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 to a close and it is finally going to be over soon. Now that you have come to the final phase of the event, this is where the importance of your closing notes lies. Your goal is to make a lasting, positive impact to the audience.
How to End Your Seminar?
Instead of the usual “Thank you for attending this seminar,” it is so much better to end with a bang! What this means is you should launch final thoughts that will spark excitement and inspire your listeners to act upon what has been talked about early on.
There are many ways to call attention to the closing of your seminar, and some of the best ones are outlined below:
- You could close your seminar by challenging your audience to apply into their day-to-day lives the significant things they have learned in the seminar.
- You could also provide a powerful quotation that will highlight your main point. Make sure to keep the quotation short and clear so the impact will be strong.
- You may provide an inspiring story or a continuation of a story, which you had narrated earlier. This story should be simple yet very meaningful, and one that will get them thinking.
- Another way to close is to repeat a phrase or statement that you had used several times during the seminar. It should be done emphatically so that the impact would be strong.
- You can likewise provide a snippet of a movie that will serve to emphasize your point and motivate the audience. Simply show them a 2-minute video clip that will somehow sum up your objectives for the day.
A Call to Action
Your closing notes should always include a call to action. It will be the last words that your audience will get from the seminar so it only makes sense to make them count. This kind of persuasive talk should encourage the seminar participants to act, and the best way to do that is to actually tell them what they need to do. This may be done directly or indirectly however the goal is to make them realize what specific actions they need to take after the seminar.
So, before you make use of the several ways to close the seminar (which are outlined above), you must do the following:
- Summarize your seminar’s main points. Do not expect your audience to have a perfect memory so it is always good to make a summary.
- Then you make a call to action. Again, you should persuade your audience to take action or do something; tell them what it is they need to do.
- Once you have provided a brief summary and a call to action, proceed to giving a strong conclusion. You can make use of the tips provided above, such as narrating an inspiring story or ending with a powerful quotation.
Tips to Properly Close Your Seminar
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you are in the final phase of the seminar: First, you should make it memorable. It will probably be the only thing that your audience will remember!
Secondly, allot sufficient time for the closing, which should ideally be around 5% of the entire event. Then, build up to the climax, relating it to the most important point or topic of the seminar. If you still have time to address questions, let the audience know exactly how much time you have and stick to it.
And finally, once you have said your closing remarks, make it clear to everyone that the seminar has ended. You should leave the stage as soon as it is over so that you would not run the risk of repeating your message again and again.