workshop presentation meaning

Oratory Club

Public Speaking Helpline

How to Do a Workshop Presentation?

To do a workshop presentation, start by planning your time and understanding your audience. Create your content early, incorporate relevant examples and technology, and build connections with your participants.

Follow a structured workshop format, including setting the tone, delivering what they came for, and engaging participants with exercises and demonstrations. Finally, conclude with a closure exercise and ensure a smooth transition to wrap up the workshop. By following these steps, you can deliver an effective and engaging workshop presentation.

Remember to consider the big picture, determine your goals, choose a suitable format, build a team, research your audience, outline the budget, and create a detailed agenda. Learning from competition and seeking inspiration from successful workshops can also help you improve your presentation.

Table of Contents

Understanding Your Audience

Understand your audience by conducting thorough research before doing a workshop presentation. Learn about their interests, needs, and preferences to tailor your content and engage them effectively. Additionally, gather feedback during and after the presentation to continuously improve your workshop delivery.

Research Your Target Audience:

• Conduct thorough research to understand your target audience.
• Identify their demographics, interests, and needs.
• Use tools like surveys, interviews, and social media analytics to gather relevant data.
• Gain insights into their preferences, challenges, and motivations.

Identify Their Needs And Interests:

• Determine what your audience wants to learn or achieve from the workshop.
• Identify their pain points and challenges that you can address.
• Consider their level of knowledge and expertise in the topic.
• Understand their interests and align your content accordingly.

Tailor Your Content To Their Specific Preferences:

• Customize your workshop content to match the preferences of your audience.
• Use language, examples, and references that resonate with them.
• Incorporate relevant visuals and multimedia elements to enhance engagement.
• Choose a format that suits their learning style, whether it’s interactive activities, group discussions, or individual exercises.

By understanding your audience, you can create a workshop presentation that caters to their specific needs and interests. This will ensure that your content resonates with them, keeps them engaged, and ultimately delivers value. So, invest time in researching your audience, identifying their needs, and tailoring your content accordingly.

Crafting A Compelling Workshop Outline

Crafting a compelling workshop outline is essential when it comes to delivering a successful workshop presentation. By carefully planning and organizing your content, setting goals, understanding your audience, and incorporating interactive exercises, you can create an engaging and impactful workshop experience.

Crafting a well-structured workshop outline is crucial for delivering an engaging and impactful presentation. A clear outline helps you define the objectives and goals of your workshop, organize your content effectively, and incorporate interactive elements to keep participants engaged. Here are some key tips to consider when crafting your workshop outline:

Define Clear Objectives And Goals For Your Workshop:

• Clearly define the main objectives and goals you want to achieve with your workshop.
• Consider what you want participants to learn, achieve, or take away from the workshop.
• Tailor your objectives to meet the needs and expectations of your target audience.
• Keep your objectives concise, focused, and measurable to ensure clarity and effectiveness.

Organize Your Content To Ensure A Logical Flow:

• Start with an attention-grabbing introduction that sets the stage for your workshop.
• Break down your content into logical sections or topics that build upon one another.
• Use headings and subheadings to clearly indicate the structure and flow of your workshop.
• Provide smooth transitions between different sections to maintain a cohesive narrative.
• End with a summary or conclusion that reinforces the main points covered during the workshop.

Incorporate Interactive Elements To Engage Participants:

• Include interactive activities, exercises, or discussions throughout the workshop to promote active participation.
• Use visual aids, such as slides or props, to enhance understanding and engagement.
• Encourage group interactions and collaboration to foster a sense of community and shared learning.
• Incorporate hands-on exercises or real-life examples to make the content more relatable and practical.
• Emphasize participant feedback and Q&A sessions to address individual needs and enhance engagement.

Remember, a compelling workshop outline should be aligned with your objectives, well-organized, and designed to actively involve participants. By following these tips, you can create a workshop presentation that is informative, engaging, and impactful.

Designing Effective Visuals And Slides

Learn how to design effective visuals and slides for your workshop presentation with these helpful tips and techniques. From planning your content early to incorporating relevant examples, this guide will help you create engaging and impactful visuals that will captivate your audience.

Utilize Eye-Catching Visuals To Enhance Your Presentation:

• Incorporate relevant images and graphics that support your content and engage your audience.
• Use high-quality photographs or illustrations that are visually appealing and easy to understand.
• Avoid cluttering your slides with too many visuals, as it can distract from your message.
• Use charts, graphs, or infographics to present data or complex information in a visually appealing way.
• Experiment with animations or transitions to add visual interest and highlight important points.

Choose A Cohesive Color Scheme And Font Style:

• Select a color scheme that complements your topic and evokes the desired emotions or atmosphere.
• Use colors consistently throughout your presentation to create a cohesive and professional look.
• Consider the legibility of your text by choosing a font style that is clear and easy to read.
• Stick to one or two font styles to maintain consistency and avoid visual clutter.
• Pay attention to font sizes to ensure that your text is easily readable from a distance.

Use Bullet Points And Concise Text To Keep Slides Clean And Readable:

• Break down your content into bullet points to make it easier for your audience to follow along.
• Keep each bullet point concise and to the point, using only essential information.
• Avoid long paragraphs or excessive text, as it can overwhelm your audience and make your slides difficult to read.
• Use short phrases or keywords instead of complete sentences.
• Use consistent formatting for bullet points, such as indentation or symbol style, to maintain a clean and organized appearance.

Remember to incorporate these design practices in your workshop presentation to effectively communicate your message and engage your audience. By utilizing eye-catching visuals, selecting a cohesive color scheme and font style, and using bullet points and concise text, your slides will be visually appealing, easy to understand, and memorable.

Engaging Participants With Activities

Engage participants in workshop presentations by incorporating interactive activities that cater to different learning styles. Plan the workshop carefully, understand the audience, create relevant content, utilize technology, and provide examples to build connections and make the presentation unique.

Incorporate Interactive Activities To Encourage Participation:

• Use icebreaker activities at the beginning of the workshop to help participants get to know each other and feel more comfortable.
• Incorporate group exercises where participants work together to solve a problem or complete a task.
• Use technology tools, such as online polls or interactive whiteboards, to engage participants and gather their input.
• Encourage active participation by asking open-ended questions and allowing ample time for discussion and sharing of ideas.
• Incorporate games or quizzes related to the workshop topic to make the learning experience more enjoyable and interactive.

Foster Group Discussions And Brainstorming Sessions:

• Divide participants into small groups and assign specific topics or questions for them to discuss and brainstorm.
• Provide clear guidelines and time limits for group discussions to keep the session focused and productive.
• Encourage participants to actively listen to each other and build on each other’s ideas during group discussions.
• Facilitate brainstorming sessions by using techniques like mind mapping or sticky note exercises to generate and organize ideas.
• Create a safe and supportive environment where participants feel comfortable expressing their opinions and sharing their thoughts.

Include Hands-On Exercises And Role-Playing Scenarios:

• Design hands-on exercises that allow participants to apply the concepts and skills they are learning in real-world scenarios.
• Use role-playing scenarios to simulate challenging situations that participants may encounter in their professional or personal lives.
• Provide clear instructions and guidance for hands-on exercises and role-playing scenarios to ensure participants understand the objectives and expected outcomes.
• Provide feedback and facilitate discussions after hands-on exercises and role-playing scenarios to deepen participants’ understanding and learning.
• Incorporate reflection exercises where participants can reflect on their experiences and identify key takeaways from the hands-on activities.

Remember, incorporating interactive activities, fostering group discussions, and including hands-on exercises and role-playing scenarios are all effective ways to engage participants and make your workshop presentation more impactful and memorable. By creating an interactive and participatory learning environment, you can ensure that your participants are actively involved and derive maximum benefit from the workshop.

Delivering A Confident And Impactful Presentation

In this workshop presentation, you will learn effective techniques to deliver a confident and impactful presentation. Discover tips and tricks on planning time, understanding your audience, creating relevant content, utilizing technology, and building connections to engage your audience and leave a lasting impression.

Practice Your Presentation To Improve Delivery And Timing:

• Practice your presentation multiple times to become familiar with the content and flow.
• Rehearse in front of a mirror or record yourself to observe your body language and facial expressions.
• Time your presentation to ensure it fits within the allocated timeframe.
• Take note of any areas that need improvement and make necessary adjustments.

Use Confident Body Language And Maintain Eye Contact:

• Stand straight with your shoulders back to project confidence.
• Use hand gestures and facial expressions to enhance your message.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience to establish connection and engagement.
• Avoid crossing your arms or fidgeting, as it can convey nervousness.

Speak Clearly And Vary Your Vocal Tone And Pace:

• Enunciate your words clearly to ensure everyone can understand you.
• Project your voice to reach the entire audience, especially in large rooms.
• Vary your vocal tone to emphasize important points and maintain interest.
• Control your pace by speaking slowly for emphasis and speeding up for excitement.

Remember, delivering a confident and impactful presentation requires practice, self-awareness, and effective communication techniques. By implementing these strategies, you can engage your audience, leave a lasting impression, and successfully convey your message.

Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

Handling Questions And Managing Time

Discover effective strategies for handling questions and managing time during a workshop presentation. Learn how to engage different types of learners, appeal to your audience, and make your presentation unique to create a successful workshop experience.

Preparing for potential questions and managing your time effectively are crucial aspects of conducting a successful workshop presentation. By being prepared and creating a supportive environment for questions and discussions, you can ensure that your workshop runs smoothly and meets its objectives.

Here are some tips to help you handle questions and manage time efficiently:

• Prepare for potential questions and have relevant answers ready: Anticipate the questions that participants might have and prepare concise and relevant answers in advance. This will demonstrate your expertise and help you address any concerns or uncertainties that may arise. Be sure to research the topic thoroughly and gather additional resources or references to support your answers.
• Set time limits for each section to ensure you cover all key points: Allocate specific time slots for each section of your workshop to ensure that you cover all the key points within the given timeframe. This will help you maintain a structured flow throughout the presentation and prevent any sections from running over time. Consider using a timer or setting alerts to keep yourself on track.
• Foster an open and inclusive environment for questions and discussions: Encourage participants to ask questions and engage in discussions by creating a safe and supportive atmosphere. Emphasize that there are no wrong questions and that everyone’s input is valuable. Be an active listener and provide thoughtful responses that encourage further dialogue. This will enrich the learning experience and allow participants to clarify any doubts or seek additional information.
• Moderate questions to maintain focus and manage time: While it’s important to address participants’ questions, it’s equally crucial to manage time effectively. Moderate the questions by summarizing and paraphrasing them to ensure clarity and maintain focus. If a question requires a detailed explanation, offer to discuss it further after the presentation or provide additional resources for participants to explore independently.
• Allocate sufficient time for Q&A sessions: Dedicate specific time slots within your workshop for Q&A sessions. This will give participants the opportunity to ask questions related to the content covered so far and seek clarification on any concepts discussed. Set reasonable time limits for each question to ensure that you can accommodate as many queries as possible within the allocated timeframe.
• Wrap up the Q&A session effectively: Signal the end of the Q&A session by summarizing the key takeaways and providing any additional resources or references for further exploration. Express gratitude for the participants’ engagement and reaffirm your willingness to address any remaining questions outside the workshop setting.

By preparing for potential questions, managing time effectively, and fostering an open environment for questions and discussions, you can ensure a successful workshop presentation that meets the needs of your participants while maintaining a structured and engaging flow.

Providing Resources And Follow-Up

When it comes to doing a workshop presentation, providing resources and follow-up is crucial. By offering participants valuable materials and continued support after the workshop, you ensure they have the necessary tools and guidance to apply what they’ve learned effectively.

Share Additional Resources And References For Further Learning:

• Provide a list of books, articles, or online resources that participants can explore to delve deeper into the topic discussed during the workshop.
• Include links to relevant websites or blogs that offer additional information or practical tools related to the workshop content.
• Offer suggestions for relevant podcasts, TED talks, or YouTube videos that expand on the workshop subject matter.
• Mention any upcoming events, webinars, or conferences that participants might find valuable for further learning in the field.
• Encourage participants to join relevant online communities or forums where they can continue the discussion and exchange ideas with like-minded individuals.

