to make presentation fun

Try These 160 Insanely Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Your Next Presentation

Ausbert Generoso

In the modern-day PowerPoint presenting, slide decks don’t just inform, but also entertain and spark joy. PowerPoint shouldn’t just be confined to the monotony of bullet points and charts, but rather offers a unique canvas where imagination can run wild!

We get it. The thought of sitting through another mundane PowerPoint presentation might make you want to run for the hills. But fear not, because we’re here to spark some fun PowerPoint ideas for your your next presentation. Whether you’re aiming to captivate colleagues during a virtual meeting, add a splash of excitement to your classroom, or simply stun your friends at your next PowerPoint game night , we’ve got you covered with ideas that blend education and entertainment seamlessly.

So, fasten your seatbelt (or loosen your tie 😉), as we embark on a complete list through categories that will transform your next PowerPoint presentation into a rollercoaster of excitement. Whatever theme you’re thinking of for your next presentation, these fun PowerPoint ideas are poised to leave your audience not just informed, but exhilarated.

Why Settle for the Ordinary? Elevate Your Presentations with Fun PowerPoint Ideas!

You might be wondering, why bother with all the extra effort to infuse fun into your PowerPoint presentations? After all, the usual routine of bullet points and graphs seems to get the job done, right? Well, allow us to unveil why taking the road less traveled and incorporating fun PowerPoint ideas can be the game-changer you never knew you needed.

🤸🏻‍♀️  Unforgettable Engagement

Let’s face it – the human attention span isn’t exactly legendary. But when you introduce a touch of fun into your presentation, you’re not just holding attention, you’re capturing it in a delightful grip. Unconventional ideas, witty humor, and interactive elements transform passive listeners into active participants , making your message resonate and stick.

🧠  Enhanced Memorability

Ever noticed how the most memorable experiences are the ones that evoke emotion? The same principle applies to presentations. When you inject an element of fun, whether it’s a surprising twist, a clever visual, or an unexpected game , you create a mental anchor for your audience. Those who chuckle and engage are more likely to remember and recall the essence of your presentation long after it’s over.

🎨  Sparking Creativity

The world thrives on innovation, and that extends to the world of presentations too. Opting for fun PowerPoint ideas challenges you to think beyond the norm and come up with creative solutions . It encourages you to see your content from new angles, fostering a culture of innovation and resourcefulness that extends beyond the presentation room.

💬  Connection and Communication

Human beings connect through shared experiences and emotions. By introducing an element of fun, you’re forging a connection with your audience that goes beyond the screen. Laughter and engagement create a bond, facilitating better understanding and communication. In a professional setting, this can translate into improved team dynamics and a more open dialogue.

So, while the tried-and-true method might get you from point A to point B, why not embark on a journey that’s not only efficient but also exhilarating? Why settle for the ordinary when you can captivate, connect, and leave a mark with your fun PowerPoint ideas? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. It’s time to break free from the mold and transform your presentations into extraordinary experiences that linger long after the last slide.

150+ Fun PowerPoint Ideas for All Presentation Types

Fun powerpoint ideas for social gatherings and events.

• Emoji Charades:  Use emojis as clues for a game of charades with friends.
• Virtual Costume Party:  Have participants dress up and share their costumes on slides.
• Name That Tune:  Play a few seconds of a song and challenge attendees to guess the title.
• Create Your Meme:  Provide images and have guests come up with humorous captions.
• Bucket List Share:  Have everyone share one item from their bucket list with images and explanations.
• Interactive Map Quest:  Share travel stories and ask attendees to guess the locations on a map.
• Party Playlist Collaboration:  Let participants add their favorite songs to a shared playlist slide.
• Personal Trivia:  Create a slide about yourself with facts for others to guess.
• Two Truths and a Lie:  Participants share statements; others guess which one is false.
• Virtual Escape Room:  Turn your slides into a virtual escape room with puzzles and clues.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for the Workplace

• Emoji Icebreaker:  Start meetings with a slide displaying emojis representing moods.
• Reverse Role Presentation:  Present as if you’re the audience and vice versa.
• Meme Monday Updates:  Share weekly updates in meme format to keep things light.
• Interactive Polls:  Add clickable options for participants to vote on decisions.
• Choose Your Adventure:  Present a scenario with choices, letting the audience decide the outcome.
• Team Trivia Challenge:  Test knowledge with team-based trivia using PowerPoint animations.
• Inspirational Quote Showcase:  Share powerful quotes with visual design to motivate the team.
• Visualize Goals:  Use animations to show progress towards team goals over time.
• Role Play Skits:  Act out scenarios using images and text in a comic book-style layout.
• Name the Colleague:  Share humorous hints to have attendees guess the colleague.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for the Classroom

• Science Experiment Journey:  Present the process and results of a science experiment.
• Historical Time Travel:  Create immersive history lessons with visuals and sound effects.
• Math Riddle Challenge:  Share math riddles and reveal solutions with animations.
• Language Learning Adventure:  Teach vocabulary and phrases in a foreign language interactively.
• Literary Parodies:  Analyze literature through humorous parodies of famous stories.
• Math Olympics:  Turn math problems into interactive challenges with medals for winners.
• Interactive Periodic Table:  Explore chemical elements with interactive info and animations.
• Geography Quiz:  Engage students with interactive maps and questions.
• Scientific Pictionary:  Play a Pictionary-style game with scientific terms and concepts.
• Art Appreciation Gallery:  Analyze famous artworks through an interactive virtual gallery.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Personal Projects & Hobbies

• Hobby Exhibition:  Display your hobbies, from painting to photography, using slides.
• Fitness Journey Timeline:  Document your fitness progress with images and data charts.
• Digital Portfolio:  Showcase your work and skills through an interactive digital portfolio.
• Travelogue:  Share your travel experiences with photos, anecdotes, and travel tips.
• DIY Tutorial:  Teach a craft or DIY project through a series of animated slides.
• Music Playlist Presentation:  Curate themed playlists and explain your song choices.
• Language Learning Journey:  Document your progress in learning a new language.
• Culinary Adventure:  Showcase international cuisines you’ve explored and cooked.
• Writing Journey:  Share your writing process and excerpts from your creative pieces.
• Art Evolution:  Display your artistic journey from early works to current creations.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Storytelling

• Virtual World Tour:  Craft a global adventure through storytelling and images.
• Mystery Detective Story:  Unravel a mystery using clues and interactive elements.
• Personal Evolution:  Share your life journey through milestones and anecdotes.
• Time-Traveling Adventure:  Create an interactive story that spans different eras.
• Fairy Tale Remix:  Reimagine classic fairy tales with a modern twist.
• Unsolved Mysteries:  Present historical or fictional mysteries and let the audience speculate.
• Myth vs. Fact:  Compare myths and facts through interactive scenarios.
• Character Development Showcase:  Create profiles of fictional characters with images and backstories.
• Epic Quest Narrative:  Craft an epic journey with challenges, choices, and consequences.
• Alternate Endings:  Rewrite the endings of famous stories with your creative twist.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Challenges and Quizzes

• Trivia Extravaganza:  Host a fun-filled trivia night with interactive questions and answers.
• Visual Riddles:  Present visual riddles and reveal the solutions with animations.
• Guess the Sound:  Play audio clips for attendees to guess the corresponding sounds.
• Brain Teaser Quiz:  Challenge participants with puzzles that test logical thinking.
• Quote Identification:  Display famous quotes and ask participants to identify the source.
• Word Association Challenge:  Present words and have participants quickly associate related words.
• Pop Culture Trivia:  Test knowledge of movies, music, and current events through a quiz.
• Speed Typing Challenge:  Display words, and participants type them as fast as they can.
• Guess the Logo:  Share partial images of logos for attendees to guess the brands.
• Memory Game:  Reveal a series of images, then ask attendees to recall the order.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Data and Infographics

• Data Storytelling:  Transform statistics and data into compelling visual narratives.
• Illustrated Concepts:  Use custom illustrations to explain complex ideas and concepts.
• Interactive Infographics:  Create clickable infographics with hidden details and insights.
• Process Flow Comics:  Present processes as comic strips with characters navigating each step.
• Comparative Timelines:  Compare historical events, progress, or trends side by side.
• Interactive Charts and Graphs:  Make charts interactive for deeper exploration of data.
• Explorable Maps:  Present geographical data with interactive maps and annotations.
• Evolution of Technology:  Visualize the evolution of technology and its impact.
• Visual Decision Trees:  Present decision-making processes as interactive branching scenarios.
• Illustrated Quotes:  Combine famous quotes with custom illustrations that capture their essence.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Motivational Talks

• Personal Growth Journey:  Share your personal growth journey with motivational lessons.
• Success Stories:  Present inspiring stories of individuals who overcame challenges.
• Motivational Quotes Compilation:  Curate a collection of powerful quotes for inspiration.
• Life Lessons Through Stories:  Convey life lessons using engaging narrative examples.
• Overcoming Adversity:  Share stories of resilience and strategies to overcome challenges.
• The Power of Positivity:  Explore the impact of positive thinking on personal and professional life.
• Leadership Insights:  Present leadership principles with examples from renowned leaders.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Futuristic and Imaginative Presentations

• Time Capsule:  Present predictions and visions of the future with a time capsule theme.
• Virtual Reality Showcase:  Use VR-inspired visuals to immerse the audience in your content.
• Space Exploration:  Explore the cosmos with interactive space-themed slides.
• Inventions of Tomorrow:  Present imaginative ideas for future inventions and innovations.
• Post-Apocalyptic Scenarios:  Craft a presentation depicting post-apocalyptic worlds and possibilities.
• AI and Robotics:  Discuss the future of AI and robotics through speculative presentations.
• Dystopian vs. Utopian:  Compare and contrast dystopian and utopian visions of the future.
• Future of Education:  Visualize how education might evolve with technology and trends.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Entertainment and Pop Culture

• Guess the Movie Scene:  Display screenshots and challenge your audience to guess the movie.
• Pop Culture Charades:  Act out pop culture references, from movies to memes.
• Fan Theories Discussion:  Present and analyze intriguing fan theories about popular shows or movies.
• Celebrity Look-Alike Game:  Share images of ordinary people who resemble celebrities.
• Music Lyrics Challenge:  Display song lyrics with missing words for attendees to complete.
• TV Show Mashup:  Combine characters and scenes from different TV shows for humorous outcomes.
• Pop Culture Trivia Tournament:  Host a tournament-style trivia challenge with various rounds.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Self-Care and Wellness

• Mindful Moments:  Guide attendees through a short mindfulness exercise during your presentation.
• Self-Care Bingo:  Create bingo cards with self-care activities for a wellness-themed meeting.
• Healthy Habits Showcase:  Present effective wellness tips and habits for a balanced lifestyle.
• Stress Relief Techniques:  Share interactive slides with stress-relief exercises and techniques.
• Gratitude Journal:  Encourage participants to share moments of gratitude during the presentation.
• Daily Affirmations:  Present daily affirmations to boost positivity and confidence.
• Wellness Goal Tracker:  Create interactive slides to track personal wellness goals.
• Mental Health Awareness:  Present insights and resources for maintaining mental well-being.

Fun PowerPoint Ideas for Cultural Exploration and Diversity

• Global Cuisine Showcase:  Present unique dishes from various cultures with images and descriptions.
• Folklore and Legends:  Share fascinating folktales and legends from different countries.
• Cultural Attire Exhibition:  Display traditional clothing and explain their significance.
• Language Showcase:  Teach fun phrases and greetings from different languages.
• World Festivals Journey:  Explore diverse festivals and celebrations from different cultures.
• Cultural Traditions Quiz:  Create interactive slides to test knowledge of cultural customs.

Want More? Download This Exclusive PowerPoint Ideas Book with 160 Fun PowerPoint Ideas! 👇

Best practices to maximize your fun powerpoint ideas.

Congratulations, you’re now armed with a treasure trove of fun PowerPoint ideas that are bound to leave your audience both entertained and enlightened. But before you dive headfirst into crafting your next presentation masterpiece, consider these tips to ensure your creative efforts shine:

• Tailor your chosen fun PowerPoint idea to your audience’s preferences and expectations. What might resonate with friends at a game night could differ from what engages colleagues in a meeting.
• While fun is essential, remember the purpose of your presentation. Make sure the chosen idea aligns with your message and doesn’t overshadow the content.
• Familiarize yourself with the technical aspects of executing your chosen idea. Smooth transitions, animations, and interactions contribute to a polished presentation.
• While creativity is key, don’t sacrifice clarity for novelty. Ensure your audience can follow your narrative and main points throughout.
• Manage your time effectively. Ensure your fun elements don’t consume too much of the presentation, leaving room for your core content.
• Maintain a consistent visual theme to tie together the fun elements and the main content. Harmonious design enhances the overall experience.
• Before the big day, gather feedback from colleagues or friends. Their insights can help you refine your presentation and identify areas for improvement.
• Embrace the fun you’ve planned. Confidence in your delivery will make your audience more receptive to the engaging elements you’ve integrated.
• Sometimes, unexpected technical glitches or participant reactions can arise. Be prepared to adapt on the spot to keep the fun flowing.
• If your fun idea involves interactive elements, make sure they work flawlessly. Test the technology and ensure everyone can participate seamlessly.

Remember, these tips aren’t meant to limit your creativity, rather, they’re tools to ensure your creative ideas are presented in the best possible light. By blending innovation, enthusiasm, and strategic planning, you’re set to deliver a presentation that’s both fun and impactful.

And there you have it – a whole bunch of exciting, innovative fun PowerPoint ideas ready to turn your next presentation into a showstopper! From parties to classrooms, meetings to personal projects, we’ve covered it all. Now, it’s your turn to run with these creative gems and make your slides come alive with laughter, engagement, and sheer enjoyment.

With over 150 ideas to choose from, you’re set to rock any occasion. So, don’t just settle for the usual slides – inject your unique style, tell stories, and keep everyone on their toes. Remember, it’s all about sparking connections, sparking ideas, and having a blast while you’re at it. Here’s to unleashing your inner presentation superstar – one fun idea at a time!

More Fun PowerPoint Ideas

Free PowerPoint Trivia Template for Different Difficulty Levels

How to Make a Jeopardy Game on PowerPoint (Playable Template)

Level Up Your Game: Free Family Feud PowerPoint Template and Step-by-Step Tutorial

Free Interactive PowerPoint Puzzle Template and Tutorial in 5 Simple Steps

About Ausbert Generoso

Try classpoint for free.

All-in-one teaching and student engagement in PowerPoint.

Supercharge your PowerPoint. Start today.

800,000+ people like you use ClassPoint to boost student engagement in PowerPoint presentations.

12 Easy Steps to Make a Presentation Creative (+ Examples)

Learn how to make a presentation creative without PowerPoint, and draw inspiration from creative presentation examples by industry and use case.

Dominika Krukowska

9 minute read

Short answer

How can I make a presentation more creative?

• Start with captivating cover videos
• Add chapters for smooth navigation
• Weave in personalization using dynamic variables
• Enhance storytelling with animations
• Highlight key points using subtle visual cues
• Engage with interactive elements
• Showcase ideas using vibrant images
• Sprinkle in video narrations
• Wrap up with a smart CTA

Boring presentations can damage your brand’s image

Boring presentations can feel like those endless meetings where one person monopolizes the conversation. You know, the ones where you’re zoning out, doodling on the side of your notes, just waiting for it to end so you could move on to something more engaging.

That's the disconnect your audience experiences when faced with a boring presentation.

What’s even worse is that when your presentation is dull, it doesn't just bore your audience—it subtly suggests that you or your brand might be, well, kind of boring too .

The good thing is that with the right tweaks and insights, every presentation holds the potential to be memorable.

In this post, we're diving deep into the heart of what makes a presentation creative. We'll explore the mistakes that lead to forgettable slides and the strategies to elevate your content.

By the end, you’ll have all it takes to transform your presentation from mundane to magnetic and have your audience engage with it from the first click to the last.

Let’s go!

What makes a presentation boring?

A boring presentation is a mix of repetitive designs and long chunks of text without a human touch. When slides come off as too generic or overly complex, or they swing between being too predictable or hard to grasp, they lose their spark.

Add in a lack of visuals, real stories, or interaction, and you've got a recipe for audience disinterest.

To truly engage, a presentation should blend interaction, emotion, and content that is relevant to the audience.

How to make a presentation creative step-by-step

Modern presentations are more than just slides—they're experiences. Gone are the days of static bullet points; today's audience craves engagement, interactivity, and a touch of the unexpected.

Let's explore how to make your presentation more creative step-by-step:

1) Add videos to break up text

Videos can set the tone, explain complex ideas, or simply entertain. By strategically placing them at key moments where you feel energy might dip, you make sure your audience remains engaged, and your message is reinforced.

Whether it's a real-life testimonial, a product demo, or a fun animation, videos can breathe life into abstract concepts, making them tangible and relatable.

And, there’s science behind it too: presentations with a video on the cover slide see 32% more engagement . But the magic of videos doesn't stop at the cover. Presentations sprinkled with videos throughout held people's attention 37% longer and even boosted the click-through rate on calls-to-action by 17%.

2) Create a non-linear flow

Who said presentations have to be a straight line? Let's mix it up! By linking slides, you're handing the remote to your audience. It's like those 'choose your own adventure' books from our childhood.

Group your slides into themes or create chapters and let them pick what they want to see next. It's a fun, interactive way to keep them on their toes and engaged.

3) Use personalization for creating tailored stories

You know those emails that greet you by name and make you feel all special? Imagine bringing that warmth to your presentations using dynamic variables.

By integrating with your CRM, you can fetch specific data about your audience and weave it into your slides. This simple trick can make your audience feel like the content was crafted specifically for them, creating a deeper connection.

If you’re making a presentation to showcase your product, you can even use dynamic variables to create a mock-up with your prospect’s name and logo on it to make your deck stand out.

4) Use narrated design

Scrollytelling is where the magic of scrolling meets the art of storytelling. It's an interactive content experience that weaves text, images, videos, and animations into a captivating narrative.

Instead of static slides, scrollytelling guides readers through a story, allowing them to control the pace. It breaks down complex content into bite-sized chunks, enhancing engagement and retention.

Our founder, Itai Amoza, wanted everyone to enjoy this dynamic content experience. So, he joined forces with visualization expert Prof. Steven Franconeri to weave scrollytelling into Storydoc.

Thanks to their partnership, we have dedicated storytelling slides in Storydoc, like the narrator slide you can see below , designed to make content both clear and captivating for all.

5) Tell stories with videos

Videos have this unique power to turn complex ideas into simple, engaging stories. A video might break down a tricky process into fun, easy-to-follow narrative, or give us a peek into real-life examples or experiences.

It's all about making your content feel alive, relatable, and super easy to understand. Because, let's face it, everyone's a sucker for a good story.

Here's a great example of a storytelling video:

6) Use roadmap and timeline slides

Ever tried reading a long-winded description of a company's journey or a product's development process? Yawn, right?

Now, imagine swapping that snooze-fest with a vibrant roadmap or timeline. Instead of slogging through paragraphs, you get a fun, visual play-by-play.

Picture a colorful line showing a startup's journey from a garage brainstorm to its first big sale.

Or a playful timeline marking the stages of turning a wild idea into a bestselling product. It's like turning a history lesson into a comic strip—way more fun and a whole lot clearer!

You can see what it looks like below:

7) Direct attention using animations

Ever been to a theater where the spotlight focuses on the main act? That's what animations do for your presentation.

Whether it's a cheeky arrow pointing out a fun fact, a grand entrance animation for a new idea, or using grayed-out content to highlight a key point, animations are your stage directors.

They ensure your audience's eyes are exactly where you want them to be, soaking in all the important bits.

Here's a great example:

8) Add interactive calculators

Who said numbers have to be boring? With interactive calculators, you're turning math into a fun game . Let your audience punch in numbers and see real-time results.

Whether they're calculating potential savings, ROI, or just playing around, it's an engaging and creative way to make your points tangible. It's like turning your presentation into a hands-on workshop.

9) Use AI-generated images

Instead of sifting through countless stock photos, thanks to the magic of AI, you can have an image that's tailor-made for your slide in seconds.

Storydoc presentation maker lets you generate any image directly in your deck - just give the AI assistant a short description and you’re good to go.

What's great is that you always get an image that matches your topic to a tee. No more "that'll do" compromises. Plus, think of all the time you save when you don't have to hunt for the right picture or take it yourself.

Here's a short video showing how it works:

10) Pop into the presentation with video bubble narration

Imagine if, during a presentation, a mini version of you could pop up, share a quick tip, or clarify a point. That's video bubble narration in a nutshell.

It's like having a friendly guide accompanying your audience, ensuring they get the most out of your content. It adds a creative personal touch, making your presentation feel like a cozy chat between friends.

11) Use before-and-after to show transformation

There's something magical about witnessing a transformation. Just think about the buzz online when someone shares a 'before and after' of a design revamp, weight loss journey, or how they helped a client grow their business.

With a before-and-after slide , you're giving your audience that 'aha!' moment. Even if you can't see their reactions in real-time, you can bet they're sliding back and forth, captivated by the change.

Whether it's showcasing a product's impact, a website redesign, or a process improvement, it's a visual treat that makes your message more powerful.

Here's an example of a before-and-after slide:

12) Close with a smart CTA

The grand finale of your presentation deserves a touch of flair. Instead of a simple 'Thank you' slide, imagine ending with an interactive live chat prompt or a calendar invite for a follow-up. It's like the encore at the end of a concert, giving your audience a chance to engage further.

These smart CTAs aren't just functional; they're creative extensions of your narrative. By integrating them, you're not just concluding your presentation; you're opening doors to new conversations and possibilities.

Here's a great example of a smart CTA:

3 presentation opening ideas

Kicking off a presentation with a bang can set the tone for everything that follows. Here are 3 captivating ways to grab your audience's attention right from the get-go:

Dive into a story: Begin with a personal anecdote or a relatable tale. It's like inviting your audience around a campfire, setting the stage for a memorable narrative.

Pose a thought-provoking question: Challenge your viewers with a question that gets their gears turning. It's an instant engagement booster, making them active participants.

