interactive presentation examples

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Blog Marketing 15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

Written by: Krystle Wong Aug 04, 2023

As attention spans continue to shrink, the challenge of engaging audiences in a short timeframe has never been more significant. Let’s face it — grabbing and keeping your audience’s attention can be quite the challenge, especially when time is ticking away. But fear not, I’ve got the perfect solution: interactive presentations!

Believe it or not, creating an interactive presentation is easier than you might think. In this guide, I’ll show you how to effortlessly turn ordinary slides into captivating experiences with 15 interactive presentation ideas that will leave your audience begging for more. From quirky polls and fun games to storytelling adventures and multimedia magic, these ideas will take your presentation game to the next level.

Venngage is a game-changer when it comes to empowering interactive presentations. With just a few clicks, users can customize their favorite presentation templates , add multimedia content and create immersive experiences that leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or a newcomer, get started with Venngage to elevate your presentation game to new heights of engagement and creativity.

Click to jump ahead:

What is an interactive presentation?

15 ways to make a presentation interactive, 7 best interactive presentation software, what are some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive presentations, interactive presentation faqs, how to create an interactive presentation with venngage.

An interactive presentation is a dynamic and engaging communication format that involves active participation and collaboration between the presenter and the audience. Unlike traditional presentations where information is delivered in a one-way manner, interactive presentations invite the audience to interact, respond and contribute throughout the session.

Think of it as a two-way street where you and your audience have a friendly chat. It’s like playing a fun game where you ask questions, get live feedback and encourage people to share their thoughts. 

To make a good presentation , you can utilize various tools and techniques such as clickable buttons, polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements to transform your slides into an interactive presentation. Whether you’re presenting in-person or giving a virtual presentation — when people are actively participating, they’re more likely to remember the stuff you’re talking about.

Interactive presentations leave a lasting impression on the audience. By encouraging active participation and feedback, interactive presentations facilitate better understanding and knowledge retention. Here are 15 innovative 5-minute interactive presentation ideas to captivate your audience from start to finish:

1. Ice-breaker questions

Start your presentation with intriguing and thought-provoking questions or a fun icebreaker game. These questions should be designed to pique the audience’s curiosity and encourage them to think about the topic you’ll be covering. By doing so, you create an immediate connection with your audience and set the stage for a more engaged and attentive audience.

For example, if you’re giving a business presentation about management and leadership training, you could ask audience questions such as “What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received, and how has it impacted your career?”

2. Live polling

Incorporate live polls during your presentation using audience response systems or polling apps . This allows you to collect real-time feedback, opinions and insights from active participants. Live polling encourages active participation and involvement, making your presentation feel like a collaborative and interactive experience.

3. Q&A sessions

Encourage the audience to ask questions throughout your presentation, especially for pitch deck presentations . Address these questions in real-time, which fosters a more interactive and dynamic atmosphere. This approach shows that you value the audience’s input and promotes a two-way communication flow.

4. Clickable buttons

Add clickable buttons to your slides, allowing the audience to navigate to specific sections or external resources at their own pace. For example, you could include links to your social media accounts or extra reading materials in your education presentation to give further information about the topic and get your students engaged.

By providing this autonomy, you empower the audience to explore areas of particular interest, creating a more personalized and engaging experience through your interactive slideshow.

5. Storytelling

Incorporate anecdotes or personal stories related to your topic. Storytelling is a powerful way to emotionally connect with your audience, making your presentation more relatable and memorable. A little storytelling along with a set of creative slides draws the audience in and keeps them engaged as they follow the narrative.

6. Interactive charts and graphs

Use interactive charts and graphs that respond to user input to make your presentation interactive. For instance, allow the audience to click on data points to view more detailed information or to change the displayed data series. Creating charts with interactive visuals help the audience interact with the data, fostering better understanding and engagement.

7. Animated infographics

Add animations to your infographics, making them visually dynamic and progressive. Animated infographics reveal information gradually, keeping the audience curious and attentive. This transforms complex data into an easily digestible and engaging format.

Venngage’s extensive library of infographic templates is a powerful tool to visualize data and elevate the interactivity of your presentations. Personalizing the visuals ensures a cohesive and professional look throughout your interactive presentation. The templates are highly customizable, allowing you to adjust colors, fonts, and styles to match your presentation’s theme and branding. 

8. Gamification

Introduce an interactive quiz, puzzles, or challenges related to your presentation content. Gamification adds an element of fun and competition, motivating the audience to participate actively and boosting their learning experience. Here are some gaming presentation templates you could use. 

9. Virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR)

If applicable, leverage VR or AR technologies to provide immersive experiences. These interactive presentation tools transport the audience into a virtual or augmented environment, making your presentation more captivating and memorable.

10. Collaborative whiteboarding

Get your audience involved in your presentation by utilizing digital whiteboards or collaborative tools to brainstorm ideas collectively. This fosters teamwork and creativity, enabling the audience to actively contribute and feel a sense of involvement in the presentation.

11. Hyperlinked text

Keep the information in your slides minimal with a simple presentation and incorporate hyperlinks to direct viewers to relevant websites or blogs , resources, or additional information. This encourages self-exploration and gives the audience the opportunity to delve deeper into topics of interest.

12. Role-playing

Engage the audience in role-playing scenarios to explore different perspectives. Role-playing promotes active learning and helps the audience relate the content to real-life situations, enhancing their understanding and retention.

13. Embedded videos

Include video clips in your slides to provide visual explanations, demonstrations, or interviews. Videos add a dynamic element to your presentation, enriching the content and keeping the audience engaged.

14. Audience-generated content

Encourage the audience to contribute ideas, stories or examples related to your professional presentation . Audience-generated content fosters a sense of ownership and involvement, making the presentation more interactive and personalized.

15. Slide transitions

Use slide transitions to create smooth animations between slides. Well-planned transitions maintain the audience’s interest and keep the presentation slides flowing seamlessly.

Interactive elements aside, enhance your presentation with these guides on how to summarize information for a captivating presentation and how to make a persuasive presentation to captivate your audience. 

If you’re looking to create engaging and interactive presentation slides that captivate your audience, these presentation software options are sure to elevate your game:

Prezi is renowned for its dynamic and non-linear presentation style, enabling users to craft visually stunning and interactive presentations. With an array of templates and animation effects, Prezi enhances audience engagement, making your presentations more captivating and memorable.

2. Mentimeter

Mentimeter serves as an audience response system, empowering real-time interaction during presentations. Users can create interactive polls, quizzes, word clouds and more, allowing the audience to respond using their smartphones or other devices. This fosters active participation and provides valuable feedback instantly.

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is a free cloud-based presentation software that not only offers collaboration features but also enables real-time interactions. It includes add-ons and third-party integrations to further enhance interactivity, making it an excellent choice for collaborative and engaging presentations.

4. Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint, a classic presentation software, has evolved to incorporate more interactive features like live captions, real-time collaboration and interactive elements such as quizzes and forms. With its familiar interface and versatile functionalities, PowerPoint remains a reliable choice for interactive presentations.

5. Prezentor

Prezentor caters to sales-oriented presentations focusing on interactive storytelling and data-driven content. It offers analytics to track audience engagement and behavior during presentations, allowing you to fine-tune your approach and keep your audience hooked.

6. Opinion Stage

Opinion Stage is a visual and interactive data collection tool designed to engage and excite audiences whether sitting in a lecture hall, participating in a live Zoom, or watching an on-demand webinar. The Opinion Stage tools are simple and intuitive, making it easy to create attention-grabbing quizzes, surveys, and polls in minutes. A great way to spice up any presentation, encourage audience participation, and collect authentic feedback.

7 . Venngage

Venngage stands out as a versatile design tool that facilitates the creation of interactive infographics, data visualizations and presentations with ease. Offering various interactive elements and animations, Venngage empowers you to craft visually appealing and engaging presentations effortlessly.

With these interactive presentation software options at your disposal, you can unleash your creativity and deliver presentations that leave a lasting impact on your audience. So, go ahead and make your presentations interactive, captivating and memorable!

For more presentation software options, check out this blog on the 12 best presentation software for 2023.

Creating interactive presentations can be a game-changer for engaging your audience and enhancing your presentation skills, but steering clear of common pitfalls is essential. Here are some key mistakes to avoid when crafting your interactive presentations:

1. Overloading with interactivity

While interactivity is fantastic, bombarding your audience with too many interactive elements can backfire. Strive for a balanced approach that enhances engagement without overwhelming your listeners.

2. Ignoring audience relevance

Failing to tailor interactive elements to your audience’s interests and preferences can lead to disconnection. Make sure your interactions resonate with your specific audience for a more meaningful experience.

3. Not testing interactive elements

Skipping thorough testing of interactive features before showtime can spell disaster. Avoid technical glitches by diligently testing all interactive components in advance.

4. Poor timing and pace

Timing is everything, especially with interactive activities. Ensure seamless integration by planning your key points and the timing of your interactive elements carefully.

5. Lack of clear purpose

Every interactive element should serve a purpose and contribute to your presentation’s objectives. Don’t add interactions just for the sake of it — ensure they add value and align with your message.

6. Failing to engage beyond interactivity

While interactive elements are powerful tools, remember that content is king. Combine your interactive features with compelling storytelling and valuable insights to create an immersive and impactful presentation.

Incorporating animated slides into your interactive presentations enhances the overall appeal and interaction, turning an ordinary presentation into an engaging experience. Try it out with one of our animated presentation templates to get started. 

How do you start an interactive presentation?

Begin by grabbing the audience’s attention with an intriguing question or a surprising fact, setting the tone for a dynamic and engaging session.

Which type of presentation is the most interactive?

Workshops and seminars are often the most interactive types of presentations as they encourage active participation, discussions and hands-on activities.

How can interactive presentations enhance audience engagement?

Interactive presentations foster a two-way communication flow, involving the audience through polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements, leading to increased interest, attentiveness and better retention of information.

What are some common interactive elements to include in a presentation?

Common interactive elements include clickable buttons, hyperlinked text, polls, quizzes, interactive charts, multimedia content and audience participation activities.

Can interactive presentations be used for educational purposes?

Absolutely! Interactive presentations are highly effective for educational purposes as they promote active learning, encourage critical thinking, and provide real-time feedback and knowledge exchange opportunities.

Need inspiration on how to give an engaging presentation ? Here are 120+ presentation ideas you could use. 