Collect Participant Feedback To Improve Future Workshops:

• Create a feedback form or survey for participants to provide their thoughts on the workshop content, structure, and delivery.
• Include specific questions to gather feedback on the effectiveness of different activities, presentations, or discussions during the workshop.
• Ask participants to rate their overall satisfaction and to provide suggestions for improvement.
• Offer opportunities for anonymous feedback to encourage honest and valuable responses.
• Consider using a digital platform or tool to streamline the feedback collection process and analyze the data more efficiently.

Follow Up With Participants To Maintain Engagement:

• Send a personalized email to each participant, expressing appreciation for their attendance and participation in the workshop.
• Share any additional resources, handouts, or materials that were discussed or promised during the workshop.
• Provide a summary of key takeaways from the workshop to reinforce the learning and encourage further reflection.
• Invite participants to join a follow-up webinar or online session to address any remaining questions or provide additional information related to the workshop topic.
• Offer ongoing support through email newsletters, blog updates, or exclusive access to a private online community for workshop participants.

Remember, providing resources and follow-up after a workshop is crucial to enhance the participants’ learning experience and maintain their engagement in the topic. By sharing additional resources, collecting feedback, and following up with participants, you can ensure a valuable and impactful workshop that leaves a lasting impression.

Frequently Asked Questions On How To Do A Workshop Presentation

How do you structure a workshop.

To structure a workshop effectively, follow these steps: 1. Identify the purpose and goals of the workshop. Answer the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why), and How. 2. Choose a suitable workshop format, such as lectures, discussions, demonstrations, simulations, games, or exercises.

Consider combining different formats to create a dynamic experience. 3. Build a knowledgeable and skilled team to facilitate the workshop. Ensure that the team understands the goals and objectives. 4. Research your target audience to understand their needs, interests, and preferences.

Tailor the workshop content and activities accordingly. 5. Create a budget outline to determine the necessary resources and expenses for the workshop. 6. Develop a detailed agenda that includes the topics, activities, and timings. Make sure to leave room for breaks and participant engagement.

7. Learn from competition and best practices in your field to enhance the workshop’s effectiveness and uniqueness. By following these steps, you can structure a successful workshop that meets the needs of your audience and achieves your desired outcomes.

What Is A Workshop Format?

A workshop format refers to the structure or arrangement of a workshop. It can involve various formats like lectures, discussions, demonstrations, simulations, games, or exercises. The goal of a workshop format is to engage participants actively and facilitate effective learning and collaboration.

By choosing the right format, workshop organizers can create a dynamic and diverse experience for attendees. They can also combine different formats or use hybrid models to cater to the specific needs and objectives of the workshop. The selection of a suitable topic and format for a workshop is essential in ensuring its success and maximizing the participants’ learning outcomes.

How Do I Start A Workshop Session?

To start a workshop session, follow these steps: 1. Plan your workshop carefully, considering the goals and outcomes you want to achieve. 2. Understand your audience and tailor your content to their needs and interests. 3. Create your workshop content well in advance and make sure to include relevant examples and activities.

4. Use technology effectively, such as slideshows or interactive tools, to enhance engagement. 5. Set the tone of the workshop by creating a welcoming and inclusive environment. 6. Give participants what they came for by delivering the promised content and addressing any questions or concerns.

7. Incorporate exercises and demonstrations to promote active learning and participant involvement. 8. Conclude the workshop with a closure exercise to summarize key takeaways and allow participants to reflect on what they have learned. Remember to be well-prepared, engaging, and responsive to participant needs throughout the workshop session.

What Are The Steps In The Workshop Process?

The workshop process involves the following steps: 1. Plan and allocate time. 2. Understand your audience and their needs. 3. Create content in advance. 4. Prepare relevant examples and use technology if necessary. 5. Determine your desired outcomes for the workshop.

6. Set the tone and create a welcoming environment. 7. Deliver exercises and demonstrations to engage participants. 8. Close the workshop with a relevant exercise to reinforce key concepts. 9. Follow-up and provide resources or materials to participants. By following these steps, you can effectively plan and execute a successful workshop that meets the needs and expectations of your audience.

To wrap up, mastering the art of workshop presentations is crucial for anyone hoping to engage and educate their audience effectively. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can ensure that your workshops are well-organized, informative, and interactive.

Start by thoroughly researching your audience and determining your goals. From there, choose the appropriate format and create an agenda that guides the flow of your presentation. Don’t forget to incorporate relevant examples, utilize technology, and build connections with your attendees.

Additionally, be sure to set the right tone, deliver what your audience came for, and provide engaging exercises and demonstrations. Finally, end your workshop on a high note with a closure exercise that effectively summarizes the key takeaways. With these strategies in mind, you’ll be well-equipped to deliver impactful workshop presentations that leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Start implementing these techniques today and watch your presentation skills soar to new heights.

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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You've probably been a participant in a number of workshops. You may have been at a folk festival where a famous performer held a guitar workshop and demonstrated some of his techniques. You may have been at a conference where there were workshops on surfing the internet, or on selling to reluctant customers. There are workshops on subjects ranging from cake decorating to treating schizophrenia, all of which are limited in time, meant to teach practical skills or techniques or ideas, and conducted by people like you.

Now it's your turn to conduct a workshop. You may be training staff or volunteers for a new organization, presenting at a conference, or trying to show the world this terrific new method your organization has developed. Whatever the case, you're going to have to entertain, educate, and edify a group of people you've probably never met before. That may sound frightening, but running a workshop is really very much like anything else: if you prepare well, stay relaxed, and respect the participants, it'll go fine.

What is a workshop?

There are probably as many answers to this question as there are workshops and workshop presenters but, in general, a workshop is a single, short (although short may mean anything from 45 minutes to two full days) educational program designed to teach or introduce to participants practical skills, techniques, or ideas which they can then use in their work or their daily lives. Most workshops have several features in common:

• They're generally small , usually from 6 to 15 participants, allowing everyone some personal attention and the chance to be heard.
• They're often designed for people who are working together, or working in the same field.
• They're conducted by people who have real experience in the subject under discussion.

A presentation doesn't have to be limited to one person. Co-leaders or co-facilitators are not only common, but can greatly expand the possibilities of a given workshop, and can make everyone's job easier. Each co-leader might be responsible for particular parts of the workshop, or all may work together throughout, depending upon the structure and purpose. In any case, finding one or more co-leaders or co-facilitators is always an option if you're planning a workshop.

• They're often participatory , i.e. participants are active, both in that they influence the direction of the workshop and also in that they have a chance to practice the techniques, skills, etc. that are under discussion.
• They're informal ; there's a good deal of discussion in addition to participation, rather than just a teacher presenting material to be absorbed by attentive students.
• They're time limited , often to a single session, although some may involve multiple sessions over a period of time (e.g. once a week for four weeks, or two full-day sessions over a weekend).
• They're self-contained . Although a workshop may end with handouts and suggestions for further reading or study for those who are interested, the presentation is generally meant to stand on its own, unlike a course, which depends on large amounts of reading and other projects (papers, presentations) in addition to classroom activities.

Why would you give a workshop?

Why choose a workshop, when you could use some other method like a study circle, a course, on-the-job training, etc.? Because there are a number of different ways to teach people things, and because people learn things in different ways, a workshop has some advantages (and some disadvantages, too, most notably the lack of time it provides) over these other methods that make it a good choice in certain circumstances.

• A workshop provides a way to create an intensive educational experience in a short amount of time, when the time for a more comprehensive effort may not be available. Participants may be working, they may be too far apart to gather together regularly, or may simply be unwilling to commit large amounts of time. A workshop can introduce a new concept, spurring participants to investigate it further on their own, or can demonstrate and encourage the practice of actual methods.
• It's a great way to teach hands-on skills because it offers participants a chance to try out new methods and fail in a safe situation. Failure is often the best teacher, and failure in this instance doesn't carry a cost. At the same time, feedback, from both the presenter and peers in the group, helps a participant understand what she can do to avoid failure in a real situation.
• A workshop is a way for someone to pass on to colleagues ideas and methods that he has developed or finds important. Teaching a graduate course may not be possible, but he may be able to reach large numbers of people by conducting workshops in various situations.
• Especially for people who work together, a workshop can help to create a sense of community or common purpose among its participants.

When would you want to conduct a workshop?

A workshop, as explained above, is valuable in certain circumstances. When do those circumstances arise, and when might you choose to conduct a workshop over other methods of education or training? There are a number of situations in which a workshop would be the best choice:

• The beginning of something new. If your organization is adopting a new method, or your community initiative is taking a new track, there are often new pieces of information or ways of functioning that people must learn. A workshop, or series of workshops, is a way to introduce these in a short time and get people ready for the change.
• The initial training of staff or volunteers. Workshops are often a good way to train new staff members or volunteers in the philosophy, methods, and functioning of your organization, or in techniques they'll need to do their jobs.
• The in-service or ongoing training of staff or volunteers. Workshops in different issues, techniques, etc. are a good way to keep staff and volunteers fresh and thinking about what they're doing.
• Staff development. Workshops are often used as a way of honing professional skills and learning about new developments in the field.
• The demonstration of a new concept. If someone in an organization has been exposed to a particularly exciting new idea or technique, he may want to conduct a workshop on it for his colleagues, or the organization may want to bring in someone to do so.
• The explanation of something to the public. An organization may conduct a public workshop on its issue, in order to make sure that people are informed about its cause or about what it is doing. An adult literacy program may hold a workshop on illiteracy in its local area, for instance, or a shelter might hold one on the causes and consequences of homelessness.
• The availability of a knowledgeable presenter. If you have particular expertise in a subject, you may be asked to present a workshop to staff or members of another organization, to the public, at a conference, etc. Well-known people in a given field are often invited (and paid) to travel long distances to present workshops.

How do you conduct a workshop?

Even if you've never done it before, you can conduct a good workshop by paying attention to all the phases of the process. There are three phases to conducting a workshop: planning, preparation, and implementation (actually doing it). In addition, once you're done, it's important to follow up with participants to get feedback on the workshop, so you can improve it the next time. We'll look at each of these phases separately.

Once you know what your topic will be, planning a workshop ultimately means figuring out what you want to do to guide participants through the experience, and what you hope they'll learn from it. In order to do that, you have to consider a number of factors:

Consider your topic. The first element of planning a workshop is to know what you're talking about. No matter how interactive and participatory your workshop will be, you still have to have a good command of what you're presenting. Do your homework, so that you're confident you can deal with most questions and issues that might come up. That doesn't mean you have to know absolutely everything about the topic, but that you have to know a reasonable amount about it, and understand it well enough so that you can help participants fit it into the context of their own jobs and lives.

Consider your audience. Your audience, the people who will actually be part of the workshop, is probably the most important piece of the puzzle here. Understanding them and their needs will do more than anything else to help you decide what to do and how to do it.

• What do they already know? If you expect most of the participants to be familiar with certain background material, or to have had certain kinds of experiences, that will greatly affect how and to what extent you choose to present material.

You can sometimes do some research here. If you're presenting for a particular group or organization, you may be able to find out either from your contact person or from participants themselves who your audience will be, where they're starting from, what their experience has been, and what they want from the workshop. Asking about the audience is part of what a careful presenter is expected to do. In other circumstances at a large conference, for instance, there may be no way to anticipate how much knowledge participants have. In this case, it may make sense to prepare a range of materials and activities, and then begin the workshop by asking people what they know about the topic. By doing that, you can gear your workshop to most participants' needs, and be sure you're neither going over anyone's head nor putting anyone to sleep.

• Is this material out of their field? Knowing the context of participants ' experience can help you understand how to present material.
• What is their field? People in some fields may be expected to be more verbal or introspective or outgoing than those in others. You're more likely to find a group of social workers willing to discuss their emotions than you are a group of construction workers, for instance. It also might take more creativity to bring the construction workers to an understanding of why this kind of discussion might be a good idea. It's important to find ways of presenting material that both makes sense to the participants in this particular workshop, and doesn't pull them too far out of their context.

