any questions at the end of a presentation

30 Examples: How to Conclude a Presentation (Effective Closing Techniques)

By Status.net Editorial Team on March 4, 2024 — 9 minutes to read

Ending a presentation on a high note is a skill that can set you apart from the rest. It’s the final chance to leave an impact on your audience, ensuring they walk away with the key messages embedded in their minds. This moment is about driving your points home and making sure they resonate. Crafting a memorable closing isn’t just about summarizing key points, though that’s part of it, but also about providing value that sticks with your listeners long after they’ve left the room.

Crafting Your Core Message

To leave a lasting impression, your presentation’s conclusion should clearly reflect your core message. This is your chance to reinforce the takeaways and leave the audience thinking about your presentation long after it ends.

Identifying Key Points

Start by recognizing what you want your audience to remember. Think about the main ideas that shaped your talk. Make a list like this:

• The problem your presentation addresses.
• The evidence that supports your argument.
• The solution you propose or the action you want the audience to take.

These key points become the pillars of your core message.

Contextualizing the Presentation

Provide context by briefly relating back to the content of the whole presentation. For example:

• Reference a statistic you shared in the opening, and how it ties into the conclusion.
• Mention a case study that underlines the importance of your message.

Connecting these elements gives your message cohesion and makes your conclusion resonate with the framework of your presentation.

30 Example Phrases: How to Conclude a Presentation

• 1. “In summary, let’s revisit the key takeaways from today’s presentation.”
• 2. “Thank you for your attention. Let’s move forward together.”
• 3. “That brings us to the end. I’m open to any questions you may have.”
• 4. “I’ll leave you with this final thought to ponder as we conclude.”
• 5. “Let’s recap the main points before we wrap up.”
• 6. “I appreciate your engagement. Now, let’s turn these ideas into action.”
• 7. “We’ve covered a lot today. To conclude, remember these crucial points.”
• 8. “As we reach the end, I’d like to emphasize our call to action.”
• 9. “Before we close, let’s quickly review what we’ve learned.”
• 10. “Thank you for joining me on this journey. I look forward to our next steps.”
• 11. “In closing, I’d like to thank everyone for their participation.”
• 12. “Let’s conclude with a reminder of the impact we can make together.”
• 13. “To wrap up our session, here’s a brief summary of our discussion.”
• 14. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to present to you. Any final thoughts?”
• 15. “And that’s a wrap. I welcome any final questions or comments.”
• 16. “As we conclude, let’s remember the objectives we’ve set today.”
• 17. “Thank you for your time. Let’s apply these insights to achieve success.”
• 18. “In conclusion, your feedback is valuable, and I’m here to listen.”
• 19. “Before we part, let’s take a moment to reflect on our key messages.”
• 20. “I’ll end with an invitation for all of us to take the next step.”
• 21. “As we close, let’s commit to the goals we’ve outlined today.”
• 22. “Thank you for your attention. Let’s keep the conversation going.”
• 23. “In conclusion, let’s make a difference, starting now.”
• 24. “I’ll leave you with these final words to consider as we end our time together.”
• 25. “Before we conclude, remember that change starts with our actions today.”
• 26. “Thank you for the lively discussion. Let’s continue to build on these ideas.”
• 27. “As we wrap up, I encourage you to reach out with any further questions.”
• 28. “In closing, I’d like to express my gratitude for your valuable input.”
• 29. “Let’s conclude on a high note and take these learnings forward.”
• 30. “Thank you for your time today. Let’s end with a commitment to progress.”

Summarizing the Main Points

When you reach the end of your presentation, summarizing the main points helps your audience retain the important information you’ve shared. Crafting a memorable summary enables your listeners to walk away with a clear understanding of your message.

Effective Methods of Summarization

To effectively summarize your presentation, you need to distill complex information into concise, digestible pieces. Start by revisiting the overarching theme of your talk and then narrow down to the core messages. Use plain language and imagery to make the enduring ideas stick. Here are some examples of how to do this:

• Use analogies that relate to common experiences to recap complex concepts.
• Incorporate visuals or gestures that reinforce your main arguments.

The Rule of Three

The Rule of Three is a classic writing and communication principle. It means presenting ideas in a trio, which is a pattern that’s easy for people to understand and remember. For instance, you might say, “Our plan will save time, cut costs, and improve quality.” This structure has a pleasing rhythm and makes the content more memorable. Some examples include:

• “This software is fast, user-friendly, and secure.”
• Pointing out a product’s “durability, affordability, and eco-friendliness.”

Reiterating the Main Points

Finally, you want to circle back to the key takeaways of your presentation. Rephrase your main points without introducing new information. This reinforcement supports your audience’s memory and understanding of the material. You might summarize key takeaways like this:

• Mention the problem you addressed, the solution you propose, and the benefits of this solution.
• Highlighting the outcomes of adopting your strategy: higher efficiency, greater satisfaction, and increased revenue.

Creating a Strong Conclusion

The final moments of your presentation are your chance to leave your audience with a powerful lasting impression. A strong conclusion is more than just summarizing—it’s your opportunity to invoke thought, inspire action, and make your message memorable.

Incorporating a Call to Action

A call to action is your parting request to your audience. You want to inspire them to take a specific action or think differently as a result of what they’ve heard. To do this effectively:

• Be clear about what you’re asking.
• Explain why their action is needed.
• Make it as simple as possible for them to take the next steps.

Example Phrases:

• “Start making a difference today by…”
• “Join us in this effort by…”
• “Take the leap and commit to…”

Leaving a Lasting Impression

End your presentation with something memorable. This can be a powerful quote, an inspirational statement, or a compelling story that underscores your main points. The goal here is to resonate with your audience on an emotional level so that your message sticks with them long after they leave.

• “In the words of [Influential Person], ‘…'”
• “Imagine a world where…”
• “This is more than just [Topic]; it’s about…”

Enhancing Audience Engagement

To hold your audience’s attention and ensure they leave with a lasting impression of your presentation, fostering interaction is key.

Q&A Sessions

It’s important to integrate a Q&A session because it allows for direct communication between you and your audience. This interactive segment helps clarify any uncertainties and encourages active participation. Plan for this by designating a time slot towards the end of your presentation and invite questions that promote discussion.

• “I’d love to hear your thoughts; what questions do you have?”
• “Let’s dive into any questions you might have. Who would like to start?”
• “Feel free to ask any questions, whether they’re clarifications or deeper inquiries about the topic.”

Encouraging Audience Participation

Getting your audience involved can transform a good presentation into a great one. Use open-ended questions that provoke thought and allow audience members to reflect on how your content relates to them. Additionally, inviting volunteers to participate in a demonstration or share their experiences keeps everyone engaged and adds a personal touch to your talk.

• “Could someone give me an example of how you’ve encountered this in your work?”
• “I’d appreciate a volunteer to help demonstrate this concept. Who’s interested?”
• “How do you see this information impacting your daily tasks? Let’s discuss!”

Delivering a Persuasive Ending

At the end of your presentation, you have the power to leave a lasting impact on your audience. A persuasive ending can drive home your key message and encourage action.

Sales and Persuasion Tactics

When you’re concluding a presentation with the goal of selling a product or idea, employ carefully chosen sales and persuasion tactics. One method is to summarize the key benefits of your offering, reminding your audience why it’s important to act. For example, if you’ve just presented a new software tool, recap how it will save time and increase productivity. Another tactic is the ‘call to action’, which should be clear and direct, such as “Start your free trial today to experience the benefits first-hand!” Furthermore, using a touch of urgency, like “Offer expires soon!”, can nudge your audience to act promptly.

Final Impressions and Professionalism

Your closing statement is a chance to solidify your professional image and leave a positive impression. It’s important to display confidence and poise. Consider thanking your audience for their time and offering to answer any questions. Make sure to end on a high note by summarizing your message in a concise and memorable way. If your topic was on renewable energy, you might conclude by saying, “Let’s take a leap towards a greener future by adopting these solutions today.” This reinforces your main points and encourages your listeners to think or act differently when they leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some creative strategies for ending a presentation memorably.

To end your presentation in a memorable way, consider incorporating a call to action that engages your audience to take the next step. Another strategy is to finish with a thought-provoking question or a surprising fact that resonates with your listeners.

Can you suggest some powerful quotes suitable for concluding a presentation?

Yes, using a quote can be very effective. For example, Maya Angelou’s “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” can reinforce the emotional impact of your presentation.

What is an effective way to write a conclusion that summarizes a presentation?

An effective conclusion should recap the main points succinctly, highlighting what you want your audience to remember. A good way to conclude is by restating your thesis and then briefly summarizing the supporting points you made.

As a student, how can I leave a strong impression with my presentation’s closing remarks?

To leave a strong impression, consider sharing a personal anecdote related to your topic that demonstrates passion and conviction. This helps humanize your content and makes the message more relatable to your audience.

How can I appropriately thank my audience at the close of my presentation?

A simple and sincere expression of gratitude is always appropriate. You might say, “Thank you for your attention and engagement today,” to convey appreciation while also acknowledging their participation.

What are some examples of a compelling closing sentence in a presentation?

A compelling closing sentence could be something like, “Together, let’s take the leap towards a greener future,” if you’re presenting on sustainability. This sentence is impactful, calls for united action, and leaves your audience with a clear message.