Venngage makes it easy for anyone to infuse interactivity into their presentations. From clickable buttons and hyperlinked text to interactive infographics and dynamic charts, Venngage offers a diverse range of interactive elements to captivate and engage the audience. Here’s how you can make your presentation more fun and interesting with Venngage:

• Sign up or log in to Venngage to access the platform.
• Choose a presentation template or start with a blank canvas to begin designing your interactive presentation.
• Add and edit slides in the Venngage editor to structure your presentation content effectively.
• Customize the design by selecting themes, fonts, colors and backgrounds to match your style and branding.
• Use interactive elements like buttons, links, pop-ups and hover effects to engage the audience during the presentation.
• Enhance engagement by incorporating interactive media such as videos and audio clips.
• Preview and test your entire presentation to ensure everything works smoothly before presenting it to your audience.
• Save your interactive presentation on Venngage and share it online or download it in various formats for presenting purposes.

Well, I hope these 15 5-minute interactive presentation examples can help unlock a new level of audience engagement for your next presentation. From fun quizzes and interactive storytelling to multimedia magic and gamified challenges, the possibilities are endless. So, don’t be afraid to experiment, tailor the ideas to suit your audience members and let your creativity shine.  

That said, remember to strike a balance and keep the interactivity purposeful and relevant. Some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive slides include overloading the presentation with too many interactive elements and failing to align the interactive elements with the overall presentation goals and content. 

Got it? Great. Now let’s turn that boring presentation around!

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🎮 Gamification Games, quizzes and puzzles make information more memorable and enable you to gather feedback and check understanding.

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What’s an interactive presentation?

Interactive slides contain clickable hotspots, links, buttons, and animations that are activated at the touch of a button. Instead of reading or watching passively, your audience can actively interact with the content.  

Genially’s interaction presentation software allows you to combine text, photos, video clips, audio and other content in one deck. It’s a great way to condense more information into fewer slides. 

If you’re a teacher, you can share multiple materials in one single learning resource. Students can create their own projects using digital media and online maps. For business or training, try embedding spreadsheet data, PDFs, and online content directly in your slides. 

An interactive slide deck is more user-friendly than a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides document. That’s because you can break information down into chunks with pop-ups, labels, voiceovers and annotated infographics.  

The other benefit of interactive content is increased engagement. It’s easier to keep your audience’s attention when they’re actively participating. Try Genially’s presentation software and free slideshow maker to see how it’s better than other presentation websites. You won’t go back to standard presentation apps!

How do you make a clickable slide?

The best way to make slides clickable is to use Genially’s free interactive presentation program. Design your slide then apply an interaction. In a couple of clicks, you can add popup windows, hyperlinks, close-up images, games, animations, multimedia and other content. 

Choose from the library of hotspot buttons and icons to show people what to click on. Go to Presenter View to get a preview and see how your content will appear to your audience.

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10 interactive presentation ideas that leave a lasting impression

Attention is the gatekeeper of our memories. If you can’t get the audience to sit up and pay attention, your presentation will soon be forgotten.

In her webinar, Using neuroscience to create presentations with lasting impact , Dr. Carmen Simon, cognitive scientist and founder of Memzy , emphasized the importance of attention when forming new memories. According to Simon, one of the best ways to win attention is to insert a “cut” every three minutes.

Attention is definitely mandatory to people remembering the right things, and not just random things.

“Cuts” are simply a break from your normal presenting style, such as switching from a lecture to a Q&A or trivia question. Switching styles this ways keeps the audience intrigued about what comes next. Below are 10 interactive presentation ideas you can use as “cuts” in your own presentations.

Some of these ideas rely on Poll Everywhere, a live audience response system that lets you ask the audience a question and show live results. Try it out by signing up for a free account today.

Warm up the audience with an interactive icebreaker

Signal to the audience that this will be an interactive presentation by opening with an easy icebreaker. Kick it off before your presentation starts, as people are finding their seats, to get everyone familiar with the ins and outs of Poll Everywhere in a low-stakes setting.

Doing so speeds up the time it takes to complete subsequent activities because the audience will expect them. They’re also more likely to engage with you on Poll Everywhere if they’re already comfortable with the process.

Icebreakers come in many styles , but one of the most popular among Poll Everywhere users is the word cloud. Choose a question that calls for a personal response – What’s your favorite food? – that everyone can answer.

Plant engaged audience members ahead of time

This isn’t as sneaky as it sounds.

Sometimes all it takes is a few engaged people in the audience to get the discussion flowing, and give other people the courage to contribute. But what if you can’t count on your attendees to speak up on their own?

Ahead of your presentation, ask a few audience members who you already know and trust to pose specific questions during your presentation.

Maybe you want them to chime in with an easy “gimme” to kick things off and encourage that level of engagement. Or, maybe you want your designated attendee to ask a question that everybody else may be too afraid to ask (i.e. “How do we know we can trust this data?”).

This strategy won’t be necessary for every presentation. But when you’re worried that your request for questions will be met with lowered heads and shifting glances, this is an effective way to get the ball rolling.

Read more: From classroom to boardroom: A high school teacher’s presentation tips

Repeatedly ask questions to build involvement

You can’t expect your audience to engage and interact with you if you don’t give them an opportunity. So, make sure to have plenty of spots throughout your presentation where you can pause and ask a question.

This doesn’t need to be a threatening, pop quiz-style way to scare your audience into paying attention. Even the simplest questions can make people feel a little more involved in what you’re presenting. Think of things like:

• Have you heard of this before?
• Can you read what’s on that slide for me?
• Does anybody know where/what [thing] is?

They’re straightforward questions that require a one-word answer or super easy response, yet they do the job of reminding your audience that you’re talking with them – and not just at them.

Get people moving and out of their seats

It’s time to get your audience’s blood pumping. No, you don’t need to have them do jumping jacks or pushups, but think of some creative ways that you can get them moving around a little bit.

It could be something as simple as asking people to stand up, rather than requesting a show of hands. Or, you could think of some ways to incorporate movement with the content of your presentation. For example, have them walk up and introduce themselves to somebody new to implement the elevator pitch techniques you just taught them.

Give some thought to the different ways you could get your audience out of their seats at a few different points throughout your presentation. If nothing else, you can rest assured that they’re awake.

Read more: 8 interactive presentation games for large teams

Use interactive questions to assess the audience

If you want to know if the audience really understands what you’re presenting, ask.

Christopher Robertson , who teaches at University of Arizona’s James. E. Rogers College of Law, uses Poll Everywhere to identify and resolve any misunderstandings his students have about the complexities of law.

“Law students can easily go an entire semester passively attending class and both the professor and student discover on the final exam that they have not grasped the concepts covered in class,” said Robertson.

I find polling in class encourages active student participation and uncovers misunderstanding of how to apply the law that warrant a second look.

Taking time to test the audience this way gives them a chance to reflect on what you told them, and apply that knowledge on the spot. This can improve the chances they’ll remember that information after your presentation ends.

Enable anonymity to encourage candid feedback

Dr. Mark, physician and author of The Productive Physician , uses anonymous polling in his medical classes. He cites how this extra layer of security helps put students’ minds at ease, and lets them focus on the lesson instead of worrying about scrutiny from their peers.

“Poll Everywhere allows both anonymous and signed-in polling,” explained Dr. Mark, “but I prefer to use the anonymous mode as I feel it increases learner psychological safety: my students might be more inclined to test their knowledge without the fear of being seen to be wrong in front of their peers.”

You can enable anonymity for all Poll Everywhere activity types. The audience responds from the privacy of their phones – not in front of their peers – giving everyone an equal opportunity to make their voice heard.

Split your audience into smaller discussion groups

There’s nothing worse than explicitly asking your audience to engage with you and being met with only crickets and blank stares.

But, here’s the thing: Not everybody is comfortable speaking up in front of a crowd.

For that reason, it can be smart to divide your audience into smaller groups to discuss something relevant to your presentation topic – even if it’s just for five minutes.

If you want the whole audience to come back together and share what they learned during those conversations, it’s likely that a spokesperson will naturally arise from each group; meaning the people who aren’t comfortable chiming in on a large scale don’t have to.

The best thing about this strategy? The previously-reserved attendees will have a little more confidence to speak up when they know the rest of their group is there to jump in if needed.

Read more: How to present an effective PowerPoint presentation

Encourage questions throughout your presentation

It’s natural to want your audience to hold on to all of their questions until a Q&A portion at the conclusion of your talk. However, that’s pretty much the exact opposite of an interactive presentation.

Instead, be upfront at the beginning of your presentation that you want people to chime in with thoughts or questions, rather than biting their tongue until the very end. Of course, you’ll need to be willing to step in and get things back on track if a question steers the conversation too far off course.

If you don’t want the interruptions, find a way for people to submit questions asynchronously , such as in a chat window or shared document. You can respond to those submissions at your own pace throughout the presentation.

Either way, encouraging people to contribute to the topic in real-time is far more interactive and engaging than forcing them to sit and wait until the end.

Let the audience decide what’s next

Presentations don’t always need to flow in a straight line. With a quick question, you can empower your audience and let them decide what to learn about next.

Poll Everywhere’s own Katie Wilson gave a webinar on this very topic. In it, she explained how corporate trainers use polling to create choose-your-own-adventure style presentations .

Present your audience with a multiple choice activity, and let their votes determine which topic you tackle next. In Katie’s example, a corporate trainer is asking about how best to respond to a customer complaint.

Three options are available, and the audience votes on which one they think is most appropriate. Once the results are in, the presenter navigates to the slide associated with that option and discusses the results.

Use surveys to extend interaction after your presentation ends

Audience interaction doesn’t have to end with the presentation.

Jez Wiles, lecturer at the London College of Music, continues the conversation with his students both before and after his lectures with online questionnaires.

“Getting [students] to use a survey as a post-class reflective tool, or pre-lecture poll to find out what they know about something…this has all extended the use of [Poll Everywhere] for me, and boosted engagement,” said Wiles.

Poll Everywhere surveys can include any type of activity – from multiple choice to open-ended – and can be completed asynchronously at the audience’s own pace. This is a great way to help reinforce the topics of your presentation, or to collect audience feedback on the presentation itself.

I like the sense of fun Poll Everywhere naturally brings. I always find engagement goes up when I use it.

These are just some of the ways the Poll Everywhere community uses live audience engagement to drive interactive presentations. Each of these ideas is a type of cut you can use to keep your audience alert and engaged with what you’re saying.

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Short answer

How can I make a presentation interactive?