In reality, any group can either be very quiet or very volatile, extremely apathetic or extremely responsive, or (most likely) somewhere in between. It depends to a great extent on one or two individuals who set the tone, whether or not the group is one whose members all know one another. What kind of group you have has a lot to do with what kind of workshop will be successful. If the group is very quiet, for instance, discussion may be deadly, but activities based on movement may work well. If the group is argumentative, you may be able to take advantage of that by splitting people up into small groups and having them hash out made-up problems on the topic. Understanding that you can't predict will help you to plan for several different possibilities.

• Do they know one another and/or work together? If so, you can perhaps dispense with introductions (it depends on how well they know one another), and can plan a workshop that speaks to common concerns.
• Will they come in with a particular attitude toward the workshop? They will if you're offering material that flies in the face of what they think they know is true. Are you introducing a new concept or method that conflicts with what they've already been doing or with their previous training? If so, the first thing you have to address may be their hostility or skepticism. On the other hand, they might also be biased in your favor if you're offering what seems to be a solution for a difficult problem.

This is not to imply that intentionally challenging people's beliefs in a workshop is a bad idea. Assuming you can do it without being disrespectful, like telling them they're stupid, this kind of workshop is often the most powerful, and results in the most significant learning for participants. Most people find change and new ideas uncomfortable to deal with, but are stimulated by them as well. If you can present something new so that participants will consider it, you've more than done your job.

• Under what circumstances are they attending this workshop? Did they choose it from among several possibilities (as at a conference)? Did they request it? Is it a requirement of their job, or to fulfill requirements for certification, licensure, or some other credential? Is it part of their job (training, retraining, or staff development, for example)? Is it to learn something they absolutely need to know to do their job properly? Each of these reasons implies a different attitude, a different level of interest and commitment, and a different approach on the part of the presenter.

Consider the workshop size. If the group is an ideal size for most purposes (about 8-12) you can arrange activities that involve participants as individuals, in small groups (2-4), and in the whole group. If the group is larger than about 15, you'll probably want to split it up for many activities. If it's smaller than 7 or 8, you might be better off having the whole group work together for most of the workshop.

The reason 8-12 is an ideal size is that it's small enough so that everyone has an opportunity to have his questions answered and to get some individual attention from the presenter, but still large enough to generate some lively discussion. If the group is larger than 15, the voices of some people, usually those who are quieter, tend to get lost; if it's smaller than 6-8, there may not be enough opinions, questions, and ideas flying around.

Consider the time available . Workshops can run from as little as an hour or less to as much as a day or even longer. It 's important that your goals for the workshop match the time available. This means not only planning out your presentation to fill the time appropriately, but also matching the amount of material you'll cover to the time available. Especially if it's all new to participants, they'll need lots of time for clarification, questions, etc. in order to understand it.

A general rule about time is that you should try to block out the time for each part of the workshop in advance. Rehearse different parts to see how long they'll take, or how long you want them to take (e.g., if you're going to ask people to write about something, try it yourself and see how long it takes you). You'll seldom be 100% accurate, but you can come close, and you'll then have an outline of the workshop and a reasonable sense of what you might expect to do in the time you have.

Short workshop: 45-90 minutes. A workshop this short is even shorter than it seems. People may be late by between five and fifteen minutes, and you'll lose more time if you're distributing materials, using equipment, etc. That means you'll have to ruthlessly pare the material you want to present down to what's actually important. Although it's always wise to overprepare (see Preparation, below), the reality is that you seldom get to everything you expect to do. A workshop of this length is probably best used as a means of introducing and discussing a new concept or an issue of concern. It makes little sense to try to teach a specific skill unless it's very limited. If it can be learned in five or ten minutes, and practiced in the same amount of time, it's worth a try. If it's any more complicated than that, you need a longer workshop.

If a particular skill or technique or method is really important for participants to learn in order to do their jobs, or - especially - if its incorrect use will have serious consequences (as in the case of many emergency medical procedures), it is probably unwise to present it in a workshop this short. That could lead to participants believing they know more about the topic than they actually do, and causing real harm as a result. Use your common sense and be guided by what's really possible.

Medium-length workshop: 90 minutes to 3 hours. At this length, a workshop can begin to address ideas and concepts in some depth, and teach some skills. Some considerations about a medium-length workshop:

Vary activities . This type of workshop is more than long enough for participants to get bored or overwhelmed. Two or three consecutive hours of a talking head can send many people out the door screaming for fresh air. Breaking up the time by involving participants in a number of different kinds of activities is far more conducive to their learning than asking them to sit still and do one thing for the whole time.

Attention span: Studies have shown that most people start to lose concentration after 20 minutes to half an hour. By the end of an hour, their level of attention has fallen by more than 50% (and in some cases by a great deal more than that). Attention can be renewed by changing activities, changing topic, changing methods of presentation, etc. Even the short pause in the workshop caused by moving from one activity to another is enough to refresh people and keep them interested.

Vary the seriousness of the material . Interspersing activities and ideas that are fun or humorous with others that are more serious can not only keep participants awake and on their toes, but can aid learning as well.

Plan a break . This will speak to the attention-span issue and allow participants a chance to get coffee, go to the bathroom, etc. without disturbing the flow of the workshop. But also be aware that breaks always take longer than planned. Add another five or ten minutes onto the time that you ask people to take? you can be sure that by the time everyone wanders back into the room and settles down, they'll have spent at least that much extra time.

Even a long workshop isn't as long as you think, carefully reflect on the amount of material you can present adequately in this length of time, and on the amount that people can actually absorb. You might use the time to present a relatively small amount of material in a number of different ways, so that participants will leave with a clear understanding of it. Or, you might select what people really need to know about your topic and concentrate on that, trying to give them enough so that, even if they don't fully comprehend it, they will be intrigued enough to follow up on their own and learn more.

In addition to considering how much is appropriate for the amount of time you have, think about how much you know about the topic. Sometimes, the most successful workshops are conducted by presenters who know only slightly more than the participants. In those circumstances, presenters aren't as apt to try to fit in too much or get too technical. Remember how long it really took you to learn this stuff, and to become comfortable with it: it may have been months, or even years, before you understood it completely. Try to recall your introduction to the topic and what you really absorbed, then plan your workshop.

Participants need time to talk and connect with one another . The opportunity to get to know others and to exchange ideas is one of the main values of a workshop for many people, and shouldn't be shortchanged.

Long workshop: over 3 hours. A long workshop has some drawbacks, but it does allow you to present material in some depth and to conduct a number of activities. Six concentrated hours of work a day is about as much as most people can deal with. Be sure to allow for plenty of breaks, both because of the need to stretch and use the bathroom, and because of attention span. Some thoughts about long workshops:

• You can go into more detail on specific issues. Here's where you have the opportunity to follow group interest, to explore ideas that are relevant to participants' particular situations, or simply to present ideas in greater depth.
• You can allow longer blocks of time for activities and single topics. It's important, however, to be aware of the need for breaking up long segments of the workshop. You have to be aware if participants' eyes start to glaze over, and be prepared to switch quickly to something else (particularly something active and fun) if that happens.
• You can allow more time to practice new skills and more time for discussion about activities. Perhaps the greatest advantage of a long workshop is that it can allow participants the time to reflect, both individually and with others, which is a crucial part of the learning process.
• You can allot more time to and follow up on participants' questions. (It can be tempting, on the other hand, to get into a conversation with one participant about her interesting question while the rest of the group goes to sleep. Be careful to guard against that tendency.)
• You can present both the context and the specifics of the topic (e.g. characteristics of the HIV-infected population and techniques of community AIDS prevention).
• You can provide or encourage food and drink. It helps keep people alert, sets a relaxed and friendly tone, and sustains interest over the long haul by eliminating the need to think about being hungry or thirsty.
• It's harder to estimate how long workshop segments will take in a long workshop because presenters tend to let activities go on if they're going well (after all, there's plenty of time), and often find that they can't get to much of what they planned. You need to decide whether you want to stick to your plan and, thus, limit activities to approximately the time you planned for them, or to go with the flow, and let things go on longer if participants seem to find them important. Neither of these options is the "right" or "wrong" way: it depends on the needs of the group and the presenter. Checking in with the group is usually a good way to decide which way to go.

Consider the purpose of the workshop. Workshops are given for many purposes, and each implies some specific methods of presentation and other details. Some common purposes and their implications:

• Teaching participants a skill which they then might have to use or will use in the future (a first aid workshop for child care workers, for instance). This kind of workshop will generally be light on talk and heavy on activity. If people are going to use what they're learning, it's obviously important for them to practice it, and that is probably what you'll want the workshop to focus on.
• Giving participants a chance to practice and receive feedback on techniques and concepts they already know. Again, the emphasis here is likely to be on action, on actually doing whatever is under discussion and getting advice and reflection on their performance from the presenter and others in the group.
• Enhancing participants' current knowledge of concepts, techniques, and methods (new research, improvement of techniques, etc.). A new technique will have to be practiced; a fresh take on a familiar concept might involve only discussion.
• Teaching participants a new concept that they can then apply to their work (for instance, a workshop for street outreach workers about how gangs act as substitute families for their members). The presentation here might be more discussion oriented, since people will need to assimilate the new ideas and talk out how they connect to and might affect what they do.
• Familiarizing people with material important for, but not directly connected to, their jobs (Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA] regulations, for instance, or privacy laws). A workshop of this type will probably involve direct presentation of information, with perhaps some problem solving practice and discussion (Person X comes to your organization with this issue; how do you handle it?) It may end up as a question and answer session, partially because laws and regulations are often confusing, and partially because they cause so much anxiety.
• Providing, or helping to provide, a job-related credential for advancement or initial employment, for instance or for some certification or licensure. This category could include anything from CPR instruction to cultural sensitivity training, and thus might include any number of activities or methods of presentation.
• Using a workshop as a way of helping participants feel comfortable with one another and/or their situation. Often used in college orientations or in employment-related team building, workshops of this type usually consist of a large number of rapid-fire activities, often eliciting laughter or cooperative problem solving, or both. Any talk is usually beneficial to understanding the activities and their effects on participants.
• Introducing people to a way of looking at the world, either as an adjunct to their jobs or volunteer situations, or as public education (a workshop on theories of moral development, for example). This kind of workshop can allow for tremendously varied activities: direct teaching, discussion of hypothetical situations, trying to solve moral dilemmas, role playing, etc. In general, the more different ways people can experience the concept, the more likely they are to understand it.

Consider your presentation . The style of your presentation both your personal style and the actual methods of presentation you employ will do much to determine the effectiveness of your workshop. Some of this will depend on your own personality and experiences, but there are some general guidelines that can be useful:

• Facilitation. Workshop presenters are often referred to as facilitators. A facilitator (from Latin facile , which means "easy") is someone who smooths the way for others. She's not a leader, exactly, or an authority figure, but more of a guide: someone who walks beside you and helps you figure out which way to go. In general, facilitation is more useful in a workshop than "instructing." It's called a workshop because participants generally get a chance to do something, to actually interact on their own terms with what's being presented. A facilitator can help make it easier for them to have that experience, where an instructor might be more apt to tell them about the experience, or to structure it for them.

The author's prejudice is undoubtedly apparent here. Virtually all good teaching is really facilitation, at least to some extent. In order to learn anything, and especially to learn it at the deepest level, one has to experience it, wrestle with it, reflect on it, live with it. A good facilitator makes it possible for each participant to relate to new learning in his own way and sort it out for himself, rather than telling him what he's supposed to think or how to approach a concept. Participants are far more likely to stay tuned in throughout the workshop if you act as a facilitator and if you're personally accessible. This is not to say that there's never a place for leadership in teaching, as long as it doesn't dominate the workshop. If the presenter is a "star" in her field, participants may in fact want to hear what she has to say, more than to be facilitated.