Share a startling statistic: Drop a number that makes jaws drop. When you hit them with a fact that's hard to ignore, you've got their undivided attention.

Want more insights on crafting the perfect presentation opener? Check out our article on how to start a presentation people read to the end .

3 presentation closing ideas

Wrapping up a presentation is just as crucial as the opening. It's your final chance to leave a lasting impression. Here are 3 best ways to ensure your audience walks away inspired:

Circle back to the start: Revisit your opening story or statement, bringing your narrative full circle. It's a neat way to tie everything together and reinforce your key message.

End with a Call-to-Action: End with a captivating personal video message or a lively animation. It's a unique way to engage, surprise, and guide your audience on what's next.

Share an inspiring quote: Leave them with words that resonate. A powerful quote can sum up your message and linger in their minds long after.

Here's an example of a presentation with a personal video message at the end:

Hungry for more tips on crafting the perfect presentation finale? Read our blog post on how to end a presentation and get people to act .

Best tools for making creative presentations

Crafting creative presentations is an art, and like any artist, you need the right tools to bring your vision to life. Here's a curated list of platforms that are pushing the envelope in presentation design:

Storydoc : Beyond traditional slides, Storydoc offers interactive web stories. It's not just about displaying content; it's about creating experiences. With dynamic visuals and interactive elements, your audience is in for a treat.

Pitch : Collaboration is Pitch's forte. Designed for teams, it offers real-time editing, customizable templates, and a sleek interface. It's where ideas transform into visually stunning stories.

Genially : From animated presentations to responsive infographics, Genially provides tools that make your content come alive on the screen.

Beautiful.ai : Automated design assistance is its claim to fame. Feed in your content, and watch as the tool intuitively crafts slides that are both coherent and captivating.

Canva : A versatile design platform, Canva boasts a variety of templates for presentations, graphics, and more. Its drag-and-drop interface ensures even design novices feel like pros.

Visme : Tailored for visual storytelling, Visme offers a rich library of assets. Think dynamic charts, data widgets, and a suite of animations that turn your data into visual narratives.

Creative presentation templates

Ever felt the weight of the cursor blinking on an empty slide, almost taunting you to come up with something creative?

It's like being handed a stage with an eager audience, but the script is yet to be written. That initial step can be the hardest, but what if you had a little nudge in the right direction?

Creative presentation templates can help you shape your story in a way that stands out in a sea of monotony. Think of them as the paint-by-numbers kits, where the structure is set, but the colors and flair? That's all you.

Grab one and see for yourself.

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.

Found this post useful?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Get notified as more awesome content goes live.

(No spam, no ads, opt-out whenever)

You've just joined an elite group of people that make the top performing 1% of sales and marketing collateral.

Create your best presentation to date

Try Storydoc interactive presentation maker for 14 days free (keep any presentation you make forever!)

10 Secrets of Making Every Presentation Fun, Engaging, and Enjoyable

Not a lot of people are good at public speaking. You could even say that virtually everyone needs to get some practice, and preferably good guidance, before they can learn to stay calm when facing a room full of people. Having all eyes on you is an uncomfortable experience and it takes time to get used to. However, even if you can manage to control your stage fright and stay focused, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your presentation won’t put people to sleep. This is usually the case with long presentations on a very dull subject, with the presenter speaking in a monotone voice and dimming the lights to play a PowerPoint presentation.

You have to work hard to develop the right skills

If you want to be remembered and actually get people engaged, you need to make your presentation fun and enjoyable, without coming off as corny or desperate to please. I know, it doesn’t sound that easy at all! A good presentation during a promotional event or given to an important client can be a game changer for your business, so it is easy to get stressed out and fail to perform all that well. Luckily, giving an interesting lecture is something that can be practiced and perfected. There is plenty of advice out there on the topic, but let’s look at the most important aspects of giving a memorable and fun presentation.

1. Make your presentation short and sweet

With very long, meandering speeches you tend to lose the audience pretty early on, and from then on out it’s just a test of endurance for the few bravest listeners. Not only will people’s attention start to drop rapidly after sitting and listening to you talk for 30 minutes, but you also risk watering down your core ideas and leaving your audience with little in the way of key phrases and important bits of information to take away from the whole ordeal. Famous speakers throughout history have known the importance of condensing the information by using well thought out sentences and short phrases loaded with meaning.

JFK’s famous: ”It’s not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” expresses so much in very few words and gets the audience thinking. Ancient Spartans, for example were famous for their quick, dry wit, often demolishing their opponent’s argument with a single word or phrase . You’ll want to channel that ancient spirit and be as concise as possible when preparing your presentation.

2. Open up with a good ice breaker

At the beginning, you are new to the audience. There is no rapport, no trust and the atmosphere is fairly neutral. Even if some of the people there know you personally, the concept of you as an authority on a particular matter giving a speech will be foreign to them. The best way to encourage a warm and friendly atmosphere is to get some kind of emotional response out of the audience right at the beginning. It doesn’t matter what emotion it is, you just need to connect with them on a more personal level. It can be shock, curiosity, laughter, knowing smirks, nervousness – whatever gets them out of that initial feeling of indifference. There are different kinds of effective ice-breakers, but generally speaking, the most successful ones utilize one of these tactics:

• Tugging on their heart strings
• Dropping a bombastic statement
• Telling an interesting and relevant anecdote
• Using a metaphor or drawing comparisons

You can make a small, self-deprecating comment, stir the presentation one way and then suddenly surprise the audience, use sarcasm, open up with a short childhood story that taught you a lesson, quote a famous person and elaborate on it from personal experience, use an inspirational anecdote or hit them with a bit of nostalgia. Just remember to keep it short and move on once you’ve gotten a reaction.

3. Keep things simple and to the point

Once you’re done warming up the crowd you can ease them into the core concepts and important ideas that you will be presenting. Keep the same presentation style thoughout. If you’ve started off a bit ironic, using dry wit, you can’t just jump into a boring monologue. If you’ve started off with a bang, telling a couple of great little jokes and getting the crowd riled up, you have to keep them happy by throwing in little jokes here and there and being generally positive and energetic during the presentation. You need a certain structure that you won’t deviate too far from at any point. A good game plan consists of several important points that need to be addressed efficiently. This means moving on from one point to another in a logical manner, coming to a sound conclusion and making sure to accentuate the key information.

4. Use a healthy dose of humor

Some of the best speeches and presentations in the world, which have been heard and viewed by millions, all feature plenty of humor . No matter the subject, a great speaker will use natural charisma, humor and beautiful language to convey their points and get the crowd excited about what they are saying. A great example of building rapport with the audience through the use of humor is Barrack Obama talking about the government building Iron Man.

It is silly and fun, and absolutely not something that you would expect from a man in a position of power speaking in such a serious setting – and it’s exactly why it works. The more serious the situation and the bigger the accent on proper social behavior, the harder your jokes will hit.

5. Try to tell a story instead of ranting

Some people can do all of the above things right and still manage to turn their short and fun little presentation into a chaotic mess of information. You don’t want your speech to look like you just threw a bunch of information in a blender in no particular order. To avoid rambling, create a strong structure. Start with the ice breaker, introduce the core concepts and your goals briefly, elaborate on the various points in a bit more detail, draw logical conclusions and leave your audience with a clear takeaway message. You want to flow naturally from one part to the next like you are telling a big story chapter by chapter.

6. Practice your delivery

Standing in front of the mirror and practicing a speech or presentation is a technique as old as mirrors – well, come to think of it, as old as human speech, since you can see yourself reflected in any clear and calm body of water – and that means that it is tried and true. The theory is incredibly simple, yet the real problem is actually putting in the effort day in and day out. Work on your posture, your tone of voice, accent, pauses between sentences and facial expressions. The most important thing is to talk slowly and loudly enough to be heard and understood clearly. Many famous speakers, such as Demosthenes and King George VI , overcame speech impediments through hard work.

7. Move around and use your hands

Although you won’t instill confidence in your project if you are very jittery, moving around erratically, not knowing what to do with your hands and making fast movements, standing dead still can be just as bad. You shouldn’t be afraid to use your arms and hands when talking as it makes you seem more passionate and confident. The same goes for moving around and taking up some space. However, try to make slower, calculated and deliberate movements. You want your movements to seem powerful, yet effortless. You can achieve this through practice.

8. Engage the audience by making them relate

Sometimes you will lose the audience somewhat in techno-babble, numbers, graphs and abstract ideas. At that point it is important to reel them back in using some good, old-fashioned storytelling. Make comparisons to events from everyday life that most people are more than familiar with. By making things look simple, not only will you help your audience get a better understanding of the subject by enabling them to visualize the information more clearly, you will also draw a connection between you. After all, you are all just regular people with similar experience, you just happen to be performing different roles at the moment.

9. Use funny images in your slides

Although slides are not really necessary at all times, if you do need them to make your point and present your information more effectively, it’s best to liven them up. They say that facts aren’t always black and white, and your presentation should reflect this. Add a bit of color, make the information stand out and use an interesting animation to switch from slide to slide. You can use the slides to add some more humor, both in terms of the text and the images. An image that is used to elicit a positive response needs to be funny within the context of what you are discussing. For example, if you are discussing the topic of authority, an image of Eric Cartman from South Park in a police uniform, demanding that you respect his “authoritah,” is a nice way to have a bit of fun and lighten things up.

10. End on a more serious note

When all is said and done you will want the audience to remember the core concepts and keep thinking about what you have said after the presentation is over. This is why you should let things naturally calm down and end with an important idea, quote or even a question. Plant a seed in their mind and make them think. Let us turn to Patrick Henry for a great way to end a speech: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”

As you can see, there is quite a bit to learn when it comes to giving a good presentation, one that is both memorable and fun. Be sure to work on your skills tirelessly and follow in the footsteps of great orators.

Featured photo credit: Austin Distel via unsplash.com

How to Use a Planner Effectively

How to Be a Better Planner: Avoid the Planning Fallacy

5 Best Apps to Help You Delegate Tasks Easily

Delegating Leadership Style: What Is It & When To Use It?

The Fear of Delegating Work To Others

Why Is Delegation Important in Leadership?

7 Best Tools for Prioritizing Work

How to Deal with Competing Priorities Effectively

What Is the RICE Prioritization Model And How Does It Work?

4 Exercises to Improve Your Focus

What Is Chronic Procrastination and How To Deal with It

How to Snap Out of Procrastination With ADHD

Are Depression And Procrastination Connected?

Procrastination And Laziness: Their Differences & Connections

Bedtime Procrastination: Why You Do It And How To Break It

15 Books on Procrastination To Help You Start Taking Action

Productive Procrastination: Is It Good or Bad?

The Impact of Procrastination on Productivity

How to Cope With Anxiety-Induced Procrastination

How to Break the Perfectionism-Procrastination Loop

15 Work-Life Balance Books to Help You Take Control of Life

Work Life Balance for Women: What It Means & How to Find It

6 Essential Mindsets For Continuous Career Growth

How to Discover Your Next Career Move Amid the Great Resignation

The Key to Creating a Vibrant (And Magical Life) by Lee Cockerell

9 Tips on How To Disconnect From Work And Stay Present

Work-Life Integration vs Work-Life Balance: Is One Better Than the Other?

How To Practice Self-Advocacy in the Workplace (Go-to Guide)

How to Boost Your Focus And Attention Span

What Are Distractions in a Nutshell?

What Is Procrastination And How To End It

Prioritization — Using Your Time & Energy Effectively

Delegation — Leveraging Your Time & Resources

Your Guide to Effective Planning & Scheduling

The Ultimate Guide to Achieving Goals

How to Find Lasting Motivation

Complete Guide to Getting Back Your Energy

How to Have a Good Life Balance

Explore the time flow system.

About the Time Flow System

Key Philosophy I: Fluid Progress, Like Water

Key Philosophy II: Pragmatic Priorities

Key Philosophy III: Sustainable Momentum

Key Philosophy IV: Three Goal Focus

How the Time Flow System Works

Video Editing

• Animation Tips
• Website Tips

100+ Creative Presentation Ideas You Can Steal Today

Renderforest Staff

20 Aug 2023

11 min read  

Have you ever struggled with forcing yourself to stay awake during a presentation? Don’t worry, you are not alone. 

In essence, a presentation is nothing but sharing ideas with others. Whether you intrigue and interest your audience or not depends on how interesting the topic is and how well you present it. 

Whether you plan on making a PowerPoint presentation with neatly designed slides or a video presentation with dynamic transitions, you first  need creative presentation ideas. 

That’s why we’ve created a comprehensive list of the most captivating and creative presentation ideas you can put to use. We have separated them into three main categories to make things easier for you.

Let’s dive right in!

Business and Management Presentation Ideas

Education presentation ideas, general presentation ideas.

In business, presenting information and complex ideas in an easy-to-digest manner is crucial. If you already have a presentation idea, you only need to find a presentation template to bring it to life. But if you’re still looking for creative presentation ideas, read the list we’ve prepared below.

• Corporate Presentation : Have you ever wondered what the best way is to build and communicate your company’s identity? Corporate presentations are great for promoting your brand, services, and products by simply talking about them.
• Company Profiling : Introduce your team. Who are you? What are you passionate about? Your audience is interested to know more about your team members.
• Company Story : What can strengthen the ties between you and your audience better than a compelling success story told through creative presentations?

Use Template

• Product Promos : Create a buzz around your new product with an engaging promo presentation.
• Sales Pitch : Close that sale you’ve worked so hard for with a well-built sales presentation.
• Office Tour : Present the cool interior design of your office. Show your favorite spots where you like to wind down with a cup of coffee or, hey, maybe a beer.
• Product Features : Does your product have interesting features that not everyone knows about? Make a detailed presentation on all the hidden features of your product. Use images and videos to explain how everything functions.
• Fundamental Principles : Choose a general topic in Business and Management and discuss it through your creative presentation. Here’s an idea: “Fundamental Principles of Strategic Planning.” Could be a great prompt to start with, right?
• Best Strategies: Be it marketing, financial, or any other type of strategy, an overview of the best strategies can make for informative and useful presentation content.
• Industry Introduction : Make a presentation about the industry your business operates. Use strong visuals to complement your content and introduce your industry in the best light possible.
• Comparing Tactics : Make a presentation reflecting on and comparing various tactics.
• Calculated Risks : We are all worried about possible risks when taking action. Risks are unavoidable. It’s a great idea to prepare your audience for the risks before they come across them. There is a multitude of ways to do it through creative presentations. Cover “Risks in Investing,” “Risks Associated With Trading Derivatives,” and so forth.
• Advantages and Disadvantages : One never comes without the other. Introduce your team to the pros and cons of your plans, actions, and anything else you consider important.

USE TEMPLATE

• Debates : Make your presentation even more interactive by involving the audience in debates. Plus, debates and discussions are always helpful in establishing a better understanding of a topic.
• SWOT Analysis : You can never go wrong with a proper analysis of business strategies, marketing plans, and more. So consider making an analysis presentation to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a specific business strategy.
• Portfolio Presentation : Showcase your best projects and works. Why should anyone be interested in you if they haven’t seen your work? Presenting your best projects in a compelling and attractive format will increase your reputation quickly.
• Current Trends : What are the current trends in business and management.  Always keep an eye on them to stay one step ahead of your competitors.
• Challenges : Who doesn’t agree that challenges are tough? Making a creative presentation on challenges and the ways that you have overcome them will help you keep track of your development and also prepare for the future.
• Reporting Progress : Why don’t you make weekly or monthly presentations on your performance, such as financial statements? Measuring and reporting your performance will smooth your path toward your goals.
• Customer Testimonials : Present your customers’ responses and feedback on your product/service to see what steps you need to take to improve your offerings.
• Profiles of Successful People : Encourage your team by introducing them to the experiences and achievements of successful people.
• Tips and Tricks : If you want to cheer your audience up, provide them with hacks and tricks to deal with certain issues. This can include technical tricks and some tips on teamwork, for example.

• Rules and Regulations : What are some of the rules that your company never breaks? Discuss the rules and regulations that apply to your team.
• Top Criteria : Selecting a new quality management system is not easy, is it? Introducing the top criteria for a specific task can be a great presentation topic. How about making a presentation on “Top Criteria for Selecting a New Quality Management System?”
• Product Development Process : Sometimes, we are interested to see how a product was created. Showcase the development process of your product through a presentation.
• Most Effective Ways : It’s always good to be introduced not only to what to do but also to how to do it. So make a presentation on the best ways of conducting surveys, research, or anything else.

• Success Factors : This is something all of us are interested in. Introduce the success factors in different areas such as managing successful teams or product design tips.
• Cause and Effect : This simple and informative presentation structure will be ideal to dive deeper into the intricate world of cause and effect.
• Past vs. Present vs. Future : Growth will become more visible and obvious once you start comparing what you had before to what you have now. This can turn into a great summary of the major changes within a certain time period.
• Comparisons : Compare different products/services. It’s a good strategy that will help you emphasize the good and the bad sides of a particular thing.
• Positive and Negative Effects : It’s always important to show the two sides of a coin. Consider presenting the positive and negative effects of a certain thing. For example, the positive and negative effects of social media is a debated topic nowadays. Pick your topic and reveal it from both perspectives.
• Problem-Solution Presentation : Identify a relevant problem. A great presentation format would be to introduce not only the complicated problem but its solution as well.
• Training : Your presentation can become a training session. You can organize a theoretical part and add a practical portion too, like quizzes and discussions.
• Graphs and Charts : One of the best ways to introduce your info is through statistical graphs and charts, combining survey and observational data. You can use visual animated scenes and infographics.

• Popular Misconceptions : People are often mistakenly drawn from one end to another due to inaccurate data. Help your audience avoid misunderstandings about entrepreneurs, investors, and business management in general. Your presentation will guide them in the right direction, drawing the line between truth and lie.
• Introduction to Business Topics : No matter the topic, it’s always useful to present basic ideas. Keep it short and clear. This can include an introduction to income statements, or any other important business concept.
• Stages of a Process : Don’t leave your audience confused with theory but let them see the practical stages of how things are accomplished. (e.g., “The Stages of User Journey”)

• Management : How do you efficiently manage a business? You can prepare dozens of presentations on management: be it resources, public relations, time, money, or anything else.
• Competitor Analysis : Know your enemy! You’ve probably heard the famous saying, haven’t you? Track down your competitors and share the info with your team.
• Appreciation : This presentation should be devoted to the team members who have done an exceptional job.
• Unknown Facts : Pick a topic and reveal facts that are unknown to most people. What are some of the interesting and truthful facts that they don’t know about branding?

• Restrictions : No matter what business you have, restrictions are guaranteed. Make a presentation on the restrictions and limitations you face. (e.g. “Restrictions in Integrated Web Design”)
• Big Breakthroughs : Want to feel proud of yourself and your team? Here is how you can do it: Reveal some cases when you have successfully overcome the toughest of obstacles and learned lessons as a result. Talk about the long path you have been on with your company.
• Partners and Investors : Tell about your partners. Give info about investors. Cooperation is way more successful when team members are acquainted with the investors. Your presentation can have a strong influence on the performance of your team.
• Business Ethics : As a significant part of business, it’s important to understand ethics. How about “Ethics in Marketing Research?” There are countless ethical issues.
• Theories : Gather some of the most important theories that you find useful and prepare a good presentation with examples and visuals.
• Product/Service Improvement : A briefing like this might include a recap of your product or service or a discussion of any possible improvement before the product is ready for the market.
• The Rise and Fall of Brands : Don’t avoid talking about the failures and successes of other brands. Doing so can help you with your own journey.
• Upcoming or Recent Events : Talk about exciting events that you are planning to organize or already have. For upcoming events, you can make a welcoming presentation, announcing the date and venue. Check out an example below:

• Inspiration : Get ready to give a professional and motivational talk to inspire your audience to take action towards targeted goals.
• Explain Business Concepts : How does a certain idea or concept work? Give a specific and clear presentation on the concepts that not everyone is familiar with. How does a franchise work? How do partnerships work?
• QA Presentation : Assure that your audience knows that your product/service is of the best quality.
• Announcements : Is there a cool and intriguing event that’s coming? Give an announcement through your presentation. It can be short and clear, covering all the key points.
• Discovery, Invention, Innovation : Share the most interesting discoveries and recent innovations in the business world.
• How-to Presentations : If you are skilled at something, then you can make a presentation to guide others. Present a step-by-step guide for a specific task, such as conducting surveys or managing conflicts.

Whether it’s a school project or an online class presentation, you need to make it attractive and engaging. So, choose the topic wisely. Below are some education presentation ideas you can use for your next project.

• Academic Presentation : If you want to educate and share info, then academic presentations with supporting visuals, presentation slides, and videos are what you need.
• Explainer : Explainers are a powerful way of sharing essential information. You can make short and engaging  explainer videos  to include in your presentations.

• Pros and Cons : Make a presentation explaining both pros and cons of a certain issue at stake.
• Best Methods : Talk about various effective methods, be it methods of teaching, learning, or preparing for an exam.
• Dos and Don’ts of Making Presentations : You can make a whole presentation just talking about presentation best practices . Separate what’s recommended and what’s not and then present those to your audience in a simple way.
• Guidelines : Present the most effective guidelines for teaching, studying, and co-working.
• Personal Experience : What can be more helpful for an audience than to learn from someone’s real-life experience? Make a presentation on your personal experience and share your most valuable insights.
• Quiz-Presentation : Test your students. Make a presentation quizzing their knowledge and competence in a certain field. Why presentation? Because it’s both visually and technically effective.
• Research : An attractive slideshow is one of the best ways to present your research. Try working on a visual and multimedia presentation to showcase the whole potential of your research in a visually appealing format.
• Problem-Solving : Decide on an issue and prepare a set of solutions to offer. Don’t leave any questions uncovered. If a problem exists, so does its solution.
• Project Proposal : How are you planning to get approval for your projects if you don’t propose the main idea and expected outcomes in a professional way? Give your project a classy presentation with this Minimal Titles Pack . 