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• By Illiya Vjestica
• - January 23, 2023

10 Powerful Examples of How to End a Presentation

Here are 10 powerful examples of how to end a presentation that does not end with a thank you slide.

How many presentations have you seen that end with “Thank you for listening” or “Any questions?” I bet it’s a lot…

“Thank you for listening.” is the most common example. Unfortunately, when it comes to closing out your slides ending with “thank you” is the norm. We can create a better presentation ending by following these simple examples.

The two most essential slides of your deck are the ending and intro. An excellent presentation ending is critical to helping the audience to the next step or following a specific call to action.

There are many ways you can increase your presentation retention rate . The most critical steps are having a solid call to action at the end of your presentation and a powerful hook that draws your audience in.

What Action do You Want Your Audience to Take?

Before designing your presentation, start with this question – what message or action will you leave your audience with?

Are you looking to persuade, inspire, entertain or inform your audience? You can choose one or multiple words to describe the intent of your presentation.

Think about the action words that best describe your presentation ending – what do you want them to do? Inspire, book, learn, understand, engage, donate, buy, book or schedule. These are a few examples.

If the goal of your presentation is to inspire, why not end with a powerful and inspiring quote ? Let words of wisdom be the spark that ignites an action within your audience.

Here are three ways to end your presentation:

• Call to Action – getting the audience to take a specific action or next step, for example, booking a call, signing up for an event or donating to your cause.
• Persuade – persuading your audience to think differently, try something new, undertake a challenge or join your movement or community.
• Summarise – A summary of the key points and information you want the audience to remember. If you decide to summarise your talk at the end, keep it to no more than three main points.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

1. Asking your audience to take action or make a pledge.

Here were asking the audience to take action by using the wording “take action” in our copy. This call to action is a pledge to donate. A clear message like this can be helpful for charities and non-profits looking to raise funding for their campaign or cause.

2. Encourage your audience to take a specific action, e.g. joining your cause or community

Here was are asking the audience to join our community and help solve a problem by becoming part of the solution. It’s a simple call to action. You can pass the touch to your audience and ask them to take the next lead.

3. Highlight the critical points for your audience to remember.

Rember, to summarise your presentation into no more than three key points. This is important because the human brain struggles to remember more than three pieces of information simultaneously. We call this the “Rule of Three”.

4. If you are trying to get more leads or sales end with a call to action to book a demo or schedule a call.

Can you inspire your audience to sign up for a demo or trial of your product? Structure your talk to lead your prospect through a journey of the results you generate for other clients. At the end of your deck, finish with a specific call to action, such as “Want similar results to X?”

Make sure you design a button, or graphic your prospect can click on when you send them the PDF version of the slides.

5. Challenge your audience to think differently or take action, e.g. what impact could they make?

6. Give your audience actions to help share your message.

7. Promote your upcoming events or workshops

8. Asking your audience to become a volunteer.

9. Direct your audience to learn more about your website.

10. If you are a book author, encourage your audience to engage with your book.

6 Questions to Generate an Ending for Your Presentation

You’ve told an engaging story, but why end your presentation without leaving your audience a clear message or call to action?

Here are six great questions you can ask yourself to generate an ending for your presentation or keynote talk.

• What impression would you want to leave your audience with?
• What is the big idea you want to leave them with?
• What action should they take next?
• What key point should you remember 72 hours after your presentation?
• What do you want them to feel?
• What is the key takeaway for them to understand?

What to Say After Ending a Presentation?

When you get to the end of a book, you don’t see the author say, “thank you for reading my last chapter.” Of course, there is no harm in thanking the audience after your presentation ends, but don’t make that the last words you speak.

Think of the ending of the presentation as the final chapter of an epic novel. It’s your chance to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Close with an impactful ending and leave them feeling empowered, invigorated and engaged.

• Leave a lasting impression.
• Think of it as the last chapter of a book.
• Conclude with a thought or question.
• Leave the audience with a specific action or next step.

How to End a Presentation with Style?

There are many great ways you can end your presentation with style. Are you ready to drop the mic?

Ensure your closing slide is punchy, has a clear headline, or uses a thought-provoking image.

Think about colours. You want to capture the audience’s attention before closing the presentation. Make sure the fonts you choose are clear and easy to read.

Do you need to consider adding a link? If you add links to your social media accounts, use icons and buttons to make them easy to see. Add a link to each button or icon. By doing this, if you send the PDF slides to people, they can follow the links to your various accounts.

What Should you Remember?

💡 If you take one thing away from this post, it’s to lose the traditional ending slides. Let’s move on from the “Thank you for your attention.” or “Any questions.” slides.

These don’t help you or the audience. Respect them and think about what they should do next. You may be interested to learn 3 Tactics to Free Your Presentation Style to help you connect to your audience.

Illiya Vjestica

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Blog Marketing How To End A Presentation & Leave A Lasting Impression

How To End A Presentation & Leave A Lasting Impression

Written by: Krystle Wong Aug 09, 2023

So you’ve got an exciting presentation ready to wow your audience and you’re left with the final brushstroke — how to end your presentation with a bang. 

Just as a captivating opening draws your audience in, creating a well-crafted presentation closing has the power to leave a profound and lasting impression that resonates long after the lights dim and the audience disperses.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the art of crafting an impactful conclusion that resonates with 10 effective techniques and ideas along with real-life examples to inspire your next presentation. Alternatively, you could always jump right into creating your slides by customizing our professionally designed presentation templates . They’re fully customizable and require no design experience at all! 

Click to jump ahead:

Why is it important to have an impactful ending for your presentation?

10 effective presentation closing techniques to leave a lasting impression, 7 things to put on a conclusion slide.

• 5 real-life exceptional examples of how to end a presentation

6 mistakes to avoid in concluding a presentation

Faqs on how to end a presentation, how to create a memorable presentation with venngage.

People tend to remember the beginning and end of a presentation more vividly than the middle, making the final moments your last chance to make a lasting impression. 

An ending that leaves a lasting impact doesn’t merely mark the end of a presentation; it opens doors to further exploration. A strong conclusion is vital because it:

• Leaves a lasting impression on the audience.
• Reinforces key points and takeaways.
• Motivates action and implementation of ideas.
• Creates an emotional connection with the audience.
• Fosters engagement, curiosity and reflection.

Just like the final scene of a movie, your presentation’s ending has the potential to linger in your audience’s minds long after they’ve left the room. From summarizing key points to engaging the audience in unexpected ways, make a lasting impression with these 10 ways to end a presentation:

1. The summary

Wrap up your entire presentation with a concise and impactful summary, recapping the key points and main takeaways. By doing so, you reinforce the essential aspects and ensure the audience leaves with a crystal-clear understanding of your core message.

2. The reverse story

Here’s a cool one: start with the end result and then surprise the audience with the journey that led you to where you are. Share the challenges you conquered and the lessons you learned, making it a memorable and unique conclusion that drives home your key takeaways.

Alternatively, customize one of our cool presentation templates to capture the attention of your audience and deliver your message in an engaging and memorable way

3. The metaphorical prop

For an added visual touch, bring a symbolic prop that represents your message. Explain its significance in relation to your content, leaving the audience with a tangible and unforgettable visual representation that reinforces your key concepts.

4. The audience engagement challenge

Get the audience involved by throwing them a challenge related to your informational presentation. Encourage active participation and promise to share the results later, fostering their involvement and motivating them to take action.

5. The memorable statistic showcase

Spice things up with a series of surprising or intriguing statistics, presented with attention-grabbing visual aids. Summarize your main points using these impactful stats to ensure the audience remembers and grasps the significance of your data, especially when delivering a business presentation or pitch deck presentation .

Transform your data-heavy presentations into engaging presentations using data visualization tools. Venngage’s chart and graph tools help you present information in a digestible and visually appealing manner. Infographics and diagrams can simplify complex concepts while images add a relatable dimension to your presentation. 

6. The interactive story creation

How about a collaborative story? Work with the audience to create an impromptu tale together. Let them contribute elements and build the story with you. Then, cleverly tie it back to your core message with a creative presentation conclusion.

7. The unexpected guest speaker

Introduce an unexpected guest who shares a unique perspective related to your presentation’s theme. If their story aligns with your message, it’ll surely amp up the audience’s interest and engagement.

8. The thought-provoking prompt

Leave your audience pondering with a thought-provoking question or prompt related to your topic. Encourage reflection and curiosity, sparking a desire to explore the subject further and dig deeper into your message.

9. The empowering call-to-action

Time to inspire action! Craft a powerful call to action that motivates the audience to make a difference. Provide practical steps and resources to support their involvement, empowering them to take part in something meaningful.

10. The heartfelt expression

End on a warm note by expressing genuine gratitude and appreciation for the audience’s time and attention. Acknowledge their presence and thank them sincerely, leaving a lasting impression of professionalism and warmth.

Not sure where to start? These 12 presentation software might come in handy for creating a good presentation that stands out. 

Remember, your closing slides for the presentation is your final opportunity to make a strong impact on your audience. However, the question remains — what exactly should be on the last slide of your presentation? Here are 7 conclusion slide examples to conclude with a high note:

1. Key takeaways

Highlight the main points or key takeaways from your presentation. This reinforces the essential information you want the audience to remember, ensuring they leave with a clear understanding of your message with a well summarized and simple presentation .