• Consistency of presentation and the workshop's theme. Your method and style of presentation should, to the largest extent possible, mirror the topic. If you're conducting a workshop on experiential education, for example, it should be experiential, not a lecture. A workshop on ADA regulations should be held in a physically accessible space and demonstrate sensitivity to the concerns of the disabled. A technique being introduced should be practiced in presentation as well as in activities. In a well-presented workshop, participants learn as much from methods and style of presentation as they do from workshop contents.
• Direct involvement of participants. Workshops are much more effective and enjoyable if they involve participants in activities, discussion, and interaction with others, than if they merely shower people with information. There are many opportunities for practicing skills, small and large group discussions, reporting out of discussions, problem solving as individuals and as small and large groups, etc. that will give everyone in the group an opportunity to take an active role.
• Include some sort of hands-on activity where people can be physically active.
• Include both group and individual activities.
• Activities should be entertaining and interactive. Avoid being a "talking head" as much as possible.
• Include various kinds of audio-visual material, such as video, motiongraphics, and audio recordings
• Include innovative ways of presenting material directly: a play, an interactive skit, a song, a cartoon, etc.
• Always include practice of a particular technique or method that's being presented, even if only for a short time, to give participants the chance to see what it feels like.

The more creative you can get here, the better. Activities in which participants work with physical objects are often great learning tools. There are the obvious ones (workshops for teachers include lots of "manipulatives," objects to demonstrate concepts with), but there are an infinite number of options. The author attended a terrific workshop on multiple intelligences that involved small groups designing and building villages out of legos and other blocks. Think as outrageously as you can.

• Things to take home. Make sure participants get print copies of any overheads or slides that contain important information, as well as some summary of the main point(s) of the workshop, and anything else you think might be important. It will help them to remember later what the workshop was about, and will assist them in passing the ideas on to others.
• Reflection time. Reflection is the key to learning. If part of the style of your presentation is to ask participants to reflect on or discuss each activity, you 'll help them learn in two ways: by giving them the time to reflect on the activity and talk about it with others in the group, and by demonstrating how important it is to reflect on what you've done and learned.
• Time to talk to, socialize with, and get to know the other participants. Much of the value of a workshop is in the experience of forming a community of learners. The shared experience can lead to professional collaboration and can enrich the learning that goes on.

Preparation

Now that your planning is done, you need to prepare for the workshop. Planning is about the delivery of the workshop itself; preparation is about logistics, making sure you have the actual stuff and time you need to make the workshop a success. That means both putting together whatever materials you'll be using and getting whatever information is necessary for you to do the best job you can.

Find out about the space you'll be using, if possible . If the space is your own, you can choose the room or place that would be best and set it up beforehand. If you're being assigned space in another facility, you may be able to request a particular type or size of room, or may be able to get it set up in a certain way (chairs in a circle, comfortable furniture, etc.). You need to think about how you'll use the space: Will people need to move around a lot? Will there be bulky equipment to move around? Do you need a screen or a blackboard or whiteboard? The more you can learn about the space and the more you can set it up for your needs before participants arrive, the smoother your presentation will go.

If the role you intend to assume is that of facilitator rather than authority figure, you'll want to make the space as welcoming and informal as possible. Sometimes that simply can't be done; a school classroom with desks bolted to the floor (yes, they still exist, although there aren't many of them) isn't particularly flexible, for instance. But where you can, arranging chairs in a circle or similar configuration, where everyone can see everyone else and there's no head of the table, can do a lot to set a tone as soon as people walk in.

Bring everything you need . Don't assume any of it will be there unless you've specifically arranged for it (see no. 3 below). Even then you can't be sure.

• If you're going to ask people to write something, or if they might want to take notes, make sure you bring enough pencils and paper for everyone.
• Make and collate at least twice as many copies as you think you'll need of any printed material you want to hand out.
• Bring easels, newsprint, and markers for recording ideas, questions, comments, or for documenting what goes on in small groups.
• If you're making overheads, lists, an agenda, etc., do it well beforehand, not the night before your presentation.
• If you have to take it all somewhere (i.e. if your presentation is anywhere but in your own space) put it in your car the night before. Make and use a checklist to be sure you don't forget anything.

Don't forget about food, coffee, etc., if you're providing them or having them provided. You either need to arrange beforehand to have what you need in the room when you get there, or your coffeemaker, coffee, creamer, paper cups, etc. should be in your back seat along with everything else the night before. (Get the doughnuts fresh in the morning.)

Arrange well beforehand for any equipment you'll need (overhead projector, VCR and monitor, computer, etc.) or plan to bring it yourself. (If you're bringing it, make sure you have a backup in case the one you're planning on isn't working.) Make your arrangements well beforehand (in writing as well as verbally, if possible ), and check a day or two before the workshop to see that everything is in order. Get there early enough to check on it on the day of the workshop. Assume that if anything can go wrong, it will, and that, even if it's not your responsibility, you'll have to fix it anyway.

Make materials and hand-outs as attractive and interesting as possible so that participants will return to them .

• Use color where you can.
• Easy-to-read charts and graphs are useful for a lot of people (although not everyone), as are pictures.
• If it's appropriate, organize printed material so that it's easy to read and digest. Outline form, bullets, and the use of color or pictures can all be helpful here.
• Try to keep the amount of material you hand out under control, unless it's a situation where people really need and want a lot of information (state regulations, for instance, which they may need as a reference over time). It can be helpful to print different handouts on different colors of paper so that both you and participants can easily keep track of them ("Turn to the blue sheet?").
• Actual "things" people can take home (AIDS ribbons, miniature model breasts for practicing self-examination) can serve to keep the learning of the workshop in their consciousness.

Be overprepared . If you think a block of the workshop will probably last 30 minutes, be ready with at least an hour's worth of material for it. In some groups, you may only use what you thought would take 15 minutes; in others, you may use all of it and wish you had more. It's far better to be overprepared than underprepared: the longer the workshop, the more important this becomes.

Without knowing the individual participants beforehand, and often even then, you can't really make accurate assumptions about time or the reactions of the group. If they're already a group (a program staff, for example), they'll already have their own leaders, assumptions, and norms, and those will determine to some extent how they'll react (verbal or nonverbal, engaged or unengaged, etc.) If they're a random group, leaders may emerge, but also may not. As discussed earlier, why they're there, what their background and training are, and simply who they are as individuals will determine how they respond to your presentation. With some groups, no one may speak for the first hour or more, or at all. With others, you may have difficulty getting a word in after the first five minutes. No matter how many times you've presented a particular workshop, it's best to be prepared for anything.

Make up an evaluation form that people can fill out quickly at the end of the workshop, but that covers the areas you really want to know about. (Many conferences prepare evaluation forms for each workshop, in which case you don't have to.) The standard for this sort of thing is usually a multiple choice form that either asks participants to rate each area from 1 to 5, or to check off one of 5 choices ranging from "strongly agree " to "strongly disagree." Some areas you might want to cover include:

• The clarity of your presentation.
• The usefulness of each of the various kinds of activities you included, especially in the context of the participants' jobs or lives.
• How interesting and relevant the content was to participants.
• Your command of the material (i.e. how well you knew your stuff).
• How well the workshop kept people's interest.
• How well you were able to set and sustain a comfortable tone.
• General comments, if any.

There may be other specific questions you have about your particular workshop. Just be sure to keep it short enough so that people will actually fill it out.

Finally, get a good night's sleep the night before and allow yourself plenty of time to get where you're going, so you don't feel rushed and frazzled. If the workshop is far from home, and you have the option of staying somewhere near it the night before, take it. If you have the time to relax before the workshop, you'll be more relaxed in the course of it as well.

Implementation

Planning and preparation are done. You're incredibly organized; you have all your handouts color-coded and arranged in the order you want to distribute them; you have activities planned down to the second, with plenty of extras if they don't fill the time completely; you have the room arranged so it will welcome participants and work for the activities you have planned. Now all you have to do is actually pull it off.

A workshop, especially a longer one, has distinct phases. There is the introduction, which covers the time from when the first participant walks into the room to when the first topic-related activity begins; the substance of the workshop includes the presentation and activities; and closure involves review, reflection, evaluation, and ending. We'll discuss each of these, with some ideas about how to make them go smoothly.

Introduction

This part of the workshop will let people know what their experience is going to be like. By the time the workshop actually starts, participants often have a strong inkling about whether they're going to like it or not. Thus, it's important to set a positive tone and to make people feel comfortable and interested; to give them some familiarity with you and with one another; and to make sure that they know what 's coming in the rest of the workshop.

Setting the tone. There are some steps you can take to make participants comfortable as soon as they walk in, and to establish the workshop as a community of learners.

• The space. We've already discussed setting up the room so that people face one another, so that there's no obvious place of authority, and so that the environment is as comfortable physically and psychologically as possible.
• Music. Depending upon the nature of the workshop, you might consider having music playing as participants enter, either to establish calm or to generate energy. Music also tells people that this is likely to be a relatively informal experience. (The concern here, of course, is that people's tastes in music vary widely. Music that you play as a calming influence may set some participants' teeth on edge. Music you play to generate energy may just annoy some people. It's a risk you take, unless you know the group well.)
• Greeting. As participants enter the room, a process which may cover 15 minutes or more, there is a period when, often, no one quite knows what to do. The presenter may smile and nod as people come in, but the workshop hasn't started yet, and "there isn't anything to talk about." One way to eliminate this awkwardness is to introduce yourself to people as they come in, hand them materials and an evaluation form, and ask them about their backgrounds, or about why they're interested in the workshop. New arrivals can be pulled into the conversation as they come in so that no one feels shut out. By the time everyone is in the room and the workshop is about to start, participants will be talking to one another and to you, and the awkwardness will have given way to conviviality.

There may be circumstances under which you might not want to make people comfortable. At a conference, a workshop called "Separate Tables" divided participants up as they came in, with the majority asked to sit on the floor. A small number were seated at an elegantly appointed table and served an appetizing meal. The others about 20? were given a loaf of bread and told to divide it up. The workshop continued in this vein, with the floor sitters eventually protesting their treatment. The point, of course, was to call attention to the lack of comfort that most of the world's population experiences every day, as compared to the position of those in the developed West.

Personal introductions. Especially if your workshop involves a lot of hands-on and group activities, it will go better if people are comfortable with one another. If you've started a conversation as they walked in, many participants may already have talked to others that they didn't know, but it still makes sense to introduce yourself and everyone else.

You might start by introducing yourself with a (very brief) explanation of why you're conducting this workshop (experience you've had, your familiarity with the topic, etc.). This shouldn't take more than a minute or so. Then, you might use a technique or game to introduce the members of the group to one another (you can also take part in this activity, if you think it will be helpful to your purpose).

Agenda and plan for the session. It's helpful to either hand out, or to have visible in the room, and to go over with participants, an agenda for the workshop. If the workshop will be interrupted by meals, breaks, etc., a plan for the session or day would be helpful, as well. Previewing the agenda and asking for feedback on it ("Can we spend more time on actually using the materials?") serves several purposes:

• It includes participants in the management of the session, rather than making them passive receptors of information.
• It gives participants a sense of anticipation, so they're interested in what comes next.
• It lets participants know what will happen when lunch is (at 12:30, for example) and eliminates a certain edge of antsiness and anxiety that they often have when they don't know the plan.

This is also the time to ask people for their expectations for the workshop, which can be recorded on newsprint or in some other way, and reviewed at the end of the session. If most participants' expectations are significantly different from the presenter's, there may be room for some adjustment at this point as well.

If it's necessary for participants to reveal details of their personal lives, for instance, or if the topic of the workshop is particularly controversial, after previewing the agenda would be the time to ask the group to develop ground rules for the session. A few simple norms, such as keeping disagreement away from the personal and respecting confidentiality can make all the difference in participants' willingness to engage with others, and with the ideas under discussion.

Substance of the workshop

This is the real meat of what you're doing, the reason why you showed up this morning. What you actually do depends on your own planning, of course, but there are some general guidelines, some of which have already been mentioned, that can make your workshop more effective and enjoyable.