• Listing Presentation : Lists always work when you have big sorted data to introduce to your audience.
• Controversial Topics : Attract your audience’s attention and keep them engaged with a controversial slide deck. Bring forward debatable issues such as euthanasia, AI, and more. Let your audience join you or argue against you.
• Textbook Presentation : Introduce a textbook in a creative way through interesting visuals and supporting multimedia.
• Curriculum : What if presentations are the best way of getting your audience acquainted with a curriculum. Alternatively, you can make your next presentation about how to develop a well-organized curriculum.
• Dissertation : Prepare a presentation for your dissertation. But keep in mind that it has to be accompanied by proper supportive media.
• Predictions Presentation : What will happen next? It’s fun to predict, isn’t it?
• Instructions : Do you like giving instructions? Sometimes that’s what you need to do. Structure your presentation in a how-to format, giving instructions for certain actions, like “How to Work Out the Best Schedule?”
• Precautions : Prepare your audience for the worst and hope for the best. Make a presentation on a set of warnings.
• Case Studies : What’s the best way of demonstrating your case study? A multimedia presentation can be the answer.
• Tricks and Hacks : Tips and tricks are always appreciated by your audience. Create an informative presentation on studying tips, time management tips, or anything else you might find interesting.
• Success Stories : We are always eager to hear success stories. Why? Because they motivate us to move forward with hope for what’s to come. So, make a presentation, telling success stories to motivate teachers, learners, and everyone else.
• Fact or Fiction : Draw a line between truth and lie, fact and fiction. Bust some myths about a topic of your choice to educate your listeners.
• Data Analysis : Is a presentation the right place to start with data analysis? Not really. But once you have analyzed your data, showcase it in your presentation, demonstrating your analysis through charts and graphs.
• Techniques : What kind of techniques can you cover? How about “Techniques for Memory Improvement,” or “ Teaching Techniques ?” You can make up a number of similar topics to share.
• Recent Advancements : Share the recent advancement in the field of education. What are some of the newest teaching methods? What advanced methods do we need to implement to make the learning process more effective?
• Steps in the Process : What are the best steps to take towards certain goals? Each path is different and thus requires different steps.
• Interesting Facts : Gather a set of creative ideas and facts to cover in your presentations.

Recommended Reading

• 35+ Best Presentation Software: Ultimate List 2023
• The Art of Consulting Presentations
• Timeline Presentations: Extensive Guide to Creating Visual Narratives

Here we have random presentation ideas that can inspire you. Make your next presentation a blast by introducing a new creative topic through a unique presentation design.

• Introduction to a Topic : Often, we don’t really want to go deep into complex concepts but just need a short and clear intro to get a grasp of them. Make a presentation on the basics of the most intriguing and puzzling themes.
• Ethics of a Certain Field : There are a number of important fields that need to be discussed in terms of ethics. For example, ethics in journalism is a very trendy and essential topic to discuss nowadays.
• The Future : We are always interested in the future, aren’t we? We make plans for it. We carry hopes for it. Let’s make a compelling presentation that discusses the future of various fields, such as AI or the Internet.
• Benefits : What are the benefits of a bilingual brain? Try to cover the benefits of a number of issues, such as digital transformation, or a healthy diet.
• Risks : Discuss the risks of taking certain steps. When we know the risks we can circumvent them, can’t we?
• Evolution : How do things evolve? It’s super important to present the ways that certain things unfold and change. How did artificial intelligence grow and evolve to such degrees?
• Components: Pick some topics to discuss the components of. How about making a presentation on “Components of Web Applications?” Pretty interesting, isn’t it?
• Alternatives : We always feel a need for alternatives. Make a presentation offering alternatives for different tools and objects. One example could be a presentation covering “The Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office.”
• Memoir : Tell the stories of influential people or your own in a value-packed presentation.
• Video Games : You can reveal the pros and cons of a game or just talk about the trendiest games as of now. You could also reveal statistics about the influence they have on gamers.
• Music Album Presentation : Present a music album, composers, and musicians. You can talk about their tours, also including videos and audio files of the tracks.
• Reviews and Reports : Do a book or a film review. Present your criticism and reflections on a book or movie of interest.

• Scientific Presentation : What are the recent scientific discoveries? Not all people are aware, right? Bring forward some intriguing info about the latest discoveries.
• Job Interview Presentation : Impress your potential employers with a structured and clean job interview presentation.
• Important Skills : What are the top skills needed in your industry? Create your list and share it.
• Requirements and Qualifications : What are some requirements for a specific job position or a field in general? Share your experience and knowledge on this topic.
• “Best of ” Compilation : Gather a list of the best movies, games, books, tools, meals, and anything else, really.
• News : Sometimes, people don’t care to sit and listen to an hour-long news report. So, how about making a brief and informative summary of the most noteworthy news?
• Experiments : Make a scientific or social experiment and reveal your results; they might be different from what you expected.
• Life Story : Use presentation slides to tell about the life of a famous or personal story of an influential person. Use images, videos, and any other visual elements to make your story more vivid.

Making a compelling presentation doesn’t purely depend on presentation software , even though that’s also very important. To make an impactful presentation, one has to first figure out how to approach the topic and decide on the presentation design. 

We hope you found your topic on the list of creative presentation ideas presented above. Best of luck with creating presentations!

Ready to create your video presentation? Find hundreds of slideshow video template options, browse stock images to find a background image, use hand-drawn illustrations, add your color palette, customize your entire presentation the way you want, and share your creative presentation idea in an interesting way. Click the button to get started:

Dive into our Forestblog of exclusive interviews, handy tutorials and interesting articles published every week!

Create Professional

Presentations, Graphics,
Videos, and more

with Renderforest
All-In-One Branding Platform.

How to make a YouTube Short in 3 steps

15 min read

09 Aug 2024

How to create training videos in 3 steps

13 min read

How to start a podcast: a complete 2024 guide 

02 Aug 2024

HUGH CULVER

Author, speaker, coach, 10 easy ways to make any powerpoint presentation awesome.

Updated to Speaking on May 3, 2023.

This post was updated in 2023.

It was 20 minutes before lunch, my client was frantically looking at the clock, and the audience was squirming. We had suffered through endless forgettable PowerPoint slides and were all hoping for a merciful end. That’s when the presenter announced, “I see I’m running out of time, so I’ll just hurry through my last 30 slides.”

We’ve all suffered through slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, unnecessary YouTube clips, and overuse of graphics. Instead of holding our attention and making their point even stronger, each slide distracts the audience with more content they don’t need. Bad slides are agnostic. You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Google Slides, or hold up a piece of paper – it’s all a distraction if you don’t do it well.

Done well, a thoughtfully prepared slide deck can be the perfect slide dish for your full meal presentation. Done poorly and your audience will feel like they made one too many trips to the buffet table. This post will help you do it well.

For the first years of my speaking career, I presented with 35mm slides. You know, the photographs framed by cardboard that got jammed in the projector? That was me – hauling out the projector, clicking in the carousel, and praying that tonight it would all work. I soon learned that the more slides I showed the less the audience listened to me. So I cut back on the slides. I also noticed that when I switched to a black screen (see #9) the audience turned all their attention to me. So I practiced fading to black whenever I told a story or had an important point to make.

How I started

When I switched to PowerPoint I suddenly had a candy shop full of treats to sweeten my presentations with. And I started making all the same mistakes again: too many slides, too much content on each slide, and too distracting. After every presentation I always do a quick debrief – what worked, what needs to change? And slowly I developed a checklist for slide presentations.

I have shared with checklist with hundreds of speakers to help put the spotlight on them. Some were designing a new speech, some were preparing for a webinar and others needed slides to back up a video presentation. In every case, this checklist made their presentation better. They sold more products, got more referrals, and, in most cases, spent a lot less time working on their slide deck.

If you’ve ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are too wordy or you have too many of them, this will help.

Here are my 10 easy ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.

1. Build your slides last

This might be the most important rule on the list. Don’t build your slide deck until you build your presentation.

You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech writing process – after all, it’s a fun way to procrastinate from all that hard thinking – don’t. Building your slide deck before you build your presentation is like building a road before you know where it’s going.

Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not to replace it.

2. Don’t try to replace you

People come to hear you. If you are launching your service on a webinar, they want to know how this solution has helped you and whether is it right for them. If you are delivering a keynote speech or workshop, they want a glimpse into your solutions that can help move them forward in their work or in life.

Fancy transitions, superfluous video clips, and endless bullet points will get your audience’s attention, but take their attention off of you. Every time you hit the clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.

Your goal for every presentation is to deliver the goods, not the slides.

3. Use a consistent theme

We are easily distracted and confused. That’s why brands always anchor advertising on their unique colors, fonts, slogan, or a jingle. They know that consistency in their brand theme builds recognition and puts more attention on the message. You should do that with your slides.

Start with a simple, white background and san serif fonts.

A consistent, simple theme helps your audience focus on the content of each slide. Watch TED talks that have gone viral to see how simple a slide theme can be, like the ones by Dan Pink The puzzle of motivation (30M views), and Shawn Achor The happy secret to better work (25M views).

4. More images, less text

Want to quickly reenergize a tired slide deck? Make your images larger ( in this post I share where to get free images ) and reduce the text size. Remember, the theme in this post is that you are the presentation, not your slides.

Your brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text. When you use images (and less text) you allow your audience to process the image without distracting them away from your powerful story, or making a critical point. Like subtle mood music in the background of a dramatic movie scene, images can augment and enhance what you are saying without stealing the show.

5. One story per slide

When I started using PowerPoint I would have 60 to 80 slides for a 60-minute speech. It was a lot of work to prepare each deck and when I was deep into the speech I would sometimes forget where I was and have to jump forward a couple of slides.

Then it became 30-35 slides and I could breathe easier, knowing that fewer clicks meant less to worry about. As my confidence grew it became 10-12 slides and each slide became a key part of storytelling or point-making—they had to earn their place.

I might use a slide as a backdrop to a story or for a short list that supports a lesson I’m delivering. Either way, it’s always on ‘story’ per slide. If I don’t need a slide, I fade to black (#9).

But, I always stick to one story per slide.

6. Reveal one bullet at a time

This is an easy one – reveal one bullet at a time. The function of bullets is to reinforce (not replace) what you are delivering. That’s why they need to be short (see the 2/4/8 rule, below). A good bullet point is complete on it’s own, but much better when combined with a live presentation of it. Here’s an example from a list of (very wordy) time management strategies:

• Infrequent visits to your Inbox give you more time for deep work
• time blocking allows you to protect time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique can help you focus with fewer distractions

A better list – like one you might use on a PowerPoint slide – would be:

• visit your Inbox less often
• block time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique helps you focus

To reveal one bullet at a time in PowerPoint, right-click on your text box, select Custom Animation > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the effect you want.

7. Leave the fireworks to Disney

It’s great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin with the click of your mouse – but leave those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to make your content the star of the show. Every time you haul the audience’s attention away to some animation you lose a truckload of opportunity to help them.

Your slides can still be amazing and helpful, but that should always be secondary to your primary purpose of helping people. Simple transitions, clean, san serif fonts, and large, attractive graphics trump PowerPoint tricks, every time.

8. The 2/4/8 rule

When I am advising other speakers I often don’t know their topic—certainly not as well as they do. So I rely on certain rules I have developed over many years. For slide decks, I use my 2/4/8 rule. Here’s how it goes…

• about every 2 minutes I have a new slide (that’s 30 slides for a 60-minute speech),
• no more than 4 bullets per slide, and
• no more than 8 words per bullet.

Just like any recipe, you can mess with the ingredient a bit. If your content is more technical, you might need more slides. Sometimes I need 5 or 6 bullets. I use the 2/4/8 rule to remind me that slides are there to support what I have to say, not replace me.

9. Fade to black

The last time I was shopping for a car, I noticed the salesperson had a clever technique. While he asked how I liked the car and if I had any questions, he kept his sales offer face-down on the table. Because there were no other distractions, he had my full attention. And when it was time to reveal his offer, it was much more dramatic (so was the price!) Use the same technique with your slides.

When you fade to black you regain your audience’s attention. For example, after I present a solution, I’ll fade to black while I expound on how to apply that solution in my audience’s work/life. When I’m finished, I turn black off and go to the next point. Or if I’m halfway through a story I’ll fade to back before the punchline so I know I have everyone’s attention.

It’s no different than a close-up scene in a movie—the director wants you to focus only on the speaker. Note that if you are shopping for a slide remote, be sure that yours has the black screen feature.

10. When in doubt, delete

This might be the most advice I can leave you with. When in doubt, delete it.

There is a weird attraction to more. Authors add more pages thinking it makes the book more valuable. Sales people who talk too much miss the opportunity to ask for the sale. And presenters add more slides thinking it will make them look better. Wrong.

When you are doing the final edits on your slide deck, the ultimate question you should be asking about each slide is, “Will it make my speech better?” If not, dump it.

Remember, nobody will miss what isn’t there. Also fewer slides allows you more time for side stories, spontaneous thoughts or even time for Q&A.

Remember this…

I’ve said it numerous times in this post, but it’s worth repeating. You are the show, not your slides. More slides means more time your audience is not paying attention to you. Fewer (and better) slides means you have more time to build rapport, share memorable stories, explain your solutions and motivate your audience to action. You are there for a reason. Now go and deliver.

One last thing. Spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing’s worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the right key, and then peck away to advance the slides.

If you enjoyed this article, here is more about presentation skills:

How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and you can too) PowerPoint Primer – the only 3 slides you’ll ever need How to add video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro

Slide by  Nathan Anderson  on  Unsplash

Related Posts

End procrastination. Start taking action.

Get your FREE 30-page guide now.

• My Million-Dollar Lesson About Public Speaking
• Time Management is Broken—Here’s What to do Instead
• The Spiral and the Flywheel
• The magic of boring routines
• How to get started on your goals with small wins
• Goodbye 2023

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Popular Templates
• Accessibility
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Beginner Guides

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!

Discover popular designs

Infographic maker

Brochure maker

White paper online

Newsletter creator

Flyer maker

Timeline maker

Letterhead maker

Mind map maker

Ebook maker

10 Ways to Make a Presentation More Fun & Interactive [How-to Guide]

Dreading a blank-eyed audience or classroom staring back at you while you talk? It's our worst nightmare — but there are easy solutions! Keep your team or students from being bored using good interaction.

We've been running events for years and have put together a list of great ways to make your presentations interactive — and keep your group engaged.

1. Do a Live Poll 

Live polls are among the best ways to increase interaction during your presentation . This idea not only engages your audience but also provides a fun way to present information so that people don't look at bulleted points the entire time you're talking. 

Here's a pre-made template you can build on to create your live poll (and don't worry—it's super easy to customize and requires no tech skills or code): 

How to customize the template: 

• Access the template by creating a free account here: https://slideswith.com/    
• Click the template and press "Copy and Use this Slide Deck."
• On slides 1, 2, and 7, personalize the copy and update any images.
• Create your own questions and answer options on slides 3-6 (or you can keep the ones already on the slides).
• Add more personal touches by using the navigation menu at the top of the template!

How to play:

• When you're ready to play, log into your account. Click your game. 
• Press "Start Event." It's in the top right corner. 
• Showcase your screen to your audience. If your presentation is virtual, share your screen. 
• Ask your audience to join the fun by scanning the QR code. The game is free for up to ten people!
• Go through each slide and tell everyone to use their mobile devices to submit their answers. 

This template comes with built-in features like avatars, word clouds, ratings, and text answer slides. So, your audience is sure to interact once they start playing! 

2. Use Your Entire Space

Strong, positive body language is critical to connecting with listeners and increasing interaction. Fortunately, there's no better way to show good body language than using your entire space. 

How to use this idea: If you're in a classroom, walk between the rows of desks.

If you're in a conference room, walk around while presenting. And if you're in a huge venue, walk up and down the aisles.

Your audience will feel connected and close to you when you move toward them instead of staying away. And they'll think you're relatable and personable, increasing their desire and comfort to ask questions, raise their hands, and interact. 

3. Create and Trend a Hashtag

Chances are your listeners are checking their phones during your presentation. Even in classrooms, students will sneak a peek at their phones or use their laptops to check social media or text messages. 

Instead of reprimanding listeners for paying attention to your screen and the one on their digital devices, use the battle for their attention in your favor by trending a hashtag. That way, your audience uses their phones to interact with you instead of entertaining distractions.

How to use this idea: 

• Before your presentation, decide on a hashtag that aligns with your topic. 
• Once your presentation starts, share the hashtag with your audience. 
• Tell your audience to share their thoughts and questions on Twitter using the hashtag throughout your presentation.
• At certain points in your presentation, pause to check what listeners are saying and asking on Twitter. Use a few minutes to comment on and answer questions. (When your audience sees you engaging with the hashtag throughout your presentation, they'll be more likely to use it.)
• Leave a good last impression by checking the hashtag after your presentation ends and responding to comments and questions you didn't address! Your audience will appreciate you for taking the extra step, and this will show those who didn't attend the event that you like to interact with listeners.

4. Gamify Your Content

Incorporating games into your presentation will boost your audience's engagement, excitement, energy, and interaction! The best part? This idea is incredibly easy to implement, and there are tons of ways to gamify your presentation content . 

How to use this idea:

• Play the Telephone Game: Whisper something about your presentation topic into someone's ear. Have the individual relay the message to the person sitting next to them and keep this going until the last person gets the message. Ask the last person to tell everyone the final message. Compare the final to the initial statement—if the message is the same, tell everyone to give themselves a round of applause. 
• Play Word of the Day: Choose a word of the day (it can also be a phrase) and tell your audience what it is. Use the word throughout your presentation. Your audience should acknowledge it by shouting it back whenever they hear it.
• Play 20 Questions: Have an audience member you trust choose a picture related to your presentation topic. Make sure you can't see the image (if you're in person or presenting virtually, turn your back to the screen). Start asking yes or no questions about the photo. You can only ask 20 questions to get it right. 

5. Play a Quiz 

Another great way to make your presentation interactive is with a quiz! This idea gives listeners a reason to pay attention and sparks fun, friendly competition to see who can answer the most questions correctly.

However, for this interactive presentation idea to work, you must create a fun quiz. Here's a pre-made template with engaging, built-in features that'll get your audience amped :

• Create a free account to access the template: https://slideswith.com/    
• Click the game and press "Copy and Use this Slide Deck."
• On slides 1, 2, and 8, personalize any images and copy.
• On slides 3 and 4, create your own questions and answer options.
• Duplicate slides to add more questions to your quiz!
• When it's time to play, log into your account and click your game. 
• Look in the top right corner and click "Start Event." 
• Showcase your screen to your listeners. 
• Tell your audience to scan the QR code to play! 
• Go through each slide and quiz your audience. Players can use their mobile devices to submit their answers. 
• Give the person who answered the most questions correctly a round of applause. 

The template accommodates up to 250 people, so it's great for large audiences. Also, it comes with polls, ratings, multiple choice, an answer review slide, a leaderboard slide, and more to keep your audience interacting and engaged the whole time!

6. Take Your Audience's Guidance 

Instead of steering your presentation, let your audience take the wheel and decide what topics to cover first. With this interactive presentation idea, listeners will feel like participants instead of recipients, and that differentiation is critical to boosting interaction. 

• When creating your presentation, include a slide in the beginning that lists all the topics you'll cover.
• At the beginning of your presentation, show your audience the list of topics. 
• Say each topic aloud and ask your listeners to raise their hands to vote for the one they want to discuss first. 
• Move forward with the topic that has the most votes. 
• After covering the first topic, go back to the list and repeat. 

7. Create Discussion Groups

While it's great to ask your audience questions directly, some people interact better in small groups. To ensure more introverted people get a chance to engage, create small discussion groups that make your presentation interactive. 

• Divide your listeners into small groups of five. 
• Tell everyone what to discuss. The topic should be relevant to your presentation. For example, you could ask the groups to solve a specific problem or discuss how they'd implement a solution you recommended. 
• Give the group 10 minutes to chat. 
• Once time is up, ask each group to share what they discussed. 

8. Encourage Your Listeners to Move

It's normal for people to get antsy when sitting in a seat all day. But if you encourage your audience to move around and keep the blood flowing, they won't get distracted or constantly eye the nearest exit. So, instead of letting everyone stay in their seats, make time for listeners to get moving. 

• Before your presentation, think of 15 yes or no questions that pertain to your topic. 
• At the beginning of your presentation, ask five questions. Have people stand if their answer is "yes." People should sit if their answer is "no." 
• In the middle of your presentation, ask the next five questions. Again, standing means "yes," and sitting means "no."
• Toward the end of your presentation, ask the last five questions. Have listeners stand to answer "yes" and sit to answer "no."

9. Solicit Questions (More Than Once)

It's normal to have a Q&A session at the end of your presentation, but an interactive presentation isn't interactive at the end. It's interactive throughout the entire time you're talking. That means your listeners should be able to ask questions before, during, and after your discussion, and you should encourage them to do so to boost engagement. 

• At the beginning of your presentation, break the ice by opening the floor for your audience to ask any questions about you. 
• After answering people's questions, tell your audience that they can ask questions throughout your presentation—they don't need to wait until the end. 
• NOTE: If you want this overall idea to stick, before your presentation, tell a few people you know to help increase engagement by asking questions first or when no one else is doing so. Sometimes, listeners need to see others doing it before they muster the courage to do it as well. 

10. Play Call and Response

One of the most fun and silly ways to increase interaction at your presentation is with call and response. This idea will keep energy levels high, maintain engagement, and ensure your audience stays focused! 

• Pick a phrase that relates to your presentation. You can do this before your presentation or with your audience before your discussion starts. 
• Agree on the action everyone (including you) must take when you say the phrase. The action could be dancing, clapping, standing, or something random like high knees if you have the space.
• Use the phrase throughout your presentation to trigger the action. 

Give Listeners the Interactive Presentation They Want

No matter where you're speaking, today's audience wants an informative presentation that's engaging, interactive, and fun. Gone are the days of creating PowerPoint slides with bullet points and a few images. 

Audiences want you to design a presentation with their preferences in mind, and they prefer content that's intriguing. Failing to give them that means you don't know your audience as well as you think. 

"Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it 'to whom it may concern" - Ken Haemer. Alison Davis,  19 Quotes That Will Inspire You To Create An Amazing Presentation

So, let modern-day listeners know you understand them by giving a presentation that speaks to their desire for interaction and excitement. You want your audience to be on the edge of their seats, facing forward, and tuned in, not slouching with their heads on their hands, ready to fall asleep.

Subscribe for more articles like this

Try slides with friends for free.

The easiest way to host meetings your team will love

Engagement delivered to your inbox

We'll email you 1-2x per month with brand new, ready-to-run events and ideas. Subscribe to stay ahead of the curve and keep your lessons, meetings, and events fresh and engaging.

Unsupported browser

This site was designed for modern browsers and tested with Internet Explorer version 10 and later.

It may not look or work correctly on your browser.

• Presentations
• Public Speaking

How to Make Boring Presentations More Interesting & Fun (10 Expert Tips)

When you take the stage for a presentation, the  last  thing you want to be is forgotten. If your presentation is boring, your content simply won't reach the audience.

If you want to make a presentation more interesting, our network of experts is here to help. 

We've surveyed leading presentation pros to get their perspectives. Here are ten tips that any presenter can use while learning how to make a boring presentation interesting.

We'll also share some professional presentation templates that'll make it easier to create your next presentation. So, stay tuned to learn how to make a presentation fun and interesting.

1. Less Slide Content, More Speaking Points

If there's one trap that I see rookie presenters fall into, it's this: they load their presentation slides with far too much content. To learn how to make a presentation interesting, it might be about  removing  slide content.

Presentation expert Miriam Plotinsky  ( @MirPloMCPS on Twitter) has a great perspective on how presenters balance slides with their speaking points:

When the presenter has practiced and is confident, an overwhelming amount of information does not need to go on the slides; instead, the best content is elevated for the presentation itself.

Not sure if you've got too much content on your slides? Here's a good test that Plotinsky offers to reduce slide content:

All slides should really be speaking points... My overall thought is that people pack slides with too much text (and then proceed to read directly from the slide, which disengages their audience) because they are not prepared to present. 

You're the presentation. The slides exist to support you. Don't open your presentation tool of choice as the first step! 

Instead, focus your front-end work on writing the presentation, focusing on the content. Then, build slides that reiterate those points.

2. Use Animation for Effect

One of the most controversial topics when it comes to presentations is  animation.  Some presenters suggest that animations are too distracting, while others think it's a powerful effect. 

Animation   creates motion on your presentation slide. Maybe you use it to reveal a box of text as a punchline to your joke. Or, you might use animation to show a chart in motion with a critical piece of data revealed.

So, should  you  use animation?  Suzannah Baum is a presentation expert with more than 12 years of coaching presenters and presenting herself. Here's what she's got to say about using animation effectively:

"As a presenter, you want to add a brief moment of visual interest, but then get the audience’s attention back to YOU and your message." 

It's clear that Baum urges presenters to use animations as a  complement  to the speaker, not the focal point itself. But, it's also important to balance that usage without overwhelming the presenter, as Baum goes on to advise:

"Too many moving, spinning, pulsating or bouncing objects flying in and out of your presentation is overkill. If you overuse them, you run the very real risk of distracting your audience from your message, and simply turning them off as well.  

If you're wondering how to make a presentation interesting, a bit of animation might do the trick. But be careful not to overdo it.

On Envato Tuts+, we've got tips that help you strike the right balance of using animations without distracting in PowerPoint. Check out our tutorial below:

3. Make the Most of Your Screen Real Estate

You're sitting in an auditorium with a stunning presentation screen. The presenter takes the stage and turns on their presentation. And there's an embarrassing glitch: t he presentation shows on screen but doesn't fill the entire display.

Display screens are made in a variety of sizes and  aspect ratios,  the proportion of width to height. When a presentation doesn't fill the screen, it's due to a mismatch between the presentation file and screen. It's sure to annoy the detail-oriented in your audience.

If you've worked at how to make a presentation interesting, don't miss out on making the most of your screen! When you set your presentation settings correctly, your finished PPTX will fill the screen. Learn how to set the proper screen dimensions with the help of our tutorial below.

4. Invest The Majority Of Your Time in Writing Great Content

Preparing a presentation is a process. It consists of many steps. How you divide your time among those steps is critical. Here are the basic steps that I divide the presentation process into:

• Research & ideation . This is where you start formulating the plan for your presentation. What are the basic ideas you want to share with an audience? What are the key points to remember?
• Writing . After you plan the ideas, write the more detailed specifics. They're the individual speaking points that support your presentation perspective.
• Presentation design . Make sure to wait until you've got your presentation's content prepared before you open your app of choice. It's easier if you already have your crucial speaking points designed before you begin to put them into slide format.
• Rehearsal and practice . After you finish your slide deck, you'll need time to rehearse and practice your delivery.

Time is limited. According to expert speechwriter Anthony Trendl , you should devote a disproportionate amount of time to the  writing  part of the process:

Often, speakers get lazy with the writing. "I know this stuff. I'll just speak from the heart." This can lead to shapeless rambling. Do this and you'll miss an opportunity to control your presentation strategically... You are the distinction. Your presentation should work without the slide deck.

Learn how to become an expert presentation writer with the help of these two tutorials. While some tips are specific to PowerPoint, they also contain general guidelines that can help you become an expert writer:

The advice is clear: nailing the writing stage is how to make a presentation interesting . It all starts with the content.

5. Energize the Audience

Energy is hard to measure, but easy to recognize. It's an essential part of holding an audience's attention. Learning how to make a presentation more interesting is easier when you're energetic.

Upbeat speakers build confidence in their content. If you've seen a high energy speaker like  Robert Kennedy III , you know that energy is contagious. He recommends bringing energy to your presentation by arriving at your speaking engagement early.

Greet some of the participants and give them a subtle preview of who you are. This way, when you come on stage, you already have some "allies" in the audience. They will "know" you because this isn't the first time they are seeing you. Demand the audience come up to the level of energy you bring instead of you feeding off their energy.

I love this idea that Robert shares. It means that those allies that you meet early will already be in your corner and match your energy when your presentation begins.

6. Leave Presentation Design to the Professionals

Time is always in short supply. When you're asked to speak, is it the best use of your time to focus on learning slide design?

An alternative is to use designs built  for you . Instead of opening PowerPoint to a blank slate staring at you, you can use ready-to-use slide designs.

But you might be wondering if this design option will break the bank. Hiring a professional must cost an arm and leg, right? Well, here's a "best of both worlds" option: use  professional presentation templates   from Envato Elements . Use professionally designed templates without commissioning a design of your won.

On Envato Elements, your options are practically limitless. For a single flat rate, you unlock tens of thousands of presentation templates. That includes Keynote templates, Google Slides templates and PowerPoint templates. 

See some of our favorite templates in action for a variety of leading presentation app. Each of them helps you see how to make a presentation more interesting:

The fastest way to make a PowerPoint presentation interesting is to hand off the design to others. Envato Elements is an impressive value that's sure to improve your presentation's outcome.

7. Collaborate With Others

Too often, we think of our projects as solo efforts. We feel we've got to go it alone and create all the content on our own. That doesn't have to be the case.

I'm reminded of this quote from Steve Jobs:

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."

Even if you're going to be the only presenter, you can still lean on others to help improve it. Ask for opinions, ideas, and feedback from your network before you take the stage. Here are tutorials that help you work with others via collaboration:

Specifically, you can ask a collaborator about how to make a presentation more interesting. Ask if there were any sections that felt like it lulled or lost the audience's attention.

8. Match Your Design to the Topic

We covered the power of professional PowerPoint templates but remember one point: not every design is a fit for every occasion . A marketing template simply has a different design than a template for education, for example.

Luckily, there are templates for practically every purpose. We've featured many "special purpose" templates on Envato Tuts+ that include the best ways to make your presentation stand out:

To learn how to make your presentation stand out, don't forget about the incredible variety of designs that exist. Sample the best templates from Envato Elements or GraphicRiver to bring a professional design to your presentation.

9. Share Follow-up Information After the Presentation

Your presentation can be the start of a conversation with your audience. You can use it to launch a sales opportunity, get to know your attendees, or grow your network.

To do that, it helps to share your contact information and give your audience follow-up information. But, don't leave your audience scrambling to take notes as you wrap up your presentation in a hurry.

Here's another great tip from Miriam Plotinsky to help you share follow-up information without shifting the burden to them to remember or write all the info:

A best practice with reducing slide content is to not just practice the presentation and only include brief bullets on the slides, but also to take all of the information being shared and make sure the audience has access to it in a packet, an e-mail, or similar.

One tip to help you learn how to make a presentation more interesting: finish it with an ask and include your audience . Here's a tutorial with even more ideas for ending your presentation with a bang:

10. Be Authentic, Be You

Rounding out our expert tips, there's one tip that takes time to master. It's the art of  authenticity,  bringing a personal touch to your presentation.

Learning how to make a boring presentation interesting is all about interjecting what makes you unique. It doesn't mean that you've got to make every presentation about  you. The truth is that authenticity is presenting your content in a way that feels true to yourself.

So, how do you start to incorporate authenticity? Here's a great tip from Sandra Zimmer , whose presentation coaching focuses on authenticity and encourages speakers to include personal touches:

Tell stories from your personal life or professional career that help listeners understand what you are talking about. Use your stories to help make your points so they get a gut level experience.

Great presenters find ways to inject just enough of themselves so that the presentation feels like a unique experience. Blend in elements that are specific to you to add authenticity.

You Just Learned How to Make a Boring Presentation Interesting

Presentations aren't everyone's cup of tea. But you  need  to build skills as a presenter to excel in business or your career. It's okay if you're never passionate about public speaking; the goal is to level up your skills.

Thanks to the experts in this tutorial, you've learned techniques that show you how to make a boring presentation interesting. Once you've learned how to make a presentation exciting, put these into action, and present confidently.

If you're ready to create a presentation, why not save time by downloading a template today.

• Presentations
• Most Recent
• Infographics
• Data Visualizations
• Forms and Surveys
• Video & Animation
• Case Studies
• Design for Business
• Digital Marketing
• Design Inspiration
• Visual Thinking
• Product Updates
• Visme Webinars
• Artificial Intelligence

180+ Presentation Topic Ideas [Plus Templates]

Written by: Orana Velarde

Coming up with a presentation topic idea that's meaningful, relevant and has a creative angle can be tough. If your teacher or professor just assigned you a presentation and also asked you to pick your own topic, you're in the right place.

In this article, we've put together a list of informative and powerful presentation topic ideas for various subjects. When you're ready, head over to our presentation software to create an engaging slideshow that blows away your audience.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. Check more templates below:

List of Presentation Topic Ideas for Students

We know how difficult it is to come up with an interesting presentation topic idea on the fly.  That’s why we put together a list of more than 200 ideas to help you out.

We've organized these presentation topics for students by subject so you can easily browse through and find what you're looking for. Each section also comes with a bonus presentation template!

We've also included some tips on designing a presentation once you've chosen a topic. For example, a flowchart data widget can help with a historic timeline presentation .

But first, let's dive into these interesting topics for presentations.

Table of Contents

Current events presentation topic ideas, education presentation topic ideas, general culture presentation topic ideas, health presentation topic ideas, history presentation topic ideas, life skills presentation topic ideas, literature presentation topic ideas, media presentation topic ideas, science presentation topic ideas, work life presentation topic ideas.

• Why Do Teachers Assign Student-Selected Presentations?

How to Pick the Right Presentation Topic

Presentation tips for students.

• Teachers share presentation topic ideas with students so they can find a topic of interest, find a purpose and direction for their future lives and career plans, learn how to do research properly and improve their creative performance.
• Some of the best presentation topic ideas for students center around topics such as current events, education, general culture, health, life skills, literature, media and science.
• When picking presentation topics, consider these things: your hobbies, the books you read, the kind of TV shows you watch, what topics you’re good at and what you’d like to learn more about.
• Follow these tips to create and deliver excellent presentations: Don’t present on topics you don’t understand, use data visualizations and high-quality visuals, avoid boring layouts and large walls of text,
• Don’t read off your slides. Practice and rehearse your presentation or create index cards with speaking notes.
• Visme’s presentation software has everything you need to create captivating presentations. Start with professionally designed presentation templates , customize them to your taste and present with style.
• If you're racing against the clock, harness the power of Visme's AI presentation maker to whip up captivating presentations in seconds. Just explain what you want to create, select your preferred designs and watch the tool unleash its magic.

Below are Powerpoint presentation topics on current events.

• What is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
• What is happening in Kashmir?
• What is ethnic cleansing and is it still relevant in 2021?
• Who is Malala Yousafzai?
• What are the different stances on immigration in the US?
• Should the death penalty be outlawed?
• Should University be free for everyone?
• What is racism?
• How can non-minorities be allies to minorities?
• What is White Privilege?
• Can a border wall really fix the immigration crisis?
• What is Brexit?
• What is Pride?
• What is gentrification?
• What is the European Union?
• What is Sharia Law?
• Why is it more profitable to be a plumber than a doctor?
• What is happening in Syria?
• Who is Harvey Weinstein and what is he accused of?
• What is the #metoo movement?
• What is happening in North Korea?
• What is the problem with guns in America?

Customize this presentation template to make it your own! Edit and Download

Here are the education topics for presentations you can choose from.

• What are the pros and cons of online education?
• What is dyslexia?
• What is the Pythagorean theorem?
• Is a college education worth it?
• Is reading better on Kindles or paper books?
• What is worldschooling?
• What is unschooling?
• Why are teachers underpaid?
• What is sociology?
• What is anthropology?
• What is social archaeology?
• Why do schools need mentorship programs?
• What is an education in Finland like?
• What is Montessori Education?
• Who is Rudolf Steiner?
• What is the most difficult language to learn?
• What is an Ivy League school?
• What is the SAT?
• What is the TOEFL?
• What is the IB program?
• How to get into an international university
• What is a learning disability?
• What is a gap year?
• Why is it important to learn a second language?
• What is a TCK?
• What is the foreign exchange program?
• Why is it important to study Physics?
• What are Coding Bootcamps ?
• How does reading benefit the brain?
• How to make an infographic

• Is Graffiti considered art?
• Ancient Greek myths in modern media
• Why should students learn about different religions?
• What are crop circles?
• What is Area 51?
• What are the origins of Rock and Roll?
• What was the Woodstock Music Festival?
• 10 memorable things about any country
• What are the different styles of coffee?
• What does living “off the grid” mean?
• What is Crossfit?
• What is cultural appropriation?
• What is Feminism?
• What is the difference between White Hat and Black Hat Hacking?
• Who is the artist formerly known as Prince?
• Why is yoga so popular?
• What is Art Therapy?
• What is the difference between 80’s parenting and current parenting?
• What is a journalist?
• What is the 'generation gap'?
• Who is a polyglot?
• What is the difference between a religion and a cult?

• Everything you need to know about COVID-19
• How does the human immune system work?
• What is the respiratory system?
• How are diseases spread?
• How does the nervous system work?
• What is skin cancer?
• What are infectious diseases?
• When to call 911
• What is the placebo effect?
• How to read a nutrition label
• How to eat a balanced diet
• What is CPR?
• How to dress a wound
• What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
• What is dry drowning?
• What are allergens?
• Why are cigarettes bad for you?
• How are medicines approved for human consumption?
• Why should Marijuana be legalized?
• What is a neurosurgeon?
• What is an EMT?
• How does the digestive system work?
• What are the effects of antidepressants on the human brain?
• What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?
• Is depression real?

• Prehistoric timeline of dinosaurs
• Your favorite president of the United States
• How has the role of women changed in society?
• Who was Alexander the Great?
• What is the Declaration of Independence?
• Who was Harriet Tubman?
• What is Pangea?
• What is Gobekli Tepe?
• Who is Nelson Mandela?
• What is the Berlin Wall?
• What is the Boxing Day Tsunami?
• Who were the Conquistadors?
• Who were the Incas?
• What is the story behind Thanksgiving?
• Who is Pocahontas?
• What is the origin of Language?
• How were Egyptian mummies conserved?
• What is the story of King Tut’s Curse?
• What made up the Ottoman Empire?
• What was the first civilization to ever emerge?
• What are the main Native American culture tribes?

Customize this presentation template to make it your own!

• Add your own text, images, colors and more
• Add interactive buttons and animations
• Customize anything to fit your design and content needs
• How to change a tire
• What are the basic cooking skills?
• How to do laundry
• How to budget monthly expenses
• What is a healthy morning routine?
• What are the essential tools for a household?
• How to furnish a house on the cheap
• How to drive a car
• How to save money
• How to take care of a baby
• How to take care of a plant
• How to change the AC filters
• How to minimize the use of plastic
• How to live trash-free
• How to fry an egg
• How to clean a house fast
• How to use the internet to find what you need
• Why is it important to teach our grandparents how to use the internet?
• How to get dressed for a funeral
• How to unclog a toilet or sink
• How to pack a first-aid kit at home
• What is emotional intelligence?

• Who is William Shakespeare?
• What is Haiku?
• What is The Catcher in The Rye about?
• Who is Dante Alighieri?
• What is a sonnet?
• What is magical realism?
• Who is Emily Bronte?
• How is the book 1984 relevant today?
• What is the difference between an autobiography and a memoir?
• What book should be made into a movie which hasn’t yet?
• Who is Oscar Wilde?
• Who is Orhan Pamuk?
• Who is Isaac Asimov?
• What is historical fiction?
• What is a Greek Tragedy?
• What is the hero’s journey?
• Who is Ulysses?
• What is the origin of science fiction literature?
• My top 10 favorite classic novels of all time
• Who were the Brothers Grimm?
• The colorful life of Ernest Hemingway
• How did the Industrial Revolution shape American literature?

Looking for engaging ppt presentation topics about media? Explore this list for ideas on the evolution of media, social media trends and influential figures in the media landscape.

• Evolution of the projector
• How can social media be dangerous for underage kids?
• The history of the internet
• What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
• Who is Steve Jobs?
• Who invented the television?
• Which came first, MTV or VH1?
• What is Virtual Reality?
• What is Augmented Reality?
• The evolution of film and cinema
• How are TV commercials made?
• What is the role of an art director?
• How are minorities represented in the media?
• How are women represented in the media?
• What is blogging?
• Who was Elvis Presley?
• The history of Jazz
• The history of Tango
• What is a social media manager ?
• What is content marketing?
• What is an influencer?
• How has binge-watching changed television?
• The impact of TikTok on advertising
• What is the agenda-setting theory?
• Mass communication in the digital age

Looking for science presentation ideas? Check these topics out.

• What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
• What are GMOs?
• What is organ donation and why is it important?
• How does the respiratory system work?
• Should human cloning be allowed?
• What is the greenhouse effect?
• Why do some people say climate change is a hoax ?
• What is the water cycle?
• What is Photosynthesis?
• What are the different states of matter?
• How is medicine made?
• What is alternative medicine?
• What is biochemistry?
• What is quantum physics?
• What is the Big Bang Theory?
• 50th anniversary of the moon landing
• What is the plant cycle?
• How are babies born?
• What is a particle accelerator?
• What is a light-year?
• Why do humans want to colonize Mars?
• Why is Pluto no longer a planet?
• What causes a wildfire?

• What is the pay gap?
• What is an entrepreneur?
• What is a franchise and how does it work?
• What are the best-paid careers?
• Why is it important to hire mothers back into the workforce?
• Should fathers have paternity leave?
• Are internships worth it?
• Why are more college-age students entering the labor force through skilled labor?
• Why is it important for high-schoolers to have summer jobs?
• What is the glass ceiling?
• How to live as a digital nomad
• How to stop discrimination in the workplace
• What is a Candy Striper?
• Is volunteering hurting the neediest?
• What does “the 9 to 5” mean?
• What constitutes a good work-life balance?
• When should moms go back to work?
• How to dress for a work interview
• How to write a resume/CV
• How secure is a freelance career in 2021?
• The impact of COVID-19 on organizational culture?
• Do employers care about cover letters?

Why Do Teachers Assign Student-Selected Presentations? [Infographic]

By now, you must have already chosen a presentation topic idea . But you might still be wondering why your teacher assigned you this task in the first place.

No, your teacher is not out to get you by assigning a presentation you have to choose the topic for. There are a few reasons why teachers and professors assign presentations this way.

Choosing a presentation topic idea inspires you to look inside themselves to find a topic of interest. Knowing about your interests helps give direction to your future life and career plans.

Selecting topics to present about in school also helps you learn how to do research properly. You get more familiar with the practice of taking notes, creating an outline and prioritizing information.

Brainstorming various topic ideas is also great for improving your creative performance. And finally, getting up on stage and presenting prepares you for public speaking in front of an audience.

Here's a quick infographic to sum it all up.

Believe it or not, assigning a presentation is one of the best ways to teach a student how to learn on their own. It’s similar to asking a student to write an essay, but a lot more fun!

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

Sign up. It’s free.

If you're overwhelmed by all the school presentation ideas above and aren't sure which one is right for your presentation, don't worry. We have tips to help you pick the right topic in no time.

If after this process you still aren’t sure, just browse through the list above and find a specific presentation subject idea that sparks your interest most.

The first step to figuring out what your presentation should be about is to ask yourself these questions:

• What are your hobbies?
• What type of books do you read?
• When you play Trivial Pursuit, which topic are you good at?
• What kind of TV shows do you watch?
• What would you like to learn more about?

What Are Your Hobbies?

It’s easy to find a presentation topic by looking at your hobbies. The best part of this choice is that you’ll be passionate when presenting it to your peers.

For example, if you love woodworking, create a presentation about the history of woodworking or a step-by-step look at “How to make a wooden bowl by hand.”

What Type of Books Do You Read?

When looking for innovative topics for presentation, consider the style of books you’ve been reading lately. Have any of them made an impact on your life?

If you're having a difficult time coming up with a topic idea, you can create a presentation about a book that you found really special, or about an author you’ve read a few books by.

When You Play Trivial Pursuit, Which Topic Are You Good At?

If you've ever played Trivial Pursuit or attended a Trivia Night, you must have noticed that some topics are easier for you to answer. That is your topic of interest and a great place to look for some ideas.

For example, if you always know the answer to the questions about classical music, you can create a presentation about your favorite composer.

