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Last night I gave a presentation called "Selling to Small Business." It is popular and I have been blessed to offer my ideas through this presentation in both the U.S. and Canada. What I have discovered, and perhaps I am a latecomer to this idea, is that turning my presentation into a conversation is lots more interesting and informative for both me. the so-called speaker, and you the perceived audience.

It's a simple idea really. All it requires are tables and chairs: Remove the podium and dump the PowerPoint. Here's how it works...

Instead of speaking to your audience, converse with them. If the group is small, say 25 or fewer, everyone can sit around the same tables by pushing a couple of rectangular ones together. Everyone, including the speaker, sits around the tables. Then make it known that you can be interrupted at any time with questions, comments, ideas, and counterpoints. The presentation soon goes from static to dynamic, and everyone owns the ideas.

If the group is large, the challenge becomes more difficult but not impossible. Everyone should be seated at round tables, with a copy of your presentation's messages as bullet points, so the main ideas can be shared easily, quickly and simply. The speaker presents for a few minutes, maybe 15, goes over the highlights of the presentation, and then turns the discussion over to each table. We can number the tables and label these table discussions as breakout sessions. After a half-hour or so, each table reports back with their thoughts and ideas and from there the conversation ensues for the remaining time.

This is called giving up control of a presentation and creating a conversation. It's like social media. At the end of the day, we can learn a lot more from many voices than we can from one.