What are the best ways to incorporate questions into your keynote speech?

The first step is to make sure you have questions to ask the audience. A lot of people think of keynotes as one-way conversations. Including questions makes it more engaging for the audience and shows them that you care about their perspective- and aren't there to just share your own.

Its also important to demonstrate to the audience that you have command over the subject of your speech. There should be structured flow in your speech and questions are means to trigger their thinking in direction of the information shared in the speech.. Case in point would be if you are delivering speech on business strategy for particular industry segment then open ended questions be like " Have strategist in your organization factored in inflationary environment due to Ukraine- Russia war? "

Um, have something that's universal relatable. " Let me tell ya story about cute dog with a sympathetic backstory. HAD CONFIDENCE, DESIRE TO ACHIEVE HER TRUE STATE! I dunno, works for me, Jaja.

It’s always advisable to plan a couple of questions before hand while practising with your speech script. These questions can be posed to the audience at an opportune time as you find fit or whenever you feel that audience interest is getting lost. This trick will help you bring them back on track too.

Remember that interacting with the community is not just a part of the presentation but an opportunity to create something together. Ask thought-provoking questions, propose hypotheses, and encourage participants to share their perspectives. This not only fosters engagement but also sparks a lively discussion. Towards the end of the presentation, collectively envision a future and encourage participants to share their personal experiences and ideas. This turns the presentation into a genuine exchange of thoughts and concepts. ?????

I recommend asking a question as the very first moment on a physical or virtual stage. It get’s the audience engaged and focus instantly. Of course the question has to be relevant or the opposite effect, disinterest, will happen. Thereafter, the dialogue needs to offer solutions to the opening question (or pain point). Closing with a thought provoking question is effective too.

Engaging the audience with questions helps to keep them concentrated on the presentation. While it's good to have prepared questions, there may be also a need to assess the mood of the audience and ask questions that address their immediate concerns

Any talk/presentation is comprised of answers to questions your audience needs answers to. This is how you could be in sync with them and engage their minds even before they think of a question. Then to engage them further, you can ask rhetorical questions to trigger their thinking and make them anticipate your answers. Or you could ask direct questions which they could answer by show of hands if a complete interaction is not possible. Make sure here to take their response and further make use of their contribution, raising their hands, to give them valuable information, not just say 'good' and move on. Finally, if you have a Q&A session, always anticipate audience questions, and prepare answers to them, especially the difficult ones.

You can base an entire keynote speech on nothing but questions! I saw this technique used to great effect. The speaker brainstormed a list of questions he thought the audience was most likely to ask about his topic. He'd put each question on a slide, and then, he'd answer them in a way that was conversational and engaging! Impressive!