Do You Even Know What Conversational Presenting Is?
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Introduction: The Presentation We Imagine vs. the One We Actually Give
When most people picture a presentation, they picture a big stage. But the reality is, most presentations in working life happen in small rooms — a pitch to your manager, a client meeting, a hybrid call with a handful of people.
And most people walk into those situations with a big-stage mindset. They've built a deck designed for broadcasting, not connecting. In her Present to Succeed session, Frauke Havinga makes the case that this is exactly the wrong approach — and shares a practical structure for doing it differently.
A Moment That Changed Everything
Early in her career, Frauke arrived at a client meeting ready to impress. She found a stuffy room, a broken projector, and an audience that looked like they had somewhere better to be. Instead of pushing through her script, she let go of it — started asking questions, listening, responding. The room came alive. It wasn't the meeting she'd planned. It was something better.
That experience shifted her perspective entirely. The best presentations in small settings aren't performances. They're exchanges.
The Case for Conversational Presenting
In a small room, the traditional model — talk through your slides, wait for applause, leave — creates an unnecessary barrier. You're broadcasting at people who are close enough to have a proper conversation with you.
Frauke's argument: stop acting like you're on a stage. Create the conditions for real dialogue instead. Share something, ask a question, listen, respond. Come to a mutual understanding. It sounds obvious, but she sees countless presentations built almost entirely around the presenter — their history, figures, and vision — with no thought given to what the audience actually needs.
The Three-Phase Structure
Set a starting point. A brief, focused opening built around one key message. Enough to give the conversation somewhere to begin — not a full download of everything you know.
Shift focus to the audience. Ask questions that flow from your opening. What challenges are they facing? What do they need? Listen carefully. The answers tell you exactly which parts of your deck matter to this particular room.
Have the conversation. Go back to your slides and pick only the relevant topics. Skip the rest. A well-designed deck earns its keep here — not by being comprehensive, but by giving you the freedom to be selective.
For hybrid and online settings, Frauke recommends doing the first two phases without slides at all. Show yourself, make the connection, then bring up the deck once the conversation is underway.
Designing for Conversation
A conversational presentation needs a clear navigation strategy. Rather than a linear deck, build around a central hub — a slide showing all available topics that you can branch from and return to. The audience sees only what's useful. Everything else stays out of sight.
Frauke draws inspiration from website and app design: home buttons, structure indicators, recognisable navigation cues. All achievable in PowerPoint, no specialist skills required. For hybrid delivery, the basics apply with extra emphasis — high contrast, large titles, bold and snappy content. You're competing with everything else on your audience's screen.
Final Thoughts: Make Friends, Not Speeches
Frauke's closing suggestion — that you should try to make friends, not give speeches — sounds soft but the logic is solid. When your audience feels heard rather than lectured at, they share more, engage more genuinely, and you walk away with better outcomes.
The cramped room and the broken projector don't have to be a disaster. They might just be the perfect setting for a conversation that actually changes something.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever ditched the script mid-presentation and found the conversation that followed was far more valuable? What made the difference? Share your experience in the comments below!
Comments