• Keep track of time. This doesn't mean that you should be a slave to your agenda, but rather that you should be aware when you're deviating from it. In a lot of instances, it might make sense to ask the group how they'd like to use their time: "We're running way over on this activity. Is that OK with you, or are there other things that are more important to you that we should get to?" If you think what's happening is really important and shouldn't be interrupted, don't be afraid to say so.

Giving time markers every once in a while ("In 20 minutes, we'll be stopping for lunch") can keep participants going ("I'm hungry, but I can certainly wait 20 minutes"). It will also help you be aware of where you are in the session so that you can, in fact, get people to lunch on time (this may be a major concern, depending upon the facility where the workshop is being held) and conclude the activities with enough to time to close out the session properly.

• Match the presentation to the content and philosophy of the workshop. As discussed earlier in this section, participants learn both from the content and the style, as well as the methods of your presentation. It's tough to convince teachers to encourage student participation by lecturing to them. If you believe in what you're presenting, you should be demonstrating that by practicing it. People are much more liable to understand and accept what you're trying to convey if it's obvious you believe in and use it all the time.
• Try to present material in a number of different ways. This variation is important for two reasons: First, it helps to keep participants involved. There are many studies showing that human beings are intrinsically interested in and respond positively to variety, and it makes sense to take advantage of that trait. Second, variation speaks to differences in learning styles, and thus makes it more likely that everyone in the workshop will be able to grasp the material.

Although researchers have come up with a number of models for the ways in which people absorb information, none would disagree that individuals differ in their preferred methods of learning. Some people take in new information better through their eyes, others through their ears, others through their fingers (i.e. by doing things with their hands). Some people like to deal with the details of an idea, others with the overall concept. Some learners are systematic and logical, others are intuitive leapers. Still other differences include individual vs. group learning, and fast processors vs. slow and thoughtful ones. Varying activities in a workshop lecture /slide presentation, group problem-solving, building models, etc. can speak to at least most of the learning styles of participants, and create a more nearly complete learning experience for everyone.

• Try to be, and to make your activities, entertaining. Humor is an extremely important tool, even when your topic is not humorous at all. (The TV show MASH, about Korean War surgeons who dealt with horrible deaths every day, illustrated how black humor could help to keep people sane in an intolerable situation.) It can not only set a tone that makes learning more fun, but can serve to underscore important points as well.

A college geology instructor on a field trip with his students pointed out a formation and stated, "This is called a pluck." Then, tripping lightly over to a dead crow on the ground, he pulled out a feather, and said, "This, too, is called a pluck." No one in the class ever forgot what the geological term "pluck" meant.

• Be enthusiastic. If you really believe in what you're presenting, show it; it will help make participants more enthusiastic as well, and can have a huge effect on the success of your workshop.
• Encourage participants to relate the workshop content to their reality. How can they use these ideas or methods in their jobs, or in their lives? How would their colleagues react? They need a chance to think about and discuss these questions. You might ask everyone to make a commitment to use something they've learned in the workshop at least once, or to apply new concepts to a particular facet of their work or home life. The real questions that both presenters and participants should be asking themselves about the topic of a workshop are"How does it fit into the world?" and "How can it be used?"
• Allow ample time for reflection and discussion in all activities. People often need to think and talk through their experiences or new information in order to understand them. It's also important that participants have a chance to be heard about what they think and what they've learned. If they can share it aloud, it gains more importance and legitimacy for them. Even if the workshop content has been understood, it hasn't really been learned until it's been assimilated into the learner's understanding of the world. Reflection provides the vehicle for this assimilation.

In the final phase of the workshop, you'll need to wrap things up and give participants a chance to react to what they've just been through. You may want to go through some formal activity for this purpose, or you may want to just throw out some questions and listen to what people have to say.

• Sum up and review agenda. Restate the major points that the workshop covered and revisit the agenda to identify any areas you didn't get to. Depending upon their importance, the group's interest, and actual possibilities, you could hand out or offer to send people material or a bibliography on those areas, or to hold another workshop to cover what you missed
• Revisit expectations. Take a look at that list of expectations from the beginning of the workshop. Were people's initial expectations appropriate, and were they met? If not, where were the gaps?
• Give participants a chance to sum up. This could be as simple as asking "What did you think?" or it could involve a more structured exercise. (One possibility: go around the room and ask everyone to state one thing she liked about the workshop or learned from it, and one thing she would have changed about it.) It's important to give participants a way to summarize for themselves the value, or lack of value, of the workshop for them.
• Ask for feedback on the ideas, techniques, methods, etc. that you presented. Pay attention to participants' challenges and concerns about the material. It may be totally new to them, and may fly in the face of everything they've learned so far. They'll need time to digest it. Don't get defensive if they don't agree with everything or anything you've been promoting. You may have doubts about some of the material, too, and it's OK to say so. The purpose of a workshop is learning, and that rarely comes without some internal conflict.

If you can find a way to record all this review, summing up, and feedback, it will prove extremely helpful to you in developing other workshops, or in revising the one you just conducted. An audio recorder is one possibility. Newsprint or something similar is another.

• Collect evaluation forms . Make sure you get one from everybody, it should take less than a minute to fill out, unless people have complex comments (the best kind, because they give the most specific feedback).

After the workshop is over, there are still a few loose ends to tie up.

• If you agreed to send anything to participants (materials, bibliographies, etc.) you should do it as soon as possible, both so that you don't forget, and so the material is still fresh in people's minds when they get it.
• If you have notes on the summation and feedback, you might want to type them up and send them to participants also, if they would be helpful to their understanding of the workshop.
• Go through the evaluations and your feedback notes soon after the workshop, so that it's still fresh in your mind. What do most people think you might have done differently? What areas seemed particularly strong or particularly weak? This is the moment to think about what you'll change the next time you conduct a workshop, and there should be a next time. Start planning now!

In order to conduct an effective and successful workshop, you need to address its planning, preparation, and implementation. As you plan, consider the workshop's audience, its size, its length, its purpose, and your presentation options. Preparation includes logistics (managing the physical items involved, materials, equipment, etc.), and preparing psychologically as well. Finally, the implementation of the workshop includes attending to all three of its phases: introduction, substance, and closure. And don't forget to follow up, both by fulfilling any promises and using feedback to redesign or change parts of the workshop so that your next one will be even better.

Print Resources

Bobo, K., Jackie K., & Steve M. (1991).  Organizing for Social Change: A Manual for Activists in the 1990s . Cabin John, MD: Seven Locks Press. Chapter on "Designing and Leading a Workshop," pp. 124-131.

Coover, V., Ellen D., Charles E., & Moore C.(1977).   Resource Manual for a Living Revolution . Philadelphia: New Society Press. Chapter on workshops, pp. 161 ff.

The following items contain exercises and New Games that might be helpful.

Bag of Tricks  (quarterly). Available from Karl Rohnke, P.O. Box 100, Hamilton, MA 01936.

The Bottomless Bag Again. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 1991.

Funn Stuff, vols. I, II, and III. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 1996 (vols. I and II) and 1998 (vol. III).

Le Fevre, Dale N . More New Games .

The New Games Foundation.  New Games for the Whole Family .

Rohnke, Karl. Silver Bullets. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 1984.

How to design a workshop slide deck

We’ve probably all sat through classes, lectures, workshops, and courses where we’ve encountered Death by Powerpoint.

Cluttered slides. Cliched stock imagery. No narrative. Monotone delivery.

Just the mention of its name can send chills down the spine. Perhaps the colour drains from your face at the prospect of experiencing it.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

And with workshops , it definitely doesn’t have to be this way.

When running a workshop, you don’t necessarily need slides (especially if it’s a craft-focused session like a workshop on making ceramic pots), but it’s always helpful to know what makes for a good slide deck.

Slides, when done well, can be a hugely valuable asset to a workshop, especially when every workshop session (at the time of writing) is running remotely.

To help understand what makes for a good slide deck, a good place to start is avoiding what makes one bad.

Here are 5 common missteps when creating slide presentation decks for workshops.

These all sound simple, but they’re very easy traps to fall into (I have, occasionally still do). However, if we know the trap is there, we probably have a better chance of avoiding it 🙂

Note: The tips in this guide are particularly focused on workshops, but also apply to just about any slide deck design.

Here we go….

1. The 2 slide prompt

Let’s say we’re setting up the group for an activity.

We can explain it verbally, but having a visual aid of some kind is very helpful (especially as we’re inclusive Workshop Creators). We may use handouts for this, or the chat function on video, but most likely we’ll use a slide, especially for a more involved activity.

One of the two factors that damage activities most is unclear communication. Unclear communication opens us up for questions, confusion, frustration, wasted time, and serious dips in trust and energy. Bad news.

Instructions on two (or more?!) slides is a surefire way of putting us in this uncomfortable position. We end up hopping back and forth, different groups want to see different information, and it’s hard to process and absorb.

We absolutely want to keep our instructions to one slide.

We’re going to need a second slide with this one…and even then we’ll probably still encounter questions:

We want to avoid this.

There’s not a lot here, but it works much better. Bonus: Show the group an example of the final result.

This is even more important for more complex activities, which is indeed counter-intuitive. We have to make the complex…simple. If we can’t get simple enough, it’s a good indicator we probably need to head back into the lab to revisit our activity and chunk it down.

Want to know more about activity design? Join one of our workshop creation sessions >

2. Disconnected images

Another bit of dissonance comes with disconnected images. I love using images on my slides — especially full-bleed, perhaps with a dark tint over the top so they’re not too distracting from the main conversation (as my friend Andre says, we should treat the slides as backing dancers).

However, it’s important to think through image selection carefully.

There are the obvious things like pixelation, but beyond that are considerations such appropriateness for the audience, cultural references that may not land, and mixing metaphors.

At the more serious end of the scale, we can end up humiliated that we’ve offended a group with an image that they may find offensive or taboo in their culture.

Yet even a less serious problem can cost us: I still cringe at trying to explain the meaning behind the use of a GIF featuring a little-known British football manager as a way to convey the importance of thinking for the long haul. It cost time, trust, and energy.

3. Overestimating absorption

You may have heard of the concept 7±2. Simply put, the theory behind it is adults can generally only store 7 pieces of information in their short-term memory at a time, plus or minus 2 (i.e. between 5 and 9).

A good example of this is in sports — rugby teams have 15 players but they’re split into groups of forwards and backs so we can easily make sense of the information and formation of the team.

We can see how this shows up in slide design through this example:

While we may not always be asking our attendees to parse their phone number through a form of basic hieroglyphics, keeping information bitesize (and with clearly understandable and recognisable patterns) will serve us well: just a few points on a slide; a handful of concepts before switching workshop teaching formats.

4. No agenda

Even the most adventurous of adult learners will probably want to know what’s coming next. Adults want to know what they’re going to be learning — the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.

Related: here’s a handy list of thinking about preparing an adult learning session

The simplest and most effective way to help people see what’s expected of them is the small but mighty agenda slide.

This need not be complex; two bullet points plus the all-important break time is enough.

Pro tip : Don’t include exact timings on your agenda — it’s an unnecessary albatross, and no good workshop should run exactly to time 🙂

5. Use Words

Sometimes I’ll retreat in tricky situations or when I’m rundown, confused or tired. To pull me out of my hypnosis-esque fugue, my wife will utter the phrase ‘ Use Words’ . I need to say what I need, and say what I mean.

In workshops, we don’t our audience to feel tired, rundown or confused. We don’t want them to feel that this is an uncomfortable place to be.

We need to use words. We do this primarily through our facilitation skills, but we can also do it through our slides.

Of course, a common cause of Death by Powerpoint is through verbosity — long essays slapped onto a slide-shaped postage stamp.

We don’t want this. However, text can also really help us out.

I’ve seen several wonderfully designed presentations go smoothly and then suddenly, as the presenter moves from one slide to the next there’s…nothing.

The primal fear of mind going blank. It’s the other side of the disconnected image problem.

What does this image represent?

Where in the story does it fit?

What was the point we were trying to explain?

I’ve seen lots of people try and go minimal, using hardly any text at all and then have to remember the entire deck from scratch. This creates the fear and panic, which is not good for the Workshop Creator.