2. Closing statement

Craft a strong closing statement that summarizes the overall message of your presentation and leaves a positive final impression. This concluding remark should be impactful and memorable.

3. Call-to-action

Don’t forget to include a compelling call to action in your final message that motivates the audience to take specific steps after the presentation. Whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, trying a product or conducting further research, a clear call to action can encourage engagement.

4. Contact information

Provide your contact details, such as email address or social media handles. That way, the audience can easily reach out for further inquiries or discussions. Building connections with your audience enhances engagement and opens doors for future opportunities.

Use impactful visuals or graphics to deliver your presentation effectively and make the conclusion slide visually appealing. Engaging visuals can captivate the audience and help solidify your key points.

Visuals are powerful tools for retention. Use Venngage’s library of icons, images and charts to complement your text. You can easily upload and incorporate your own images or choose from Venngage’s library of stock photos to add depth and relevance to your visuals.

6. Next steps

Outline the recommended next steps for the audience to take after the presentation, guiding them on what actions to pursue. This can be a practical roadmap for implementing your ideas and recommendations.

7. Inspirational quote

To leave a lasting impression, consider including a powerful and relevant quote that resonates with the main message of your presentation. Thoughtful quotes can inspire and reinforce the significance of your key points.

Whether you’re giving an in-person or virtual presentation , a strong wrap-up can boost persuasiveness and ensure that your message resonates and motivates action effectively. Check out our gallery of professional presentation templates to get started.

5 real-life exceptional examples of how to end a presentation 

When we talk about crafting an exceptional closing for a presentation, I’m sure you’ll have a million questions — like how do you end a presentation, what do you say at the end of a presentation or even how to say thank you after a presentation. 

To get a better idea of how to end a presentation with style — let’s delve into five remarkable real-life examples that offer valuable insights into crafting a conclusion that truly seals the deal: 

1. Sheryl Sandberg 

In her TED Talk titled “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” Sheryl Sandberg concluded with an impactful call to action, urging men and women to lean in and support gender equality in the workplace. This motivational ending inspired the audience to take action toward a more inclusive world.

2. Elon Musk

Elon Musk often concludes with his vision for the future and how his companies are working towards groundbreaking advancements. His passion and enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries of technology leave the audience inspired and eager to witness the future unfold.

3. Barack Obama

President Obama’s farewell address concluded with an emotional and heartfelt expression of gratitude to the American people. He thanked the audience for their support and encouraged them to stay engaged and uphold the values that define the nation.

4. Brené Brown 

In her TED Talk on vulnerability, Brené Brown ended with a powerful quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” This quote reinforced her message about the importance of embracing vulnerability and taking risks in life.

5. Malala Yousafzai

In her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Malala Yousafzai ended with a moving call to action for education and girls’ rights. She inspired the audience to stand up against injustice and to work towards a world where every child has access to education.

For more innovative presentation ideas , turn ordinary slides into captivating experiences with these 15 interactive presentation ideas that will leave your audience begging for more.

So, we talked about how a good presentation usually ends. As you approach the conclusion of your presentation, let’s go through some of the common pitfalls you should avoid that will undermine the impact of your closing:

1. Abrupt endings

To deliver persuasive presentations, don’t leave your audience hanging with an abrupt conclusion. Instead, ensure a smooth transition by providing a clear closing statement or summarizing the key points to leave a lasting impression.

2. New information

You may be wondering — can I introduce new information or ideas in the closing? The answer is no. Resist the urge to introduce new data or facts in the conclusion and stick to reinforcing the main content presented earlier. By introducing new content at the end, you risk overshadowing your main message.

3. Ending with a Q&A session

While Q&A sessions are valuable , don’t conclude your presentation with them. Opt for a strong closing statement or call-to-action instead, leaving the audience with a clear takeaway.

4. Overloading your final slide

Avoid cluttering your final slide with too much information or excessive visuals. Keep it clean, concise and impactful to reinforce your key messages effectively.

5. Forgetting the call-to-action

Most presentations fail to include a compelling call-to-action which can diminish the overall impact of your presentation. To deliver a persuasive presentation, encourage your audience to take specific steps after the talk, driving engagement and follow-through.

6. Ignoring the audience

Make your conclusion audience-centric by connecting with their needs and interests. Avoid making it solely about yourself or your achievements. Instead, focus on how your message benefits the audience.

What should be the last slide of a presentation?

The last slide of a presentation should be a conclusion slide, summarizing key takeaways, delivering a strong closing statement and possibly including a call to action.

How do I begin a presentation?

Grabbing the audience’s attention at the very beginning with a compelling opening such as a relevant story, surprising statistic or thought-provoking question. You can even create a game presentation to boost interactivity with your audience. Check out this blog for more ideas on how to start a presentation . 

How can I ensure a smooth transition from the body of the presentation to the closing? 

To ensure a smooth transition, summarize key points from the body, use transition phrases like “In conclusion,” and revisit the main message introduced at the beginning. Bridge the content discussed to the themes of the closing and consider adjusting tone and pace to signal the transition.

How long should the conclusion of a presentation be?

The conclusion of a presentation should typically be around 5-10% of the total presentation time, keeping it concise and impactful.

Should you say thank you at the end of a presentation?

Yes, saying thank you at the end of a PowerPoint presentation is a courteous way to show appreciation for the audience’s time and attention.

Should I use presentation slides in the concluding part of my talk? 

Yes, using presentation slides in the concluding part of your talk can be effective. Use concise slides to summarize key takeaways, reinforce your main points and deliver a strong closing statement. A final presentation slide can enhance the impact of your conclusion and help the audience remember your message.

Should I include a Q&A session at the end of the presentation?

Avoid Q&A sessions in certain situations to ensure a well-structured and impactful conclusion. It helps prevent potential time constraints and disruptions to your carefully crafted ending, ensuring your core message remains the focus without the risk of unanswered or off-topic questions diluting the presentation’s impact.

Is it appropriate to use humor in the closing of a presentation?

Using humor in the closing of a presentation can be appropriate if it aligns with your content and audience as it can leave a positive and memorable impression. However, it’s essential to use humor carefully and avoid inappropriate or offensive jokes.

How do I manage nervousness during the closing of a presentation?

To manage nervousness during the closing, focus on your key points and the main message you want to convey. Take deep breaths to calm your nerves, maintain eye contact and remind yourself that you’re sharing valuable insights to enhance your presentation skills.

Creating a memorable presentation is a blend of engaging content and visually captivating design. With Venngage, you can transform your ideas into a dynamic and unforgettable presentation in just 5 easy steps: 

• Choose a template from Venngage’s library: Pick a visually appealing template that fits your presentation’s theme and audience, making it easy to get started with a professional look.
• Craft a compelling story or outline: Organize your content into a clear and coherent narrative or outline the key points to engage your audience and make the information easy to follow.
• Customize design and visuals: Tailor the template with your brand colors, fonts and captivating visuals like images and icons, enhancing your presentation’s visual appeal and uniqueness. You can also use an eye-catching presentation background to elevate your visual content. 
• Incorporate impactful quotes or inspiring elements: Include powerful quotes or elements that resonate with your message, evoking emotions and leaving a lasting impression on your audience members
• Utilize data visualization for clarity: Present data and statistics effectively with Venngage’s charts, graphs and infographics, simplifying complex information for better comprehension.

Additionally, Venngage’s real-time collaboration tools allow you to seamlessly collaborate with team members to elevate your presentation creation process to a whole new level. Use comments and annotations to provide feedback on each other’s work and refine ideas as a group, ensuring a comprehensive and well-rounded presentation.

Well, there you have it—the secrets of how to conclude a presentation. From summarizing your key message to delivering a compelling call to action, you’re now armed with a toolkit of techniques that’ll leave your audience in awe.

Now go ahead, wrap it up like a pro and leave that lasting impression that sets you apart as a presenter who knows how to captivate, inspire and truly make a mark.

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How to Nail the Q&A After Your Presentation

• Caroline Webb

You can’t rehearse it, but you can be prepared.

When preparing to give a presentation, most professionals focus their energy on the main portion of their talk — their key messages, slides, and takeaways. And far too few people think through how you’ll answer questions at the end of the presentation can be a big mistake. If you’re worried about how to hand the Q&A, there are several things you can do. Change your mindset. Rather than dreading this part of the talk, develop an appreciation for the conversation. It’s a good thing that people have follow-up questions and want to further engage with your content. Beforehand, think through the types of questions audience members might ask. Put yourself in your shoes and ask yourself what concerns they might have about how your message impacts their job. Then, when you’re asked a question, especially one that might be contentious, start your answer by focusing on where you and the person asking it agree. This makes the person feel seen and connected to you. And if you’re asked a question out of left field, be curious. Ask follow-up questions that help you understand what they’re getting at and where they’re coming from.

If you’re not a huge fan of public speaking , you’re in good company. It’s such a widely shared source of anxiety that when psychologists want to induce unpleasant stress in a person for experimental purposes, they often use a public speaking task called the Trier Social Stress Test . The test requires people to give a talk and do sums in front of a panel of impassive listeners, and it reliably generates stress markers such as a faster heart rate, raised cortisol levels, and “enhanced skin conductance,” which is the polite way of saying sweaty palms.

