You’ve spent hours on your slides and practicing what you are going to say in front of a mirror—now what? How can you make sure you’re connecting with the audience you’ve spent so much time preparing content for? Adding Q&A after your presentation is a great way to connect with your audience and having an open dialogue is a way to gauge how they perceive your talk.

Most of the time, you’ll have eager attendees who will be excited to ask a few questions. On the occasion that your audience is on the quiet side (or to make sure that doesn’t happen), here are some helpful tips on how to prep for questions and get your attendees to be more engaged:

Tips for an Engaging Q&A (and How to Prepare):

Practice with someone knowledgeable: Before you get on stage or on screen, practice your Q&A session with someone who knows the topic well. This is a great way to get a preview of what of questions may come up, so you don’t get caught on the spot. If you do get caught off-guard with a question you don’t know the answer to, it’s not the end of the world— let the audience member know they can follow up with you via email or LinkedIn.
Start your talk by announcing there will be Q&A: If the MC didn’t already, let the audience know that there will be Q&A, and when that will take place. This will give them a heads-up to jot any questions down during your presentation.
Get some help from technology: People may be shy when it comes to raising their hand, so have the audience ask questions through anonymous tech platforms like Slido, or a Google form.
Partner up: Asking attendees to partner up with the person next to them gets them out of their comfort zone and encourages them to discuss your topic in smaller groups before talking to the entire crowd. After a minute or so, ask the group to come back and see who wants to share a question or thought.
Ask the audience open-ended questions: It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you want to spark questions, ask questions to the audience. Open-ended questions work best, since they are opinion based, and will bring up different thoughts for different people in the room.
Use “think/write/share”: This technique encourages audience participation. Ask the audience a question, and then give audience members a bit of time to write it out. This will help them form better questions and encourage them to speak up.
Have attendees connect with you via LinkedIn: At the end of your allotted Q&A session share a slide with your LinkedIn information. This is a great way for attendees to ask questions that you didn’t have time to get answer, or any follow-up questions that pop up as attendees mull over your talk following the event.