In the words of The Streets: Don’t mug yourself.

That’s a quick 5 on avoiding some of the traps in workshop slide design.

Want to learn more?

Join our tribe of workshop creators — over the coming weeks we’re running free express workshop design sessions, a 6-week design & facilitation cohort, and launching a membership club to help creators from around the world stay connected and build their workshop superpowers.

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Infuse your presentation with the energy of a workshop

The word “workshop” sparks visions of creativity, collaboration, and energy — people rolling up their sleeves to build something great together. In contrast, “presentation” has completely different connotations, triggering groans and eyerolls as people imagine tired slide decks and endless droning.

It’s true that workshops and presentations are two different things with two different goals. A workshop aims to build something new while a presentation aligns participants with the presenter in an effort to gain consensus.

But while presentations and workshops serve different purposes, they don’t need to be quite so far apart in terms of overall enthusiasm and participation. Your presentation can borrow some workshop strategies and amp up the energy level, and be just as engaging, exciting, and informative.

We chatted with Shipra Kayan, Principal Product Evangelist here at Miro, to learn how to inject more workshop liveliness into presentations while still getting the buy-in needed from the audience.

• 1. Know your audience and your key takeaways

The only thing worse than a boring presentation is a long , boring presentation. According to Shipra, one of the best ways to build engaging presentations is remember that less is more. Always distill your content down to what’s most relevant and impactful — anything extraneous can wait.

As you plan your presentation, Shipra suggests asking these core questions to ensure your content is crisp, clean, and to the point:

• What is the presentation’s goal?
• Who is the audience?
• What does the audience care about?
• What do you want the audience to take away?
• What do you need from the audience?

These help you stay focused on the most pertinent elements without getting bogged down by details or tangents. It’s also a great gut check to gauge whether a presentation is even the right format for your content.

Finally, since presentations are aimed at getting consensus, feedback, and/or buy-in from your audience, Shipra suggests wrapping up with a clear action item. 

“One question I like to ask at the end of presentations is, ‘What is one thing you are going to do to help move this project forward?’” she says.

• 2. Ditch the boring slide deck

Presentations have become almost synonymous with slide decks packed with way too much text — a recipe for audience disengagement. But there’s a better way.

With Miro, you can present an entire Miro board and easily move between different sections, rather than having to a linear or hierarchical presentation format. This feels far more natural and conversational than a buttoned-up slide deck, and the visual elements hold the audience’s attention.

Plus, if your team is already using Miro for collaboration, you don’t need to spend time copying and tweaking your content for slides. Instead, simply use your existing board and walk your audience through it. With Miro’s Interactive Presentation Mode , you can also collect participant reactions and feedback in real-time during your synchronous presentations, fostering that energetic and collaborative workshop feel.

• 3. Use plenty of stories

Presentations often suffer from information overload, giving too much data, jargon, and information for anyone to absorb on the spot. This approach can backfire, making the audience feel overwhelmed, disinterested, or both.

What works better? Stories. They’re not only attention-grabbing, compelling, and engaging – they’re powerful and lead to long-lasting memories. Research even shows that when we see or hear a story, the neurons in our brain fire in the same pattern as the speaker’s. It’s called “neural coupling.”

When the goal of your presentation is to achieve consensus, this literal brain power behind storytelling is invaluable. The takeaway: instead of only providing a bunch of data points about why you need to overhaul your customer onboarding process, enrich those stats with a compelling story about a recent customer interaction.

4. Provide adequate time and space for “head nodding”

Traditional presentations are one-sided: the presenter talks, the audience listens, and maybe there’s some dialog in the Q&A. But real consensus doesn’t come from passive listening. It requires active audience participation and engagement — and this is why drawing inspiration from workshops can be a game-changer.

“A good presentation needs to create space for that head nodding,” explains Shipra. “If you want people to be aligned, you need to create space for them to ask questions, disagree, and critique, so you can address those concerns.”

Exactly how you approach this will depend on factors like allotted presentation time and audience size, but here are a few ideas:

• Allow for hand-raising and questions throughout the presentation to improve flow and facilitate discussion.
• Include designated time for questions and answers (if you’re worried about constant questions throwing you off track).
• Use tools like polls and surveys to keep participants engaged.
• Break the audience into small groups for discussions and sharing, in effect building a short workshop into your presentation.
• 5. Choose wisely between synchronous and asynchronous presentations (or blend the two)

Today, presentations don’t have to happen in real-time. While there are benefits to gathering participants for a synchronous presentation, such as being able to read the room and tailor your delivery accordingly, asynchronous presentations can be equally effective and far more efficient. This is particularly true for remote or hybrid teams, where it’s tough to coordinate schedules. Async presentations also give participants a chance to digest the information, and prepare more thoughtful questions and feedback.

When planning your presentation, think carefully about whether you want to opt for synchronous, async, or a combination of the two.

And don’t worry — an async presentation doesn’t have to sacrifice the lively and collaborative workshop environment you want. Miro’s Talktrack feature allows you to make an audio or video recording as you walk through a board. Participants can interact with the recording while navigating through the board themselves. This gives them a more human feel and builds feelings of connection and engagement between viewers and the presenter.

And when it comes to making the “to async or not to async” choice, Shipra’s typical preference is to get the best of both worlds by making the presentation async and then hosting a real-time discussion about the content. This avoids clogging up people’s calendars with the presentation itself, but still allows for plenty of collaboration.

As Shipra says, “You don’t have alignment just because you gave a presentation. You have alignment when everybody truly feels that they’re coming along with you.”

• Give your next presentation workshop-level energy

By the end of your presentation, you want your audience to be on board with your vision – to be fully bought into your mission or your idea.

But getting them there? It doesn’t have to be snore-inducing. Incorporating some workshop elements into your next presentation – whether it’s synchronous, async, or a little bit of both – can make the whole experience more lively and synergetic for everybody involved.

Miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together.

Join millions of users that collaborate from all over the planet using Miro.

• 4. Provide adequate time and space for “head nodding”

Keep reading

How a successful product leader inspires innovation: an interview with miro community member michel hauzeur.

How to align your organizational structure with your company goals

How to inspire innovation during uncertain times

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How to Prepare a Workshop

Last Updated: April 15, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Harish Chandran, PhD . Harish Chandran is the Engineering Site Lead and Senior Staff Research Engineer at DeepMind, where he leads the engineering efforts to integrate AI research results into Google products. Harish received his PhD in Computer Science from Duke University in 2012. While in graduate school, he worked as a Teaching Assistant, helping undergraduate students learn about algorithms and data structures. He has experience in DNA self-assembly, evolutionary algorithms, computational neuroscience, complexity theory, computer architecture, and super-computing. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 29 testimonials and 86% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 362,046 times.

A workshop is an informative or instructional class focused on teaching specialized skills or exploring a particular subject. Workshop presenters are usually educators, subject matter experts, managers or other leaders who possess knowledge of a particular subject or mastery of specific skills. Depending on the topic, workshops may be only one or two hours in length or extend across weeks of time. Workshop leaders can strengthen the effectiveness of their presentations through careful planning, organization, and presentation practice. Here are the steps for preparing a workshop.

Planning the Workshop

• Create an introduction. Decide how you will introduce yourself, the topic and the participant members.
• List the skills and/or topics you will cover. Create a comprehensive bulleted list. Include subtopics, as needed.
• Decide on the order of the topics. Move the most important skills or information to the early part of the workshop. Depending on the subject of the workshop, it may also be useful to introduce and build on each topic, beginning with the simplest or most straight forward topic and concluding with the more difficult or complex topic.
• Determine ground rules for the workshop. Rules or guidelines such as only one person speaks at a time or raising a hand to speak, as well as shutting off any cellphones or distracting devices are good to establish at the onset of the workshop.
• Decide how you will wrap up the workshop. You might include a short review of learned skills, announce the next level in a series of workshops and/or implement a participant feedback form.

Creating Supporting Materials

Encouraging Workshop Participation

Community Q&A

• Arrive early on workshop day to set up. This is especially important if you are using electronic equipment and other tools that require testing and set up. This final step also ensures you are fully prepared to conduct an engaging, effective workshop. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Create a contingency plan. Consider the issues that may arise, such as low participant attendance, equipment malfunction or inaccurate time estimates for activities. If possible, create a backup plan to remedy these issues, such as bringing an extra laptop or preparing additional content for accelerated learners. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Harish Chandran, PhD. Machine Learning Engineer & PhD in Computer Science, Duke University. Expert Interview. 5 June 2019.
• ↑ https://cantina.co/five-tips-for-planning-workshops/
• ↑ http://nc.casaforchildren.org/files/public/site/conference/WorkshopOutline.pdf
• ↑ https://speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/presentation-handouts/
• ↑ https://ctlt.ubc.ca/2012/04/10/group-discussion-workshop-an-exercise-in-experiential-learning/

About This Article

To prepare a workshop, start by figuring out what you want the participants to get out of it, whether it’s a concrete skill, or general information about a topic. Then, create an outline, deciding which topics you’ll cover, the order the topics will be presented, and how long each topic should take. After completing your outline, choose visual tools to enhance your presentation, like pictures, videos, and interactive worksheets. Finally, decide how you’ll wrap up the workshop, whether it’s a question and answer session, a participant feedback form, or a review of learned skills. To learn some web-based tools you can use to support your workshop, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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What is a workshop and why should you run one?

Workshops are more than just interactive meetings. They're a space for groups to come together around a shared goal, collaborate effectively and solve complex problems. If you're wondering what a workshop is, how they differ from training or meetings, or just want to start running them, you're in the right place!

A great workshop can create innovation, connection and transformation for both companies and individuals. In this article, we'll explore what workshops are, what benefits you can expect, and also show you some workshop examples that you can use for inspiration when working with your team.

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A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop, how to create an unforgettable training session in 8 simple steps, 47 useful online tools for workshop planning and meeting facilitation, what is a workshop.

A workshop is a structured and interactive session designed to create an environment for meaningful work and to guide a group through a process that will lead to great outcomes.

Workshops are designed to engage participants and foster their active involvement in the process. They are not training sessions where one person teaches everyone else in the room. Nor are they meetings where people give one another updates but rarely collaborate on a task with a structured approach.

Workshops typically involve hands-on activities, facilitation techniques , group discussions, simulations, and collaborative exercises , which allow participants to explore, ideate, and participate in achieving their desired outcomes. Whether that’s aligning on a perfect solution to a tricky problem or improving their skills experientially.

Workshops can cover almost any topic you can think of – whether it be a creative word workshop for school kids or a strategic planning session for company executives.

The key elements of these workshops are the same: they seek to create a dynamic environment that encourages participants to learn from each other, consider their own solutions, and apply the gained knowledge both inside the workshop and in the wider world.

Another aspect that unites all workshops is that they are structured and designed in order to help a group achieve a desired outcome. A workshop facilitator will often plan a workshop as a sequence of activities with careful attention to timing, flow and an optimal group dynamic. When it comes to actually designing your workshop agenda, SessionLab is a useful tool for designing a workshop flow while ensuring you stay on time!

What is the difference between a workshop and meeting?

What distinguishes workshops from meetings, seminars and training courses is an emphasis on active participation, experiential learning and collaborative work.

You could begin to think of a workshop as an interactive meeting, but they go much further than that. The objective of a workshop is to guide participants through a process where they ideate together, explore possible options and then figure out a plan of action.

Workshops are much more interactive than meetings or training sessions, and they often go through a process designed to enable a group to explore a subject collaboratively and arrive at solutions that are not pre-determined. The facilitator will use proven techniques and technology to support interactivity and engagement, but the outcomes of the session are a truly collaborative effort.

One key distinction for me is that workshops are often about exploring a problem space as a small group and then actively working together to find a solution. Think of how your organisation might do strategic planning. If the boss calls a meeting to tell the group your strategy, that’s a meeting. If the boss brings in a facilitator so that the group can explore options collaboratively and design a strategy together, that’s a workshop.