• Caroline Webb  is the author of  How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life .  She is also CEO of coaching firm  Sevenshift , and a Senior Adviser to McKinsey & Company. Follow her on Twitter  @caroline_webb_ ,  Facebook , or  Google + .

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How to Close Your Presentation in English Powerfully [+ FREE Presentation Checklist]

May 9, 2018 | Business Professional English , Free Resource , Public Speaking & Presentations

This lesson has been updated from its original posting in 2016.

You’re giving your presentation in English. You have just two minutes left. And it’s time for the conclusion …

Did you know most people only remember the first and last things you tell them? It’s true.

If you are giving a presentation in English, then you definitely want people to remember what you say at the end. And this means your closing must be powerful!

You’ve worked hard on your presentation. You searched for information online. You couldn’t sleep at night. You felt nervous about making mistakes. You spent hours preparing. You reviewed the grammar and vocabulary. You worried about someone asking a question. You practiced and practiced and practiced.

And now it’s the last two minutes. This is the last opportunity for your audience to hear your key points. It is the last chance you have to help your audience remember your comments.

A closing in a presentation should be short and clear. It should summarize your key points. And, most importantly, it should be powerful.

In today’s lesson, you’re going to learn about 3 ways to make your closing more powerful. Plus you’ll learn useful key expressions you can use in your presentation.

3 steps to a powerful closing in your presentation.

Lesson by Annemarie

3 Strategies to Close Your Presentation Powerfully

Use these 3 strategies in your conclusion to:

• recapture your audience’s attention
• get your audience to focus and remember your key points
• help your audience connect with you and your topic
• end your presentation powerfully

One: Include a Call to Action (CTA)

Is there something you want your audience to do or think after your presentation. Do you want them to take action? Tell your audience exactly what you want them to do with a Call to Action.

Here’s my example:

“ After you finish today’s lesson, please take 2 minutes to  leave a comment about your experience with presentations. You can share your thoughts or ask questions in the comments section at the bottom of this lesson – it’s the perfect place to join a discussion on this topic.”

A couple useful expressions to help you introduce your CTA is:

• To close, I’d like to ask you to do this one thing…
• And finally, before you leave the conference today, please take two minutes to…

Two: End with a Powerful/Inspirational Quote

Is there one thing you really want your audience to remember? Or is there a specific feeling you want your audience to have after your presentation?

Using a powerful quote can help you do that. You could introduce a great quote or interesting statistic with:

• I’d like to finish with this powerful/interesting/wonderful/inspiring/ quote from …
• And finally, let’s finish up today’s discussion with this surprising/useful/shocking/hopeful statistic …

Here are some example quotes that might help people be prepared to take action or to think differently. But remember! Always match the quote or statistic to your topic:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”  – Martin Luther King, Jr. “Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.”  – Alexander Graham Bell

Three: Add a Surprising Fact or Statistic

Is there something you’d love for your audience to think about after your presentation? Is there a statistic or fact that will help someone remember your key points?

A surprising fact can also help re-engage your audience, it will snap their attention back to you.

For example:

Did you know that the human brain’s capacity is limitless – that’s great new right? BUT … did you also know that a person is likely to remember only 25% of a presentation after 24 hours?

Uh oh. That is why it’s SO important to have a powerful ending! Remember: the key is to find a statistic or fact that connects directly to your topic.

Useful Language to Close Your Presentation

Summarize Your Key Points & Close Your Presentation

• That brings us to the end of the presentation. I’d like to summarize by saying …
• That concludes my presentation. However, I’d like to quickly summarize the main points or takeaways.
• And on that final note, that concludes my presentation.
• To quickly recap, I’d like you to remember these key points …
• To summarize …
• In conclusion …
• I’d like to bring this presentation to a close with …
• I’d like to close this talk with …
• So, this concludes the focus of discussion today. To end, I’d like to highlight …
• This concludes [name/title of the section] so let’s move on to the final comments.

Thank Your Audience

• I sincerely appreciate your attention today/this evening/this morning.
• And that brings us to the end. I’d like to thank you for your time and attention today.
• Thank you so much for your interest and attention.
• At this time, I’d like to have my colleague speak so I’ll finish up by saying thank you for your attention.
• I can see that our time is just about up so to finish I’d like to say thank you.
• I sincerely appreciate that I’ve had this opportunity to present to you.
• If there is one thing I would like you to remember from today’s presentation it’s …

Take Questions

• If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to open up the discussion.
• If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask now and I’ll do my best to answer.
• Would anyone like to ask any questions?
• I would now be interested to hear from you with your thoughts or questions.
• Now let’s move on to some Q&A. (Q&A = Questions and Answers)

Provide Next Steps or Contact Information

• If you would like more information, here is a list of useful resources/websites.
• If anyone who like more information or has questions, please feel free to contact me at: [include contact info]
• Here is a list for further reading on this topic. (Include the list of books or websites.)

Get the complete Presentations in English Series:

Part 1: How to Prepare for Your Presentation in English

Part 2:  How to Start with a Great Introduction in Your Presentation

Part 3:  How to Organize Your Presentation in English

Part 4: How to End Your Presentation Powerfully

After you’ve watched the video and reviewed the lesson, I’d love to hear from you!

Tell me about the best presentation you ever heard. Who gave the presentation? And why do you remember it? Share what you remember in the comments section below.

And for the bonus question!! Have you given a presentation in English? What tips or advice would you like to share with others? You can add your advice in the comments section.

Thank you so much for joining me!

~ Annemarie

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I’m glad to hear it was helpful!

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great video series. thank you so much. you mentioned that you had a downloadable checklist in the final video. where could I find this thanks?

Hi Ellie, I’m glad the series was helpful.

When you visit the lesson, there should be an image that pops up with an opportunity to get the download. If you don’t see it, please let me know so I can fix it.

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Thanks for your help 🙂

Great website. I found a typo in on the presentation closings page “Useful Langauge to Close Your Presentation”.

Good eyes! Thanks so much for the note. We’ve fixed the typo.

Dear Annemarie, thank you so much for sharing. 

Dear Annemarie, thank you so much for sharing. I learned so much from your 4 videos and I will work on improving my presentation skills. Love your spirit of excellence. For me as a presenter, its important i am passionate about the topic i share and audience will be able to apply some of the learnings in their life. Thank you Annemarie. I love your voice too. Stay blessed.

I watch continuously watched ur 4 videos and U r a great teacher.Thanks for making such purposeful videos.

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Thanks, Jasmin! I’m so glad to know my lessons are helpful to you.

hey Annemarie could you help me in ending my presentation on mental health. it is a school presentation for MUN

If you’d like editing help, please see our options for 1:1 classes .

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7 Brilliant Ways to End Any Presentation: When to Use a Presentation Thank You Address

I like building and growing simple yet powerful products for the world and the worldwide web.

Published Date : December 4, 2020

Reading Time :

As important as an introduction is to a speech presentation, the end of your presentation is what you leave your audience with.  Giving a proper presentation thank you address is a helpful public speaking skill .

When is it appropriate to simply say “thank you” and close your presentation?

In what moments does a presentation require more from you? 

How do you tell your audience to thank you for watching my presentation if you made a visual presentation?

What is the importance of saying thank you to your audience for listening?

We intend to answer all these questions in this article, and we hope you read the whole page to understand the complete concept of the presentation. Thank you. 

How Should I End a Presentation? Different Ways of Ending a Speech Or a Presentation

As a speech expert who has attended many presentations and orations, I can tell that each presenter concludes their speech in different ways. Most speakers will showcase presentation thank you images as a visual aid at the end of a PowerPoint, while others give a summary. 

Irrespective of the speaker’s methods, here are seven ways to end a presentation or speech .

1. Closing with a Summary

 Summarizing key points of your speech when concluding an oration is an age-old method of finishing your address. It is a technique speakers and writers use to close and ensure their audience remembers their main point.

Using a summary for closure is common with lectures and the traditional presentation thank-you addresses.

2. Closing with the Power of Three

The Power of Three uses a pattern of three words, phrases, or more to emphasize a point and make it more memorable. A typical phrase Julius Caesar uses is “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

3. Closing with Metaphors

Metaphors are a figure of speech that compares two entities figuratively and makes it seem like they are the same. In basic English Language, the definition of metaphors indicates a form of comparison without using comparative words (for example, like and as).

It is ideal for motivational speech presentations and graduation speeches . This type of closing works perfectly if you use an analogy, anecdote, or reference to the comparative subject during your presentation.

4. Using Facts to Recreate Engagement

Some of the most memorable speech presentations end with things that regain the audience’s attention. If you search Google, you will find facts related to your discussion and share them to surprise your audience.

5. Using an Illustration or Image

Similar to metaphors, you can finish with stories or use an illustration to close. This method is quite common because many orators can use it to start and end their speeches.

Visual aids are essential to help drive your point across when you present, and you can also use them to close effectively.

6. Closing with a Quote or a Short Sentence

If you can condense your summary to a less wordy, short sentence, it tends to leave a longer-lasting impression on your listeners. It is essential to ensure that the short message conveys your authenticity and the importance of your message.

Using a quote is a timeless way to conclude any type of speech or presentation. However, it is essential to have a quote relevant to your address; if not, you can make a quote out of a point you made while presenting.

