When conducting a seminar, one of the first things that your participants will ask is: “Why should I listen to you?” Whether you are going to hold a one-hour seminar or a 3-day seminar, it is necessary that you are able to convince the participants to sit down, listen, try to understand what you will share with them, and keep an open mind. If you cannot do that, then every attempt you make to impart knowledge and insights to them would fail. This section focuses on the most basic and essential requirement that every seminar presenter must acknowledge and use:…

Preparation is key to a successful seminar. Even a seasoned seminar speaker would still take the time to sit down and plan things out before the event. As someone who will conduct a seminar in front of 10, 100, or even more participants, you cannot afford to be in front of the audience unprepared. If this is the first seminar you will handle, then it is all the more necessary to plan weeks and even months before the big day. A large chunk of the preparation phase is making the outline. This will serve as your guide in knowing what…

Planning a seminar is similar to organizing a company event—you need to do it way ahead of time and make good use of organizational skills so that the event will be a success. Usually, a team or a committee is in charge of organizing a seminar; however, if you happen to take the role of the speaker as well as the organizer, then you need to know certain techniques that will eliminate problems and prevent things from going wrong during the scheduled event. One way to ensure that everything will be in order and go according to plan is to…

For a seasoned seminar facilitator, conducting a seminar is not a big deal. After all, they probably conduct seminars at least once a month that they are no longer intimidated by the thought of speaking in front of a big audience. However, for a neophyte, facilitating a seminar can be so terrifying that the thought of it would even trigger anxiety attacks. This article will provide you with the most helpful tips to make you feel more confident and at ease when handling a seminar. Whether you are an executive tasked to conduct a seminar for your company’s employees or…

A large part of your success as a seminar facilitator lies in your presentation skills. Because presentation is crucial in every seminar, you should therefore endeavor to learn these skills and never step up that podium without even bothering to understand the things you need to do in order to become an effective facilitator. Seminar Presentation requires proper planning and extensive preparation. How well are you able to communicate with the audience? Are you able to effectively deliver your thoughts and ideas towards them? Are you able to keep them interested that they do not even want to move or…

Visual aids have long been regarded as a staple in most public speaking endeavors. When making a presentation during a business meeting, giving a speech, or even when holding seminars, the use of visual aids is commonly employed. There are two main functions of a visual aid: it helps the audience understand your message better. it keeps them interested. Learners can be visual, auditory, or even kinesthetic learners, which is why effective seminars always take into consideration these three aspects. By making use of visual aids during your seminar, you will be able to address the three channels of learning….

Talking to a person you do not know can be tough. Many people feel nervous with these encounters. However, speaking in front of an audience can be especially overwhelming that perhaps everyone who has tried holding a seminar for the first time has felt very anxious about it. Yet similar to learning how to ride a bike, it may seem impossible at first and you may even find yourself extremely scared at this prospect but eventually, you will learn to get used to it and you will be able to deal with the audience with much ease. Conquering Your Fear…

To a large extent, the methods, materials used, and the participants facilitating a seminar will determine the event’s success. However, it is also important to focus on the environment where the participants will be in for the entire duration of the seminar. The Importance of a Conducive Environment The choice of venue, as well as the facilities used during the seminar, is very important to enhance learning and comprehension. By giving the seminar participants a very smooth and impressive learning experience, you can maximize the positive outcomes and properly utilize the time allotted for the event. Your audience will be…

A seminar facilitator needs to be very adept at reading people’s personality traits and be able to handle seminar participants properly. If you do not know how to manage the participants, it would be difficult to get your audience to listen to you, and even harder to keep them interested. You should be able to determine the approach to use in motivating the seminar audience and encourage them to actively participate in the seminar. People have different personalities and while no person is exactly the same as the other, there are major classifications of personalities that will be discussed in…

Objections from seminar audience could keep seminar facilitators on their toes. Hence, it is important for seminar facilitators to know how to handle such objections from the audience. This article will provide information on several tips and techniques to deal with different types of objections raised during seminars. What is an Objection? In a seminar, an objection is anything an individual or a group of people in your audience would say or do that would imply a concern, question, skepticism, or a negative reaction. Despite it being seemingly intimidating and even scary for some, objections should be acknowledged, discussed, and…

During seminar, it is common for participants to join group activities. These activities are specifically designed to create a powerful and long-lasting impact on the knowledge that you are trying to instill in their minds. Thus, grouping your audience should make use of group dynamics so that you, as the seminar facilitator, will be able to increase your chances of achieving your overall purpose for the seminar. Group Dynamics This term would refer to the series of processes, interactions, and combined performances that occur within a group. Because people differ from each other in terms of personalities, beliefs, values, level…

One of the challenges that a seminar facilitator is faced with is in keeping the audience interested. It can be a nightmare to present in front of dozens of people, only to realize that someone is snoring in the group. How can you keep the audience from getting bored? What techniques can be utilized in order to ensure that they keep their eyes and ears glued to you? These questions will be answered in this article. Reasons Why the Audience Becomes Bored Before you learn the various ways to keep the audience interested, you must first know what causes them…

An effective seminar is one that gives both the facilitator and the audience the opportunity to ask questions. Asking the right questions paves the way for better communication and exchange of information. Having said that, seminar facilitators could benefit largely from the use of questioning techniques and these will be further discussed in this section. What Questions Can Do for You? Questions are very powerful. Questions provide great benefits to the one asking them. These are as follows: It puts you in control. When you ask the right questions at the right time, it puts you in control of the…

Coaching has a crucial role in bringing out the best in your audience, which is why as much as possible, it should be included in the seminar agenda. In small seminars, facilitators can allot time for coaching. Seminar Coaching is the process of helping the audience develop the capacity to ponder on seminar keynotes, guide them in making realizations, and motivate them to accomplish what they want or need to accomplish. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and the size of the audience, not every event provides coaching and the giving of feedback to the participants. It can be difficult to…

At the onset of the seminar, you had aimed to provide the audience with valuable learning and information, you have presented the topics and facilitated fun and learning activities for the participants; but the challenge now is to be able to inculcate all these to everyone who attended the seminar. Such events should not be merely about presenting your topics to the audience and ensuring they understood; but it should also be geared towards motivating them to apply what they have learned during the seminar. After all the preparation and the efforts you had put in, your seminar is coming…

By taking a post-seminar evaluation, you could significantly improve the skills and abilities needed to be an excellent seminar facilitator. You get insight on how to improve your craft, avoid potential problems, be more prepared and ready for the next event, and become even more motivated to perform well every time you conduct a seminar. The Importance of an Evaluation Conducting an evaluation of your performance when facilitating the seminar is like making a quality assessment. In order for a product to become a great product, it has to be carefully molded, developed, and tested several times to ensure that…