Many presenters fear audience interaction because it's unpredictable and unknown. Introducing interaction, though, is a safeguard against your audience tuning out. It also creates trust and encourages audience members to buy into your purpose. Perhaps more importantly, inviting your audience to participate, especially in your first presentation in this new role, invokes a sense of confidence in your position and establishes you as an open and empowering leader.
Let's briefly look at several ways of including an audience in a presentation:
Rhetorical questions keep the audience mentally engaged without risking a runaway train of comments and potentially off-topic discussion. When you ask a question, your vocal inflection naturally changes and your audience instinctively searches their brains for an answer.
Polling the audience encourages members to mentally and physically engage by raising their hands to answer your questions. These questions typically start with the...