7. Making a Provocative Closing

Closing provocatively uses calls to action to move your audience toward a particular goal. An example of this type of conclusion is usually observed with preachers, activists, and advertisers.

Many preachers make altar calls at the end of their sermons, and activists usually end with a wake-up call to move the audience to action.

What is the Best Way to End a PowerPoint Presentation?

PowerPoint presentations take a lot of time and can take an audience almost no time to forget. Figuring out how to make a strong closing will help give your audience something to remember. 

The way you close each ppt depends on the nature of your discussion. 

Closing a Persuasive PPT

Your thank you note for the presentation after a persuasive PowerPoint should win the members of your audience over. To convince them ultimately, you can include:

• A call-to-action
• Verified facts

Closing an Informative PPT

Informative PPTs share data, so the ideal closure for them is a presentation thank-you images that show:

• A summary of all the ideas you shared
• A conclusive concept map
• Bulleted key points
• A recap of the objectives of the presentation

Closing an Introductory PPT

The general concept of introductory speech presentations is to:

If you give an initial pitch, the best presentation thank you images will give your audience a proper means to contact you or follow up on your next program. 

Note: When concluding any PowerPoint, your thank you for watching my presentation slide will naturally need to follow the same pattern as the entire PPT. It is also helpful if you are creative with the presentation. Thank you.

The General Importance of Saying Thank You

Saying thank you means expressing gratitude for an action completed or a gift. In any setting, your ability to express gratitude, irrespective of whether or not you deserved the service you got, goes a long way.  

Some advantages of expressing gratitude include:

What is the importance of presenting thank you images?

As a part of the audience, after listening to a speaker talk all day, especially when you can leave but stay, a minute presentation thank you would suffice.

It’s no secret that some presenters do not say thank you after their speech , so what do you gain by thanking your audience?

• It helps you reinforce already established values. 
• Strengthens speaker-audience relationships. 
• Serves as a foundation for trust.
• Stimulates conversation by question and answer strategies.
• It makes you unique in numerous places.

How to Say Thank You at the End of Your Presentation: Simple Tips and Tricks

Saying thank you is not only about expressing gratitude. Often, saying thank you is a business strategy, and presenting thank you images must  prove their worth for your business.

Some simple pointers to remember are:

• Remain professional
• Avoid grammatical errors as much as possible.
• Try not to seem salesy; instead, be polite.
• Employ perfect timing

Using the Right Voice Tone

Every type of presentation setting demands a specific tone type. You will need to adjust your tone to avoid being misunderstood.

Personalize It and Try to Maintain Relevance

It is rather rude to use a copy-and-paste post-presentation thank you message. Instead, it’s best to make a unique, personalized thank-you note that is audience-specific.

Additionally, it’s best to remain within the subject matter for the conclusion by sharing relevant information.

Ask Questions and Answer Previous Ones

If you have any questions before the presentation, it is best to answer them now. If you used an “any questions slide,” you can also answer questions from there.

When your time starts finishing, and you cannot answer any more questions, try to provide contact details or follow up with their concerns.

Practice the perfect end to your presentation with Orai

When to Use and When to Avoid a Thank You Presentation Slide

Using tact is a vital tool when facing public speaking opportunities. Knowing when it is okay to share a thank you presentation slide and when it isn’t necessary is essential.

Some of the times when saying thank you for listening to my presentation is appropriate and essential are:

• When you have an audience that shows up voluntarily, it is essential to express gratitude.
• If you are expressing gratitude to your team for putting in hard work
• If your audience needed to travel to attend your presentation

On the other hand, there are some situations when presentation thank you images are either inappropriate or unnecessary:

• If you plan to answer questions after your presentation or host an interactive session, presentation thank you images will prompt your audience to leave the meeting.
• If your presentation has terrible news, a presentation thank you will be insensitive and inappropriate.
• When you need to assign a task or follow up on anything, it’s better to end with that than a thank you slide.

Potential Alternatives to a Presentation Thank You Image

Ending with a simple presentation, thank you, is often seen as a weak presentation. It is usually best to complete your presentation creatively or using a call-to-action. 

So, in what ways can you effectively end your speech using visual aids without needing to use presentation thank you images?

Using a “One More Thing” Slide

This type of presentation thank you option introduces (for lack of a better term) the final bomb or the hidden gem. For example, if you were introducing a new product, your one more thing slide would probably show an unexpected benefit of purchasing the product to woo your audience.

This type of slide is inappropriate for every presentation, so you will have to consider the nature of your audience when inputting this idea.

A Slide that Continues the Conversation

This type of ending could feature a form of presentation thank you that continues the discussion. It may be a bunch of arguments that gear your audience’s communication with each other or with you.

Ideally, you will need to provide them with contact information so they can communicate with you after you finish. If you are searching for new prospects for partnership or employment, this is the best slide to include such details.

Closing with “Any Questions?”

This type of closing is the most common aside from the mainstream presentation thank you images. As I stated earlier, it isn’t appropriate to include a presentation thank you if you hope to continue any discussion. 

Asking for questions boosts audience engagement and serves as a memory aid so they remember your presentation. However, it isn’t uncommon to have no one asking you questions while you present. 

If you want to avoid the awkwardness of an unanswered no-questions slide, here are some things you can try:

• Asking the first question yourself is an icebreaker.; your inquiry has the potential to open room for more questions
• Ask a friend in the audience to break the ice with the first question.
• Asking your audience to prepare for questions in advance by providing them with the necessary materials
• Distributing pre-presenting writing material to the audience to motivate them to write down questions they might have had during your speech so that you can answer them effectively.

Practice your presentations with Orai. Get feedback on your tone, tempo, confidence , and consciousness to help you get your presentation on point.

Thank You Letters: Taking it A Step Further

Numerous presentations, especially business idea pitching, hardly lead to immediate sales. In such a case, ending with a presentation, thank you, and contact information isn’t enough. 

You will need to take it further by sending a thank you letter so they can remind you, mostly if they have already forgotten. So, how do you follow up on a potential client or previous sponsor with a presentation? Thank you.

Elements of a Good Thank You Letter

When writing an excellent thank you letter, you must consider elements to ensure that your recipient reads it and carries out the appropriate action. 

You do not require a soothsayer to tell you that people do not read every letter. So, how do you beat the odds and make your message worthwhile? Here are some elements you can include to that effect.

A Strong Subject Line

If you can remember the times you intentionally opened spam mail, I am sure it had something to do with the subject. Most companies treat letters like this as spam and have no reason to read them.

However, if you can create a subject line that clearly states your intentions, you have a better chance of having your mail read.

Clearly Expressed Gratitude

Start the letter by expressing gratitude for attending your presentation and giving you time. You can also include other factors in your message that you need to express gratitude for.

A Summary of Your Presentation 

They aren’t likely to have any reason to remember all the points you made during your presentation. Now is the perfect time to remind them and highlight the issues you presented they could have missed. 

It’s best to use bullet points to give them room for skim reading. Additionally, if you have reached an agreement, you should include it in the letter for clarity .

Answers to Prior Questions 

If they had questions you could not answer while presenting, now is the perfect time to answer them. It is a gesture that shows potential clients that you care about their concerns.

Additionally, you can encourage more questions to keep the conversation going.

A Professional Closing Note

Most people have customized closing remarks that they send with each mail that usually have the following characteristics in small icons:

• Your name and position in the company
• The company’s name (and logo, if possible)
• The company’s website URL

Practice with Orai and become an expert

Final Tips For Thank You Letters and Speeches 

Irrespective of how you decide to make your presentation thank you slide, these six tips will help you:

• Include a call to action for your audience.
• Try not to end with questions.
• Refer to the opening message.
• Use anecdotes to summarize.
• Incorporate the rule of three where you can.
• Avoid leaving your audience confused about whether or not your presentation is over.

Examples of Presentation Thank You Letter

Subject line: A follow-up on (topic or product)

Hi (insert name)

Express gratitude: I am grateful you took the time to attend today’s program. (Include gratitude for any other sacrifice they made.

Here is a quick recap (___) 

Concerning your questions on ___, here is an attachment with detailed answers. Feel free to ask further questions.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regard,

Business Signature

How should you make a clear call to action to the audience at the end of a presentation?

A powerful presentation ends with a clear, direct call to action. Don’t hope your message inspires action – explicitly tell your audience what you want them to do, why it matters, and its impact. Make it specific, compelling, and relevant, using examples or statistics to drive home the importance. Leave them knowing exactly what steps to take next and the benefits or consequences involved, maximizing your chances of a positive response.

When is it beneficial to ask a rhetorical question at the end of a talk?

Want your talk to linger? End with a powerful rhetorical question! It sparks reflection, reinforces key points, and piques curiosity, leaving your audience captivated long after the presentation ends. Use it to challenge, inspire, and make your message truly unforgettable.

How can you utilize a cartoon or animation to conclude your presentation effectively?

Utilizing a cartoon or animation to conclude your presentation effectively involves integrating visuals that complement your message. Consider incorporating a relevant cartoon that conveys a metaphor or key idea of your presentation. Using humor in the cartoon can also help engage your audience and make your message more memorable. By ending on a visual note, you can leave a lasting impression and reinforce the main points you want your audience to remember.

How should you end a presentation without a “Questions?” slide?