• Add a video on the cover slide
• Use narrated scrollytelling design
• Add multimedia (videos, animations, and text-to-speech readers)
• Visualize your data using live graphs and charts
• Group your content in tabs
• Add input options such as embedded apps, surveys, or calculators
• Hide additional data under “read more”
• Incorporate a chatbot
• End with an interactive next step

Interactivity is a core experience, not just cosmetics

These days, everyone's trying to add a touch of flair to their decks. A fancy transition here, a clickable element there. But let's be honest: it won’t transform the core experience.

It's like putting racing stripes on a family car; sure, it looks faster, but under the hood, it's the same old engine.

If you're settling for these surface-level enhancements, you're missing out on the chance to truly engage your audience.

Instead of leaving them with a memorable experience, you're giving them just another presentation they'll forget by the next coffee break.

By using tools that provide interactivity as the core experience rather than cosmetics, you can transform your presentations from passive viewings into immersive experiences.

It's about creating a two-way conversation, where your audience doesn't just watch but participates.

If you want to elevate your content from being just another slide deck to something that resonates and inspires action you’ll wanna stick around.

This post will give you world-leading interactive presentation examples to learn from and templates you can use immediately.

Let’s go!

Why static presentations are bad for business

Let's face it: static presentations are like that dreaded homework from school. Remember the feeling of slogging through pages of text, eyes glazing over, wishing to be done with it and go do something actually interesting?

That's what your audience feels when they read your static slide deck.

Static presentations just dump information. They're a one-way street, and they expect the audience to passively absorb everything. It's a pain, and honestly, no one's a fan.

Now, imagine a presentation that's interactive. It's like stepping into a playground of information.

Your audience isn't just sitting there; they're involved. They can choose their path, delve deeper into what intrigues them, and skip what doesn't. It's a two-way journey, tailored to each viewer's pace and interest.

Here’s what the difference between static and interactive looks like:

Why more interactivity will NOT get you more engagement

When it comes to presentations, there's a clear divide: they're either interactive or they're not. It's like coffee; it's either decaf or it's not. There's no semi-caffeinated middle ground.

As long as you remain within the bounds of the legacy PowerPoint slide format, no amount of interactivity you add to it will make your presentation worth engaging with.

Now, you might be thinking, "But what about those Canva-like solutions? They add some flair, right?" Yes, they can jazz up your slides with a bit of motion and some shiny effects.

But let's be real: a sprinkle of glitter doesn't turn a rock into a diamond. Beneath the surface bling, the core experience remains static, limited, and boring. A bit of animation doesn’t change that.

These tools might give the illusion of interactivity, but it's just that—an illusion. True interactivity means giving your audience the reins and letting them navigate, explore, and engage with your content on their terms.

Anything less is just a dressed-up version of the same old static PowerPoint.

9 tips for making a truly powerful interactive presentation

Creating a presentation that stands out in today's digital overload is no small feat. But with the right tools and approach, you can turn passive viewers into active participants.

Here's how to make a truly powerful interactive presentation:

1) Add a video on the cover slide

Think of a time-lapse of a bustling city or a heartwarming clip from a community event. Such visual hooks not only captivate but also set the context for your narrative.

Here's an example of a deck with a video on the cover slide:

2) Use narrated design

A narrated design means structuring your slides to unfold like a story, guiding the viewer from one point to the next seamlessly. Letting your audience explore at their own pace increases engagement.

Here's a great example of narrated design:

3) Add multimedia elements

Go beyond text. Integrate images, sound bites, and short clips to highlight points, break up the flow, and cater to different learning preferences.

Here's an example of a multimedia deck:

4) Visualize your data using live graphs and charts

Numbers tell a tale, but in chunks, they're snooze-worthy. Use live graphs and charts to represent data in a digestible, visually appealing manner.

Here ' s an example of a presentation with dataviz elements:

5) Group your content in tabs

Think of this as chapters in a book. Tabs help segment and organize your content, allowing viewers to jump to sections that interest them most.

Here's an example of a tabs slide:

6) Add input options such as embedded apps, surveys, or calculators

Embedded apps can provide tailored experiences, surveys gather immediate audience feedback, and calculators allow for real-time data manipulation.

By including them, you invite your audience to actively engage, making the content more memorable and the experience more dynamic.

7) Hide additional data under “read more”

Offer a teaser, then dive deep. This approach ensures you cater to both the skim-readers and the deep-divers in your audience.

8) Incorporate a chatbot

It's like having a 24/7 assistant. Chatbots can provide instant answers, clarify doubts and keep viewers on track.

Here's an example of a deck with a chatbot:

9) End with an interactive next step

Ditch the generic "Thank You" slide. Instead, wrap up with a call to action, a thought-provoking question, or a personalized video message. It's about leaving a lasting impression and sparking action.

Here's an example of a presentation with a smart CTA:

How to create an interactive presentation with AI

As screens around us buzz with endless streams of content, the main challenge is creating presentations that rise above the noise.

Thankfully, with the help of AI, you can create an impactful interactive presentation in 6 easy steps.

1) Define your presentation’s purpose with AI

Start by letting the AI know the goal of your presentation. Whether you're pitching a solution to prospects, explaining a concept during a workshop, or showcasing quarterly results to stakeholders, AI can generate content that's both relevant and engaging.

2) Introduce your context

Provide the AI with a brief overview of who you are, your company's mission, the product or service you're highlighting, and the industry landscape. This helps the AI tailor the presentation to your unique narrative.

3) Choose a design template

No need to build from the ground up. Platforms like Storydoc offer a variety of design templates optimized for real-world performance. Pick one that resonates with your brand's voice and aesthetic.

4) Customize and add interactivity

This is where the magic happens. Integrate your content, adjust the design, and watch as the template adapts to fit your narrative. Spice things up with clickable tabs, real-time data charts, or other interactive elements.

And if you're feeling a bit unsure about your multimedia choices, you can also let the AI suggest some for you.

5) Add dynamic personalization

Modern tools allow for dynamic content adjustments. You can connect to your CRM, fetch relevant data, and use it to create presentations that feel tailor-made for each viewer in a matter of seconds.

This trick will make your audience feel more connected to your content and boost overall engagement.

6) Review, refine, and stay in control

Before hitting send, give your presentation a once-over. Make sure it flows seamlessly and your message shines through.

And here's the best part: since platforms like Storydoc are online-based, you can make on-the-fly adjustments even after sharing your presentation. No more “Did I just share the old draft?” panic.

7) Advanced: Use analytics to make continuous improvements

Every presentation you create with Storydoc comes with access to a robust analytics suite. This gives you a bird's-eye view of how your content performs, from viewer engagement metrics to slide-by-slide analysis.

Use this data to refine, tweak, and perfect your presentations over time.

Here's a short video explaining how our AI presentation maker works:

Best interactive presentation examples to inspire your own

Dive into our gallery and let these interactive presentation examples spark your inspiration and guide your next presentation journey.

Remember those captivating story books from childhood? The ones where you could choose your own adventure, turning to different pages based on your choices, and every read felt fresh and new?

That's the magic interactive presentation templates bring to the table.

While traditional presentations often feel like a boring lecture, we flip the script. These templates don't just present; they engage. Every element, every interaction, is optimized to ensure your audience isn't just watching—they're participating.

And it's not just about aesthetics. These templates have been in the trenches, battle-tested in real-world scenarios, and have come out as champions, driving results and making lasting impressions.

Best tools for making interactive presentations

While tools like Canva might add a touch of sparkle, they often fall short of creating a truly interactive experience.

So, if you're looking to elevate your presentations from static to dynamic, here's a list of the best tools that genuinely make a difference:

Storydoc is leading the charge in creating AI-powered interactive business presentations for sales, marketing, and reporting. It transforms traditional business decks into dynamic, immersive stories. With AI-driven design, content suggestions, and built-in deck analytics, it brings a storytelling experience into business communications.

Genially offers educational presentations used to enrich learning materials inside and outside the classroom. From dynamic infographics to gamification and thousands of classroom-ready templates, it comes with a range of tools to make your content interactive and engaging.

Foleon is an intuitive all-in-one platform that focuses on creating mini-sites that provide immersive content experiences that work across devices, packed with rich media and interactive elements.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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How to make a presentation interactive and exciting

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What makes a presentation interactive?

Main benefits of interactive presentation, 9 ways to make your presentation interactive, types of interactive presentations, take your presentations to the next level.

An impactful speech or lecture requires more than being an articulate speaker . If you want the information to stick, your audience should engage with you and the material you’re presenting.

And that audience is changing. Among people with teleworkable jobs, 76% worked remotely some, most, or all of the time . Presentations are tricky when you’re catering to a virtual audience and don’t have the benefit of a physical space. And they’re even trickier when the people you’re speaking to are a mix of in-office and remote workers.

Creating a good presentation that incorporates the needs of both in-person and online audiences can feel like a tall order. But there’s a way to transform your spectators from passive listeners to active participants, giving them a memorable experience no matter the platform. And that solution is interaction.

Learning how to make a presentation interactive can grab and keep your audience's attention so they remember your session and its key takeaways. Here’s how to use interactive elements like Q&As, live demonstrations, and fun quizzes to make your presentations more exciting.

An interactive presentation has elements that involve the audience. The presenter engages with the group in real-time, asking and answering questions or encouraging participants to voice their opinions. Interactive presentations can also include online polls, quizzes, and face-to-face activities between audience members.

You’ve probably experienced a standard presentation where the speaker stands at the front of a projected PowerPoint slideshow, talking at you. Your only chance to engage comes when they open the floor to audience questions, and that’s only if there’s enough time. 

The presenter will still get the point across, but this approach can get boring, and it might be hard to pay attention if you’re not engaged. Around 90% of people admit to daydreaming during meetings and presentations , which can impact comprehension. An interactive presenter transforms the audience from viewers into active contributors and collaborators, making it easier to pay attention and gain from the meeting. 

A captivating presentation does more than just get the audience involved. It improves comprehension, helps you connect, and personalizes the experience. Here are more benefits to including interactive elements in presentations: 

• Connection: Human connection benefits everyone involved . An interactive presentation offers more back-and-forth between yourself and your audience, creating a sense of familiarity and an outlet for connection.
• Comprehension: Studies show that during conversations, the speaker’s brain activity and the listener’s brain activity mimic each other, which improves understanding . Interactivity helps the audience better absorb the information you’re presenting. 
• Engagement: Employee engagement leads to a happier workforce and improved company culture . Making the audience part of every meeting can contribute to their experience at work overall, and it’ll hold their interest in the moment. 
• Cooperation: Soliciting contributions or setting up participation activities means you won’t be talking for the whole presentation, which can help you feel less tired. You’re letting the audience do some of the work for you.
• Personalization: When you draw on your audience’s input, you’re creating a customized experience that is more meaningful and memorable. And interactivity means you’ll never give the same presentation twice, so your material will stay fresh.