What Kind of TV Shows Do You Watch?

What have you been binge-watching lately? Regardless if its Orange is The New Black or a documentary about the Sudanese civil war, you can find an interesting topic to work with.

It can be about history or current events. You could even do some kind of comparative analysis on how a specific show has affected you or the people who watch it.

What Would You Like to Learn More About?

Another way to find the best topics for presentation is to think of things you want to learn more about. Take the opportunity to learn something new and then share it in your presentation.

Present the facts of what you learned or turn the presentation into a journal entry of your personal experience using the new information that you just learned.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that whatever topic you choose, it must also be appropriate.

“Depending on your audience and occasion purpose, you have to steer away from topics that might bore or offend your audience.”

Once you have chosen the perfect presentation topic idea, it’s time to create your presentation. Here are some tips for putting together a great presentation that will get you a good grade.

Presentation Mistakes to Avoid

First things first, let’s talk about some presentation no-nos. You want to avoid these mistakes in any presentation you give—from a presentation for a grade in your middle school class all the way up to a business presentation.

Key presentation don’ts are:

• Don’t create slides full of text —your presentation is not a 30-page essay. Instead, create slides with just a few bullets and some type of visual to represent your content.
• Don’t just read off of your slides —you’ll bore your audience. Practice and rehearse your presentation or create index cards with speaking notes to make your presentation more engaging.
• Don’t use a new design, transition, animation, etc., on each slide —you’ll clutter up your design. Choose one single design, color scheme, font pairing, transition style, animation effect, etc., and use it throughout to create a cohesive presentation design.
• Don’t present on topics you don’t understand —you’ll sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Even if you’re choosing a “new to you” topic, you need to do enough research to have a firm grasp on the information you’re presenting.
• Don’t ramble and go over your allotted time —you’ll sound flustered and unorganized. Again, make sure you practice your presentation so that you can smoothly transition from slide to slide and cover all information in the time given.

Regardless of the topic you're presenting, creating drafts shouldn't be a challenge. Utilize Visme's AI writer to generate high-quality content in seconds. Feel free to deploy it as a proofreading tool or an outline creator. Just describe what you want to write about and get content ideas or Power Point presentation topics and the tool will work out the details.

Use Data Visualization in Your Presentation

Regardless of which type of topic you’ve chosen, there’s likely some sort of data or information that would be better presented via visuals rather than written out numbers or text.

Make sure you choose a presentation tool that makes it easy to visualize certain information. For example, Visme allows you to create a number of data visualizations that help make information pop on your slide.

Some examples of data visualizations you can use within your presentation include:

• Timelines for historical information
• Charts and graphs for numerical data sets
• Tables for organizing text
• Maps for sharing geographic information
• Flowcharts and diagrams for organizing information
• Data widgets for visualizing standalone numbers

Avoid Using Boring Layouts

Don’t let your presentation look like a PowerPoint from the nineties with a blank white background and two columns of boring bullet points. Instead, take advantage of engaging presentation templates and spice up your slides.

First, start with a template that’s going to make your information stand out. You can browse a few options that Visme offers below. Use Visme’s Brand Wizard to automatically add your brand’s assets to your presentation.

Look for a unique way of presenting the information, use interesting backgrounds, apply shaped frames to the images, embed videos and use colorful shapes to create separations.

But for some specific ideas, consider pulling these design tactics into your presentation.

Slide Background Ideas:

• Set photos as your slide background
• Use color overlays to make sure your content is still visible on top of the photo background
• Create a gradient background
• Use a stock video as your background to create motion
• Choose a color other than white as your background
• Set a pattern as your background
• Use an animated background

Visual Element Ideas:

• Place photos strategically on your slide to drive your point home
• Use colorful shapes and animated graphics
• Try 3D graphics to make your content pop
• Apply shaped frames to images within your slides
• Use icons to visualize your text

Interactive Ideas:

There are so many ways to make sure your slides are engaging so you keep your audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Visme offers tons of features to make your presentation interactive .

• Incorporate hover-overs or pop-ups that hide additional information
• Link your slides to create a non-linear presentation
• Embed videos that provide even more information
• Create audio clips that activate when you click on an element

RELATED: 20 Ways to Create an Interactive Presentation That Stands Out

Prepare for Your Presentation

We already touched on how important it is to practice and rehearse your presentation. You want to appear confident and well-versed in your topic. Presenting and public speaking are also skills that you can carry into adulthood in your future career.

Although nerve-wracking, you’ll have a turn to deliver your presentation in front of the class. You’ll give your speech while simultaneously showcasing your slides.

Utilize these tips when preparing for your presentation:

• Practice speaking while moving through your slides at least three times
• Memorize the order of your slides and what information is on each slide
• Create a flashcard for each slide so you have basic talking points in front of you
• Use memorization techniques so you don’t have to fully rely on your flashcards
• Focus on the end goal: delivering your presentation may be stressful but it will also make you feel great when you’re finished

Keep Your Audience Engaged During Your Presentation

Our last tip is to keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation. This will help your fellow classmates to better retain the information you’re sharing in your slides and can even help you feel more confident as you present.

A few tips for engaging your audience include:

• Avoid using a monotonous tone; instead, tell stories, speak conversationally, and hold your audience’s attention
• Try not to say things like, “um,” “er,” “like” and similar terms
• Focus on keeping good posture throughout
• Avoid chewing gum, fidgeting or doing other things that will detract from your speech
• Make eye contact with your audience rather than staring at your notes or your slides

Create Beautiful Presentations with Visme

Here at Visme, we love helping students create better presentations. We’ve covered presentations on different topics you can choose from.

We have resources on how to use presentation templates, how to design slides from scratch, how to maintain consistency between slides, how to present data visually and how to successfully present to an audience.

Here are some articles to help you design and deliver your presentation:

• Presentation Success Formula: How to Start Strong and End Powerfully
• 100+ Creative Presentation Ideas That Will Delight Your Audience
• 7 Ways to Structure Your Presentation to Keep Your Audience Wanting More

Once you’re ready to start designing, just open up the Visme dashboard and select one of the many presentation templates. You can also create a presentation from scratch; there are lots of tools to help you out along the way. Once done, you can easily share and publish your presentation without leaving the Visme editor.

We hope you were able to find the perfect presentation topic idea for your presentation on this list! Let us know how you did and link to your presentation in the comments.

Put together powerful presentations in minutes without prior design skills

Trusted by leading brands

Recommended content for you:

Create Stunning Content!

Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

Ready to get started?

• Inspiration

17 fun presentation ideas (with video!) to wow your audience

• 30 Mar 2023

So you want to be the next Steve Jobs. Or Martin Luther King. Or any other dazzling orator you look up to. But you need a little something to add to your presentation ideas – you don’t want to bore people to death with Powerpoint.

Whether you’re creating a sales presentation, an event presentation, or just showing your travel video to Uncle Ron, we’ve compiled some of the best ways to get your audience seriously hyped up about your message.

Biteable offers online video presentation software, so we know a thing or two about making engaging presentation videos. In this guide, we share some of our favorite video presentation inspiration and show you some of the different types of presentations you might consider.

When you’re ready to make your own video presentation, head over to  Biteable  for hundreds of brandable templates, video scenes, and workplace-ready animations. With Biteable, making a video presentation is as easy as making a PowerPoint – only a whole lot more fun.

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

Types of video presentations

If you’re looking to win over your audience with a presentation, videos are the best way to do it. According to Insivia, viewers retain  95% of a message  when they see it in a video, but only 10% if they have to read on-screen text.

When you’re making your presentation, you could either make your video the whole presentation, or just a part of the whole. Did you know, for example, that you can  embed a video in a Powerpoint document?  Either is possible with our video templates and it can be interesting to mix things up once in a while.

There are four main types of presentations:

• Informative
• Demonstrative
• Inspirational

Picking the right one will ensure you’re onto a winner with your video presentation. For example, if you’re onboarding some new employees, you might choose a video template that’s an informative presentation like this one:

Or, if you want to show off how something works, a demonstration presentation might be what you want to create:

A persuasive presentation would involve creating a video more like this charity infographic example:

And if you want something a little more inspirational, try something like this positive quote video template.

But that’s not all, folks! If you’d like to check out more awesome Biteable video templates, visit our  templates page here .

Creative (and fun!) video presentation ideas

You’ve now picked the type of presentation you need. But how do you get creative with your video?

First of all, it’s important your video is top-notch. Without high-quality graphics and production value, your message may fall by the wayside. Choose online  video presentation software  that’s easy to use and makes great-looking videos. That’s where Biteable comes in.

Whatever the topic of your presentation, your video format and design need to match the overall tone and message.

Delivering a corporate presentation on climate change? A fast-paced, wildly colorful template with upbeat music is going to feel a little off-message.

To identify how to design your presentation, think about the feelings you want to evoke in your audience. Want them to be crying with laughter? Moved to tears? Motivated into taking action? Pinpointing the emotions behind your presentation will help you choose the right template and make the best video possible.

17 great video presentation ideas

Now you’ve nailed down the type of video presentation you want to make, it’s time to master the finer details. Here’s just some of the ways you can make your message sing.

1. Start with a bold statement

A bold statement can capture your audience’s attention right from the get-go. Your statement should offer something slightly unusual and maybe even a little controversial. Something to make people sit up and take notice.

2. Tell a story

One of the best ways to get your audience’s attention is to tell a story – it’ll hit them right in the feels.

A personal, human story works because it the audience can relate to it on a personal level. Think about some stand-out examples of human stories that relate to your business or idea, and tell that story so people will connect with the central character. The bigger the emotion the better: love, longing, overcoming obstacles, things we’ve all had to deal with at some point in our lives.

Think about the  ‘story arc’  – how will you frame your message so the audience immediately empathizes?

If you’re selling trainers, perhaps you’ll talk about someone who’s training for a marathon. If you’re lobbying for women’s rights, perhaps you’ll tell a story of when a passing comment affected you deeply. Maybe you should think back to the decision that started your business, and start your presentation with that.

Here’s a great example of storytelling from one of the world’s top brands:

3. Use music

Music has great power to support and enhance the emotion in a video presentation, and has been proven to sustain an audience’s attention and aid in information retention. Music is used in movies to suggest an emotional state to the viewer, so why not in a video presentation?

Modern, up-tempo music will snap people to attention at the right moment, while slow, minor-key sounds relax the brain, which is useful for reviewing content so it can slip more easily into long-term memory.

It can be a struggle to find good quality  royalty free music , but here at Biteable we have a selection of great royalty free tracks (or you can upload your own if you’re that way inclined).

Music is one of the most critical (and often overlooked) aspects of any presentation. Here’s a good example of a Biteable template where the music does a great job of supporting the message.

4. Visual metaphor

Research has shown that combining pictures and text is one of the best ways to help people engage with and retain information. There’s something about how our brain works that makes text by itself far less memorable, so if you can combine something visual with your message, you’ll keep people’s attention longer and they’ll remember more of your presentation.

Talking to a group of people about taking action on something that scares them? A picture of someone diving or bungee jumping could work. Telling your boss how important that company retreat is next year? Show them an image of happy, relaxed people with their toes in the sand.

It doesn’t have to be obvious and clichéd, either. Closed doors, wide open roads, and lighting a candle all have subconscious messages that you don’t really need to explain. (Whatever you do, just don’t use the ultimate cliche: the overused  ‘water ripple’ .)

5. Use questions

Questions can be a great way to open a presentation, because they encourage the audience to think for themselves. It opens them up to a realm of critical thinking, which is perfect when you’re gonna sock it to them with your impactful message.

‘Did you know 15 billion trees are cut down each year?’

‘Have you ever considered what life would be like if you didn’t have to save money?’

The art of asking questions in a presentation means you can incorporate them into your video as a great lead-in. Combined with some appropriate music, it can really get your audience thinking about the issue, and then you’ll go on to explain exactly what your solution is.

Having a laugh can really do a lot to win over an audience. There’s no need to be too serious, and even if you’re dealing with a heavy topic, lightening the mood can work wonders.

Whether you’re looking to create a funny sales video, an event presentation, or a presentation for an interview — one thing’s for sure, you can’t go wrong by including humor.

7. Repetition

Simple. Effective. Powerful.

Repetition can be used in several ways: by offering several one-word sentences in a row (the repetition is in the rhythm), or by repeating a word or a key phrase several time throughout your presentation.

In his famous Stanford speech in 2005, for example, Steve Jobs concluded by saying  “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

Repetition is powerful. It drives home your key message and strengthens your position.

8. Motion Graphics

Motion graphics  are basically animation with text as a major component, and is a staple of what we do at Biteable.

When you use moving graphics in a presentation, it instantly captures attention. If your audience is just taking their seats, or are halfway through hearing your story, there’s no doubt they’ll sit up and take notice if you introduce some cool motion graphics, like this Meeting Tips example.

Although they can sometimes feel clichéd, quotes are a great way to impart a message in a presentation. Want your audience to understand something complex? A quote from Einstein should do it. Or would you like to say something meaningful and poetic? A couple of lines of Shakespeare should convey some wisdom.

10. Audio narration

Narration can give a different mood to your presentation, especially if the voice is powerful and the words are heartfelt. Use it to change the tone or pace of your presentation and it will certainly keep your audience hooked if there’s a danger of them losing interest.

11. Go bright with color

Color can have a huge effect on how your video comes across. Don’t be afraid to experiment. The contrasts of black and white can be extremely effective, but you can also grab people’s attention with some carefully-chosen primary and secondary colors, like in our Motion Graphics template.

12. Use illustrations

Illustrations are a great way to communicate information, especially if you’ve got lots to say. Whether you want to create a crowd of people or a cool depiction of some new fancy gadget, illustrations can draw the eye and make your presentation more interesting.

13. Infographics

When you utilize infographics, you can pack in a huge amount of data and information without confusing your audience. Think pie charts, digital numbers, and ascending animated graphs. These can show your audience boring data in an exciting way.

14. Create interesting transitions

The one advantage of video over a standard presentation is that you can do all types of funky things with transitions, like a whip pan transition, when the camera quickly pans between scenes. It’s a bit like a wipe, but much faster. Check out our full article on transitions  here .

15. Make it look cinematic

Adding a cinematic touch can help your audience feel receptive to your message because subconsciously, they will associate these elements with being at the cinema, eating popcorn, and generally having a good time.

16. Go retro

A cool, retro look for your presentation will make it hard to ignore. By going retro, you add a little bit of cheeky style to your message. You don’t need to go  quite as retro as the template below, but taking a step back in time is a sure way to add a little bit of zing to things.

17. End on a meaningful note

Your presentation will only give your audience a lasting impression if you end it right.

It’s important to let the audience know what you want them to do next: to visit a website for more information, to ponder an idea or new direction, or to take action toward a particular goal.

An attention-grabbing visual will work really well here, along with a meaningful end to the music – a change of pace, volume, or pitch.

What’s the takeaway message? A strong CTA (call to action) will ensure your presentation is memorable and much more likely to be talked about.

Video brings your presentation alive

Of course, we’re a little biased here at Biteable, but we’ve also sat through enough mind-numbingly dull presentations to know that video offers a delightful treat for your audience. It brings your message to life in a way no other medium can.

Ready to start crafting your presentation? Check out our range of templates  here .

Make stunning videos with ease.

Take the struggle out of team communication.

Try Biteable now.

• No credit card required
• No complicated design decisions
• No experience necessary

Home Blog Presentation Ideas 23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

PowerPoint presentations are not usually known for being engaging or interactive. That’s often because most people treat their slides as if they are notes to read off  and not a tool to help empower their message.

Your presentation slides are there to help bring to life the story you are telling. They are there to provide visuals and empower your speech.

So how do you go about avoiding a presentation “snoozefest” and instead ensure you have an engaging and interactive presentation?  By making sure that you use your slides to help YOU tell your story, instead of using them as note cards to read off of.

The key thing to remember is that your presentation is there to compliment your speech, not be its focus.

In this article, we will review several presentation tips and tricks on how to become a storytelling powerhouse by building a powerful and engaging PowerPoint presentation.

Start with writing your speech outline, not with putting together slides

Use more images and less text, use high-quality images, keep the focus on you and your presentation, not the powerpoint, your presentation should be legible from anywhere in the room, use a consistent presentation design, one topic per slide, avoid information overwhelm by using the “rule of three”.

• Display one bullet at a time

Avoid unnecessary animations

• Only add content that supports your main points
• Do not use PowerPoint as a teleprompter
• Never Give Out Copies of the Presentation

Re-focus the attention on you by fading into blackness

Change the tone of your voice when presenting, host an expert discussion panel, ask questions, embed videos, use live polling to get instant feedback and engage the audience.

• He kept his slides uncluttered and always strived for simplicity
• He was known to use large font size, the bigger, the better.
• He found made the complex sound simple.

He was known to practice, practice, and keep on practicing.

Summary – how to make your presentation engaging & interactive, fundamental rules to build powerful & engaging presentation slides.

Before we go into tips and tricks on how to add flair to your presentations and create effective presentations, it’s essential to get the fundamentals of your presentation right.

Your PowerPoint presentation is there to compliment your message, and the story you are telling. Before you can even put together slides, you need to identify the goal of your speech, and the key takeaways you want your audience to remember.

YOU and your speech are the focus of this presentation, not the slides – use your PowerPoint to complement your story.

Keep in mind that your slides are there to add to your speech, not distract from it.  Using too much text in your slides can be distracting and confusing to your audience. Instead, use a relevant picture with minimal text, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This slide is not unusual, but is not a visual aid, it is more like an “eye chart”.

Aim for something simpler, easy to remember and concise, like the slides below.

Keep in mind your audience when designing your presentation, their background and aesthetics sense. You will want to avoid the default clip art and cheesy graphics on your slides.

While presenting make sure to control the presentation and the room by walking around, drawing attention to you and what you are saying.  You should occasionally stand still when referencing a slide, but never turn your back to your audience to read your slide.

You and your speech are the presentations; the slides are just there to aid you.

Most season presenters don’t use anything less than twenty-eight point font size, and even Steve Jobs was known to use nothing smaller than forty-point text fonts.

If you can’t comfortably fit all the text on your slide using 28 font size than you’re trying to say and cram too much into the slide, remember tip #1.4 – Use relevant images instead and accompany it with bullets.

Best Practice PowerPoint Presentation Tips

The job of your presentation is to help convey information as efficiently and clearly as possible. By keeping the theme and design consistent, you’re allowing the information and pictures to stand out.

However, by varying the design from slide to slide, you will be causing confusion and distraction from the focus, which is you and the information to be conveyed on the slide.

Technology can also help us in creating a consistent presentation design just by picking a topic and selecting a sample template style. This is possible thanks to the SlideModel’s AI slideshow maker .

Each slide should try to represent one topic or talking point. The goal is to keep the attention focused on your speech, and by using one slide per talking point, you make it easy for you to prepare, as well as easy for your audience to follow along with your speech.

Sometimes when creating our presentation, we can often get in our heads and try to over-explain. A simple way to avoid this is to follow the “Rule of Three,” a concept coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

The idea is to stick to only 3 main ideas that will help deliver your point.  Each of the ideas can be further broken into 3 parts to explain further. The best modern example of this “Rule of Three” can be derived from the great Apple presentations given by Steve Jobs – they were always structured around the “Rule of Three.”

Display one sentence at a time

If you are planning to include text in your slides, try to avoid bullet lists, and use one slide per sentence. Be short and concise. This best practice focuses on the idea that simple messages are easy to retain in memory. Also, each slide can follow your storytelling path, introducing the audience to each concept while you speak, instead of listing everything beforehand.

Presentation Blunders To Avoid

In reality, there is no need for animations or transitions in your slides.

It’s great to know how to turn your text into fires or how to create a transition with sparkle effects, but the reality is the focus should be on the message. Using basic or no transitions lets the content of your presentation stand out, rather than the graphics.

If you plan to use animations, make sure to use modern and professional animations that helps the audience follow the story you are telling, for example when explaining time series or changing events over time.

Only add engaging content that supports your main points

You might have a great chart, picture or even phrase you want to add, but when creating every slide, it’s crucial to ask yourself the following question.

“Does this slide help support my main point?”

If the answer is no, then remove it.  Remember, less is more.

Do not use PowerPoint as a Teleprompter

A common crutch for rookie presenters is to use slides as their teleprompter.

First of all, you shouldn’t have that much text on your slides. If you have to read off something, prepare some index cards that fit in your hand but at all costs do not turn your back on your audience and read off of your PowerPoint.  The moment you do that, you make the presentation the focus, and lose the audience as the presenter.

Avoid Giving Out Copies of the Presentation

At least not before you deliver a killer presentation; providing copies of your presentation gives your audience a possible distraction where they can flip through the copy and ignore what you are saying.

It’s also easy for them to take your slides out of context without understanding the meaning behind each slide.  It’s OK to give a copy of the presentation, but generally it is better to give the copies AFTER you have delivered your speech. If you decide to share a copy of your presentation, the best way to do it is by  generating a QR code  for it and placing it at the end of your presentation. Those who want a copy can simply scan and download it onto their phones.

Tips To Making Your Presentation More Engaging

The point of your presentation is to help deliver a message.

When expanding on a particularly important topic that requires a lengthy explanation it’s best to fade the slide into black.  This removes any distraction from the screen and re-focuses it on you, the present speaker. Some presentation devices have a built-in black screen button, but if they don’t, you can always prepare for this by adding a black side to your presentation at the right moment.

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”

Part of making your presentation engaging is to use all the tools at your disposal to get your point across. Changing the inflection and tone of your voice as you present helps make the content and the points more memorable and engaging.

One easy and powerful way to make your presentation interactive is experts to discuss a particular topic during your presentation. This helps create a more engaging presentation and gives you the ability to facilitate and lead a discussion around your topic.

It’s best to prepare some questions for your panel but to also field questions from the audience in a question and answer format.

How To Make Your Presentation More Interactive

What happens if I ask you to think about a pink elephant?  You probably briefly think about a pink elephant, right?

Asking questions when presenting helps engage the audience, and arouse interest and curiosity.  It also has the added benefit of making people pay closer attention, in case they get called on.

