Logo

Navigation
  • Home
  • Services
    • ERP Solutions
    • Implementation Solutions
    • Support and Maintenance Solutions
    • Custom Solutions
    • Upgrade Solutions
    • Training and Mentoring
    • Web Solutions
    • Production Support
    • Architecture Designing
    • Independent Validation and Testing Services
    • Infrastructure Management
  • Expertise
    • Microsoft Development Expertise
    • Mobile Development
    • SQL Server Database and BI
    • SAP BI, SAP Hana, SAP BO
    • Oracle and BI
    • Oracle RAC
  • Technical Training
    • Learn Data Management
      • Business Intelligence
      • Data Mining
      • Data Modeling
      • Data Warehousing
      • Disaster Recovery
    • Learn Concepts
      • Application Development
      • Client Server
      • Cloud Computing Tutorials
      • Cluster Computing
      • CRM Tutorial
      • EDI Tutorials
      • ERP Tutorials
      • NLP
      • OOPS
      • Concepts
      • SOA Tutorial
      • Supply Chain
      • Technology Trends
      • UML
      • Virtualization
      • Web 2.0
    • Learn Java
      • JavaScript Tutorial
      • JSP Tutorials
      • J2EE
    • Learn Microsoft
      • MSAS
      • ASP.NET
      • ASP.NET 2.0
      • C Sharp
      • MS Project Training
      • Silverlight
      • SQL Server 2005
      • VB.NET 2005
    • Learn Networking
      • Networking
      • Wireless
    • Learn Oracle
      • Oracle 10g
      • PL/SQL
      • Oracle 11g Tutorials
      • Oracle 9i
      • Oracle Apps
    • Learn Programming
      • Ajax Tutorial
      • C Language
      • C++ Tutorials
      • CSS Tutorial
      • CSS3 Tutorial
      • JavaScript Tutorial
      • jQuery Tutorial
      • MainFrame
      • PHP Tutorial
      • VBScript Tutorial
      • XML Tutorial
    • Learn Software Testing
      • Software Testing Types
      • SQA
      • Testing
  • Career Training
    • Career Improvement
      • Career Articles
      • Certification Articles
      • Conflict Management
      • Core Skills
      • Decision Making
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Goal Setting
      • Life Skills
      • Performance Development
      • Personal Excellence
      • Personality Development
      • Problem Solving
      • Relationship Management
      • Self Confidence
      • Self Supervision
      • Social Networking
      • Strategic Planning
      • Time Management
    • Education Help
      • Career Tracks
      • Essay Writing
      • Internship Tips
      • Online Education
      • Scholarships
      • Student Loans
    • Managerial Skills
      • Business Communication
      • Business Networking
      • Facilitator Skills
      • Managing Change
      • Marketing Management
      • Meeting Management
      • Process Management
      • Project Management
      • Project Management Life Cycle
      • Project Management Process
      • Project Risk Management
      • Relationship Management
      • Task Management
      • Team Building
      • Virtual Team Management
    • Essential Life Skills
      • Anger Management
      • Anxiety Management
      • Attitude Development
      • Coaching and Mentoring
      • Emotional Intelligence
      • Stress Management
      • Positive Thinking
    • Communication Skills
      • Conversation Skills
      • Cross Culture Competence
      • English Vocabulary
      • Listening Skills
      • Public Speaking Skills
      • Questioning Skills
    • Soft Skills
      • Assertive Skills
      • Influence Skills
      • Leadership Skills
      • Memory Skills
      • People Skills
      • Presentation Skills
    • Finding a Job
      • Etiquette Tips
      • Group Discussions
      • HR Interviews
      • Interview Notes
      • Job Search Tips
      • Resume Tips
      • Sample Resumes
 

How to Facilitate a Seminar

By Exforsys | on May 2, 2016 |
Seminar Strategies

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 you are an expert on a particular topic or niche and wish to grow your business, ensuring that you handle effective seminars will always be to your advantage.

Take note though that while these tips have proven to be very effective for many seminar facilitators, you need to commit yourself to following them in order to get significant positive outcomes.