Choose one (or a few) interactive elements to add interest to your presentation and improve comprehension. Experiment with different options and find the activities that stick. If you aren’t sure how it went, ask for presentation feedback to learn what the group enjoyed most and what you could improve. 

Here are a few interactive methods to try:

1. Icebreaker questions

Using a fun icebreaker to kick off your presentation creates a connection between yourself and members of the audience. You can keep it simple by asking a straightforward question or separating participants into small groups for an activity like charades. Whatever method you choose, you’ll help everyone relax, set the tone, and encourage participation for what’s to come. 

2. Storytelling

Listening to a good story makes your brain more engaged and helps you relate to the storyteller . Introduce your talk with a personal anecdote and use it to create a framework for your presentation. Try using music clips, video clips, or sound effects to add an extra level of interest.

As your speech progresses, you can refer back to your narrative and connect your ideas, creating a clearer line of thought. Telling a good story can also create a rapport with your audience, helping them relate to you through empathy or shared experience.  

Using interactive polls for presentations demonstrates that you care about your audience’s opinion. You can use a poll to gauge interest in a specific topic, learn how the group is feeling in the moment, or segue into a new section of the presentation. A live poll will also provide immediate feedback, helping you gauge whether your content has the effect you want it to.

Adding an interactive quiz for a presentation can help you read the room and assess your audience’s comprehension. Giving a quick quiz at the end of every section also lets you know if you need to follow up and explain your point further or open the floor to questions. Apps like Kahoot work well because everyone can pull out their smartphones and join in. The friendly competition of a quiz can also be a good motivator.

5. Question and answer

If you hold a Q&A session at the end of your presentation, the group might be too tired or rushed to find it meaningful. Instead, invite participants to ask their questions at key points throughout your talk. The information will be fresher in their minds, and a moment of conversation breaks up the lecture.

6. Demonstrations

If your presentation is about a product or concept, try showing it instead of telling it. Talking about the new app you’re launching isn’t as exciting as showing how it works. Demonstrating a concept, product, or service offers hands-on interaction and can make a more significant impact than words alone could.

7. Movement

Spending the whole presentation at the front of the room might bore both you and your audience. And it can be hard to create a personal connection when there’s a separation between you.

When you’re speaking, close the gap by moving through the venue space, pacing around, or speaking directly to different sections of the audience. Proximity and body language can help reinforce the connection you’ve built throughout your presentation.

Using props might sound gimmicky, but they can be powerful tools to help audiences engage with your material. Allowing your audience to interact with an item related to your speech can help break the third wall and add an element of fun.

Find an object that represents what you’re talking about, either literally or symbolically. For example, in Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk about her stroke, she shows the audience a real human brain to explain what happened .

You may have many methods for gauging your presentation’s success. Did the audience laugh at the jokes? Did you receive thank-you emails after ? This kind of indirect feedback can be telling, but it doesn’t provide you with actionable data.

Instead, incorporating a post-event survey gives your audience one last chance to share their thoughts and opinions with you. It gives the group a moment for self-reflection on what they’ve learned, and the feedback can help you improve your presentation skills before your next talk.

To apply interactive techniques that work the way you want them to, you need to be clear on the type of presentation you’re giving. Presenting the past quarter’s sales numbers has vastly different requirements than a lecture inspiring high school students to start volunteering. Understanding your audience and having clear goals will inform the format of your presentation and what kind of interaction suits it best. You have some freedom to mix and match elements of one format into another as long as they're complimentary, like adding persuasive characteristics to an inspirational speech. Here are five types of interactive presentations, with examples.

1. Informative

The goal of an informative presentation is to educate your audience. The structure shares factual information in a direct, unadorned fashion. For this kind of presentation, quizzes and polls work best because they test the audience’s knowledge. You can also use props to help them better understand complex information.

EXAMPLE: You present a workshop about your company’s style guide to new members of the marketing team and use a quiz to gauge their understanding.

2. Persuasive

You use a persuasive format when making a sales pitch or convincing an audience to take specific actions. Props, movement, and Q&As all work well for this format because they keep your audience engaged and give them the chance to learn more about the topic.

EXAMPLE: You’re leading a public meeting to encourage citizens to begin recycling and composting, and you bring a full garbage bag to represent the amount of waste each person produces in a day.

3. Inspirational

If you’re familiar with TED talks, you’ve likely experienced an inspirational presentation format. These speeches use storytelling to boost morale or inspire audience members to change their behavior or perspective. Try moving around the space or asking the group an icebreaker question to get them involved with the story.

EXAMPLE: You give a speech about how you moved up the ladder at your company, and you move around the room to better connect with the audience and tell them they could do the same.

4. Outcome-related

This collaborative presentation structure generates the most interaction between yourself and the participants because its goal is to work together. Use it to brainstorm solutions to a problem or determine the process you need to reach a desired outcome. Polls, quizzes, and surveys all work well for outcome-related presentations. EXAMPLE: You hold a meeting to develop a social media strategy for a new client and give an anonymous survey where team members can submit ideas.

5. Instructive 

An instructive presentation takes a deep dive into a topic. By the end, audiences expect to better understand an idea, concept, or possibly a product. Using storytelling and props can help demonstrate difficult concepts and give an audience more ways to connect with the topic.

EXAMPLE: You give a lecture on the benefits of solar panels on domestic buildings, and you bring in a solar panel with a lightbulb to show how it works.

Speaking in front of a group can be a little intimidating. But learning how to make a presentation interactive can elevate the event and relieve some of the nervousness associated with public speaking .

Whether you’re reviewing the results of a marketing campaign or speaking about an issue near and dear to your heart, interactivity helps transform a one-sided lecture into a participatory event. Meaningful audience interactions help your audience remember what you’re talking about and connect with the story you’re telling.

So next time you develop a virtual team-building exercise or present last month’s sales report, you’ll have the interactive presentation ideas you need to create an engaging experience, no matter your audience.

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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How to Nail Interactive Presentations, According to HubSpot Experts

Updated: March 16, 2021

Published: December 07, 2020

I can distinctly remember being extremely excited to attend a presentation from a speaker whose book I had read and loved in class. Unfortunately, the speaker was not as engaging as I’d hoped, and I found myself getting bored and distracted.

Marketers know better than anyone that capturing audience attention goes hand in hand with keeping people engaged. If people are bored, their thoughts will drift somewhere else, and you’ll miss out on the opportunity to impact their behavior. This is true regardless of the marketing medium, from advertisements to presentations.

That being said, marketers need to create effective ways to gain audience attention during their presentations — one of those is interactivity. According to the Oxford Dictionary , interactivity is defined as how two people work together and influence each other. Therefore, creating interactive presentations means using strategies that will capture and hold audience attention. It makes it easier to leave lasting, meaningful impressions about the content you’re sharing with them.

This post will outline the importance of interactive presentations and share tips from HubSpot experts for giving engaging, interactive presentations.

Why are interactive presentations important?

Interactive presentations are those where audience members and presenters feel like they’re in conversation with each other. It’s a pivot away from the lecture and listeners feel, as presenters entice audiences to participate and interact with them.

The reason for creating interactive presentations is simple: marketers who make a connection with their audience are more likely to have them leave feeling as though they’ve learned something from you.

All marketers want to leave good impressions, so understanding how to do this during presentations is important. Below we’ve listed nine interactive presentation ideas that you can use when planning your next virtual or in-person events.

Interactive Presentation Ideas

Use a powerpoint., draw comparisons to your passions., tell a story..

• Start with an ice breaker.
• Break away from the expected format.

Have Q&A or AMA sessions.

Use data representations., get off the stage., share resources for later..

PowerPoints help you incorporate various media into your presentations, like text, images, and even videos. This ensures that there is an aspect of your presentation that appeals to every audience member, as everyone learns differently.

For example, someone may have an easier time digesting your content when they can see visual examples. In contrast, their neighbor may retain more information if they can follow along by reading a brief summary. When you tailor your presentation to meet the differing needs of your audience, it’s easier for everyone to interact with your content and learn from your talk.

Should you choose to use a PowerPoint, this HubSpot download gives you four different slide templates to choose from that can be used to create high-quality presentations. Alternatively, you could use a smart presentation maker like Beautiful.AI , which also includes interactive presentation elements and design. 

It’s probably safe to say that the presentation you’re giving is about a topic you’re an expert in. It’s also probably safe to say that your audience isn’t necessarily as informed as you are, so they’ll need more context to catch up to your level of understanding.

Content Creation and Lead Acquisition Marketing Manager AJ Beltis says that drawing comparisons to your passions during presentations can engage your audience and enhance their understanding of new concepts, especially if they aren’t contextually related. This could look like drawing in references to sports, movies, and pop culture.

Beltis says, “Help your audience better understand what you’re presenting by referencing something outside of the context — sports, movies, and pop culture references can work really well if they make sense.”

This keeps your audience engaged because you’re relating the information to real-life examples that may be more readily available to them. Bonus points if you use a humorous reference, which can cause your audience to create a positive association with the information and retain more of what you’re saying. If you begin with a cheerful anecdote, you’ll set the tone for the rest of the presentation.

Use an ice breaker.

One way to ensure that your presentation is interactive is to generate rapport with your audience with an ice breaker .

Ice breakers are short activities that audience members can participate in that are meant to inspire a sense of community and help audience members meet their neighbors. Ice breakers can also diffuse any sort of tension or anxiety from being around unfamiliar people.

If you’re at a loss for ideas, you can always try Two Truths and a Lie. Every audience member comes up with two factual statements about their life and one lie, and the rest of the audience works together to pick out the false statement.

Ice breakers are great because they are adaptable to both in-person and virtual meetings. For in-person events, per safety regulations, presenters can pre-select an ice breaker, and small audiences can go around the room responding to a question. For larger audiences, participants can simply introduce themselves to a neighbor.

For virtual events with small audiences, you can use the same structure as in-person presentations, but larger audiences can be broken down into smaller, more intimate break-out rooms. Either way, people are still breaking the ice, so to speak, and interacting with each other.