Another distinction I find helpful is when thinking of the difference between a workshop and a training session. In a training course, you know the outcome before you begin: you will teach your group how to achieve something in a pre-determined manner. They’ll often complete training materials in a pass/fail manner and be expected to come out of the course with a specific set of skills.

In a workshop, you may not know the exact outcome and it’s down to the group to collectively get there. Yes, you know that you want employees to explore creative ideas by going through a process designed to help them come up with ideas, but you don’t know what those ideas will be.

As a workshop facilitator , you leave space for the team to bring their professional expertise, their creativity and their unique perspective to the process.

In comparison to a meeting or training session, a group in a workshop is supported to discuss, explore and ideate together before arriving at outcomes in a process often designed and led by a facilitator. They are more actively involved in directing their learning experience and contribute to the experience of the entire workshop.

The result is a much more creative and collaborative environment that encourages ownership, participation and genuinely impactful outcomes.

What is the purpose of a workshop?

While the objectives or goal of a workshop can vary based on the setting or specific topic – a design sprint and a retrospective workshop have very different goals – but the purpose is roughly the same.

The purpose of a workshop is to create a space where participants can think together in a place of safety and mutual trust, engage in collaborative work and arrive at your outcomes in an organized and structured manner.

Whether it’s defining how to achieve a complex project, building skills or working on personal development, the purpose of the workshop is to create an interactive, participatory environment for people to engage fully, collaboratively and creatively and arrive at your chosen outcomes.

The purpose behind that purpose is what makes workshops a special and effective tool. When you create a safe space that empowers your team to find their own solutions, creativity is unleashed .

Your team finds solutions they wouldn’t have discovered otherwise, they build meaningful and lasting connections with other participants and they’re especially engaged and able to focus on making those things happen.

In my experience, a great workshop can be transformative for all involved, and the improvements in communication, collaboration and problem solving have far reaching effects beyond an individual session or project .

This is another way to answer the question, what is a workshop: it’s a means of helping team’s find more effective ways of working both collaboratively and individually in order to achieve their goals.

When should you run a workshop?

As we’ve explored, running a workshop can be one of the most effective ways to bring a group together to innovate, solve problems and connect.

This isn’t to say that every session you do should be a workshop. Far from it! There are times when a meeting is the right way to come together, such as doing a daily update or company all hands where people on your team have information to share.

In a university setting, a seminar where a lecturer shares knowledge in their particular field with a large group of students is often the most effective way to disseminate learning materials quickly.

In short, you want to consider running a workshop whenever you want a group of people to do collaborative work effectively, often in a time-boxed or outcome focused manner.

Workshops are great at delivering results in a way that creates space for many voices and perspectives and if you know your group would benefit from this approach, that’s a fine time to consider planning a workshop .

Some of the common triggers for running a workshop include:

• having a complex problem without a clear solution
• a need for genuine innovation and new ideas
• team building or team development
• teaching new skills in an experiential manner
• community building
• working on a project in a deeply collaborative and emergent way
• opening or closing a project

Another great tip for running a workshop is to use a relatively small group (often 8-15 people) in order to create space for discussion, divergent thinking and ideation. When running workshops with larger numbers, you’ll want to add additional facilitators and perhaps run sessions in parallel.

Wanting to simply teach your group how to use new technology or share information from the executive team with the rest of the company? That’s probably not a workshop, and that’s fine! Use the right format for the results you want to achieve and the objectives of your session.

Workshop examples

Workshops come in all shapes and sizes, but you might be wondering what they look like in practice and how they are put together. Especially if you’re new to facilitation, seeing an agenda example can help show the value of a workshop before you try running one yourself!

Below, we’ll explore a few example workshops and detail when and why you might run them with your team. You’ll also find an agenda template for each, so you can see the workshop process in more detail.

Ideation Workshop

Workshops are a perfect space for creating innovation and coming up with ideas that you can actually move towards implementing. When you have a complex problem without an obvious solution or many stakeholders and perspectives, gathering your best minds and bringing them to a workshop is an ideal way to move forward.

In this ideation workshop template , a team first generates a heap of new ideas around a particular topic and then works through a process of analysing and selecting the best ideas by pitching them to one another. By the end of the workshop, you and your group will have discussed ideas thoroughly and used tools to develop the best ones into something you could implement quickly.

Companies that encourage this kind of creative ideation and invest time in enabling their employees are often more resilient and innovative. Try bringing such a workshop to your company the next time you need a new perspective or looking for your next great idea.

Decision Making Workshop

Whatever your particular field, there comes a time when you need to make a decision as a team . A decision making workshop is a method of exploring various options, aligning on objectives and moving forward as a team. It’s a space for employees to discuss their thoughts, share how they feel and then converge on a final decision that is the best one for the company.

In this template , you’ll use consent based decision making to move from discussion to action and allow everyone from management to front-line employees to contribute. It’s an effective session for building a sense of community and making progress effectively.

If you’ve found that you’ve tried to include more people in your decision making processes and found it ineffective or messy, this workshop is a perfect antidote that creates space for all voices while also arriving at your intended outcome.

Retrospective

For complex projects that require innovative problem solving, workshops can be an essential part of both opening and closing the process. I’ve even found that groups working in university or training settings with an intensive educational program can benefit from using a workshop approach to closing the program.

In this retrospective template , you and your team will find space to reflect together and discuss what went well and what went better before choosing some actions everyone will take in the future to develop their skills and improve the next project.

After a week long event or a longer project, coming together in a retrospective workshop can both help you symbolically close and celebrate proceedings while also creating space for reflection and growth.

In conclusion

Understanding how a workshop differs from a meeting or training courses is often the first step towards bringing them into your organization.

For next steps, you can explore our step-by-step guide to planning a workshop to learn how to put an effective workshop together.

Want to improve your facilitation skills? This article will help you see the key skills for effective facilitation you can use in workshops, meetings and in your general practice when working with groups.

We hope this blog post has helped you understand the what and why of running a workshop and has perhaps inspired you to facilitate one the next time you need to solve problems or create innovation in your organization!

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Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to Host a Workshop that Makes a Difference

• The Speaker Lab
• October 14, 2023

Table of Contents

Have you ever watched a great conductor seamlessly guide an orchestra into melodious perfection? That’s what it feels like when you learn how to host a workshop. Just like every instrument in the orchestra, each aspect of your workshop from planning to execution has to work like a well-oiled machine.

Workshops get an unfairly bad rap in the speaking world. Despite their incredible potential for impact, they don’t have the glamour and pizzazz associated with keynotes. In this piece we’ll guide you through how to host a workshop that engages your audience, leaves them equipped with new learning and skills, and helps boost your speaking career.

Understanding the Basics

A workshop is a talk on a specific subject to a tailored audience. At conferences, multiple niche workshops are often held simultaneously so attendees can go to those that align with their special interests. Instead of a big picture topic, workshops offer implementable skills for a particular business area, state in life, or situation. (We go over the differences between workshops and keynotes here. )

People attend workshops to improve their subject matter capability in a condensed in-depth format. You aren’t there to say some inspirational words and drop the mic–you’re there to share expertise and problem solve in real time.

The Different Types of Workshops

How you run your workshop will be a very different experience depending on your industry. At business-oriented events, workshops are generally about market trends, updated best practices, or fine-tuning evergreen skills. Think topics like “perfecting your cold call,” “DEI in ____ industry,” or “how to harness AI for your business.”

On the other hand, workshops are also a popular medium for more personal, intimate topics. Subjects ranging from personal finance, to creative arts, to marriage are often more easily fleshed out in a small group setting, and the intensive hands-on aspect is well-suited to working through unique problems.

Whether your workshop idea involves bettering marital communication or social media analytics, remember that workshops don’t just cater to special interests–they solve problems.

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Setting Goals and Target Audience

The first step to how to host a workshop is to clearly define your goals. This includes identifying desired outcomes, setting learning objectives, and knowing your target audience.

Taking into account the needs, interests and expertise of your target audience is essential for crafting a tailored event experience. Consider questions like: What problem does your target audience face? What questions will attendees have about your area of expertise? Are there existing gaps in the market? What solutions are badly needed but easily digestible in an hourlong session?

Answering these questions will shape your objectives. If you can paint a comprehensive picture of who’s going to sit in that room with you, you can also get a clear idea of what they need from you.

Understanding your target audience should drive all subsequent decisions about structure, content format, discussions, and networking opportunities that might take place during your workshop.

Planning your Agenda

Crafting an effective workshop agenda will help you run a tight ship. This doesn’t just mean listing down main topics or activities, but rather setting SMART goals for each session to guide participants towards achieving desired outcomes.

Crafting An Effective Agenda

An organized agenda serves as the backbone of any intensive educational program, workshops included. The process of workshop planning might take some time at first, especially if you haven’t delivered this kind of talk or presentation before. But as you refine your craft and learn how to work with your audience, it will get easier and easier!

In addition to providing clarity on structure and timings, your agenda should include time set aside specifically for networking opportunities amongst participants – after all learning from peers can often be just as valuable.

Creating Workshop Content

The key to a successful workshop lies in creating content that not only informs but also engages your attendees. Your subject matter expertise won’t make a difference if it’s presented on boring, wordy slides. At the same time, you can’t be too vague, as audiences come to workshops looking for tactical content.

Reach a happy medium of specificity that leaves the door open for your audience to apply your tips to various situations they might be facing.

Making Your Workshop Interactive

Collaborative problem-solving is one of the greatest feature of workshops. Workshops allow attendees to become active contributors rather than passive recipients of information.To make your workshops more dynamic, tell stories and use real-life examples that invite your audience to share your own.

If your workshop follows a big keynote, your participants likely have several lingering queries swirling around in their heads. Offer an opportunity to flesh out those topics–within a reasonable time limit.

Breakout sessions where attendees work together can encourage networking opportunities and reinforce takeaways from your presentation. If you want to foster the added benefit of networking among your attendees, encourage them to reference relevant professional experiences during discussion.

Achieving the necessary balance between imparting knowledge and promoting engagement isn’t easy. You don’t want to bore listeners with a lecture; at the same time you have to provide some value rather than simply moderating a free-for-all. Maintaining this balance is a skill honed by experience and some trial and error. Seasoned entrepreneur and workshop leader Shane Sams offered insights into the process of trial-and-error on our podcast here .

Marketing and Promotion

If your workshop occurs at a big conference, you probably aren’t getting paid much (to learn more about how you should get paid as a speaker, check out our free tool ). You might be trying to get a foot in the door with an event planner, network, or find clients for other pillars of your business. Because there are other workshops occurring at the same time, your attendees self-select.

What does this mean for you as a workshop leader? Promotion matters–a lot!

As a speaker, you should already be active in social media channels that are “watering holes” where industry professionals in your field congregate. Start posting about your upcoming workshop well in advance. Utilizing your email list is also a must. Ensure you’re sending out engaging emails to your mailing list that highlight what participants will gain from attending – whether it’s solving problems they’re facing, learning new skills, or simply being part of an intensive educational program.

If you’re organizing the workshop independently rather than at a separate event, marketing becomes even more paramount. If it is an in-person workshop, ask local businesses whose patrons overlap with your target market to help publicize. Announce the date, time, location, and details far in advance so that workshop attendees can mark their calendars and invite others who might be interested. You can learn more tips for organizing and hosting your own events here .

If you are part of a much larger program at a big event, take advantage of any networking opportunities before  your workshop slot. That could mean going to welcome receptions, hanging around during opening keynotes, or talking to people during downtime that you would otherwise spend scrolling your phone. Many attendees might not have decided which workshops to attend–why not yours?

Running a Successful Workshop

Communicating your content clearly is the best way to succeed at how to host a workshop. Clarity will help your attendees grasp the tools and solutions you offer for tackling particular challenges in their professional or personal lives. To better optimize for these outcomes, you’ll want to master time management and add a healthy dose of creativity and flexibility to your workshop plan.

Time Management

Whether you are delivering a day-long seminar or training workshop to a corporate team or a forty-five minute presentation before dinner, timing is everything. Good pacing keeps attendees engaged without feeling overwhelmed or rushed. Plan and rehearse your workshop schedule to the best of your ability without forgetting opportunities for participation!