To wrap up a presentation without a designated “Questions?” slide, it is beneficial to encourage audience interaction throughout the presentation by allowing questions to be asked at any point. This ensures that the questions and answers are directly related to the content being discussed. However, if questions are to be fielded at the end of the presentation, a powerful technique is to conclude with a striking image that reinforces and encapsulates the central message or theme addressed during the talk. This visual aid should be a memorable takeaway for the audience, leaving a lasting impression that harmonizes with the presentation’s content. Utilizing this method, you can successfully conclude your presentation on a strong note without needing a specific “Questions?” slide.

Why is it recommended to use a summary slide instead of a “Thank You” slide at the end of a presentation?

Skip the “Questions?” slide! Encourage real-time engagement throughout, then end with a powerful image that resonates with your message. It’ll be a memorable takeaway; no dedicated question slide is needed!

How can quotes and interesting anecdotes be effectively integrated into the conclusion of a speech?

Spice up your speech conclusion: ditch the tired quotes and choose fresh voices relevant to your audience and topic. Share authentic anecdotes that resonate personally, and weave them seamlessly with your reflections for deeper impact. Memorable endings leave audiences thinking long after your final words.

When used as a closing statement, what impact can a short, memorable sentence or sound bite have on the audience?

Short and sweet: Ditch lengthy closings! Craft a concise, magnetic sentence that captures your message. In today’s attention-deficit world, it’ll linger long after your speech , leaving a powerful impression and resonating with your audience. Remember, short and impactful embodies your voice and drive home your key points. Boom!

In what situations is it appropriate to acknowledge individuals or companies at the end of a presentation?

Say thanks! Publicly acknowledging collaborators, data sources, and presentation helpers in research, information use, and preparation scenarios shows respect, professionalism, and gratitude. Use both verbal mentions and presentation software credits for maximum impact. Remember, a little appreciation goes a long way!

How can visual aids, such as a running clock or images, be employed to emphasize key points during the conclusion of a speech?

End with a bang! Use visuals like a ticking clock to build urgency or powerful images to solidify your message. Leave them on display for reflection, letting the visuals do the final talking and ensuring your key points leave a lasting impression.

How can surprising facts be used to re-engage the audience’s attention at the end of a presentation?

Surprise them! When attention fades, drop a shocking fact with stats. Use online resources to find fresh info, keeping sources handy for Q&A. It’ll re-energize them, offering new insights and solidifying your credibility. Boom!

What role can storytelling play in concluding a presentation and engaging the audience?

Storytime! Wrap up with a short, impactful story – personal or relevant to your topic. Think customer experience or a case study with heart. Make it relatable, spark empathy, and tie it back to your key points. Boom – a memorable, engaging ending that sticks!

How can I make my presentation memorable using the “power of three” communication method?

Rule of three! Organize your conclusion in trios: points, examples, and stories. Brains love patterns and threes stick! Memorable, impactful, and resonating – that’s your ending goal. Keep it simple, repeat key points, and leave them with a lasting impression.

How can I effectively end a presentation or speech to leave a lasting impression on the audience?

Nail your ending! Use the power of three: storytelling, surprising facts, or visuals to grab attention. Acknowledge others, craft a short & memorable closing, summarize key points, repeat key messages, and end with energy to inspire action. Leave a lasting impression, not a fade-out!

How can you ensure that your audience understands when your presentation has concluded?

End strong! Rule of three for impact, clear closing cue (no guessing!), confident “thank you,” and wait for applause. No fidgeting, no weak exits. Leave them wanting more, not wondering if it’s over!

Final Notes: Saying Thank You is a Vital Life Skill

As far as life goes, saying thank you properly is essential. Even if you are giving a paid lecture or presentation, thank you notes give your audience a sense of importance for participating in your work process. 

An asset every public speaker has after overcoming the fear of public speaking is their ability to express gratitude to their audience for the time they spent listening.

I hope you remember to say thank you creatively!

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How to End a Presentation? [Top 8 Strategies with Examples]

Guru - May 9, 2023 - Leave your thoughts. 9 min read

animaker deck , presentation , presentation ideas , Presentation Software , presentation tips

How you end a presentation is just as crucial as its opening. It can make or break the impression that you leave on your audience.

A strong conclusion can reinforce your key message and ensure that your audience remembers it even after the presentation is over.

A well-concluded presentation can leave your audience impressed, energized, and motivated to take action.

So now, are you wondering what’s the best way to conclude your presentation? Don’t worry! You have come to the right place!

To help you make a powerful ending to your presentation, we have compiled a list of 8 different strategies in this blog post.

Each of these strategies is designed to help you create a memorable and impactful conclusion to your presentation.

By choosing the most appropriate one for your presentation, you can ensure that your audience remembers your key message and feels motivated to take action.

Let’s jump right in,

1. Emphasize the core message 2. Mirror your opening statement 3. Pose an open-ended question 4. End with a Call to action 5. Thank the audience 6. End with a powerful quote 7. Acknowledge your contributors 8. Ask for feedback

1. Emphasize the core message:

One of the most important aspects of any presentation is ensuring your audience understands your core message.

Reiterating your main points and summarizing your message at the end of your presentation can reinforce this and leave a lasting impression.

It helps to ensure that your audience understands the purpose of your presentation and has a clear takeaway from the information you have provided.

In this video, the speaker restates her topic to conclude her speech firmly and gives a pause, resulting in tremendous applause from the audience.

Similarly, by restating your core message, you can also create a sense of cohesion and give your presentation a firm closure.

This can be particularly important if you want to motivate your audience to take action or influence their behavior in some way.

However, it's important not to repeat EVERYTHING you have said. Instead, focus on the most crucial elements and highlight them in a concise and clear manner.

2. Mirror your opening statement:

A great way to end your presentation is by mirroring your opening statement in your conclusion.

Highlighting your presentation's key message at the end and emphasizing the central idea you aimed to communicate will help your audience to retain it in their memory.

During the conclusion of the presentation, the speaker effectively utilized the technique of mirroring the opening example she had presented - ordering a pizza on the phone by herself.

The speaker demonstrated the remarkable transformation she had undergone in terms of personal growth and confidence, which strongly reinforced her message to the audience.

By mirroring her opening example, she created a sense of familiarity and connection with her audience while simultaneously driving home the key message of her presentation.

This technique allowed the audience to understand better and relate to the speaker's personal journey and the message she was conveying.

Similarly, you can also use this strategy to conclude your presentation. This can be particularly effective if you are trying to reinforce a specific theme or idea throughout your presentation.

3. Pose an open-ended question:

One of the best ways to conclude your presentation is to elicit a response from your audience using an open-ended question that can effectively engage them and make your presentation more memorable.

Look at how the speaker concludes her speech with an open-ended question in this video.

Similarly, you can also raise open-ended questions to help your audience look from a different perspective and encourage them to investigate more thoroughly on the information presented.

Most importantly, ensuring that your question is relevant to your presentation and doesn't detract from your overall message is essential when eliciting a response.

So make sure that you kindle your audiences’ thoughts and ideas with the open-ended question at the end. This helps create a good long-lasting impression of your presentation.

4. End with a Call to action:

One of the best ways to end your presentation is by concluding with a call to action slide.

Incorporating a call to action into your presentation can be a powerful way to encourage your audience to take the next step.

Whether it's signing up for a program, making a purchase, or supporting a cause, a clear call to action is essential to achieving your desired outcome.

Similarly, according to your type of presentation, you can include a relevant call to action.

For example, this might involve providing specific instructions or offering an incentive for taking action, such as a discount or free trial.

It's essential that you understand their pain points and make your call to action compelling. Ensure that your core message and the needs of your audience are aligned so that they are motivated enough to act.

5. Thank the audience:

At the end of your presentation, it's essential to recognize that your audience has taken time out of their busy schedules to attend and listen to your message.

Thanking your audience for their time and attention can create a positive impression and make them feel appreciated.

It's essential to make your gratitude genuine and sincere rather than a superficial gesture. For example, consider expressing your gratitude with a personal anecdote or acknowledging specific individuals in the audience.

This simple act of gratitude can also create a sense of personal connection and signal to your audience that the presentation has reached its conclusion, paving the way for future interactions with them.

6. End with a powerful quote:

One effective strategy to end your presentation on a high note is by leaving the audience with a powerful quote.

However, it's crucial to choose a quote that is not only impactful but also unique and relevant to your topic.

Using a commonly known quote may come across as unoriginal and irrelevant, losing the attention and interest of your audience in most cases.

In this presentation, Steve Jobs concludes his speech with an inspiring and powerful message, “Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish”. Thereby emphasizing that you should never stop learning, pursue more goals, and never stop being satisfied.

Similarly, in your conclusion, consider using a relevant quote to make an impact.

7. Acknowledge your contributors:

Another best way to conclude your presentation is by showing gratitude to your contributors.

For example, if you deliver a business presentation on behalf of a team or a department, it's essential to recognize the collective effort that went into creating the presentation.

The concluding moments of your speech are the perfect opportunity to acknowledge your team members' hard work and dedication.

You can express gratitude to your team as a whole, thanking them for their contribution to the presentation.

However, if you want to ensure that the individual efforts of team members are recognized, highlighting specific contributions may be a better approach.

Some examples include:

"Join me in giving a round of applause to my incredible team, who played a significant role in arranging this pitch deck."