Use your presentations to interact with your audience by telling a story. It could be a personal anecdote, a story from a customer, or a well known-story that you adapt to illustrate your presentation’s message.

Senior Marketing Director Emmy Jonassen recalls one of the most memorable presentations from a HubSpot Marketing Team planning session: “There was a group that used Goldilocks and the Three Bears to illustrate how they went about solidifying the perfect strategy. The story paired with the imagery kept the audience engaged, and people were listening and laughing.” Jonassen says that, almost a year later, that was one of the most memorable presentations of the two-day session.

By telling a story, you’re using interactivity to influence your audience and help them remember what you’re sharing with them. A story gives your audience something to associate the information with, which may make the information you’re sharing easier to recall. You’ve used a story to influence their retention of the information you’re presenting.

Using data representations is a valuable way to showcase your content in a digestible format. For reference, data visualization is using things like charts and diagrams to help viewers understand the significance of the information you’re showing them. It’s easy to say the words out loud, but using pictures gives the audience a visual representation of your words.

Say you’re a marketer giving a presentation on the benefits your business has found from advertising on different social media sites. You can certainly verbalize how Twitter was the best, but using a chart that shows the difference in return on investment (ROI) between different platforms gives audience members a visual representation of your success.

If you’re a HubSpot user, Marketing Hub allows you to create visualizations from the data in your HubSpot analytics reports. The image below is a pie chart that was created using HubSpot reports.

All-in-all, data visualization increases the impact of your words because audience members get a picture of the significance of the information you’re giving them.

Breakaway from the “expected” format.

The disappointing presentation I mentioned earlier followed the typical structure of an introduction, content presentation, brief Q&A, and then it was over. I expected more interactivity from the author, but it really felt like a regular college lecture. I wish the author had mixed it up and varied their structure, maybe by asking us questions about our interpretations of the book, but she didn’t.

Many presenters follow this structure, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but the framework can become boring to your audience. If you mix it up and vary your style in a way that your audience wouldn’t expect, you can capture their attention by throwing them off (in a good way), and they’re likely to stay attentive because they don’t know what’s coming next.

Amanda Sellers, Historical Optimization Writer, says that breaking away from expected format could mean playing a game, or subverting expectations. She recalls giving a presentation on a Monday afternoon where she knew that the audience would likely be a bit quiet. For part of her presentation, she had the audience stand up and repeat the words she was saying; “Standing up got their blood flowin’, and I encouraged them to participate at full volume. This shook up the presentation, and it helped with information retention because the attendees were listening and repeating back the information.”

Breaking away from the expected format doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do something at the beginning that you’d usually do at the end — get creative with what this means to you personally and how it would benefit your presentations' interactivity.

A great way to interact with your audience is to have question and answer (Q&A) or ask me anything (AMA) sessions during your presentation.

When you do this, audience members can ask clarifying questions about what you’ve already said to gain a full understanding before moving on to the next concept. For example, if you’re presenting your recent marketing campaign , consider stopping after each step of your plan (like plan goals, measurement, target audience, etc) to allow the audience to ask clarifying questions before you move on to the next section.

You can also switch it up and ask audience members questions, as they likely have valuable input into the topic at hand. Consider creating quizzes and polls where they can respond to your questions and submit feedback. You can make submissions anonymous so audience members feel comfortable to share anything (within reason) that they have on their mind.

Weaving Q&A and AMA opportunities throughout your presentation is also a great way to re-capture audience attention if they have become distracted, as it requires them to think critically about your content and their own information retention.

During virtual presentations, audience members may not feel as comfortable interrupting you to ask clarifying questions, so purposely taking the time to ask participants questions or have them ask you questions is worth considering. Becca Stamp, Senior Learning & Development Operations, says “It’s important to give everyone space to come off mute and contribute throughout the session. The participants add so much value to the session, either through discussion or over the zoom chat.”

During in-person presentations, getting off the stage and quite literally leveling yourself with your audience is worth considering.

Most people expect presenters to remain on stage and separated from them, so varying your delivery style and being closer to your audience may inspire a sense of interaction that is different from simply standing in front of a podium for 20 minutes.

If you employ this strategy, you can also have Q&As and where you walk over to audience members and respond to their questions as if you’re having a one on one conversation. Referring back to the definition of interactivity, you’re leaving an effect on your audience by being more approachable than they’d expect.

A useful way to inspire continuous interaction with your audience is to leave them with something to take away from your presentation. Depending on the content you’re sharing, maybe you’ll hand out brochures to advertise your service, provide them with a link to your website, or have them sign up for an email list.

Whatever your desired action is, giving them a way to remember you and your presentation is a great way to inspire continuous interaction with them.

Spend Time Making Your Presentations Interactive

All-in-all, the goal of creating interactive presentations is to influence your audience members. Whatever your presentation content is, using strategies that center audience engagement is a valuable way to connect with them and teach them something new.

Feeling like they’ve been in conversation with you rather than being talked at can help you fulfill the ultimate goal of marketing: to leave a lasting impression.

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9 ways to create an interactive presentation.

• January 25, 2023

Table of Contents

Are you tired of delivering the same old boring presentation? It’s time to ditch the traditional approach and step up your game with interactive presentation ideas that will completely mesmerize your audience. Creating an interactive presentation can be challenging, but with the right tools and techniques, it’s easier than you think. From icebreakers to data visualization, we’ve got you covered with nine ways to make your presentation interactive. Don’t settle for a dull and unengaging presentation, let us show you how to make a presentation interactive and blow your audience’s mind.

1. Start With an Icebreaker

Starting your presentation with an icebreaker is a great way to set the tone for the rest of your presentation and get your participants’ attention right off the bat. Although this may seem tedious, coming up with an icebreaker can be as simple as asking a question related to your topic, playing a quick game, or giving your audience a task to complete. The goal is to make both you and your audience feel more comfortable and relaxed. As a result, your attendees will be more receptive for the rest of your presentation. 

Ice breaker ideas to use in your presentation:

• Invite your audience members to introduce themselves and to share an interesting personal fact.
• Ask them to complete a quick survey or quiz related to your topic. 
• Give your audience a task to complete. For example, create a word puzzle that is related to your presentation and have them work together to solve it. 

There are endless possibilities to what you can do! If you want to keep your attendees on their toes, you need to think outside of the box. 

2. Use Videos in Your Presentation

Videos are a powerful tool for keeping your audience captivated and will add visual interest to your presentation. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million. The power of video is undeniable. It can help you convey information in a way that words alone simply cannot. You can show examples, demonstrate a process, or tell a story that will captivate your viewers in a way that will leave a strong impression on them. And the best part? It’s easy to do. With emaze, you can easily embed videos into your presentation and make it more dynamic and engaging. So why settle for a boring presentation when you can have one that truly comes to life? Add videos to your next presentation and notice the difference they make!

3. Have a Q&A Session

The best way to create an interactive presentation that your audience thoroughly understands is to have a Q&A session. Encourage your participants to ask questions and provide clear and concise answers that will not only keep them engaged, but will also give them the opportunity to dive deeper into the topic of your presentation. To make your presentation even more interesting, try to incorporate a Q&A session throughout your presentation and not just at the end. This way, you can address questions as they come up, make sure that your audience is paying attention , and guarantee that the information you’re presenting is being understood. Opening up the floor to your participants will only help them retain the information that you want them to. 

4. Gather Feedback on Your Presentation

Use the end of your presentation as an opportunity to gather feedback from the attendees. We’re always ready to rate our Uber and food delivery drivers, so why should presentations be any different? Gathering feedback is the best way for you to find out how you can improve your presentation for next time, steering clear of creating a boring presentation.

With emaze, you can gather valuable feedback from your audience and use it to make your presentation even more engaging. Our platform offers a large selection of interactive surveys and training templates that you can customize to match your brand and style. 

You can ask questions such as: 

• How would you rate today’s presentation on a scale of 1-10?
• What could be improved for next time?
• What was your favorite part of the presentation?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gather feedback and improve your presentation. Click here to begin creating surveys and other training materials with our editor.

5. Use Props

Props may seem like an old-fashioned technique, but when it comes to how to make a presentation interactive, they can be a powerful tool to keep your participants engaged. Props can be used to showcase examples, demonstrate a process, or tell a story in a way that words cannot. They can also be used to create interactive elements, such as hands-on activities or demonstrations. Imagine being able to physically show your audience a product or process, or even giving them the opportunity to experience it for themselves through hands-on activities. This will not only help them understand your message better but also make your presentation more dynamic and impactful. Use props to make your point and take your presentation to new heights in terms of interactivity.

6. Add an Audio Narrative or Music to Your Presentation Slides

Bring your presentation to life with an audio narrative or music! A well-crafted audio narrative can tell a compelling story, while carefully selected music can set the perfect mood for your presentation. These elements will transport your viewers into an immersive experience, making your presentation truly unforgettable.

Use an audio narrative to:

• Spin a captivating tale
• Share customer testimonials

Use music to:

• Get your audience pumped with upbeat tracks
• Create a relaxed atmosphere with soothing music

Don’t just rely on your slides, use audio and music to take your presentation to the next level and leave a lasting impression on your audience.

7. Play Around With Animations, Effects, and Styles

Using animations, effects, and styles may sound outdated, but they can be the key to making your presentation engaging. Emaze offers a wide range of animations, effects, and styles that you can use to add some flair to your presentation. And for designers, we even provide an infrastructure for writing CSS code to create custom effects!

Here are some ways you can use animations, effects, and styles in your presentations:

• Animations: Bring static images, text, and objects to life.
• Effects: Add entrance and exit effects to objects, such as Bounce In or Slide Out and watch the magic unfold. 
• Styles: Give your presentation a unique look by adding Shadows or Filters to images, text, and objects. 

Playing around with animations, effects, and styles will not only make creating your presentation more enjoyable, but will also leave a lasting impression on your audience.

8. Tell Your Audience a Story

One of the most effective interactive presentation ideas is to tell a story! Storytelling is a powerful tool to engage your audience and make your message more personal. By weaving a captivating tale, you can convey important information, make a point, and create a deeper emotional connection with your attendees. Storytelling will make it easier for your audience to understand and remember your message.

Here are some examples of stories you can tell:

• Share a personal story related to your topic, such as how your company helped a customer solve a problem.
• Use a fictional story to illustrate the consequences of a particular course of action.
• Use a case study to show how your solution helped a business overcome a challenge.

