Any questions? – How to elicit a response from an audience

We have all been to the industry conference where the experts ‘broadcast’ for an hour and then the chairman asks “any questions?” Then awkward silence, no response.

So how do you elicit questions from your audience? Here’s a three step approach that works:

1. Ask the people to write a few notes on what connected with them in the presentation (this allows time to reflect and marshal our thoughts)
2. Then invite them to talk with the person next to them about what they have written down (this helps externalise and consolidate our thinking and builds confidence).
3. Then ask the room “what questions do you have?”

With this approach, providing the presentation was relevant and even mildly interesting, you will get loads of questions.

My thinking on this:

• Don’t just ask “any questions” it’s too abrupt, the people haven’t had a chance to make sense of their thinking and the brain goes into fight or flight which can manifest as aggressive disagreement (fight) or silence (flight). Even at step 3 don’t ask “any questions?” – that’s a closed question, they might just say “no”
• Answer directly and succinctly leaving ‘space’ for other questions in the room. If you ramble on for ages people will not ask their question.
• After each answer swiftly move on to a new person with a different question. Don’t debate with an individual as other people will get bored and won’t ask their question.
• In the conference world the people are usually called ‘attendees’ and that’s mostly what they do – attend. Passive attendance is unwittingly invited by the ‘£price per attendee’ and preconference ‘List of Attendees’
• Watch the energy go up in the room as the people talk with each other in step 2, it’s fantastic. The people are now engaged, they are more than attendees they are participants.
• Participation aids commitment and action.