So don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if rhetorical; asking a question engages a different part of our brain. It causes us to reflect rather than merely take in the information one way. So ask many of them.

Asking questions can also be an excellent way to build suspense for the next slide.

(Steve Jobs was known to ask questions during his presentations, in this slide he built suspense by asking the audience “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a laptop?” before revealing the iPad) Source: MacWorld SF 2018

Remember the point of your presentation is to get a message across and although you are the presenter, it is completely fine to use video in your PowerPoint to enhance your presentation.  A relevant video can give you some breathing time to prepare the next slides while equally informing the audience on a particular point.

CAUTION: Be sure to test the video beforehand, and that your audience can hear it in the room.

A trending engagement tool among presenters is to use a live polling tool to allow the audience to participate and collect immediate feedback.

Using a live polling tool is a fun and interactive way to engage your audience in real-time and allow them to participate in part of your presentation.

Google Slides has a built-in Q&A feature that allows presenters to make the slide deck more interactive by providing answers to the audience’s questions. By using the Q&A feature in Google Slides, presenters can start a live Q&A session and people can ask questions directly from their devices including mobile and smartphones.

Key Takeaways from one of the best presenters, Steve Jobs

He kept his slides uncluttered and always strove for simplicity.

In this slide, you can easily see he is talking about the battery life, and it uses a simple image and a few words. Learning from Jobs, you can also make a great presentation too. Focus on the core benefit of your product and incorporate great visuals.

Source: Macworld 2008

SlideModel.com can help to reproduce high-impact slides like these, keeping your audience engagement.

He was known to use large font sizes, the bigger, the better

A big font makes it hard to miss the message on the slide, and allows the audience to focus on the presenter while clearing the understanding what the point of the slide is.

He found made the complex sound simple

When explaining a list of features, he used a simple image and lines or simple tables to provide visual cues to his talking points.

What made Steve Jobs the master of presentation, was the ritual of practicing with his team, and this is simple yet often overlooked by many presenters.  It’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking you don’t need to practice because you know the material so well.

While all these tips will help you create a truly powerful presentation , it can only achieve if applied correctly.

It’s important to remember when trying to deliver an amazing experience, you should be thoroughly prepared. This way, you can elevate your content presentation, convey your message effectively and captivate your audience.

This includes having your research cited, your presentation rehearsed.  Don’t just rehearse your slides, also take time to practice your delivery, and your tone.  The more you rehearse, the more relaxed you will be when delivering. The more confident you will feel.

While we can’t help you with the practice of your next presentation, we can help you by making sure you look good, and that you have a great design and cohesiveness.

You focus on the message and content; we’ll focus on making you look good.

Have a tip you would like to include?  Be sure to mention it in the comments!

Like this article? Please share

Audience, Engaging, Feedback, Interactive, Poll, Rule of Three, Steve Jobs Filed under Presentation Ideas

Related Articles

Filed under Presentation Ideas • November 29th, 2023

The Power of Audience Engagement: Strategies and Examples

As presenters, captivating the interest of our viewers is the most important thing. Join us to learn all that’s required to boost audience engagement.

Filed under Business • April 30th, 2020

A Manager’s Guide to Interpersonal Communication

People are promoted to management positions for a variety of reasons. For many, they rise to the top because of their knowledge, technical skills, and decision-making capabilities. As a manager, your effectiveness also strongly depends on your ability to communicate well with your team members and other stakeholders. Here is a quick guide on Interpersonal Communication for Managers.

Filed under Business • June 27th, 2019

Using 360 Degree Feedback in Your Organization

Many organizations use 360 degree feedback to provide assessment for employees via multiple sources to analyze the knowledge, skill and behavior of employees. It is also known as multi-rater feedback, multi-source feedback, 360 Degree Review and multi-source assessment, since it is used frequently for assessing the performance of an employee and to determine his/her future […]

2 Responses to “23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations”

Very great advices!

Greetings ! A compact composed communication for the host to have an impact -VOICE

Thank You ?

Leave a Reply

VisualStory®

• Duarte DataStory®
• Presentation Principles™

Slide:ology®

• Slide Design
• Speaker Coaching
• Presenting Virtually™
• Illuminate™
• Adaptive Listening™
• Team training
• Learning journeys
• Brand and product storytelling
• Keynotes and events
• Sales enablement
• Communication systems
• Accelerator Lab™
• Our culture
• Our leaders
• Case studies
• Media mentions
• Guides and tools
• Learner support

11 tips on how to make a presentation fun

Michael Duarte

We’ve all been there … sitting in the audience of a presentation, trying our very best to pay attention, stay alert, even worse — stay awake! They don’t call it Death By PowerPoint for nothing! But it really doesn’t have to be this way! So, you’re probably wondering — how do I make a presentation fun ?

The truth is — presentations can be as fun, as interactive, as exciting, and as engaging as you make them. But the same is true for the opposite. It’s not PowerPoint’s fault that the presentation was boring, it’s the presenter’s job to bring the message to life . So, let’s start where we don’t want to end up … with a boring presentation.

What makes a boring presentation?

Here are the ingredients to avoid making a boring presentation. For starters, boring presentations feel like a monologue, not a dialogue .

• They feel like the speaker is talking at you, not with you
• The pace is slow
• They use too many filler words ; every other word is an “umm” or an “uhh”
• The organization is non-existent, making it hard to follow along
• The speaker delivers in a monotone voice
• There’s a total lack of vocal variety
• The slides haven’t been updated since 2010 or are so busy you must squint to read the text and still struggle to grasp what’s relevant … woof!

Think back to the last boring presentation you sat through. You know, the one where you found yourself checking your emails or messaging your colleagues instead of listening to the message. Maybe you muted yourself and went off camera in the zoom call because it felt more productive to multitask than to stay engaged. Of course, this hasn’t happened with one of your presentations, but we’re here to give you some tips so you can be sure you don’t fall into this terrible trap.

I can already hear those voices …

• But what about when my content is dry?
• My content is boring!
• I’ve got to present a lot of data , there’s nothing I can do to make that fun
• Most of my presentations are via Zoom, there’s no way to make it engaging

We hear you and that’s why we’re here; to tell you how to make a boring presentation fun.

What makes an interactive presentation?

Every great presentation needs to start off by thinking about the audience.

• Who are they
• Why are they here
• What do they need to hear?

At every step of the presentation design , we should be thinking about our audience and how to make our message relevant to them. This is a great foundation for how to make a presentation fun and interactive.

1. Think about your content

Sure, there’s so much you can say about the topic you need to speak on, but consider your audience and edit out the stuff that isn’t relevant to them and your goals for the talk. Boring presentations often feel like streams of consciousness, wandering off into tangents. Focusing your message helps curate your content for the audience and helps to ensure they stay engaged.

Maybe there’s a good chunk of data you need to deliver. Consider ways you can make the data interactive. Add in animations to call out data you’re speaking to on that otherwise busy chart. Make the numbers meaningful for your audience by connecting to things that are relevant or familiar to them.

An example of connecting to your audience with data

For example, in a pitch to a Philadelphia-based organization, rather than saying, “We sold over 200,000 units last month alone,” you might say something like, “We could fill every seat in Lincoln Financial Field’s stadium three times over with the number of units we sold last month alone. That’s over 200,000 units.” Now they get a sense of the scale! And a solid dose of fun, which made that list of numbers much more engaging. Now your audience is paying a little closer attention because you’ve connected your message with something relevant to them.

2. Think about your slides

Slides should be a boon to your presentation, there to support, underscore, or enhance your message. Slides can be interactive when you select:

• And examples that keep your audience in mind

Bringing up a case study from a relevant industry, for example, is a way to show your audience you’ve thought of them and demonstrates you’re not simply delivering the same message to every person who will sit and listen.

Swapping out visuals or data points with your audience in mind is a great way to build engagement in your deck. Busy, noisy slides can also take away from how interactive your presentation is. Your audience should be listening to you speak, not reading paragraph by paragraph on the slide.

If that much content goes on the slide, consider sending it in an email instead, or as a pre-read via a Slidedoc™ . Audiences would rather just read it themselves than join a meeting for a corporate read-a-long. Remember, by simplifying and streamlining your slides, this opens up space on the screen for engagement.

3. Think about your delivery

And last but not least, being interactive in your delivery is key when it comes to how to make a presentation fun. No one likes feeling like they’re being talked at. And that’s the recipe for a boring presentation. You know, Peanuts teacher style, you just start to hear the wha, wha, wha, wha-wah, wha-wah. That does not make an interactive presentation. Build in engagement by asking rhetorical questions, getting audience involvement, when appropriate, and delivering with dynamism.

Why you should care about audience engagement?

Engaging messages stick. Engaging presentations are meaningful and memorable. And isn’t that the point of presentations in the first place? You don’t want your message to live in the vacuum of that single meeting or talk, but live on, be passed on to decision-makers and action-takers, or be applied by your audience well-beyond the 30 minutes that you had the presentation floor.

In addition to your message being memorable, you become memorable as well when your message is engaging. Good presentation skills are at the top of nearly every job skills list, whatever your industry. When you’re someone who can be relied on to deliver engaging messages, your opportunities expand significantly.

Needless to say, engagement can go a long way and has a ton of benefits, so let’s highlight some of the simple steps you can take if you’re considering how to make a presentation fun.

How do you make a presentation fun?

As we’ve already discussed above, there are so many ways you can make a presentation engaging and fun as well as some important things to consider when it comes to your audience, content, slides, and delivery. But what are some specific things you might do when you’re wondering about how to make a presentation fun.

• 1. Bring the energy and deliver with dynamism – If fun is what you’re looking to deliver, bringing energy to your message will help bring energy to the room. If you’re having fun with your presentation, your audience will too. So build in fun through vocal variety, movement, gestures, and facial expressions.
• 2. Make it interactive – Get the audience engaged early by asking for a show of hands. Integrate rhetorical questions to get them thinking. Or invite their participation by welcoming their thoughts throughout. Questions, polls, or even getting your audience in the zoom to pop an emoji in the chat can be a great way to build in a bit of fun.
• 3. Personalize the message – Whenever you can bring in examples, images, or stories that are relevant to your particular audience, do it. They’ll be so much more connected to your message, making it all the more memorable.
• 4. Bring in variety – Have fun with the mediums you use to get your message across. Presentations don’t have to just be one-way communication. A combination of speaking, interactivity, media clips or powerful images, and data bring variety to the presentation and keep your audience engaged.
• 5. Build in some breadcrumbs – Maybe your presentation starts with a question that doesn’t get fully answered until the end. Or maybe you offer breadcrumbs throughout inviting your audience to help solve the problem, answer the question, or consider solutions throughout. This approach, when it fits the message, is a great way to keep the audience engaged and have a little fun with it too.
• 6. Demo – Live demos are a great way to build in fun to your presentation, especially when you invite the audience in to help decide next steps, choose-your-own-adventure style.
• 7. Humor – Adding a little levity, when appropriate, is a great way to bring fun into your presentation. When our content writers are writing keynotes, they’ll often take a “levity pass” to see if there’s opportunity to bring in some humor and bring out the personalities of the leaders they are writing for.
• 8. Surprise your audience – A different format or approach brings an element of surprise and a bit of fun into presentations. Things like props, short sketches, playful videos, a hidden surprise under a seat in the audience, or dramatic lights-out moment deliver the unexpected and some fun. We’ve seen these used with great success and audiences leave delighted.

Take a presentation course

So you’re ready to build in that element of fun, now what? When it comes to training on how to make a presentation fun, look no further than these Duarte workshops.

Resonate ® is where to go when you want to make your content compelling and … you guessed it…resonate with your audience. Ideas have the potential to create groundswell, but often we give presentations that fail to engage and inspire action. Why?

Because we miss the opportunity to use the power of story to move our audiences. We’ve found that influential presentations use story principles. And what better way to infuse fun into your presentations than to integrate story. This course helps reshape the way you develop content, using story structure and audience empathy to make your presentations more persuasive.

Captivate ™ is where to go when you want to improve your delivery. You’ve finished your research, you’ve crafted relevant and compelling content. You may even have created stunning slides. But you still need to deliver perfectly . After all, great content cannot move people if it’s not delivered well. Luckily, great public speaking is a skill everyone can learn.

Captivate gives you the model and tools to become a more comfortable, dynamic, and empathetic speaker. This highly participatory workshop uses a mix of instruction, examples, and live coaching sessions so you can immediately put your new skills to practice.

VisualStory ® is where you go when you’re looking to ramp up your storytelling and visual design skills. The most persuasive presentations in the world today combine story with visual design. VisualStory gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of both narrative and visuals in a consolidated format.

An interactive workshop built on the principles in Nancy Duarte’s best-selling books, Slide:ology ® and Resonate ®, this workshop combines the best of both worlds to build better, visually persuasive presentations.

Infusing fun into presentations makes them more engaging, more memorable, and helps your message stick. Elevating your content, slides, and delivery is a no-brainer on how to make a presentation fun. Are you ready to get started?

• Hire our agency to do it for you. Duarte’s talented, content writers, designers, and speaker coaches are ready to help you captivate audiences and inspire action for your next high stakes presentation. Learn more here .
• Take a course to do it yourself. Learn from the best when it comes to presentation design, content, and delivery. Whether you’re looking for ways to improve your storytelling, make your data meaningful, or elevate your presentation skills, we’ve got the training to help you. Learn more here .

Check out these related courses

Structure and storyboard a talk

Analyze your audience and organize your ideas into a story structure that will move them. Transform content into visual concepts and build a storyboard for your presentation.

Craft a persuasive talk

Learn how the world’s greatest speakers use story to persuade. Develop a story structure that powerfully expresses your ideas, applying the principles of empathy, contrast, and variety.

Presentation Principles™

Learn presentation basics

Follow a step-by-step method to write compelling stories, amplify ideas visually, and present with confidence while learning at your own pace.

Turn ideas into visuals

Use visual thinking and design principles to transform information into effective and memorable graphics for presentations.

Create “skimmable” documents

Build helpful pre-reads and impactful leave-behinds with presentation software to support knowledge sharing and decision-making.

Check out these related resources

10 ways to interact with audience members while you present

Want to avoid giving a boring presentation? Learn 10 audience interaction tips to incorporate in your next presentation, and keep your audience engaged.

How to master audience engagement when you present

Looking for audience engagement strategies to keep an audience engaged during a presentation? We’ll teach all the presentation techniques to engage and audience from concept to delivery.

Product launches should be a big deal

Explore the analysis of Steve Ballmer’s Windows 7 launch speech, dissecting key sections and sharing insights on what could have been improved.

The secret to writing a call to action in a persuasive speech

Struggling to write a call-to-action for your speech or presentation? Make sure you address the 4 audience types so your CTAs are met with success.

Everything you need to know about using speaker notes in PowerPoint®

Learn all the Powerpoint hacks with speaker notes from an expert presentation designer. Easily design and prepare for your next presentation with ease.

Good business communication demands a 3 act story structure

Learn why effective business communication needs a storytelling framework to influence and inspire. The 3 act structure is a timeless principle to employ in your next presentation or big-stage moment.

                                      LIVE 1-HOUR CLASSES AVAILABLE 

Categories:

• Storytelling

9 Ways To Turn a Boring Topic Into An Engaging Presentation

Hey! Wake up!

Do you have to present on a boring topic?

Let’s do something about that!

The first thing you need to know is that your topic is fine!

Initially, almost all my client’s say that their subjects are boring, and other people have more interesting topics. Whether they are presenting about Marketing, Economics, Biotechnology, Big Data, Quality Assurance, Deep Learning Algorithms, or Sales, they always point outside to other fields and departments and say that others have more interesting topics.

If I buy into their premises, then there will be no interesting topics on this whole earth.

That’s why I share the belief of the English philosopher, G.K. Chesterton, that there are not any dull topics out there; there are only disinterested audiences.

That’s closer to the truth. So, instead of blaming your subject for being boring, you can start to look for ways to stir your audience’s interest (and awaken their minds.)

If your topic is not perceived as hot and sexy enough, then you need to speak about it with more confidence, authority, and conviction and soon people will be interested. Think about it like this: if Tobacco Companies sold smoking cigarettes as sexy, I am very sure you can sell your topic too.

Here are some ways to help you get your audience interested in your topic:

1- Start with why

How you start your presentation will determine if people listen to you or not. Two of the big questions your audience members have when they are in the room with you is “Why am I here?” “Why is this is important to me?”

If you don’t quickly tell them why they should care about the topic; then the audience will focus on other items they deem more important.

Simon Sink started a whole movement based on the idea that companies that explain the why of their product end up on top of the food chain. He stated in his famous Ted talk that the fundamental difference between the “Apples” of the world and everyone else is that Apple always starts with “why.”

Sinek based his idea on the fact that people are starving for meaning and relevance. I add that we live in a busy and noisy world, and your audience is careful with their time and attention. If you don’t show them the reason they should listen, then they will tune you out.

Now, starting with why does not mean that you forget about the why throughout the presentation. You have to keep connecting your topic to your audience’s interests throughout the talk.

Remember, your audience is always listening to one radio station: WIFM . What’s In it For Me. And to keep them interested in the topic, you have to keep tying your topic back to their interests.

2- Be interested in your topic

If you think your topic is boring, then how can you expect anyone else to like it when you present.

It’s impossible.

People will detect your lack of passion, disinterest, and insecurities about the topic. Your disinterest is like a virus that spreads and infects everyone around you.

Besides, even if you hint that your topic is boring, you will be missing out on an enormous influence phenomena: It’s called Social Curiosity Driver.

The Social Curiosity Driver tells us that if other people show interest in something in front of you, then we will get curious too.

Example, you are walking down the street, and you see ten people staring and pointing at the sky with amazed looks on their faces.

Would you be interested in finding out what they are looking at?

Of course, it’s human nature.

Now imagine leveraging that same phenomenon in your presentations.

Next time you present get interested in your topic and don’t fake it; just tap into real interest , and you will see how this will peak the curiosity of your audience. They will be sitting there, saying to themselves, “I don’t know what she sees in the topic, but there must be something interesting here.”

Social Curiosity Driver is a biologically hardwired phenomena. Don’t miss out on it.

Remember, if you can’t get yourself interested in what you are talking about, there is no way you will get your audience to be interested.

3- Let your personality shine through

Even, if you topic is boring – which is not.

Don’t be a boring person yourself.

Nearly every day, people ask you what you do for a living, you engage in conversation about your work, and maybe tell work-related anecdotes.

Sometimes our preconceived notions about how to put together and give a presentation can interfere with the important and simple goal of being interesting.

Don’t be constricted by a particular telling of the story on the slides. Be yourself. Interject anecdotes that support your talk. Add context with interesting “did you know” facts.Look your topic up on Wikipedia, and you might find out something you never knew before.

For example, if you’re talking about cash vs. accrual accounting, did you know that U.S. tax authorities started accepting accrual methods in 1916? That means 2016 is the 100th anniversary of accrual! Pretty exciting stuff! I am not in accounting, and I find that fascinating as an entrepreneur.

Your topic is not boring, and you are not boring.

Personal Confession:

Somehow, when I was an engineer, I bought into the misleading cultural premise that engineers are not exciting; that they are boring people. Honestly, I bought into it because it allowed me to be lazy and not have to try too hard to make my topic interesting to my audience.

Please don’t make the same mistake. Whatever you do for a living can be fascinating. You just have to put some effort into it.

Nowadays, I work with so many professionals, directors, and C-level executives from many industries, and when I see them put just a little bit of effort, they turn into superstar presenters and the go to people in their organization to represent the whole company.

4- There is no such thing as a boring topic, only boring angles

When you talk to reporters, they always use the word “angle.” The angle is how you approach and present about a subject. Reporters know the power of the angle, and that’s how they get you interested in reading their stories.

So instead of complaining about your boring topic, think, what angle should I use to get people interested in this topic.

A computer science client of mine was presenting in front of neuroscientists. Instead of jumping into his algorithms right away, he started talking about some problems neuroscientists are facing and then presented his work as a possible interesting solution to those problems. The audience was riveted instead of bored to death with algorithms. That’s an example of a good angle.

Let’s say for example your topic is doodling. Or what happens when you encounter a broken web page and get a “404” error message. Hard to imagine less interesting subjects isn’t it? Somehow “Doodlers Unite” and “404, The Story of a Page Not Found” are among a list of the 22 best TED Talks ever !

That’s an example of how Renny Gleeson found a great angle to present on the topic of 404 error messages.

TED Talks can be great examples of making any subject interesting.

Sure, many TED speakers speak on what we might think of as interesting topics like business, information technology, and public policy.

But there are hundreds and hundreds of speakers who give interesting talks on how to be a better grocery shopper, how painting a house led to a better community, and the physics of pizza.

Notice that all good Ted talks have good angles.

5- Break up the flow of the presentation

Maybe your presentation topic requires information dense, flat and “uninteresting” (or difficult to absorb) slides. One way to make this type of presentation more interesting is to break up the flow.

At appropriate points in the story, you could stop, insert an audience poll, a video, a graphic of a recent news item, or a quote relevant to the topic.

Some free or inexpensive audience polling tools work well with PowerPoint, such as Poll Everywhere , and ParticiPoll . The Tech Republic has some suggestions on others.

If a poll is not appropriate, you can utilize a variety of interactive games to make your presentation more interesting. Use interactive techniques that work with your personality.

6- Include something entirely irrelevant in your presentation

Can you guess what the image above means?

It means nothing 🙂 Just wanted to add a break to demonstrate the point below:

If your audience has a sense of humor and the occasion is appropriate, some speakers like to break up a presentation by inserting something entirely irrelevant to re-engage the audience.

For example, if the time of year/timing is right you could pick one of your favorite holiday photos and put it on the slide and speak to it. Some people add a photo of their family or a picture of their car. You could even acknowledge, “Hey I know this material is a little demanding so I thought we’d take a break and talk about Thanksgiving dinner. Ir will be a quick break to help you digest the material better.”

In the Science of Influence, this is called, “breaking state.” If people get in a bored state, the best way to get them out of it is to break that state. One of the best ways to do so is to do something completely off topic.

