Any talk longer than 10 minutes should have lots of variety of method – stories, activities, quizzes etc. And ideally it would be constantly randomly changing so there’s no pattern for the audience to get used to, predict, and get bored.
Sometimes a story followed by the theory that explains it, sometimes the theory and then a story to illustrate it. Sometimes a good story, sometimes a bad story showing how NOT to do it. Then some work in pairs, then some pictures up on the screen.
And all the way through, lots of little bits of interaction, asking the audience if they agree, give an example, what do they think happened next, “what should you have done”, “hands up if it’s happened to you”, etc.
Here’s a diagram of what a great talk or course would look like. Not just a long slug of solid content!
Plan your session in detail, and then sprinkle the interaction through everything.
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