Don’t just rely on facts and figures, use storytelling to bring your message to life!

9. Use Data Visualization in Your Presentation

Bring Your Presentation to Life

Are you ready to say goodbye to the dreaded “boring presentation” and hello to an interactive and mesmerizing experience? By incorporating techniques such as icebreakers, video clips, surveys, props, audio narratives, and data visualization, you can create a presentation that will engage your audience members and make your message more memorable. The key is to think creatively and use interactive presentation ideas that will make your presentation stand out from the rest. Emaze is the perfect platform to bring your ideas to life and create a visually stunning and interactive presentation that will leave your audience begging for more. Instead of settling for a boring presentation, set the bar higher. Create your unique interactive presentation today by clicking  here !

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How to Make a Presentation Interactive | 7 Great Ways

Lakshmi Puthanveedu • 29 July, 2024 • 11 min read

Are your presentations putting people to sleep faster than a bedtime story? It’s time to shock some life back into your lessons with interactivity🚀

Let's defibrillate “Death by PowerPoint” and show you lightning-quick ways how to make a presentation interactive .

With these tips, you'll be able to activate that dopamine drip and get butts in seats leaning in - not delving deep into the chairs!

Table of Contents

What is an interactive presentation.

• Why Use an Interactive Presentation?

#1. Create icebreaker games🧊

• #2. Make use of props 📝

#3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 🎲

#4. tell a compelling story, #5. organise a brainstorming session, #6. make a word cloud for the topic, #7. bring out the poll express, easy interactive activities for presentations, more presentation examples you could learn from.

Keeping your audience engaged is the most critical and challenging part, regardless of the topic or how casual or formal the presentation is. 

An interactive presentation is a presentation that works two ways. The presenter asks questions during the production, and the audience responds directly to those questions.

Let's take an example of an interactive poll .

The presenter displays a poll question on the screen. The audience can then submit their answers live through their mobile phones, and the results are immediately displayed on the screen, as shown in the image below. Yay, it's an interactive slide presentation .

Making an interactive presentation does not have to be complex or stressful. It’s all about letting go of the static, linear presentation format and using some tools and techniques to create a personal, more involved experience for the audience.

With software like AhaSlides , you can easily create interactive presentations with tons of interactive quizzes, polls, and live Q&A sessions for your audience. Keep reading to find out fired tips on how to make a presentation interactive 👇

Why Interactive Presentation?

Presentations are still one of the commonly used methods to pass on information. Still, no one likes to sit through long, monotonous presentations where the host doesn’t stop talking.

Interactive presentations can help. They...

• Increase audience engagement , allowing them to connect with you and the purpose of the presentation. 64% of people believe a flexible presentation with two-way interaction is more engaging than a linear one.
• Improve retention capacity . 68% say that it’s easier to remember the information when the presentation is interactive.
• Tips: Use a rating scale to gather feedback !
• Act as a break from the routine and allow participants to have an enjoyable experience.

How to Make a Presentation Interactive

Whether you are hosting a virtual or offline presentation, there are many ways to make presentations interactive, exciting and two-way for your audience.

Starting a presentation is always one of the most challenging parts. You are nervous; the audience might still be settling, there might be people not familiar with the topic - the list could go on. Get to know your audience, ask them questions about how they are feeling and how their day was, or maybe share a funny story to get them hooked and excited.

🎊 Here are 180 Fun General Knowledge Quiz Questions and Answers to gain better engagement.

#2. Make use of Props 📝

Making a presentation interactive does not mean you have to let go of traditional tricks of engaging the audience. You could bring a lighting stick or a ball to pass around to the audience when they want to ask a question or share something.

Games and quizzes will always remain the star of the show, no matter how complex the presentation is. You don’t necessarily have to create them related to the topic; these could also be introduced into the presentation as fillers or as a fun activity.

💡 Want more? Get 10 interactive presentation techniques here!

Stories work like a charm in any situation. Introducing a complex physics topic? You could tell a story about Nicola Tesla or Albert Einstein. Want to beat the Monday blues in the classroom? Tell a story! Want to break the ice ? 

Well, you know… ask the audience to tell a story! 

There are many ways you could use storytelling in a presentation. In a marketing presentation , for instance, you can create empathy with your audience by telling an engaging story or asking them if they have any interesting marketing stories or situations to share. If you're a teacher, you could pitch an outline to the students and ask them to build the rest of the story. 

Or, you could tell a story till just before the ending and ask the audience how they think the story ended.

You’ve created a stellar presentation. You’ve introduced the topic and are mid-way through the exhibition. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back, take a break and see how your students put some effort into taking the presentation forward?

Brainstorming helps get the students excited about the topic and allows them to think creatively and critically.

💡 Get an engaged class with 6 more interactive presentation ideas

Want to make sure your audience gets the concept or topic of the presentation without making it feel like an interrogation? 

Live word clouds are fun and interactive and ensure the main topic is not lost in the presentation. Using a word cloud free , you can ask the audience what they think is the main topic for the production.

How do you feel about using visual aids in your presentation? It's not anything new, right? 

But what if you can merge funny pictures with an interactive poll? That's got to be interesting! 

“How do you feel right now?” 

This simple question could be turned into an interactive fun activity with the help of images and GIFs describing your mood. Present it to the audience in a poll, and you could display the results on the screen for everyone to see.

This is a great, super simple icebreaker activity that can help revitalise team meetings, especially when some folks are working remotely.

💡 We've got more - 10 interactive presentation ideas for work .

Whether you’re hosting something for your colleagues, students or friends, retaining their attention for a while can be a daunting task.

Games such as What Would You Do? and 4 Corners are easy interactive activities to help the audience get back on track with your presentation …

What Would You Do?

Isn’t it interesting to know what someone would do in a particular situation or how they would handle it? In this game, you give the audience a scenario and ask how they would deal with it.

Say, for example, you are having a fun night with your friends and family. You could ask questions like, “What would you do if you could be invisible to the human eye?” and see how they handle the given situation.

If you've got remote players, this is a great interactive Zoom game .

This is a perfect game for anyone with an opinion. It’s a great way to start a conversation on your presentation's topic before diving into the meat of it.

You announce a statement and see how everyone feels about it. Each participant shows how they think by moving to one corner of the room. The corners are labelled ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘strongly disagree’, and ‘disagree’. 

Once everyone has taken their place in the corners, you could have a debate or discussion between the teams.

🎲 Looking for more? Check out 11 interactive presentation games !

The 5 Best Interactive Presentation Software

Making a presentation interactive is so much easier with the right tool.

Many interactive presentation websites let your audience respond directly to the content of your presentation and see the results on the big screen. You ask them a question in the form of a poll, word cloud, brainstorming or even a live quiz, and they respond with their phones.

#1 - AhaSlides

AhaSlides presentation platform will let you host fun, interactive presentations for all your needs, with quizzes, live Q&As, word clouds, brainstorming slides, and such.

The audience can join the presentation from their phones and interact with it live. Whether you are presenting to your students, a businessman who wants to hold team-building activities, or someone who wants to have a fun quiz game for your friends and family, this is a great tool you can use, with a ton of fun interactive options.

If you are looking for ways to boost your team’s creativity at your workplace, then Prezi is an excellent tool.

It is a bit similar to how a standard linear presentation would be but more imaginative and creative. With a huge template library and many animated elements, Prezi lets you create a cool, interactive display in no time.

Although the free version does not come with many features, spending a little on the tool is worth it to create content for any occasion.

🎊 Learn more: Top 5+ Prezi Alternatives | 2024 Reveal From AhaSlides

NearPod is a good tool that most educators would get a kick out of. It is specifically designed to cater to educational needs, and the free basic version lets you host a presentation for up to 40 students.

Teachers can build lessons, share them with students and monitor their results. One of the best features of NearPod is the Zoom integration, where you can merge your ongoing Zoom lesson with the interactive presentation.

The tool also has various interactive features such as memory tests, polls, quizzes and video embedding features.

Canva is an easy-to-use kit that even a person with no design experience could master in a few minutes.

With the drag-and-drop feature of Canva, you can create your slides in no time and that too with copyright-free images and a ton of design templates to choose from.

🎉 Learn more: Canva Alternatives | 2024 Reveal | Updated 12 Free and Paid Plans

Keynote for Mac

Keynote is one of the most popular bits of presentation software for Mac . It comes pre-installed and can be easily synced to iCloud, making it accessible across all Apple devices. Along with creating engaging presentations, you can also add a little bit of creativity by adding doodles and illustrations to your presentation.

Keynote presentations can also be exported to PowerPoint, allowing flexibility for the presenter.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i make my presentation more interactive.

You can make a presentation more interactive with these 7 simple strategies: 1. Create icebreaker games 2. Make use of props 3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 4. Tell a compelling story 5. Organise a session using a brainstorming tool 6. Make a word cloud for the topic 7. Bring out the Poll Express

Can I make my PowerPoint interactive?

Yes, you can use PowerPoint's AhaSlides add-in to save time and effort while still being able to create interactive activities like polls, Q&A or quizzes.

How can you make presentations interactive to get students involved?

Here are some effective ways to make presentations more interactive and get students involved: 1. Use polls/surveys 2. Use quizzes, leaderboards, and points to make the content feel more game-like and fun. 3. Pose questions and cold call on students to answer and discuss their thinking. 4. Insert relevant videos and have students analyse or reflect on what they saw.

• Presentation outfit
• TED talks presentation
• Body language during a presentation
• How to get over Stage Fright
• Personality in a presentation
• Benefits of presentation software
• Zoom presentation tips
• Easy topic for presentation

To help you craft an impactful presentation, let's explore some common pitfalls and how to overcome them

• Bad speeches
• Bad presentation at work
• Death by PowerPoint

Lakshmi Puthanveedu

A small-town girl enthralled by culture, languages, and sunsets. Casual artist and musician looking to make memories every step of the way. Now changing the way humans live and have virtual interactions with AhaSlides.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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• Entrepreneurship

12 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience in 2024

Too often, presentations are thought of as one-way communications. The speaker is on the stage delivering their presentation and it's the audience's role to listen attentively. Interactive presentations are different because they involve the audience.

As freelancers and small business owners, our clients hire us for our expertise and solutions to problems that they have. That's why I firmly believe that when the opportunity arises, it's a great idea to give a presentation and share your knowledge.