While this does briefly interrupt your story, it can be an effective way to rekindle the participation of audience members who may have started checking email or are otherwise losing their focus on your presentation.

It’s a great technique especially late in the afternoon when people are sleepy from lunch.

Always give a reason for the break, or when you talk about irrelevant things, otherwise, some of your audience will think you are wasting their time.

Here are some examples of reasons you can use for introducing something irrelevant to the topic:

1- “Just to give you a little break from the material, I wanted to ….”

2- “To help you compartmentalize the previous information and separate it from the rest of the talk, I would like to introduce a quick visual break….”

3- “Just to break this dense material up a little bit, I wanted to give a quick break…”

7- Take a different approach to slide design

You can make a “seemingly” flat topic more lively by taking an innovative approach to slide design.

Who doesn’t have a hard time looking at spreadsheets and bullet points for 45 minutes or an hour? What if instead, you use a historical theme for your presentation, supporting it with memorable images from the past that help supports your speaking point?

If you want to consider using images from the past, the National History Education Clearinghouse offers some great resources for finding memorable images online. And of course, there’s ever faithful Google Image Search. But with all of these, you’ll want to consider copyright implications if you give your presentation publicly or publish it.

You can even change up the color palette of your theme. The popularity of various colors has changed over the years. Here’s a blog post on historical color themes you can use to give your presentation a retro look that might fit the story you’re trying to tell. Don’t settle for the generic templates all the people in your department use. Think outside the box and use more interesting templates.

It’s a general rule of presentation design that form follows function. In other words, the data you are presenting and the concepts that you’re trying to get across are more important than the graphics. But you can use an unusual graphical concept if it does not interfere with getting your message across, and it can help give your presentation some variety and make it more interesting to your audience.

8- Offer people an Easter egg

Easter eggs are something children hunt for on Easter. But it’s also a term from the world of movies. An Easter egg is a little something the director or producer has hidden in the scene with perhaps secret or additional meaning. You could put one or more Easter eggs in your presentation.

Let me explain how you would do that. Let’s continue with the accounting example. You could start your presentation by telling people that there are three references to famous economists hidden throughout your presentation, and at the end of your talk, you’ll ask your audience if anyone found all three.

If you’re an author, you can even offer a free copy of your book to the first person to correctly identify all three references. You’d be surprised at how closely people pay attention when they are challenged to be competitive.

9- Create the illusion of a conversation to hook your audience

Your audience doesn’t want you to “speak at” them. They want you to engage them in a conversation. Since the presentation format is restrictive, you sometimes have to create the illusion of a conversation.

The best way to do that is to use rhetorical questions. These are questions that you ask and then answer on stage. Rhetorical questions create the illusion of dialog when presenting and instinctively interest your audience.

Here is a formula to use when applying rhetorical questions:

1- Make a point

2- Ask a question about the point

3 – Answer

Here is an example that I use:

1- Make a point: Public Speaking is hard.

2- Ask a question about the point: So why is public speaking hard?

3 – Answer: The answer is not because we are stupid. It’s because we are conditioned all our lives to think that it’s hard. Since childhood, we have been conditioned not to speak up in class, not to challenge authority and not to make eye contact with strangers.

And after all, that, as adults we are expected to drop years of conditioning, stand up, make eye contact, and speak up to give presentations in front of groups of strangers.

Using rhetorical questions along with open ended and closed ended questions will turn your topic into an engaging presentation. When your audience feels that they are active participants in your presentation they will get a sense of ownership in the topic and that alone will keep them interested.

Conclusion:

How to Make a “Boring Topic” Interesting? Leverage available tools and practices to interest people in your topic. After all, there are no boring subjects only disinterested minds. Figure out how to re-interest those minds and you can become a fascinating person in your peer group at work.

How To Copy The Public Speaking Masters

Take a Presentation From Good To Great By Setting Boundaries

Three things that erode your speaking confidence.

How to Run a Project Kickoff Meeting Successfully

What Makes a Good Presentation? How to Make a PowerPoint 101

Clémence Daniere

Table of contents

How to create a powerpoint presentation, presentation tips and tricks.

• Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

Subscribe to TechSmith’s Newsletter

Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other slide presentations have become an absolutely essential part of any presentation.

They’re easy to use, offer a great way to combine images, video, and text, and require almost no training.

So, why are so many presentations so boring?

All the elements are there for creating effective, eye-catching, and engaging presentations, but so often we’re forced to sit through slide after slide of overcrowded, hard-to-read text and fuzzy (or non-existent) images.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to make your presentations dazzle with just a few easy tips.

Your slide deck has the power to add to or take away from the overall effectiveness of your presentation. Learning how to make a presentation more interesting requires skillful collaboration between the strength of your content and knowing how to make your slides look good. 

So, before you open PowerPoint, let’s go through some basics.

Less is more

Less is more with slide content.  

Your slides should not be stuffed with content, especially text-heavy content. Incorporating bullet points helps your audience follow your message without getting distracted by trying to read the slide.

Use engaging slide designs

You don’t have to start from scratch with every presentation! Chances are, you are not a graphic designer so why not use the templates that have been created by professionals ? 

Using presentation templates can help you make PowerPoint slides, Google slides, or slides for other platforms as well without spending too much time trying to create a professional look. 

You can easily find templates online through Slidesgo and Slidescarnival for Google Slides and for PowerPoint. Each of these platforms offers themes within their software as well. 

All you’ll need to do is make minor adjustements to the design!

Be on-brand

Using consistent branding is an easy way to build familiarity and trust with your audience. If you have an established brand in place be sure to use it when building your slides.  

The colors and fonts used in your design should always adhere to your brand standards without deviation. 

If you don’t have a brand guide to work from, select a specific color palette, using color theory to ensure the message of your presentation is not counteracted by your color choices. 

Stick with just a few colors, and go the same route with fonts. Only choose a few to use, and avoid overly scripted options as they are difficult to read on screen.

Use visual aids

Visuals make a huge difference in your presentations. But there are a few rules to follow.

Stick with high-quality images. Adding images to your slides that are blurry, pixelated, or otherwise low in quality is an easy way to quickly disengage with your audience.

If you don’t have access to high-quality branded photos, use sites like Unsplash and Shutterstock .

Plus, adding screenshots can make your presentation more interesting than stock photos. 

Annotate and edit screenshots with Snagit

Professional mark-up tools and powerful features make it easy to create helpful images.

Share data analytics or upcoming project plans by taking a simple screenshot. Screenshots are the perfect addition to your presentations.

Third-party tools like Snagit are made just for that. You can add callouts , arrows , and other tools that draw your audience’s attention . 

For a more fun visual, use GIFs to highlight some key points.

GIFs are a great middle-ground option between static images and videos. They can be used effectively to drive home a specific point or to highlight a specific piece of data.  

Visuals always help with memorability and GIFs usually include a touch of humor and personality – both qualities that help information stick.

You can make your own GIFs using Snagit so that they are perfectly catered to your presentation.

We live in a video world. Embedding videos directly into your slides can play a role in creating an interesting presentation. 

Videos can be an easy way to show a tutorial or demonstrate a process. Whatever your presentation is about, there are videos you can make or outsource that will support your point.

However, using too many videos can take away the impact your own content has. Try to stick to three or fewer videos in one presentation. 

According to Forbes , thirty to sixty seconds is ideal for a presentation video.

You want your visual aids to support your presentation, not take over it. The focus of your presentation should still be you and the value you are bringing to your audience!

Video messages > meetings

Record your screen and camera with Snagit for quick updates and feedback.

For your presentation to shine, you need to combine storytelling, authenticity, and visual aids.  

Basically, it’s all about what you say and how you say it.

Tell a story 

Often times when we think about how to make an effective presentation, we focus on the visuals. We add animations and transitions, hoping that will keep our audience engaged. 

If most of your attention and time is spent on design, you are missing out on a key element that is crucial for making presentations interesting – the story. 

The best presentations draw in their viewers with a relatable narrative, but the narrative also helps the presentation to gain memorability as well. 

You should be spending a large portion of your preparation time crafting your content – the actual information you will be sharing and how you will be sharing it. It doesn’t matter how good your slide designs are if they aren’t supporting compelling content. 

You don’t have to weave an epic tale for your presentation, but if you are looking to make your presentation interesting you need to incorporate some storytelling aspects, like personal connection and impact.

To achieve your purpose, you’ll need an outline. That way, your purpose is kept at the center of your presentation and you follow a familiar structure. You need to make sure that you have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Just like a regular story!

Presentations that are interesting from beginning to end take the audience on a journey. Steer away from reciting facts and from long tangents. Find a middle ground that’s personable and informative!

To create an interesting presentation, be sure you structure your content in a way that makes it easy to tell the story and provide your audience with a journey that is relevant and memorable. 

Be authentic and engaging

A key point that often gets forgotten when preparing presentations? YOU are the presentation.  

Leslie Chamberlain , Senior Director, Customer Education explains on The Visual Lounge Podcast :

“What it comes down to. Whenever you’re doing any kind of presentation, whether you’re doing it on a video, whether you’re doing it in front of folks in person, it comes down to your audience is building the relationship with you. Your slides, your images are not the presentation. You are the presentation. So as you go forward to present, be true to yourself, speak from your heart, and enjoy every minute of it.”

Lean into the parts of your personality that best serve the presentation’s purpose. Tell personal stories, speak in the same manner you normally do, and be open. Public speaking is always a little daunting, but with confidence, you can achieve anything!

Your body language should be easygoing, so try to use natural hand gestures and smile. Make sure to maintain eye contact with audience members. It will create a bond between you and them, which will increase their confidence in you.

Your energy is contagious. To make your presentation more interesting, you’ve got to bring the right energy. 

High-energy presenters get more engagement from their audiences while coming in with low energy is a surefire way to destroy any hope of engagement, regardless of how good a story you have crafted with your presentation’s content. 

Memorize your content rather than relying on reading your slides, and be sure to use different speeds and volumes throughout the presentation to make it more interesting, draw attention to specific points, and present authentically.

And don’t forget to use organic visuals in your presentation to support your purpose and drive home the information you’re sharing. 

Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

To wrap it up, you can make a video of your presentation. That way, you’ll be able to use it again in the future without going through the hassle of presenting over and over.

To do so, you can simply video record your screen and your camera. With Snagit, you can do so easily and use some fun tools like Screen Draw to direct attention to certain parts of your slides. 

Record your screen effortlessly

Share quick updates, record presentations, and create how-to videos with Snagit!

Once you’re done recording and making simple edits, send the video as a link through Screencast. Hit the Share Link button to create a unique link to your video. Then, send it out to anyone who might’ve missed your presentation!

This is also a great way to get feedback on your presentation before it happens. Record a mock-up presentation using Snagit, and send it to your team for honest, constructive criticism. That way, your presentation will be so much better when the day comes!

Additional Resources

How to create a training manual, how to create process documentation in just a few clicks, the best way to quickly take a scrolling screenshot.

Category 9 minutes read

10 creative ideas for presentations

December 8, 2022

Ready to step up your presentation game? Let’s talk about creative ideas for presentations so you can deliver killer presentations every time. Whether you’re preparing a pitch deck for potential investors or onboarding new hires, you’ll need an engaging presentation to keep your audience interested. That’s right: even if you’re already a pro at public speaking, creative Powerpoint presentations can instantly upgrade your next meeting.

So, what’s the secret to creative presentations? You don’t have to spend hours on every slide, but you should design your slides to impact your audience. Well designed slides can add more power to your words, and they can make you feel more confident during presentations.

Why should you make presentations?

Creative ideas for presentations might not be easy to come by, but they’re important. Why? Presentations are all about storytelling. From business ideas to online classes, presentations offer a unique opportunity to inspire, educate, and persuade your audience.

At the same time, they’re an incredibly flexible (and cost-effective!) communication tool. Even if you’re using presentation design templates , you’ll have the flexibility to tweak the design based on your needs. This way, you can create presentations for different audiences—all while easily adding and removing information to pique your listeners’ interest.

Types of presentation slides

There are all kinds of creative ideas for presentations, but they ultimately serve a few similar purposes. Before diving into presentation design, you’ll need to choose the right slides. Remember: you need well designed slides to leave a lasting impact on your audience. Not only that, but your slides should be visually impactful, easy to understand, and convey key information in just a few words.

So, how can you choose the best slides for your next presentation? Here are some of the most common slides to inspire your presentation design.

Informative presentations

Informative presentations are educational, concise, and straight to the point. While other presentations might entertain or inspire their audience, informative presentations share information to educate their audience.

For example, you might create informative slides during an onboarding program. During new hire onboarding, HR needs to explain what benefits employees will receive, how to file complaints, where employees can find information, and other important hiring details.

Educational presentations

While informative presentations are typically used in the business world, educational presentations are usually used in academics. They’re a great communication tool for sharing ideas, detailing study results, or presenting a hypothesis.

In both in-person and online classrooms, teachers give educational presentations daily. Using beautiful presentation slides, eye-catching visuals, and fun design elements can help keep students interested while conveying key information.

Progress reports

Your business builds a new marketing strategy to achieve its long-term goals. After the newest marketing campaign starts driving results, it’s time to report on the campaign’s progress. Progress report presentations share updates, progress toward deadlines, collected data, and potential areas of improvement.

Inspirational presentations

One of the biggest examples of inspirational presentations? TEDTalks. During TEDTalks, motivational speakers inspire people to rethink their approach or change their behavior.

Most inspirational presentations aren’t as life-changing as TEDTalks, but they keep their audience engaged. For example, a company overview presentation might present information about a company, from its origins to values. Most importantly, it tells the company’s story to show listeners what the company stands for.

Infographic presentations

Whether you’re reporting marketing stats or presenting study results, infographics can be your MVP.

Simply put, an infographic is a multimedia graphic that helps you share information through beautiful designs. It’s an amazing tool for highlighting key statistics, visualizing data, and flexing your creative muscles to spark your audience’s curiosity.

Top 10 unique presentation ideas

Right, so let’s get to our creative ideas for presentations section. Most people tune out of presentations within the first 10 minutes . You need an engaging presentation that keeps your audience hooked, but finding creative ideas for presentations isn’t always easy.

The good news? Whether you’re presenting your master thesis or marketing analytics, it’s possible to create exciting presentations that don’t put your audience to sleep. Here are the best creative Powerpoint ideas to upgrade your next presentation.

1. Channel your inner minimalist

When it comes to unique presentation ideas, minimalism is one of the best ways to make an impact. The key to minimalist design is including just enough information and visual detail to keep your audience engaged. When done right, minimalist presentation slides can make your audience feel relaxed and focused.

2. Use a monochrome color palette

A monochrome color palette uses a single hue with different strengths. For example, you might create a presentation with different shades of orange. For the best results, change the background color to the palest shade, and use the strongest shade for the title. You can even make your photos match by adding an orange-tinted filter.

3. Tell an amazing story

If you want to leave a lasting impact on your audience, storytelling is the tool you need to create a memorable presentation. Sharing personal stories, whether they’re funny or inspirational, can help you connect with your audience and make your presentation more meaningful.

4. Make an impact with bold fonts

Want to draw your audience’s attention to the slide title? Use a bold, chunky font to make your title stand out (bonus points if your title is short, sweet, and straight to the point). The best presentation fonts are easy to read with minimal visual decorations and sharp corners.

5. Experiment with different textures

Mix up your presentation design with different textures, like scrunched paper or textile backgrounds. Here, you might experiment with different types of backgrounds to match your topic. For example, if you’re creating a back-to-school presentation , use notebook paper to match your student’s note-taking style.

6. Use a geometric background

A geometric background can add a pop of color to your presentation without distracting your audience. If you’re feeling bold, use dynamic titled polygons to create movement. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a softer vibe, use circular backgrounds to infuse your slides with creativity.

7. Explain complex concepts with mind maps

Presenting study results? Reporting marketing stats? Instead of playing it safe with snore-worthy slides, keep your presentation fresh with mind maps. By creating mind maps, you’ll be able to showcase complicated information in a visually impactful way.

8. Engage your audience with questions

Make your presentation more interactive by asking questions to your audience. For example, to keep your slides minimal, try displaying only the question on the slide. Once the audience has pitched in their opinions and answers, you can click to the next slide to reveal the actual answer.

9. Stay on brand

Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention, you need a consistent design to keep everyone on the same page. When designing your slides, use your brand’s style guidelines to choose the right color scheme, font styles, and design elements.

10. Replace bullet points with fun design elements

Let’s face it: bullet points can get boring, especially if you’re using them on every slide. Instead of using the same design over and over, create fun slides by replacing boring bullet points with fun designs, like icons, stickers, and pictograms.

Apply creative ideas for presentations through Picsart

Now that we’ve learned all about creative ideas for presentations, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice. An amazing presentation can bring your story to life, helping you keep your audience engaged with pro-grade slides.

Even if you’re not a seasoned designer, you can add fun design elements, bold color palettes, and attention-grabbing visuals with Picsart. Here’s how to bring your creative vision to life with a professional slideshow.

On the web:

1. Open the Picsart Slideshow Maker and start a new project.

2. Choose the desired size for your slideshow. Then, click Upload to upload your own photo or video.

Or, you can explore photos and videos from the Picsart library.

3. After you’ve picked your favorite design, click Text on the left panel sidebar to add text to your slide.

4. To add music, click Audio to explore our library of #FreeToUse music.

5. Click the + button on the right panel sidebar to add a new slide.

6. When you’re finished, click Export , choose the image quality and file type, and download your slideshow.

1. Open the Picsart app and tap on the plus sign (+) to start a new project. 2. Scroll down to Video and choose Slideshow . Then, choose the pictures you’d like to include in your slideshow. Or, you can tap Search to explore the Picsart photo library. 3. After you’ve picked your photos, tap Next .

4. Choose your desired slideshow size and add transition effects to your slides. 5. Upgrade your slideshow with fun effects, music, text, and stickers to engage your audience.

Create at the Speed of Culture

Picsart is a photo and video editing platform and creative community. A top 20 most downloaded app worldwide with over 150 million monthly active users, its AI-powered tools enable creators of all levels to design, edit, draw, and share content anywhere. The platform has amassed one of the largest open-source content collections in the world, including photos, stickers, backgrounds, templates, and more. Used by consumers, marketers, content creators and businesses , Picsart tools fulfill both personal and professional design needs. Picsart has collaborated with major artists and brands like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app or start editing on web today, and upgrade to Gold for premium perks!

Related articles

Inspirational News

Celebrating our creators: Picsart’s community favorites poll results

Inspirational

From Burn to Bloom: A Queer Writer’s Journey to Self Discovery, Community and Starting a Business

Happy Birthday Picsart Spaces! Celebrating One Year of Community and Creativity

The best 11 free handwriting fonts in 2024

Related tags

• Alternatives

Make an Interactive Quiz on PowerPoint in 30 Secs (Free Templates)

Leah Nguyen • 09 August, 2024 • 4 min read

As the world shifts, PowerPoint presentations will not go anywhere soon as statistics suggest that more than 35 million presentations are presented each day.

With PPT becoming so mundane and boring, with the audience's shortened attention span as a cherry on top, why not spice things up a bit and create an interactive PowerPoint quiz that reels them in and gets them involved?

In this article, our AhaSlides team will guide you through easy and digestible steps on how to make an interactive quiz on PowerPoint , plus customisable templates to save heaps of time🔥

Table of Contents

How to make an interactive quiz on powerpoint.

Forget the complicated setup on PowerPoint that took you a stinking 2-hour and more, there's a much better way to have a quiz out in minutes on PowerPoint - using a quiz maker for PowerPoint.

Step 1: Create a Quiz

• First, head over to AhaSlides and create an account if you haven't already.
• Click "New Presentation" in your AhaSlides dashboard.
• Click the "+" button to add new slides, then choose any type of question from the "Quiz" section. Quiz questions have correct answer(s), scores and leaderboards and a pre-game lobby for everyone to interact.
• Play with colours, fonts, and themes to match your style or brand.

Or use the AhaSlides' AI slides generator to help create quiz questions. Simply add your prompt, then choose within 3 modes: Funnier, Easier or Harder to fine-tune the PPT quiz to your liking.

Step 2: Download Quiz Plugin on PowerPoint

After you are done with these steps, open your PowerPoint, click "Insert" - "Get Add-ins" and add AhaSlides to your PPT add-in collection.

Add the quiz presentation you have created on AhaSlides to PowerPoint.

This quiz will stay on one slide, and you can use keyboard shortcuts to move to the next quiz slide, show the QR code for people to join, and put on quiz celebration effects like confetti to motivate the audience.

Step 3: Run an Interactive Quiz on PowerPoint

After you are done with the set-up, it's time to share your elaborated quiz with the world.

When you present your PowerPoint in slideshow mode, you'll see the join code appear on the top. You can click on the small QR code symbol to make it appear larger so everyone can scan and join on their devices.

🔎Tip: There are keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate the quiz better.

When everyone has appeared in the lobby, you can start your interactive quiz in PowerPoint.

Bonus: Review Your Quiz Statistics Post-event

AhaSlides will save the attendants' activity in your AhaSlides presentation account . After closing the PowerPoint quiz, you can review it and see the submission rate or feedback from the participants. You can also export the report to PDF/Excel for further analysis.

Start in seconds.

Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

Free PowerPoint Quiz Templates

Get started quickly with our PowerPoint quiz templates down here. Remember to have the AhaSlides add-in ready in your PPT presentation💪

#1. True or False Quiz

Featuring 4 rounds and over 20 thought-provoking questions covering a wide range of topics, this template is perfect for parties, team-building events, or simply a fun way to test your knowledge.

#2. English Language Lesson Template

Sharpen your students' English skills and get them involved in the lesson from start to finish with this fun English quiz. Use AhaSlides as your PowerPoint quiz maker to download and host it for free.

#3. New Class Icebreakers

Get to know your new class and break the ice among students with these fun icebreaker activities. Insert this interactive quiz on PowerPoint before the lesson starts so everyone can have a blast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make an interactive game in powerpoint.

Yes, you can by following all the simple steps we have stated above: 1 - Get a quiz add-in for PowerPoint, 2 - Design your quiz questions, 3 - Present them while you're on PowerPoint with the participants.

Can you add interactive polls to PowerPoint?

