Presentations- Surveying the Audience

Surveying the audience in presentations

What are the criteria for a good use of surveying the audience in presentations? Compare your ideas with the list below:

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Criteria for good surveying the audience in presentations

• The presenter learns something useful, e.g. something which will affect the content of the presentation or will change their approach to presenting that information.
• Answering the question hooks the audience
• Seeing other people’s answers hooks the audience (looking around to see if other people have their hands up, etc)
• The result of the survey is surprising/ is interesting
• People are happy to answer (because the question is not too personal)
• People don’t have to think for too long before answering
• The question has a limited number of options (e.g. Yes/ No or three options with “Raise your hand if you’ve had under three cups of coffee today. Now put up your hand if you’ve between three and five” etc).

Try to think of questions to ask the people in this class which would match those criteria.

Possible topics

Ambitions/ Goals                                                                    Arts and media

Childhood                                                                                Computers/ Technology

Favourites/ Likes and dislikes/ Tastes                  Friends and family

Health and fitness                                                                  Hobbies/ Interests

(General) knowledge/ Guessing statistics            Meaning/ Origins of your name

Near future                                                                              Opinions

Possessions                                                                           Recent past

Recognising a picture of something                      Routines/ Habits

Things they have/ haven’t heard of                       Travel

Unusual experiences                                               Work/ Studies/ Volunteering

 

Brainstorm phrases to do these things:

• Asking the survey question
• Asking people to vote/ put their hands up
• Persuading people to take part/ Dealing with a reluctant audience
• Reacting to the responses
• Giving the answer (to factual questions)

Compare your phrases as a class or with lists. Use those phrases to ask the survey questions that you made, then discuss which survey questions best hooked the audience.

What are the advantages of survey questions over other kinds of questions in a presentation?

What other kinds of presenter questions are good in presentations/ okay in presentations?

Write criteria for good use of those other kinds of questions.