You can involve the audience by giving an interactive presentation. In this tutorial, I'm going to share ideas on how to make an engaging presentation by including audience participation in your presentation. With an interactive presentation you'll make a memorable impression. I'll share seven interactive presentation ideas to engage your audience.

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Before we dig into the tips though, there's another resource we've got that can help you to improve your presentations. Download our FREE eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations .

It'll help you with the complete presentation process, taking the interactive presentation ideas you'll learn in this article further.

Now, let's take a look at how to make your presentations more interactive:

1. Use Social Media

Most people have social media these days, so why not include it in your interactive presentation?

Twitter is the easiest to use for this purpose. Create a hashtag that people can use for their questions or thoughts. Tell your audience what your hashtag is before the presentation starts. Then, let your audience know that you’ll answer questions during or after your presentation.

You can also use Facebook and create a Facebook group for audience members to post their questions about your presentation. Social media is an excellent way for people to interact with your presentation. Try this if you're looking for interactive presentation ideas for students.

2. Print Out a Handout

Print the main points of your interactive presentation topics on a handout and give it to your audience. This allows the audience to look back over previous parts of your presentation. This can also allow the audience to take notes if they choose to

3. Use Props

Looking for interactive activities for presentations? If you've got a small audience, using props is a great interactive presentation idea. Use a prop to reinforce important points.

You can also use props to help explain a problem or situation. Props can allow you to visualize what you’re talking about. And it can be a way to get your audience involved with the presentation.

4. Lead a Q&A Session

One of the most popular ways to engage an audience is to open the floor for a  question and answer  (Q&A) session. These sessions give you the opportunity to take questions from the audience and interact with them.

Leave time at the end of your presentation to take questions from the audience. Not only will a Q&A session spark direct interaction with the audience, it gives you a chance to share your knowledge and build up your expertise. The audience may even consider the way you're answering your questions and picture working with you. Here's a sample slide to add to your presentation: 

When you open up questions to the audience, it opens the floor for discussion. The presentation might go in a direction it may never have gone without the audience input. 

Check out the full tutorial below for a complete guide to preparing for a Q&A session with the audience.

5.  Host an Experts Panel

One interactive presentation idea is to have an experts panel during your presentation. An experts panel is like a Q&A session on steroids. Instead of directing all the questions to one speaker, design your presentation around a group of experts who are well-equipped to answer any question that may arise.

Most expert panel sessions feature a mix of questions you'll prepare for the audience and questions from audience members.

Let's take a look at an interactive presentation example. The video below from TechCrunch's Disrupt conference is a great example of an expert panel:

You might be afraid that you can't find qualified candidates for your own expert panel. Don't forget that there's plenty of benefits for the experts who take part, as it gives them a chance to showcase their expertise. The experts don't have to be industry leaders to add insight, they just have to be more knowledgeable than the audience.

6.  Get Audience Feedback in Real-Time

What if you could find out what your audience is thinking while you're giving a presentation? You could use this feedback to not only understand your audience, but also to tweak the presentation as you go.

Audience participation in presentations can help. This could be as simple as a show of hands question, such as "How many of you freelance for your primary source of income?" But there are even better ways to take a poll and feedback from your audience.

I recently attended a presentation where the presenter used a tool called DirectPoll to ask for feedback from the audience. This tool lets you create a quick poll that your audience can access and vote on from their mobile device.

A poll is an engaging way to let your audience know that you care about their opinions and are speaking directly to them. Consider a poll to grab attention and build trust by showing that you're interested in their background.

7. Use a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Approach

When I was younger, my favorite books were ones that had a fork in the road where I could choose my path. Instructions like "turn to page 43 if you want to take the door on the left, turn to page 55 if you want to take the door on the right" made me feel like I was in control of what happened to the characters.

What if we brought this same mindset to giving a presentation, except we let the audience influence which direction we go? Using either the polling approach I showed you earlier or a simple show of hands, consider designing a presentation that's got many branches. Here's a sample interactive presentation slide you could use:

Those presentation branches could vary the anecdotes you tell the audience, the videos you show, or any piece of content that you've got more than one option for.

This approach requires a bit more preparation, but it also has some advantages. First, having many paths for your presentation means that you may never give the same presentation twice. 

The best part of making the audience choose the path for the presentation is that your audience may ask for the stories they didn't  hear as a follow-up. 

A branching presentation is yet another chance to interact with audience during the presentation. Giving the audience a role in deciding the direction of a presentation is one of the best ways to interact.

8.  Follow-Up After the Presentation

Follow up is another way to interact with  your audience. There's no reason that giving a presentation has to be the last contact you can have with the audience. What if your presentation could become the beginning of a dialogue between you and the audience members?

Many freelancers and small businesses use presentations and speaking engagements to gently promote their businesses. There are many great stories of using a presentation to gain new clients. 

The wrong way to approach presentation follow-up is as a heavy-handed sales pitch. Instead, educating the audience and showing your expertise will make them think of you the next time they need to hire someone. Here's a slide that invites continued audience participation:

Here are three interactive presentation ideas to ensure that your presentation won't be the last time you speak to the audience:

• Make sure to include a  Contact Us  slide that gives your audience the chance to reach out to you. An email address or social media handle can be the start of a conversation with the audience to find collaborators or potential clients.
• Consider taking contact details from your audience before the presentation. If they're willing to share their email address, for example, you could reach out to them after the presentation in a personal way.
• Send anyone who signs up and shares their contact details a bonus, like a PDF supplement with your top tips from the skill you taught.

It only takes a few successful presentations to launch your business with enough clients to make the leap from your day job. But, you've got to give the audience a chance to connect with you after the presentation to launch those opportunities. Interactive presentations can be a key part of that.

9.  Ask for Audience Action

Interacting with your audience is a start, but what if you directly asked for action from the audience? Audience activities during presentations are a good way to keep them engaged.

Those activities could include audience exercises such as greeting one another before you get started. You could also offer an intermission for everyone to stretch and take a break. You could also ask for follow-up action after the presentation. Here's a sample slide lead-in for an audience get acquainted time:

What I've found when I've used these techniques is that they generally increase audience engagement, even if that engagement is between audience members. Breaking down those invisible barriers during a presentation can continue the conversation long after the fact.

10.  Publish an Interactive Presentation Online

Some presentations transcend themselves because they're shared online with others. When you've put so much time into your interactive presentation, why limit yourself to sharing with an audience only in person?

You never know what will happen when you share an interactive presentation online. Maybe the presentation takes on a life of its own.

Here's an interactive presentation example. This Netflix culture slide deck was published online and has now been viewed over 20 million times:

When you publish your interactive presentation, you give your work a chance to be seen by others. It can reach a greater audience than just those who can attend your live presentation.

Before you publish your presentation online, you may want to adjust the slides before you upload them. Here are three tips to help you get your presentation ready for sharing online:

• Consider adding an extra slide to explain the context of where your presentation was given. This helps an audience understand the reason you were giving the presentation.
• Since your audience may only see the slides, you may want to add  Speaker Notes  to the presentation. They'll help explain the slides in more detail to an online reader.
• Above all, make sure that your interactive presentation is okay to be shared online. For example, slides that you prepare for your company shouldn't be shared online without permission if they contain sensitive information.

Check out the tutorial below for ideas on how to share and popularize your presentation using popular services. You'll learn how to use SlideShare and PowerPoint Online so that a broader audience can see your presentation.

Remember, if you're using presentations to build your business, it's all about giving your audience value. The goal is to share your expertise and make yourself valuable and useful. You never know when your next client is sitting in the audience.

11. Create Discussion Questions

Another interactive presentation idea is have discussion questions for your audience. Have your audience break up into groups to discuss the questions. This allows the audience to interact with each other.

12. Use Music

Some interactive presentations have music added to the slides. This could excite the audience and break up the material you’re presenting.

For example, you could add fun music to some slides and light background music to other slides. You can also add fun music to one or two slides to add interaction.

Common Interactive Presentation Questions Answered (FAQ)

Do you have more questions about creating interactive presentations? Here are common presentation questions and answers:

1. Is It Possible to Personalize My Presentation?

Yes, it’s possible to personalize your interactive presentation. A key to personalizing your presentation is knowing your audience. Another tip is to use personal, relevant stories in your presentation.

2. Are There Different Presentation Styles?

Many different presentations styles can be used for your interactive presentation. If you're comfortable with your subject, there's the instructor style . If you need to convince your audience of an idea or product, then there's the persuasive style .

For more information on different types of presentation styles, read this article:

3. How Can I Use PowerPoint to Make a Better Interactive Presentation?

PowerPoint makes it easy to use premium premade templates. Plus, PowerPoint has a Slide Master where you can easily edit your slides from one screen. Slide Master controls the design for each slide that uses the master.

Another helpful feature is the Align Objects button. This helps your slide to look less messy. Learn more in the tutorial below:

4. What’s a Tip for a Good Presentation?

Rehearsing is an essential tip to have a good interactive presentation. When you rehearse, you find mistakes that you didn’t catch before and fix them. It can help to rehearse with a friend watching. They can tell you what the audience will see and whether they see any mistakes.

For a complete list of presentation tips to use for your interactive presentations, review the tutorial below:

5. How Do I Create an Impactful Ending to My Interactive Presentation?

One way to have an impactful ending is to stimulate the audience’s curiosity. Do this by stating a question or problem and then giving the audience the answer at the end of the presentation. This will cause the audience to look for clues for the solution throughout your presentation.

Learn Even More About Creating an Engaging Presentation

Download our free eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations ,  which comes with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.

This 30 page PDF guide with included checklist will help you with the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and quickly prepare it to present powerfully.

A presentation isn't just a megaphone to speak to an audience. Instead, think of them as an opportunity for two-way communication with the attendees. You never know what connecting with audience members will lead to for your freelance business.

The tips in this tutorial are designed to engage your audience through interactive presentations. Try them out if you want to create a presentation that's less like a megaphone and more like a phone call.

Here are some tutorials that'll help you learn more about PowerPoint:

Build Your Interactive Presentation Today

What do you do to engage an audience when you're presenting? Do you use interactive presentations? If not, what's holding you back?

Now that you know how to make a presentation interactive, give it a try. Save time by starting with a presentation template from Envato Elements or GraphicRiver .

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Sarah Joy . Sarah  is a freelance instructor for Envato Tuts+.

Got any suggestions?

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Interactive Templates

With Visme’s interactive features, you can take your content to the next level. Create branded content that drives engagement from clickable menus, embed polls, quizzes, videos, and more. The best part of this feature, no coding required, just drag, drop and edit.

