The strategy conversation you can only have here
People who say their presentation is interactive seldom give interactive presentations.
Asking for interaction in presentations is normally a quiet plea for acceptance.
"Please like my presentation by interacting with me."
What presenter wouldn't like their audience engaging with them and appreciating what they are saying?
To get engagement however, we need to create the possibility for interaction.
Asking open questions,
looking at people expecting a response,
asking people to discuss an issue and summarising their outcomes.
These are some ways to get interaction. "What questions do you have?", followed by a pause encourages questions, "Please interrupt me if you have any questions" , doesn't.
And our body language often says far more about whether we really want interaction or not.
When presenting we are not just saying words and showing pictures. There are many other subtle messages that our audience is receiving from us. If we don't think about them, then we can cause confusion or even work against the message we are trying to convey.
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