Here's how you can effectively convey your entrepreneurial ideas to a large group.

When planning the session be clear whether you are doing a large group presentation or facilitating a discussion where you would like to have your ideas taken forward? 1. Do you want them to have the power to shape the landscape ongoing? 2. Do you want them to have access to agenda setting but only to augment your ideas? 3. Do you want to create the illusion of everyone having power but ultimately want your ideas taken forward? If 1, this wil feel collaborative and creative. Coproduction If 2, will help to keep up participation and encourages accountability. If 3, process will feel ‘done to’ which discourages participation and increases resistance and challenge.

It’s best to ensure that you have separate presentations for specific categories of target audience like, potential investors, industry representatives, general audience. For general audience, the research should cover the following: - Age profile - Geographic regional representations,i.e., where do they come from? This will help you get a glimpse of the potential market for your venture Presentations done keeping the above in view will help deciding the proper pitching and consequent effectiveness.

I tend to tailor presentations to ensure there is a clear call to action or “what’s in it for me?” So I can hook them in early on and keep referencing it as a thread throughout. Always have a clear summary at the end before asking or selling your idea to ensure they understand why you are there.

Put yourself in their shoes what is important to them? Be human share a little of yourself and if you can encourage others to share with each other in smaller groups. Create psychological safety so people are not afraid to admit if they do not understand.

No death by PowerPoint ! Keep it simple make sure slides are only a summary of key concepts or messages. Use visual pictures to help break up text. Consider if there are practical breakouts or demos you can do to break up presentations.

While it may be good to engage the audience by asking questions / opinions etc., keeping your presentation space open for frequent interactions may also interrupt your flow and / or delay the completion of the presentation within specified time. Therefore it is recommended to share with the audience your presentation plan at the outset, where you can indicate the outline and intervals for Q&A sessions at the completion of each theme. You can also have a brainstorm session where you can have groups of audience work on the ideas you have shared and invite a representative of each group to share their ideas. When such group brainstorming is not possible, invite members on the stage to share their perspectives on the ideas you shared.

Get to know your audience be prepared to change tact or content last minute. Understand the audience and what is important to them in advance as much as possible. Be prepared to pivot or use audience to help direct presentation.

Practice but don’t be afraid to adjust your presentation. Ad-lib based on where discussions go. Remember we are all unique so you might need to explain things multiple different ways depending on audience reactions.

It is always good to request the audience to get in touch with you for any questions or their own ideas and opinions, at any time after your presentation, adding that they are valuable to your endeavour.