If you are running a shorter workshop, this means rehearsing with a timer if you want room for a Q&A period. If you are running a longer seminar-style workshop or training event, this means coming up with topics and timing for breakout sessions. Usually, you will end up speaking faster at the event than when you rehearse, so don’t factor in too  much discussion time.

Getting Creative when the Unexpected Happens

No matter how well-planned, workshops can sometimes throw curveballs your way. Ultimately, the unexpected comes for all speakers, and you can’t plan for every interruption, distraction, and missing PowerPoint slide. As a workshop speaker, you will have to improv every now and then. Remember, your attendees have no idea what you had planned, so they won’t know if you change up the agenda. Whether that means playing an icebreaker game to kill time or skipping a few slides to save it, be prepared to roll with the punches. Maintain some flexibility in your communication plan so you can seamlessly pivot when necessary.

You can learn more about developing and running a dynamic workshop from start to finish with our Speaker Lab coaches here .

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Evaluating And Improving

Nailing down how to host a workshop is just the first step. After every workshop, it’s essential to take some time to evaluate its effectiveness. Asking for genuine feedback from participants will give you insights to improve future workshops.

The best way to gather feedback that really helps is by directly asking attendees about their experience. Collect their contact information, preferably in a low-cost way like displaying a QR code to a simple opt-in form on your final slide. Then, send one or more feedback surveys. You might be surprised by the needs of your audience as the market shifts!

As much as possible, take note yourself of what worked well and what didn’t.

Did breakout sessions turn out to be particularly productive at sparking discussion? Consider incorporating more such workshop activities at future events. If the conference venue didn’t have the right cable to project your slides, buying a few backup cables yourself is a good idea. (Or maybe you don’t even need slides! We have a series on The Speaker Lab podcast about how and when to use slides–listen here and here .)

The best workshop leaders give many versions of the same workshop and constantly perfect it. Every new group will help you learn something new–and if you have a bad experience (or nobody shows up), consider it a learning opportunity.

Hosting a workshop isn’t just about sharing your expertise. It’s an orchestra of planning, content creation, promotion, and execution. The real magic happens when you run a successful event where participants leave feeling inspired and enlightened. After all, learning how to host a workshop is really about sparking transformation that lasts beyond the room itself.

There are a lot of great workshop tips we couldn’t cover here, like the amazing potential in the virtual and online space. If you want to be a workshop speaker but don’t know how to find clients or launch your business, we are here to help! Get in touch with our coaches here .

How do I start hosting a workshop?

To start hosting workshops, find clients by reaching out to event planners in your field with a pitch for your workshop and how it relates to their events. Alternatively, organize your own event with an aggressive marketing strategy.

How do you structure a workshop?

A solid workshop starts with an introduction with objectives, engaging presentation of content with opportunity for interaction and discussion, and a recap with opportunities to ask and answer questions at the end.

How do you run a fun workshop?

Make workshops fun by incorporating interactive elements such as group discussions, hands-on activities, or icebreakers. Understanding how to host a workshop is different than mastering a keynote delivery–you can be more personal, friendly, and casual in your tone.

• Last Updated: March 22, 2024

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What Is a Workshop? A Comprehensive Guide

Teachers are increasingly using workshops in schools to provide students with hands-on experiences with the theories they teach them. Workshops are becoming more popular and are considered a supplementary form of teaching.

Workshops are events that bring people together to participate in a collective activity. In the educational process, teachers often conduct workshops with their students.

Additionally, hobbyists and home crafters can conduct them during their leisure time. Educators and trainers also host them as part of professional development courses.

Education through workshops also helps create a sense of community as it encourages collaboration between people with similar interests.

This article highlights the benefits of workshops and why they are important in enhancing the learning experience.

What Is a Workshop?

A workshop is a presentation training where people learn a specific topic or complete a specific task. Also, a workshop involves hands-on learning, which means that participants are actively involved in the learning process. 

Workshops will typically take place under the guidance of experts or instructors and delivered to small groups of 10 to 50 people.

Workshops usually have a theme, topic or specific questions that the participants should discuss and answer throughout the workshop. A webinar could serve as a type of workshop.

Additionally, topics are presented in an accessible way so that you can take away new skills and ideas. Usually shorter than courses or seminars, workshops are richly practical and interactive.

Furthermore, while there is a typical learning outline for each workshop session, facilitators adjust their methods according to the group and endeavor to motivate their audience throughout the event.

Why Are Workshops Important?

Workshops are important for professional development. They provide you with the opportunity to learn from professionals with more experience than you and apply what you’ve learned directly in your workplace.

Also, workshops bring educators together to learn new teaching methods and share experiences. For example, workshops help teachers improve classroom presentation skills, teach arts or math more effectively, and assist with computer planning. 

The sessions can be part of teacher training programs or offered independently and can last from a few hours to several days.

These intensive educational programs are also important because they allow you to understand your studies better. As each term progresses, students encounter complex theories and perspectives that require study and application. 

These sessions bring theory to life for the student and allow them to explore what they know and do not know. It also allows you to take in new perspectives from other sources and consider different ways of thinking about your studies.

What Are the Benefits of Workshop Training?

By attending a workshop, you will deepen your understanding of your craft and improve your skills in an intensive educational program. There are many benefits of workshop training. 

For example, educational workshops can encourage teamwork and help develop better leadership skills. A group’s collective intelligence may also result in better solutions, enhanced learning, and synergy.

The following list highlights the benefits of educational workshops that make them valuable learning tools.

1. It Is an Excellent Way to Learn Basic Skills and Explore an Interest

Taking an educational workshop is a great way to learn basic skills and explore interests. Educational workshops are a great option for anyone interested in exploring their own creativity through art, literature, dance, science, and more. 

Gaining knowledge that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access can help you exercise your imagination and enjoy new things without leaving the comforts of home.

Additionally, these programs can help you develop the skills and confidence necessary for future employment.

2. It Helps You Unlock Your Creativity 

Creativity is what makes us unique and different. It gives us ideas and solutions to every problem we ever face. Educational programs help you rediscover your creativity through creative workshops. 

Furthermore, there are numerous workshops for everyone, whether you are interested in unleashing your inner child or creating something that will enrich your life. 

In addition, these training programs can also be vocational training where you learn how to build furniture from scratch or design jewelry . Educational workshops can help you unlock your imagination regardless of your goal.

3. They Present Opportunities to Develop Your Leadership Skills to Help Your Business Excel

Training and seminars provide the opportunity to develop your leadership skills to help your business excel. You can meet an organization’s specific needs with an intensive educational program that enhances employee morale. 

Also, educational seminars benefit participants by enabling them to develop their skills in a hands-on environment.

In addition, seminars and training programs will give you the confidence to delve deeper into the world of direct sales. From leadership to building your business and recruiting distributors and members, there are many opportunities for you to develop and hone your skills.

4. Workshops Are Excellent for Multi-Discipline Training 

They present opportunities to develop your leadership skills with the people you work with while providing many opportunities for creative problem-solving.

These programs aim to train, assist, and educate the attendees on a particular topic or task. Workshops can have different purposes, including training, coaching, or educating new employees who have no prior experience with the subject matter. 

Participants will also gain more knowledge and experience in a real-world environment so you can set requirements and guidelines for them.

5. It Fosters Networking with Other Workshop Participants 

Workshop training is a useful way to connect with others wanting to do more in their lives. That includes those who want a meaningful career or simply want to make time for what matters most in life. 

At these training, participants learn from experts and one another, immersing themselves in meaningful discussions. 

The networking fostered by educational workshops can lead to new job opportunities, relationships and social circles, and even customers for your creative business ideas.

Also, it gives participants a chance to meet others in the community and make professional connections. 

6. It Simulates a Real Work Environment 

These educational programs offer a simulated work environment and training program for individuals interested in working or already employed in the construction industry. 

Many employers also use them as a recruiting mechanism to improve their productivity and their bottom line. In addition, the program allows a prospective employee to evaluate his/her work habits and aptitude before being hired by a company.

Additionally, they help you maintain and expand your skills, knowledge, attitudes, and motivation for work-related tasks through participation in a simulated work environment.

7. Allows Participants to Get Hands-on Experience with a Professional Trainer

The training allows you to get hands-on experience with a professional trainer and provides an educational workshop experience for novice and experienced enthusiasts. 

Additionally, these seminars are a great way to learn more about a topic, give customer feedback directly to your employees, or just as a company team-building exercise. 

They also allow your employees to become experts on your products or services after completing extensive in-house training seminars.

8. It Helps You Gain More Professional Skills to Add to Your Resume

Workshops help you gain more professional skills to add to your resume or brush up on skills you’ve got. Because of their interactive nature, they are fun and engaging. 

Maybe you want to improve your work as a marketing professional, or perhaps you’re looking for training on the latest techniques for web design. Whatever your goal, there are suitable programs for you.

You can also earn the certifications you need to land a new job or promotion by participating in these training programs. The courses will help you develop your skills and gain new knowledge on such topics as office applications, computer basics, and accounting.

What Are the Challenges Affecting Workshops?

Workshops typically occur outside the classroom, so they’re uniquely vulnerable to being interrupted by things like schedule changes. They can also be more expensive to run. But the biggest challenge of all is getting students engaged in the learning process.

These sessions are essential for success in most professions, but that fact doesn’t mean they’re easy to organize.

Moreover, because they are so hands-on, they sometimes run over the allotted time and leave students feeling tired and unmotivated to focus.

Yes, these sessions are essential, but they can also be laborious. Confining students in a single room with a teacher and other fellow students requires that everyone have extra patience, self-control, and discipline. 

Also, to help alleviate some of these stressors and make workshops more enjoyable for all involved, educators have to make these sessions innovative, interactive, and fun.

How do workshops affect career opportunities?

Workshops are intensive education programs that can help individuals build on, identify, or build their skills to better their careers. They are intensive, short-term programs of education or training. Students can choose from courses, diplomas, certifications, and advanced degrees.

Furthermore, employers who sponsor these programs frequently include it as a requirement for promotion within the company. Additionally, job seekers may wish to research workshop providers to prepare for career opportunities later on.

Do workshops improve team communication?

Yes, workshops improve effective team communication. Career or office training focuses on improving team communication when well-organized and effectively led. They also encourage colleagues to work together towards achieving organizational goals.

Additionally, workshops and seminars are great ways to motivate teams and foster friendship among office employees who normally would not interact during office hours.

Are workshops effective in teaching soft skills? 

Yes, workshops are among the most effective and beneficial ways for teaching soft skills such as time management and business etiquette.

Organizations have long used them to improve employee skills and knowledge.

Additionally, they have been around for a remarkably long time and have played a vital role in the growth and development of various countries.

Today, many valuable trades are becoming increasingly difficult to find due to a shortage of qualified and skilled workers. The problem worsens because a large percentage of the population lacks the required skills.

However, educational workshops help participants learn about a specific topic or skill such as art, programming, music, or other industries. These courses provide information on overall employment skills. 

Furthermore, they are based on good teaching methods and are effective. Moreover, a successful educational program incorporates modern training techniques and tools, such as lesson plans and simulation tools.

Finally, while workshops offer a certain degree of training, they are not as practical and extensive as vocational training.

Vocational training prepares you for endless career opportunities by equipping you with the necessary skills. Read more on vocational training and the numerous benefits they provide.

I hope you found this article helpful. Thanks for reading.

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Glossary of Meeting Terms

• Meeting Type

What is a Workshop?

A workshop is a long interactive meeting or educational session designed to create a specialized result. Workshops are longer than the typical business meeting and require more preparation beforehand. Workshops typically involve a central trainer or facilitator who works with a set of sponsors to design the sequence of presentations, plan collaborative activities, and ensure the workshop will lead to the desired result. Workshops emphasize hands-on interaction. Strategic planning often includes one or more planning workshops. Kickoffs, team chartering, requirements analysis, product design, value stream mapping, and other meetings with large collaborative deliverables may all be conducted as workshops.

• What is the difference between these four: conference, workshop, symposium and seminar? ~ on Quora

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