourages attendees to contribute to a positive forward-thinking climate.** Which ideas are there to share? How can you profit from other person’s best practices? During a plenary summary, groups and individuals are briefly interviewed by the facilitators to share outcomes. But only, if people are willing and if they feel safe enough to do so. At all times Safe Room attendees should feel comfortable and safe to join the conversation if they like to.

Anonymous replies, lively talks!

## Live evaluation and concrete results
The first edition of Safe Room Amsterdam was evaluated on the spot. On purpose; to evaluate what went well and what could be further improved. The evaluation was done with help of Sendsteps and the results were shared with the audience. The event scored an 8.3 and received constructive tips for next editions.

For instance, introducing “connectors” helping people that walk into the group, to connect with other attendees. Besides the evaluation of the event, the attendees also agreed to start small initiatives among themselves [a monthly meetup, a talk with co-working spaces to see what can be done together etc.]; in line the with the philosophy of the event!

## Sendsteps a proud sponsor
Sendsteps founder and CEO **Steven Blom** is a big fan of the Safe Room concept:

In the #metoo era, in times of fake news and social media facades it is great to create events and places where people can openly talk about whatever challenge they experience. **The Safe Room concept caters well to this need that many people have.** And Sendsteps is used in a very constructive way as such. We’re happy to sponsor this new and positive initiative!

11% of Amsterdam-based freelancers feel “seriously lonely”. Think of web designers, copywriters or musicians.

Safe Room Amsterdam | Sendsteps

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