Besides interactive quizzes, AhaSlides also let you add polls to PowerPoint.

Leah Nguyen

Words that convert, stories that stick. I turn complex ideas into engaging narratives - helping audiences learn, remember, and take action.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

More from AhaSlides

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Sweepstakes
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

9 Fun Activities for Kids With ADHD

Westend61 / Getty Images

Create Something

Get organized, go on an adventure, do a project together, get out of the house, cook together, go stargazing.

A child who has ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) can seem to have an endless supply of energy , and finding things for them to do can be an endless challenge. One solution: Keep a list of fun activities to occupy their busy brains and bodies. Here are eight to get you started.

You don't have to sign your child up for every sport under the sun, but physical activity is a must. Getting your child's body moving will help them to focus their energy on a fun and rewarding activity. Go for a walk, play tag, or ride bikes together.

Physical exercise helps decrease anxiety, depression, aggression, and social problems among children with ADHD.

Signing up for a youth sports group can be a great option for many kids with ADHD. Sports and athletics can be a particularly great outlet, but carefully consider which type of sport might best match your child's needs and abilities. 

A child with hyperactive/impulsive type ADHD might benefit from a highly active, physical sport (such as wrestling or swimming), whereas a child with inattentive type ADHD would do better with one with more short-term, focused goals (such as track and field).

Another great way to channel your child's energy is to encourage them to be creative. This could mean painting, drawing, building with blocks, or even just making up stories. Let your child's imagination run wild and see what they come up with.

Creative expression is beneficial for many mental health conditions, including ADHD. Expressive arts therapy , for example, can be helpful for both children and adults with ADHD. It may help kids practice and strengthen several skills, including focus, communication, and problem-solving skills. It can also be useful for expressing emotions, building self-awareness , and reducing stress levels.

One study found that allowing kids with ADHD to draw and talk about their lives was a useful way to gain insight into their interests and subjective well-being .

Fortunately, you can draw on many of these same benefits by doing creative activities with your child. Drawing, finger painting, sculpting with clay, collaging, or even just scribbling can help your child express themself while having fun.

Many kids with ADHD struggle with organization, but cleaning up and getting organized can be a fun activity if you make it into a game.

Help your child to organize their toys , clothes, or school supplies. You can even race to see who can clean up the quickest.

Some ideas to help make cleaning and organizing fun and exciting:

• Set a timer : Try setting a timer for a short amount of time (around five to ten minutes), and then see how much each of you can clean up in that time. 
• Laundry race : Challenge your child to see how much laundry they can help fold and put away.
• Fill a basket : Grab a couple of laundry baskets (or find one for each member of the family if everyone wants to get involved), and see who can fill each one with toys or other items lying around the house. Once the first phase of the game is over, you can move on to the next challenge—seeing who can put all of the items in their basket away the quickest.

Kids with ADHD often love adventure, and new experiences are more likely to hold their interest. Plan a treasure hunt around the house or go on a nature hike and see who can find the most interesting things. Be sure to bring along a camera so that you can document your child's findings.

Because kids with ADHD often struggle with feelings of boredom , introducing novel activities can be a great way to help them stay interested. 

Variety is the key to keeping your child engaged. So, mix things up and try out new activities on a regular basis. With a little bit of creativity, you can come up with endless fun activities for kids with ADHD.

Games are a great way to help kids with ADHD focus their energy in a way that can help entertain them while building valuable skills. 

Memory games or word puzzles can be a good option for some kids or even an active game like musical chairs.

Other fun activities to try include:

• Indoor scavenger hunt
• Building towers out of cards or blocks
• Balloon volleyball
• Playing music and dancing
• Indoor obstacle course
• Jumping rope
• Hula hooping
• Jumping on a trampoline

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to find items for your games. In many cases, you can take things you already have in the house and incorporate them into a fun activity. It just takes some imagination to keep things interesting and keep your child from getting bored. 

Working on a project together can be a fun way to bond with your child while also helping them to focus their energy.

Examples of projects you might work on together include:

• Creating a storybook
• Learning a musical instrument
• Craft projects
• Dress up games

Choose a project that is age-appropriate and let your child take the lead. This can be a great way to help your child build self-regulation skills. Finishing a project with your help can also help them gain a sense of mastery and accomplishment.

Sometimes, the best way to entertain a child with ADHD is to leave the house. Plan a day trip to somewhere that your child will be interested in. This could be a museum, the zoo, an amusement park, or even just a new playground.

• Have a picnic : Picnics are fun for everyone and can be a great way to spend some time together outdoors. Pack up some snacks and head to your backyard or a nearby park for a fun-filled afternoon. You can make your picnic as simple or as fancy as you want—just make sure to include plenty of good food and fun games.
• Go camping : If you really want to get away from it all, go camping! This is a great activity for kids with ADHD because it gets them out in nature where they can run and explore. And if heading for the wilderness isn’t an option, try just camping out in your backyard (or even your living room).
• Visit a museum: Museums can be fun for kids of all ages, but they can be especially fun for kids with ADHD. They offer a chance to explore and learn in a stimulating but not overwhelming environment.

Cooking is a great activity for kids with ADHD because it involves many different senses. Plus, it's a fun way to bond with your child and teach them valuable life skills. Start with simple recipes that are great for beginners before working your way up to more complex ones.

You can make this a regular part of your child's routine by setting aside certain days of the week for preparing certain meals.

For example, one night might be "pizza night," where each member of the family gets to choose their own toppings and prepare their own mini-pizza. 

Stargazing is a calming activity that can be fun for kids of all ages. It's a great way to spend time together while also teaching your child about science and the world around them.

If staying up late enough to see the stars isn't an option for your little one, you might consider something like a hike, nature walk, or trip to the beach during the day instead. All of these activities offer a chance to explore and learn while also getting some fresh air and exercise.

Studies have shown that having more contact with nature and green spaces can positively impact children's mental health, including children who have ADHD.

Doing activities with together is a great way to bond with your child and help them focus on something they find interesting and rewarding. Look for ways to incorporate fun and adventure as you go about your day—even when you're just preparing a meal or doing household chores. These fun activities for kids with ADHD can provide a much-needed outlet for their energy and give you some quality time together. 

Zang Y. Impact of physical exercise on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders: Evidence through a meta-analysis . Medicine (Baltimore) . 2019;98(46):e17980. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000017980

Barfield PA, Driessnack M. Children with ADHD draw-and-tell about what makes their life really good . J Spec Pediatr Nurs . 2018 Apr;23(2):e12210. doi:10.1111/jspn.12210

Tillmann S, Tobin D, Avison W, Gilliland J. Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review . J Epidemiol Community Health . 2018;72(10):958-966. doi:10.1136/jech-2018-210436

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• Dear Life Kit
• Life Skills

6 ways grown-ups can recreate that fresh, buzzy feeling of a new school year

Back-to-school season can still be an opportunity for a refresh, even if you're not headed back to the classroom. Maria Korneeva/Getty Images/Moment RF hide caption

Ah, remember the excitement of starting a new school year? Shopping for new notebooks, picking out the perfect outfit for the first day of school, the smell of pencil sharpenings in the classroom?

Just because you’re a grown-up doesn’t mean you can’t harness that buzzy back-to-school energy. Here are seven activities you probably did in school as a kid -- like playing at recess and packing lunches -- updated for the adult version of you. We hope these ideas inspire new routines and positive changes as you transition into fall.

Miss packing a school lunch? Try meal-prepping

Kevin Curry, founder of FitMenCook , meal preps two nights a week. On these nights, he'll spend 45 minutes cooking five dishes to mix and match over the next few days — for example, chickpeas, chicken, jasmine rice, roasted vegetables and a green medley of spinach, chard and kale.

How To Learn A New Skill

"With those five foods I prepped, I made about ten different meal combinations," he says. One day you might want chicken, rice and greens, another day you might want chickpeas, greens and chicken. Transform the flavor of each meal with different condiments like tahini dressing or barbecue sauce. Read more tips here .

Miss back-to-school shopping? Spruce up your wardrobe

Even if you aren’t doing any back-to-school shopping this fall, you can prioritize your personal style with a closet purge. Asia Jackson, actor and YouTuber, says to try on every item in your wardrobe and ask yourself a few questions to determine if you should donate or keep that sweater you haven’t worn in years.

“Do you feel good in this item? Do you look good in this item?” says Jackson. “If it doesn't make you feel good, then you should get rid of it.” Once you’ve identified the pieces you love, use them as the foundation for your revamped style. Read more tips here . 

Miss learning new things? Read more books

If you want to read more books, try getting in a few pages in the morning before you start your day. NickyLloyd/Getty Images/E+ hide caption

Got a fall reading list you can’t wait to get through? Set yourself up for success by reading in the morning, says NPR culture correspondent Lynn Neary, “particularly on weekend mornings.”

You’re less likely to fall asleep the way you can if you try to read before bed, and it’s a nice way to start your day. Read more tips here . 

4 questions to ask yourself if you're considering going back to school

Miss writing in your planner make a better to-do list.

To create clear, short and doable action items, follow the two-minute rule. "If it takes less than two minutes, just do it right then and there," says Angel Trinidad , founder and CEO of Passion Planner, a company that sells paper and digital planners and journals. "It's not worth the bandwidth to write it down, remember it and do it."

For larger tasks, break them down into smaller chunks. People aren't specific enough when they write down items on their to-do lists, says Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals . And what ends up happening, he adds, is that "we don't get them done because we're not expressing them in a doable form." Read more tips here .

Miss recess? Bring more play into your life

Not sure how to incorporate more play into your life? Ask yourself what kind of play you enjoyed as a child. Stephen Zeigler/Getty Images/The Image Bank RF hide caption

If you want to bring more play into your life, you don't necessarily need to make any significant life changes or rework your entire schedule. Play is as simple as observing tiny moments in nature, says Stuart Brown , founder of the National Institute for Play. Any increase in play throughout your day is a win – whether it's a playful hobby like painting, playing a board game, or just a new, playful outlook.

If you aren’t sure what kind of play you’ll enjoy now as an adult, ask yourself – how did I like to play as a kid? And how can I incorporate that form of play into my life now? Read more tips here .

Miss meeting new people? Change your mindset on friendship

If you want to make more friends, assume that other people also need friends, says Heather Havrilesky, author of the advice column Ask Polly .

“People assume that everybody already has friends,” she says. The truth is, “nobody already has their friends.”

It may feel uncomfortable to send the first text message to hang out one-on-one for the first time. But accept the awkwardness, she says. It stems from vulnerability -- and you can't have friends without getting vulnerable. Read more tips here .

This digital story was written by Clare Marie Schneider. It was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is Rebecca Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts  and Spotify , or sign up for our newsletter .

• Sports Betting
• Sports Entertainment

latest in Sports

Pacers star hilariously pokes fun at self over lack of Olympic...

French McDonald's threatens to remove menu item after Stephen...

Two-time national title-winning QB throws four INTs, leads...

Outfielder could make Mets return from knee injury during...

Yankees veteran encouraged with rehab as he nears next step

Red Sox star apologizes for homophobic slur directed at fan

Jerry Jones does two-word backtrack on CeeDee Lamb 'urgency'...

Mets swept by Mariners as starter struggles in lopsided loss to...

Fans think uswnt players look ‘violently hungover’ in olympics photo.

To some fans, it appeared that the effects of Team USA’s gold medal celebration were still lingering when the women’s soccer team posed for a photo in Paris on Sunday.

The 18 players and four alternates were scattered across steps — holding the gold medals they earned after a 1-0 win over Brazil in the final Saturday — for the photo, and the looks on their faces, or lack thereof, sparked plenty of reactions across social media.

“Choose your fighter: hangover edition,” one user wrote , zooming in on four collections of faces.

“LMAO they’re all hungover and Hal’s just over there on the left grinning without a care, so adorable,” another user wrote, referencing alternate midfielder Hal Hershfelt smiling on the far left of the photo.

“Every single one of them look violently hungover,” a third user typed , adding a loudly crying emoji at the end.

The player garnering the most reactions, though, might’ve been Gotham FC star and USWNT midfielder Rose Lavelle, who was stationed in the front row of the photos — wearing sunglasses and donning an expressionless face.

Lynn Williams, another Gotham star, also appeared to be holding just the gold medal — and no ribbon attached to it — in the photo, and according to a photo posted to X of the team’s celebration, it seemed to have become detached during the team’s celebration Saturday night.

Clips from the event surfaced on social media and showed dancing and champagne as Team USA basked in the spotlight of clinching their fifth Olympics gold medal and first since the 2012 Olympics in London.

“Loving these hungover #USWNT pics,” another X user posted in response to the Team USA photo . “Olympians: they’re just like us.”

That gold medal feeling!!!! 🥇🥇🥇 pic.twitter.com/0OlapEgboj — USWNT Players (@USWNTPlayers) August 11, 2024

Mallory Swanson, the wife of Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, scored the decisive goal in the 57th minute, and Team USA won all six of its games during the program’s first Olympics under new head coach Emma Hayes .

2024 PARIS OLYMPICS

• The final results and medal count from the Paris Games
• USA Basketball account appears to troll Noah Lyles over past comments after team’s Olympic gold
• Stephen Curry’s wife Ayesha, Draymond Green involved in tense confrontation with Paris police
• USA Gymnastics has evidence Jordan Chiles inquiry was made on time amid Olympics medal controversy
• The Post’s 10 best moments of the 2024 Paris Olympics

“We’ve grown so much,” Swanson said postgame, according to the Associated Press . “And that’s really cool to me seeing that. We’ve grown on and off the field. And you keep probably hearing it — we’re playing with joy. We’re having so much fun and I’m just so happy.”

Then, after that, the celebration began.

Advertisement

Fact Checking Trump’s Mar-a-Lago News Conference

The former president took questions from reporters for more than hour. We examined his claims, attacks and policy positions.

By The New York Times

• Share full article

Former President Donald J. Trump held an hourlong news conference with reporters on Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, during which he attacked Vice President Kamala Harris, his general election opponent, criticized the Biden administration’s policies and boasted of the crowd size at his rallies. We took a closer look at many of his claims.

Trump claims his Jan. 6 rally crowd rivaled the 1963 March on Washington. Estimates say otherwise.

“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech. And you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more.” — Former President Donald J. Trump

This lacks evidence.

Mr. Trump was talking about the crowds gathered for his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, and for the “I Have a Dream” speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered during the March on Washington in 1963. While it is difficult to gauge exact crowd sizes, estimates counter Mr. Trump’s claim that the numbers gathered were comparable. Dr. King’s speech drew an estimated 250,000 people . The House Select Committee responsible for investigating the events of Jan. 6 estimated that Mr. Trump’s speech drew 53,000 people.

“She wants to take away your guns.”

— Former President Donald J. Trump

Ms. Harris, in 2019, said she supports a gun buyback program for assault weapons, not all guns. Her campaign told The New York Times recently that she no longer supports a buyback program.

Advertisement

Peter Baker

“They take the strategic national reserves. They’re virtually empty now. We have never had it this low.”

This is exaggerated..

President Biden has indeed tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to mitigate gasoline price increases , drawing it down by about 40 percent from when he took office, and it is currently at the lowest level since the 1980s. But it still has 375 million barrels in it now , which is not “virtually empty” nor is it at the lowest level ever.

“The vast majority of the country does support me.”

Mr. Trump never won a majority of the popular vote in either of the elections he ran in and never had the approval of a majority of Americans in a single day of Gallup polling during his presidency. An average of polls by FiveThirtyEight.com shows that he is viewed favorably by just 43 percent of Americans today and has the same level of support in a matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Alan Rappeport

“They’re going to destroy Social Security.”

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have pledged not to make any cuts to America’s social safety net programs. Mr. Trump suggested this year that he was open to scaling back the programs when he said there was “a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting.” He later walked back those comments and pledged to protect the programs. But if changes to the programs are not made, the programs’ benefits will automatically be reduced eventually. Government reports released earlier this year projected that the Social Security and disability insurance programs, if combined, would not have enough money to pay all of their obligations in 2035. Medicare will be unable to pay all its hospital bills starting in 2036.

Coral Davenport

“Everybody is going to be forced to buy an electric car.”

While the Biden administration has enacted regulations designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032, the rules do not require consumers to buy electric vehicles.

“Our tax cuts, which are the biggest in history.”

The $1.5 trillion tax cut, enacted in December 2017, ranks below at least half a dozen others by several metrics. The 1981 tax cut enacted under President Ronald Reagan is the largest as a percentage of the economy and by its reduction to federal revenue. The 2012 cut enacted under President Barack Obama amounted to the largest cut in inflation-adjusted dollars: $321 billion a year.

“They’re drilling now because they had to go back because gasoline was going up to seven, eight, nine dollars a barrel. The day after the election, if they won, you’re going to have fuel prices go through the roof.”

The price of gasoline reached a low of $1.98 per gallon in April 2020, when Mr. Trump was president, chiefly as a result of the drop in driving in the first months of the Covid pandemic. It rose to a peak of $5 per gallon in June 2022, but has since steadily dropped to $3.60 per gallon in July 2024. The United States has steadily increased its oil production over the last decade, becoming the world’s largest producer of oil in 2018, a status it still holds today .

“If you go back and check your records for 18 months, I had a talk with Abdul. Abdul was the leader of the Taliban still is, but had a strong talk with him. For 18 months. Not one American soldier was shot at or killed, but not even shot at 18 months.”

Mr. Trump spoke with a leader of the Taliban in March 2020. In the 18 months that followed, from April 2020 to October 2021, 13 soldiers died in hostile action in Afghanistan.

“Democrats are really the radical ones on this, because they’re allowed to do abortion on the eighth and ninth month, and even after birth.”

No state has passed a law allowing for the execution of a baby after it is born, which is infanticide. Moreover, abortions later in pregnancy are very rare: In 2021, less than 1 percent of abortions happened after 21 weeks’ gestation, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report based on data from state and other health agencies. More than 90 percent of abortions happened within 13 weeks of gestation.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Auto Racing
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Five things to know about Tim Walz

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris decided on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House.

Minnesota voters gathered outside Governor Tim Walz’s residence react as Walz was announced as the running mate of Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential election. (AP Video by Mark Vancleave)

Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state.

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, right, laughs as he stands with Fridley, Minn., Mayor Scott Lund during a visit to the Cummins Power Generation Facility in Fridley, Minn., Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

• Copy Link copied

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz applauds as President Joe Biden speaks at Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Minn., Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz listens after meeting with President Joe Biden, July 3, 2024, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a news conference for the Biden-Harris campaign discussing the Project 2025 plan during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention near the Fiserv Forum, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)

FILE - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz greets reporters before Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)

FILE - Rep. Betty McCullum, D-Minn., left, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, listen as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)

▶ Follow AP’s live coverage of the 2024 election

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has decided on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House. The 60-year-old Democrat and military veteran rose to the forefront with a series of plain-spoken television appearances in the days after President Joe Biden decided not to seek a second term. He has made his state a bastion of liberal policy and, this year, one of the few states to protect fans buying tickets online for Taylor Swift concerts and other live events.

Some things to know about Walz:

Walz comes from rural America

It would be hard to find a more vivid representative of the American heartland than Walz. Born in West Point, Nebraska, a community of about 3,500 people northwest of Omaha, Walz joined the Army National Guard and became a teacher in Nebraska.

He and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota in the 1990s. That’s where he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including for the 1999 team that won the first of the school’s four state championships. He still points to his union membership there.

Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, rising to command sergeant major, one of the highest enlisted ranks in the military, although he didn’t complete all the training before he retired so his rank for benefits purposes was set at master sergeant.

He has a proven ability to connect with conservative voters

In his first race for Congress, Walz upset a Republican incumbent. That was in 2006, when he won in a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district against six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Walz capitalized on voter anger with then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

During six terms in the U.S. House, Walz championed veterans’ issues.

He’s also shown a down-to-earth side, partly through social media video posts with his daughter, Hope. One last fall showed them trying a Minnesota State Fair ride, “The Slingshot,” after they bantered about fair food and her being a vegetarian.

He could help the ticket in key Midwestern states

While Walz isn’t from one of the crucial “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where both sides believe they need to win, he’s right next door. He also could ensure that Minnesota stays in the hands of Democrats.

That’s important because former President Donald Trump has portrayed Minnesota as being in play this year, even though the state hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. A GOP presidential candidate hasn’t carried the state since President Richard Nixon’s landslide in 1972, but Trump has already campaigned there .

When Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton decided not to seek a third term in 2018, Walz campaigned and won the office on a “One Minnesota” theme.

Walz also speaks comfortably about issues that matter to voters in the Rust Belt. He’s been a champion of Democratic causes, including union organizing, workers’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

He has experience with divided government

In his first term as governor, Walz faced a Legislature split between a Democratic-led House and a Republican-controlled Senate that resisted his proposals to use higher taxes to boost money for schools, health care and roads. But he and lawmakers brokered compromises that made the state’s divided government still seem productive.

Bipartisan cooperation became tougher during his second year as he used the governor’s emergency power during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter businesses and close schools. Republicans pushed back and forced out some agency heads. Republicans also remain critical of Walz over what they see as his slow response to sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

What to know about the 2024 Election

• Today’s news: Follow live updates from the campaign trail from the AP.
• Ground Game: Sign up for AP’s weekly politics newsletter to get it in your inbox every Monday.
• AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.

Things got easier for Walz in his second term, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen , a physician known nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats gained control of both legislative chambers, clearing the way for a more liberal course in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.

Walz and lawmakers eliminated nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted in the past by Republicans, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

Rejecting Republican pleas that the state budget surplus be used to cut taxes, Democrats funded free school meals for children, free tuition at public colleges for students in families earning under $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program and health insurance coverage regardless of a person’s immigration status.

He has an ear for sound-bite politics

Walz called Republican nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance “just weird” in an MSNBC interview last month and the Democratic Governors Association — which Walz chairs — amplified the point in a post on X . Walz later reiterated the characterization on CNN, citing Trump’s repeated mentions of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in stump speeches.

The word quickly morphed into a theme for Harris and other Democrats and has a chance to be a watchword of the undoubtedly weird 2024 election.

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.