If you want to end a session on time, don’t make your final activity an open question-and-answer session. You lose control, as the audience takes over. I’ve seen one presenter faced with an endless stream of questions, each of which excited her into a further extension of what she loved speaking about. That left no attention for managing that conversation or exercising her right to finish. Her audience missed most of lunch. 

Another presenter was ready to manage questions promptly, but was stumped when a senior member of the audience took the opportunity to spend a few minutes regaling the group with his views of the topic under discussion.

If you are going to have Q&A, allocate it a fixed amount of time within your session, perhaps as the last-but-one item, then finish with something else – your final story or a summary of your points.

Our award-winning Inspirational Presenter course equips you with a range of sophisticated techniques to make the most of your abilities, so you can excel on the platform and in front of any audience.