Planning and Preparation

One of the guaranteed ways to ruin your confidence when holding the seminar is lack of planning and preparation. When you fail to plan and prepare, then a lot of things could backfire—videos not playing, presentation files lost, insufficient handouts, and many others. And when you are faced with these problems on the seminar day itself then obviously, you will lose composure and get easily distracted.

This is why proper planning and thorough preparation are considered essential tips for anyone who will be facilitating a seminar. Creating your very own seminar outline and checklist could mean the difference between a good and bad seminar and surely, you cannot afford to have the latter. Take the time to sit down and plan every detail. Then, days ahead of the event, you should check and re-check everything to make sure that it is all going exactly as planned.

Communication Skills

Because you will be speaking in front of an audience, it is imperative that you develop and improve your communication skills. Your voice quality, body language, and choice of words will create a huge impact on your audience and these factors also dictate just how effective your seminar will be in terms of the learning you will impart to the participants. But, you also need to understand that speaking is only one-half of your communication skills.

You need to also develop and improve your listening skills. What this means is that you should pay attention to what your audience is saying and you can do this by making your seminar interactive, allowing your audience to talk and ask questions at the right instances. When you acknowledge what they say then they will be more likely to keep their minds open to your ideas and will be more willing to listen and remain attentive throughout your seminar.

Make It Interesting

Studies show that the average attention span of adults is 20 minutes at a time. This means that if your audience has to sit through a full 8-hour seminar, then you need to find ways to make your event interesting. Clearly, facing a bored audience can hurt your self-confidence and it would cause you to wonder if there is something you are not doing right as you present your topics to them.

One of the surefire ways to make a seminar interesting is to keep your presentation slides clear, easy to understand, and visually appealing. Stick to one point per slide and avoid putting too much information in it. Moreover, you should proofread your slides for any typos, as well as spelling and grammar mistakes because these would create a negative impression.

Rapport is also necessary, and if you want to keep your audience from getting bored then you need to build rapport with them. Insert light humor and interesting facts as you go along your presentation. Maintain eye contact with them and do not forget to smile.

The use of icebreakers also help keep your audience interested however make sure to time every activity and choose only those that are relevant to the topics you are covering. Lastly, every point that you present during your seminar must be carefully timed. Dwelling too long on a topic will only generate negative reactions from the audience.

« « Seminar Checklist
Seminar Presentation Skills » »

Author Description

Avatar

Editorial Team at Exforsys is a team of IT Consulting and Training team led by Chandra Vennapoosa.

Free Training

RSSSubscribe 394 Followers
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • The Art of Managing Seminar Audience

    May 24, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • How to Create Seminar Conducive Environment?

    June 4, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Audience Personality Traits

    June 4, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Objections Handling Techniques

    June 10, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Grouping Seminar Audience Effectively

    June 21, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Tricks to Keep Seminar Audience Interested

    July 8, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • How to Sell Yourself?

    April 22, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • How to Ask Questions During Seminar?

    July 12, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Outline

    April 25, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Coaching and Feedback

    July 19, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Post-Seminar Evaluation

    August 23, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Closing Notes

    July 26, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Coaching and Feedback

    July 19, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • How to Ask Questions During Seminar?

    July 12, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Tricks to Keep Seminar Audience Interested

    July 8, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Grouping Seminar Audience Effectively

    June 21, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Objections Handling Techniques

    June 10, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • Seminar Audience Personality Traits

    June 4, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • How to Create Seminar Conducive Environment?

    June 4, 2016 - 0 Comment
  • The Art of Managing Seminar Audience

    May 24, 2016 - 0 Comment

Exforsys e-Newsletter

ebook
 

Related Articles

  • Post-Seminar Evaluation
  • Seminar Closing Notes
  • Seminar Coaching and Feedback
  • How to Ask Questions During Seminar?
  • Tricks to Keep Seminar Audience Interested

Latest Articles

  • Project Management Techniques
  • Product Development Best Practices
  • Importance of Quality Data Management
  • How to Maximize Quality Assurance
  • Utilizing Effective Quality Assurance Strategies
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA
  • Trademark Information
  • Contact Us
© 2023. All Rights Reserved.IT Training and Consulting
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT