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During the question and answer session that many presenters face after their speech, a dilemma often occurs. Do I try to be as substantive as possible and answer the question thoroughly and specifically? Or do I go for laughs and keep it light and short?
Great presenters try to bring in both elements in every answer. Yes, you need to deliver the substance, but don’t go on for so long that you crowd out other questions or bore the audience. Yes, you need to bring a sense of humor to your answers as well. Humor is often easier during a question and answer session because your audience gives you credit for being spontaneous. Since they are asking the questions, they assume you don’t have prepared material. So anything you say during Q&A time seems fresher, more interesting, and more spontaneous, even if it isn’t.
Of course you don’t want to have all your questions planted in your audience in advance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have great answers prepared. If you speak on the same subject regularly in front of different audiences, you will likely get many of the same questions repeated to you. If you gave a spontaneous answer last week to a bankers group in Tempe and it got a nice chuckle, you can use the same response to a bankers group in Cleveland if you get the same question and you will probably receive the same positive response/chuckle.
Question and answer time is already more interesting for most audience members than the set speech (though not if you are a great speaker) because they get to participate. A great Q & A session has its own rhythm and timing, a give and take between speaker and audience. To dazzle your audience you need to go for just the right mix of substance, humor and enlightenment. Maybe you don’t hit all three in every answer, but you should definitely hit all of them repeatedly throughout the entire Q&A period.
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