You're facing a barrage of questions during your presentation. How do you skillfully navigate through them?

Keep your cool, even if the questions come rapidly. Take a deep breath and maintain a confident demeanor. This reassures the audience that you’re in control. And also listen carefully. Pay close attention to each question, making sure you understand it fully before responding. This shows respect for the questioner and helps you avoid misunderstandings.

When faced with a barrage of questions during your presentation, stay calm and composed. Listen carefully to each question and acknowledge it before responding. If a question requires a detailed answer, offer a brief response and suggest a deeper discussion after the presentation. It’s okay to admit if you don’t have an answer right away—promise to follow up later. Prioritize questions that align with your presentation’s goals, and gently steer the conversation back on track if it goes off-course. This approach keeps you in control while showing respect for your audience’s input.

The worst thing that can happen during a presentation is complete silence from the audience. That means the information you provided didn't get through to your audience at all or they don't care about the topic. So, the questions are great. That shows engagement and provides you with an opportunity to win over your audience. Once you have convinced your brain that questions are not a threat, but an opportunity, your fight/flight response will wane and you will calm down. You can have a sip of water and take a deep breath before responding.

A good way to ensure that you give the signal that you’re listening and at the same time validate that you heard the question right, is to rephrase and summarize the question before answering to give the audience member an opportunity to correct you or provide more detail. It is practically useful when facing a barrage of questions as it slows down the pace, giving you more time to think.

Often people get aggressive is they don't feel heard. So listen to the question carefully, thank the person asking, and repeat it out loud to the whole audience. This will engage everyone and also help the person asking the question to feel heard and turn them into your ally.

A technique I use often is to give a short answer, followed by saying that if they want to discuss it further in more details you’re available after the presentation and the Q&A for a follow up. That way you ensure that you have time for other people and you don’t get stuck in debate about details.

Answer to the best of your ability at that time. If you don't have the full answer, be honest about it. Promise to get back with the rest of the answer after the session.

What are you often do when a question is off-topic but interesting is to ask the audience for a short hands if they want me to dwell into that question right now or just give a short answer and move on that way I am sure that I provide the maximum amount of value to the audience

By repeating the question out loud, you have already engaged the audience. Check the interest of everyone, by noticing body language or specifically asking. If answering the question will help everyone, go ahead. If you feel that this question is specific to the person asking, offer to answer 1-1 after the session.

I often use a parking lot for this which is a paper board or whiteboard or just a piece of paper where you take notes of the questions or have a organizer, taking note of the questions to come back to them at the later stage. This reinsures the audience that you will answer the question, while at the same time, not disturbing the floor of your presentation so much.

It is better to have an agenda item called "Q&A" at the end, but questions throughout the session for higher engagement. Also, it is a good idea to keep post-it notes handy. Pass them around if there are too many questions. Ask people to write down their questions while you continue with the presentation. Promise to answer them during Q&A.

Dependendo da apresenta??o, as perguntas devem fazer parte do planejamento. Para controlar o fluxo de perguntas utilize a técnica de informar especificamente número de perguntas que irá responder ou o tempo exato que terá para perguntas e respostas.