"Finally, I would like to mention that my tech team experts provided me with insight into the technical nuances, and without their contribution, this presentation would not have been as informative as it is now."

"As I conclude, I want to express my gratitude to Mark and Serene from the Marketing team, whose assistance in gathering the data and designing the slides was invaluable."

By acknowledging individual team members, you are demonstrating your appreciation for their work and giving them the recognition they deserve.

This will not only make them feel valued but also motivate them to continue contributing to the success of future presentations.

So be sure to end your presentation with the required acknowledgment for all the contributions.

8. Ask for feedback:

You can conclude your presentation seamlessly by thanking the audience and asking for feedback from them.

Encouraging feedback from your audience can greatly benefit your future presentations. It allows you to understand how your message was received and how you can improve for the next time.

So, how can you gather feedback effectively?

Firstly, ask attendees to share their thoughts on your presentation after you finish speaking. This can be done by initiating a Q&A session or by approaching individuals directly.

Another option is to set up a QR code near the exit and ask people to scan and jot down their thoughts on the online form as they leave. This allows attendees to provide their feedback in a confidential and hassle-free manner.

Also, consider having a suggestion box for handwritten feedback notes or creating an anonymous online survey that links to your presentation slides. This method is beneficial if you want to gather feedback from a large audience or if you prefer to have quantitative data.

By actively seeking feedback, you show your audience that you value their input and are committed to improving your presentation skills.

However, this strategy does not apply to all the general presentations. So use this way of concluding your presentation where it makes more sense to you and the audience.

In summary, an impactful conclusion is vital to wrap up your presentation successfully.

Each of these strategies serves a unique purpose, and by combining them, you can create a conclusion that is both engaging and impactful.

By incorporating the 8 critical strategies mentioned in this guide, you can leave a lasting impression on your audience, ensuring that your message stays with them even after the presentation has ended.

Now that you have learned the pro strategies of how to end a presentation, take a look at this guide on “How to start a presentation” as well and nail your presentation from start to end!

If you are still uncertain about how to make a presentation from the ground up, we suggest checking out Animaker Deck - the world's first avatar-driven presentation software.

With over 40 distinct and creatively designed templates at your disposal, we are confident you will find it worth trying!

We hope this article was helpful. Do let us know your thoughts on which strategy worked best for you, and also suggest your own ways of ending a presentation.

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How to End a Presentation with Punch (17 Techniques)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• March 5, 2019

In this post you’ll learn 17 different ways for how to end a presentation that you can test out.

Why worry about the ending?

Because how you end your presentation is just as important as how you start your presentation ( details here ).

If you start strong but flounder at the end of your presentation, what feeling are people going to be walking away with?

Not a good one, that’s for sure! That’s why the ending your presentation is so important.

1. Call to action

2. Skip the Q&A at the end your presentation

3. End your presentation with a rhetorical Question

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4. Conclude your speech with a story

As you can learn in our post on the best ways to start a presentation ( details here ), emotional listeners retain more information. An emotional story, whether it’s funny, sad, or thought-provoking, is a sure fire way to engage your audience.

If you can, try to tie the beginning and end together with your stories, like Heather Lanier does here:

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5. The power of 3 for your conclusion

6. Come full circle at the end of your presentation

• Pose a question which you answer at the end
• Tell a story and either refer to it or finish it at the end
• Repeat the first slide, this work especially well with powerful images or quotes

7. Demonstrate your product

8. End with an either / or scenario

9. End your presentation on a high note

10. A sound bite

11. End with a provocative question

12. Use the title close technique

13. A quick presentation recap

14. End with a powerful quote

15. End with a strong visual image

16. Close with a clear cut ending

17. End your presentation on time

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Learn the Phrases to Conclude your Presentation

How you end your presentation is as important as how you start your presentation Yet, many presenters finish simply because their time limit is up or they have nothing more to say. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Many audience members only begin paying attention to a presentation once they hear the words “In conclusion…” or “Finally…” The conclusion is where things crystallise and where you summarise your main points. It is an excellent opportunity to leave a lasting impression. It’s how your audience will remember you, so it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

In this Business English lesson, you will learn the Phrases on the topic of ‘Concluding a Presentation.’ Watch the lesson and then read the article for definitions and examples.

Don’t forget to like and follow us on YouTube and   LinkedIn .

Example Phrases to help Conclude your Presentation…

Indicating the end of your presentation.

“That completes my presentation/talk.” “I’m now nearing the end of my presentation/talk.” ”That’s everything I wanted to say about…” ”Well, this brings me to the end of my presentation/talk.”

Summarising Points

“Let me just look at the key points again.” ”To conclude/In conclusion, I’d like to…” ”I’ll briefly summarise the main issues.” ”To sum up (then), we….”

Making Recommendations

“It’s recommended that…” ”We’d suggest…” ”It’s my opinion that we should…” ”Based on these findings, I’m recommending that…”

Closing your Presentation

“Thank you for your attention/time.” ”Before I end, let me just say…” ”Thank you for listening.”

Inviting Questions

“Do you have any questions?” ”Now we have time for a few questions.” ”If you have any questions, please do ask.” ”And now, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have.”

LESSON END.

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Bea Mariel Saulo

Bea is an editor and writer with a passion for literature and self-improvement. Her ability to combine these two interests enables her to write informative and thought-provoking articles that positively impact society. She enjoys reading stories and listening to music in her spare time.

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How to End Your Presentation: Tips for Your Grand Finale

You have just created the most amazing presentation ever. You have written a touching speech and you are designing your last slides… Oh, wait. How to end your pitch? Sometimes people get distracted.   Don’t panic. You don’t need to read Aristotle’s Rhetoric to close your presentation in an effective way. In this tutorial, we will teach you some tips to influence your listeners and to get new clients, investors, students… They’ll love you and your product or service! 

Summarize and show a sneak peek

Make a lasting impact: quotes, use emotions to persuade your audience, involve your audience, add a “thanks” slide.

Just before saying “thanks” and “goodbye”, it’s time to summarize the contents of your presentation… and give something new to your audience.   Repetition can be a good idea! In this case, it will help your listeners. Thanks to it, they will manage to understand the global structure of your speech, if they didn’t before! In addition, if they had doubts or didn’t understand a section properly, their questions will be immediately answered.  Before or after talking about the main points of your presentation, give your audience something that will make them want to know more about your product or service.   In this respect you give them an opportunity to see something before it is officially available.  

This is a sneak peek. In Slidesgo, we add a special template in some of our Marketing themes .  You could, for example, add a video showing the features of your product. Make it visual, interesting and you will thrill your audience!  → Are you fascinated by the smart design of this News Agency Template yet? Give it a go! 

It’s usual to add a quote to your presentation. Recalling the perfect sentence by an authority is great when you want to persuade or to make a great impact in your listeners.   By authority, we refer to someone who is a specialist in an area or to someone who is pretty famous for his or her work, intelligence…   In the same way, you can also use closing lines of books or movies. They also have a great impact! Have you ever watched Some Like It Hot? The very last sentence pronounced in this movie, became one of the most well known and quoted lines in history. When Jerry confesses that he is a man, Osgood states: “Well, nobody’s perfect.”  Let’s use a famous quote in your presentation. Choose a sentence that represents your passion and that triggers a pleasant feeling in your audience. Talking about effort is always a good idea. The same can be applied to optimism, as it is a contagious emotion! 

Get this quote as an example. It is short, concise and it was pronounced by someone who is famous and successful!  → Did you like this energetic World After Coronavirus Template ? Get it for free!  

You have explained all the technical details of your company and your product or service. Now, let's add some emotive touches to what you want to say.   Of course, it’s something that you can use during the whole presentation, but ending in an emotional way will be very effective.   Our memory works better when emotions are around. We remember quite clearly moments of pure joy, moments of adventure or periods of grief, but you may not remember what you ate a week ago. There were no feelings attached to food (usually!).  Let’s have a look at the following slide: 

It clearly evokes a feeling of strength, self-improvement and self-realization. It seems that the girl can achieve anything she wants! It’s warm, lovely. This image tells a story related to feelings.  Use this sort of image, and match it with your words. Talk about the importance of diversity and how this will result in a better society, for example.  Talking about words themselves, don’t forget to use inclusive pronouns: we, us, our. Make yourself part of your audience. This way, they will feel as part of your team!  → Use now this Girls in Science Template ! 

If you don’t allow your audience to take part in your presentation, in what you say, they can get easily distracted.   Remember that you prepare your presentation or you give a speech having your listeners, clients or potential investors in mind. It’s not something that you prepare for you!  What should you do to involve your audience? We have talked about using “we” in the previous section. Employ “you” as well! This way, they’ll feel that you are directing your attention to them, that you want them to take part in what you are saying.  OK, linguistically speaking it’s a good tip. But… Is there anything else that we can do? Of course!  Asking them questions or rising a challenge can be great for doing so. Imagine this situation: you are just finishing and some of them have stopped paying attention… but you have a question ready for them!  You can use interactive templates in such cases. They are pretty uncommon and funny, so your presentation will turn into a game!

→ Use this Social-Emotional Learning Template now!   