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Employee Handbook Interactive Presentation

Transform your employee handbook into a dazzling interactive presentation with this professional interactive presentation template.

Management Interactive Presentation

Share essential management skills and tips using this interactive presentation template.

Marketing Webinar Interactive Presentation

Share how to write a winning proposal with this interactive webinar presentation template.

Event Sponsorship Interactive Presentation

Win lucrative sponsorships for your events using this interactive presentation template.

Instagram Sponsorship Interactive Presentation

Teach influencers how to get sponsors on social media with this interactive presentation template.

Onboarding Presentation

Use this template to onboard new employees and train them on your company’s processes.

Company Culture Interactive Presentation

Inspire top executives to improve company culture with this interactive presentation template.

Monthly Marketing Report Interactive Presentation

Create the perfect presentation for your next monthly marketing report with this interactive presentation template.

Competitor Analysis Interactive Presentation

Create an eye-catching competitor analysis presentation with this beautiful interactive presentation template.

Product Training Interactive Presentation

Educate customers on how to use your product with this attention-grabbing interactive presentation template.

Creative Brief Interactive Presentation

Design the perfect creative brief presentation for your company with this interactive presentation template.

Brand Guidelines Interactive Presentation

Showcase your brand guidelines with this attractive interactive presentation template.

Jeopardy Style Interactive Presentation

Command attention at your next presentation with this attractive interactive presentation template.

KPI Presentation

Share detailed end-of-year KPI reports with your managers using this professional presentation template.

Pitch Deck Interactive Presentation

Create a high-impact sales presentation for your hospitality business using this interactive pitch deck template.

Customer Service Interactive Presentation

Train customer service staff on tracking performance with this interactive presentation template.

Sales Proposal Interactive Presentation

Create a sales proposal that is sure to attract attention with this stunning interactive presentation template.

Human Resources Presentation

Create up-to-date HR reports for the management using this professional presentation template.

Marketing Case Study Interactive Presentation

Present an inspiring marketing case study using this presentation template with interactive slides.

Finance Interactive Presentation

Use this interactive presentation template to create a unique financial presentation for your business.

Interactive Templates by Visme

At Visme, we know how important it is to leave a lasting impression on clients and keep your team engaged. With our professionally designed templates and easy-to-use interactivity tools, you’ll be able to create and share projects in seconds. Use animated icons, illustrations and special effects for lead magnets, blog posts, sales proposals, presentations and more.

You can also create your projects from scratch or use our tailored templates based on your profession or industry to fit your specific needs. With these incredible features right at your fingertips, you’ll be able to save time and get more done.

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Interactive Presentation Examples

What are interactive presentations.

In business, education and the cultural sector, presentations are a common way to share information and ideas. But what if your presentation or slideshow could be more than just a one-way street? What if it could be an interactive experience, engaging your audience and making them part of the event?Presentations with interactive features are becoming more and more popular as a way to capture an audience’s attention and get them involved. There are many different ways to add interactivity, from using polls and surveys to incorporating questions and group activities. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your next presentation, consider making it interactive!

Book a free consultation

If you’d like to learn more about how your company can create interactive, engaging content, schedule a free call with one of our transformation consultants.

Interactive presentation example

Take a look at this interactive presentation on the planets, using a 360 image of the solar system in ThingLink – feel free to explore! Planets are numbered from largest to smallest, but you can explore them in any order you like.

Why are interactive presentations becoming more popular?

Interactive presentations are engaging presentations! Every presenter wants to keep their audience’s attention – whether that’s in a lecture, a talk or keynote speech, a product demo or a webinar. In-person presentations could be said to be interactive – because the presenter is usually able to see and hear their audience and can ask questions or for responses/feedback. However making interactive content is particularly important when presenting an online presentation or video presentation, using Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc.

Examples of how to make your presentation more interactive

• Luckily you don’t need to invest in expensive presentation software to make your presentations and slide decks the interactive way. Today there are a huge number of either free or very cost-effective online design and presentation tools to help you create interactive presentations
• Our recent blog on creating interactive Microsoft PowerPoint presentations provides a step by step tutorial, including an interactive infographic. You can apply almost exactly the same process if you use Google Slides.
• Another excellent online tool for creating the initial visual media for your interactive presentation is Canva. There is a free version which has lots of useful functionality and hundreds of templates, graphics and fonts that are free to use. This should meet all your presentation requirements if you are just getting started. Their graphic design tool has been designed for anyone to use, using simple drag-and-drop processes. If you’re ready to move up to the next level, their paid-for plans have very reasonable pricing and provide even more great features such as royalty free images, gifs, animations, video and audio.

How you can make your next presentations more interactive

What could you include that your audience can interact with – either in real time or if they are viewing a recorded presentation?

Why not upload your presentation slides into ThingLink and add multimedia tags that your audience can open and explore? Even tables and graphs can be made much more engaging with the addition of interactivity.

A simple tool is to add a poll or quiz at various stages through your presentation. This would be a great way to add an icebreaker to your presentation to get your audience thinking!

Share your interactive presentation

Now that you know how to create your interactive presentation, how do you plan to share it? ThingLink content can easily be shared in a variety of ways:

• As an embed on your website, blog or landing page
• On any social media platform
• As a simple link
• You can also download a version of your interactive ThingLink presentation to use offline in the app.

Further reading

There is a huge range of interactive materials that you can start creating today with ThingLink! Read some of these blogs below for more inspiration:

• Interactive infographics
• Interactive maps
• Virtual tours
• Want to save time? Here’s our round up of the top 5 types of interactive content ThingLinkers are creating now.

Join the conversation!

Join our active groups and communities on social media for more inspiration:

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page | LinkedIn Community
• X / Twitter ThingLink Page | X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page | X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community
• ThingLink Education Facebook Group

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Interactive templates

The best free interactive google slides and powerpoint templates.

All links are set and shapes ready to drag and drop! So you can just add your content and start interacting with these awesome free templates!

Unleash the wild fun in your classroom with this FREE PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme. Liven up your classroom with a touch of the jungle!  This free downloadable theme features adorable monkeys swinging through lush green backgrounds and bright banana trees.   It’s more than just cute though – this theme is […]

Cute Monkeys, mini theme and subtraction drag and drop activity.

Get ready for some St. Patrick’s Day cheer with a free memory game template for Google Slides and PowerPoint! This festive template features charming clovers and lucky golden coins. It also includes a handy agenda slide and three different layouts specifically designed for creating memory games. Personalizing the game is […]

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a Fun Memory Game!

Free syllabus template for Google Slides and PowerPoint to inject personality into your class introduction. Forget about boring old paper syllabus, this free template is the perfect way to communicate the overview of your class, define expectations and responsibilities in an appealing way. It features a notebook with linked tabs […]

Interactive Notebook free syllabus template.

Free syllabus template for Google Slides and PowerPoint to inject personality into your course introduction. Forget about boring old paper syllabus, this free template is the perfect way to communicate the overview of your class, define expectations and responsibilities in a stylish way. It features file folders with linked tabs […]

20XX Syllabus template, free for Google Slides and PowerPoint.

Empower Your Productivity with this free teacher dashboard, for Google Slides and PowerPoint. The planner is all set up and ready to use. Simply click on the slides to start adding your notes and plans. You can easily add more slides by duplicating or copying and pasting existing ones. To personalize your […]

Teacher Dashboard. August 2024 – July 2025 FREE digital planner for teachers.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Customizable yearly planner template for teachers. I enjoyed so much creating the first two planners (Katie and the School Planner) that I decided to create a new one. By popular demand, this time, I started the week view on Monday, and even though […]

Teacher Digital Planner – July 2024 to July 2025 version.

Free animated and interactive traffic lights template for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Engage your students and set clear expectations with this fun and free animated traffic light template! Whether you’re using Google Slides or PowerPoint, you can use this template to establish guidelines for different activities in your classroom. For […]

Make Your Classroom Flow Smooth with this Interactive Traffic Light Template!

Organize Your Digital Life with This Pastel-Colored Ring Binder, free for PowerPoint and Google Slides. This free digital ring binder, available in editable formats for PowerPoint and Google Slides, is the perfect tool for streamlining your digital life. With its eight customizable tabs and easy navigation, you can keep your […]

Free Digital ring binder with pastel colors editable in PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Empower Your Productivity with My Personal Dashboard, free for Google Slides and PowerPoint. The planner is all set up and ready to use. Simply click on the slides to start adding your notes and plans. You can easily add more slides by duplicating or copying and pasting existing ones. To personalize your […]

My personal Dashboard, free 2024 digital planner.

Kickstart your year with this brand-new digital planner, free for Google Slides and PowerPoint. All links are set, and text boxes are ready for your notes and plans. To add more slides, simply duplicate (or copy and paste) existing slides, ensuring you retain the embedded links. Personalize your planner: Click Slide > Edit theme […]

Free 2024 digital planner for Google Slides and PowerPoint.

Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme. Customizable yearly planner template for teachers. I adapted the Edu Planner (July to July) for one of my virtual friends, so in case someone wanted to use it from January to December, or for those in the southern hemisphere, here it is. To […]

Teacher Digital Planner – 2024 January to December version.

Bring Family Histories to Life! Free Interactive Family Tree Template for Google Slides & PowerPoint. This long-awaited interactive family tree template is here to make learning about ancestry engaging and fun for your students. Easy to use, engaging to explore: Benefits for students: Tips: No more static family trees! This […]

Free interactive Family Tree template for Google Slides and PowerPoint.

Celebrate the holiday season with this free Gingerbread Christmas template for PowerPoint and Google Slides! This festive template features a gingerbread-themed design, complete with houses, cookies, candy, and a little bit of frosting. It also includes an agenda slide, a certificate, and a “Decorate the Gingerbread Man Cookie” activity. Ideal for: Features: Download Now […]

Gingerbread Christmas: A Free Template for the Holidays.

Interactive Choice Board free template for differentiated learning for PowerPoint and Google Slides Students have different ways of learning and also showing what they know. With this choice board you can add different activities and levels tailored to your students’ needs. You can add up to 3 choices with different […]

Interactive Choice Board template for differentiated learning.

Free interactive choice board template and agenda for Google Slides and PowerPoint. A simple and interactive choice board for any subject plus an agenda slide. The board was inspired by an Instagram puzzle feed and I chose a colorful scheme that can be modified by editing the theme and changing […]

Free Interactive Choice Board template and agenda.