It may seem trivial, but saying thanks at the end of your presentation is important. Why? Well, this serves as a clear indicator that tells your audience that you have finished. If you try to end, for example, with a summary, without any “thanks” slide, it can be confusing.   This is a customary thing to do. We all understand that, with “thanks”, the presentation is over. There are, of course, other important reasons to use this magical word!  Always remember that your listeners have devoted part of their valuable time listening to you and paying attention to your message. Saying thanks is a time-honoured practice. In fact, being polite is the way to persuade your listeners. 

Try using a slide to say “thanks”. Make use of a beautiful theme font and make the word stand out! Apart from that, you could also use this slide to provide your contact details.    They know that your presentation is coming to an end, so they will surely write down your email or your telephone number to contact you!  → Do you like this Wedding Template ? Download and edit it now, it’s free!  The key to have a grand finale is letting your audience understand that you care about them: say thanks, summarize the contents so they are easier to understand. Connect with their emotions! Practice, practice and practice. These tips will help you become as good as Martin Luther King in public speaking!   If you need more free Google Slides themes and PowerPoint templates , you can visit our website! We have beautiful and useful designs for you!    

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      How to handle post-presentation questions

How to handle post-presentation questions

Author : Doug Nel

Posted : 25 / 11 / 20

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If that’s true for you, it’s understandable. You could be worried about saying the wrong thing or being hit with hostile or left-field questions that you can’t answer.

But it’s really worth taking a moment to reframe the experience. Those questions are a good thing. They’re signals that your audience is engaged and paying attention to what you have to say.

And with a typical Q&A taking place at the end of a presentation, it’s also a critical time to make the positive final impression that your audience will remember.

Don’t worry. With the right preparation, you can be ready and more in control than you may think.

Anticipate your audience’s questions

There’s no reason you have to go in totally blind. You’ll already have thought about your audience when you were preparing for your presentation. Now just put that insight and empathy to good use again to prepare for the questions you might face.

Ask yourself, which parts of your talk will concern your audience most? What could your message or recommendations mean for them? Will they be resistant to anything, and if so, what and why? Take a little time to note the questions that come up when you put yourself in their shoes. Then plan how you would answer them.

Decide your Q&A policy and prime your audience

You don’t have to save questions for the end. Your policy on when to take them will vary depending on the type of presentation you are making. In something like a tutorial or workshop, the style is interactive and you’ll probably welcome questions throughout. In a more lecture-style presentation, you may wish to save them to the end.

Ultimately though, it is up to you. Make your decision and then share it: you are in control here. The audience will be willing to accept your policy − as long as you tell them what it is!

And if you say early on ‘I’ll be taking questions at the end, so do note any you have,’ you’ll also prime them. You’ll start their mental gears turning, and you’re more likely to face lively discussion rather than stony silence when you’ve finished your talk.

How to invite questions at the end of your presentation

A meek ‘Any questions?’ at the end – especially if none follow – is an underwhelming way to finish and could undermine the hard work you put in on your presentation. So be proactive instead: actively invite questions from the audience.

Priming them at the beginning that you’ll be taking questions is a great start. But there’s more you can do. Sometimes people just need a nudge. Here are some ways to encourage an initially reserved group to speak up:

• Ask them a question or two that dig into elements of your presentation: do they agree? How does their experience compare? Have a few of these ready in advance.
• If you can, plant a question with a friendly member of the audience (or plant a friend with a question in the audience), so they can get the ball rolling.
• Spark further ideas using the questions you came up with earlier while considering the audience’s perspective. Introduce one by saying, ‘One concern I’ve heard about this is …’ or ‘A common question at this point is …’. You can invite opinions on the question and ultimately answer it.

Approach questions positively

Always be positive about questions, even the tricky ones. It will both reflect well on you and create an inclusive atmosphere, encouraging others to ask something.

If someone does ask a tough question, be honest and openly admit that. Your attitude in receiving the questions – and showing you’re happy to seek out more information, where relevant – is much more important than knowing absolutely everything.

So always take care not to appear defensive or unwilling to answer. If you don’t have the facts you need, say so – but say that you will find them and provide an answer (by email or however otherwise makes sense). You’ll win respect for your honesty and attention to detail.

Never go on the offensive, make something up or simply ignore the question – all three of these approaches risk damaging your reputation and derailing your goals.

Listen to the full question

Let your questioners ask their questions in full. This will ensure you don’t misinterpret what’s being asked and also gives you more time to formulate your answer.

Try to avoid someone else adding a supplementary to the question, otherwise you’ll be torn about which to answer. If this does happen, state which you will answer first and which second, so it’s clear you have acknowledged both.

And if a single question contains more than one part, answer them in the order you find most useful.

Summarise and repeat questions back

Other people in the audience may not hear or understand a question, so always summarise and repeat it before answering.

This is also useful for you, as it will give you more time to find your answer – or clarify the question for yourself. If you’re not totally sure what you’re being asked, reframe the question back, saying ‘If I understand you correctly, you’re asking …. Is that right?’

Be aware if there could be a hidden agenda behind a question. You may want to make reference to it (tactfully) in your summary repetition and so bring the true question to the surface.

And don’t be afraid to pause for a moment to consider your response. It’s natural to want to rush to fill any silence, but you don’t need to. Taking that time shows you are taking the question seriously and giving it thought.   The post-presentation Q&A doesn't have to be scary. A little preparation and a positive approach can turn it into a constructive (even enjoyable) experience. @EmphasisWriting Share on X  

Answer concisely and keep it inclusive

Make your answer concise. Don’t use it as an opportunity to begin another lecture. This section of the event isn’t just about you or any one audience member. Everyone should have a chance to ask his or her question, so there is no need to spend a lot of time in a dialogue with a single questioner. Keep it feeling open and inclusive.

And keep coming back to the group at large. You can do this by connecting one person’s point to another’s, putting questions back to the whole room or noting the broader significance of an individual’s comment.

How to handle difficult questions

It is possible that you’ll be faced with an awkward question or two, so it’s good to be prepared for that. Knowing you’re ready to deal with anything that comes up will give you confidence.

Questions can be difficult for different reasons: besides not knowing the answer, you might feel the questioner is deliberately trying to trip you up or even that they’re attacking you personally.

If an audience member poses a question that doesn’t seem relevant, you can first try to unpack it to see if you can uncover the connection. This can be as simple as saying, ‘Can I ask what makes you ask that question?’

Or, if a question obviously has no bearing on your subject, politely note that it doesn’t seem like part of the current discussion. You could also let them know that you’d be happy to speak with them about it separately.

If someone is being deliberately awkward or inflammatory, don’t rise to the provocation. There are a few ways in which you can undermine their efforts while keeping the higher ground. (If the person is clearly just stirring up trouble, it’s also likely the other members of the audience will be on your side.)

You can try one of these tactics:

• Summarise and repeat to highlight the silliness of the question, then use one of the techniques above for dealing with irrelevancies.
• Say ‘Yes, but what is the real question here?’ and shift the discussion somewhere sensible.
• Give a very succinct answer – even a mere ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ – and move on to the next question.

  Be careful though. While some may like to test you, it’s important to never take anything personally and certainly don’t launch any personal attacks – even if one has been made on you.

Keep your commentary focused on the topics, not on people. Remember: someone attacking you directly makes them look bad, not you. An aggressive or defensive response will reflect badly on you too.

A constructive closing

  Ready to learn even more? Work one-to-one on your presentation-writing skills with one of our expert trainers or join our scheduled presentation-writing courses . If your team are looking to upskill, we also offer tailored in-house training .

Image credit: Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock

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Author: doug nel.

Doug is a journalist, sub-editor and copywriter with 20 years’ experience in getting words to work as effectively as possible. He's worked on national newspapers including the Guardian , The Evening Standard , The Daily Telegraph , The Times and The Sun .

He's also one of our expert business-writing trainers and our lead course developer. He's helped clients as diverse as London Business School, Airbus, Deutsche Bank and Aon to make more of an impact with everything they write.

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• 7 Tips to Encourage Audience Questions in Your Presentation Q&A

September 19, 2017

Ever seen a presenter ask “Any questions?” at the end of their presentation, and heard only crickets from the audience?

In my work as a professional emcee and trade show presenter , I see it often, and it always makes me cringe because it’s so awkward, and so completely avoidable.

Asking for questions and getting none kills a presentation’s momentum. It usually goes like this:

• The presenter, having run out of content, asks “Any questions?”
• The audience, having no questions, freezes in place.
• Everyone thinks they hear crickets, though there are none in the room.
• The presenter, getting no questions, says, “OK, I guess I’m done.”

OUCH. How’d that happen?

Chances are, you caught your audience by surprise. They didn’t know you’d take questions, so they didn’t think of any. When you asked, you caught them off guard.

I want your next presentation to end with a bang, not a whimper. So try these tips to encourage questions:

1. PREPPING YOUR Q&A: PRIME YOUR AUDIENCE

> TIP THEM OFF EARLY:  As you start your presentation, tell your audience: “I’ll take all your questions at the end, so write down your questions as you think of them along the way.”  That’ll get them active thinking of questions throughout your presentation.

> REMIND THEM:  A few minutes before you take questions, say: “I’ve got one more slide to cover, then I’ll take your questions.” That’ll remind them to think of some questions if they haven’t yet.

2. STARTING YOUR Q&A: GIVE THEM A NUDGE

> LEAVE ROOM: Starting a Q&A with little or no time left discourages questions; your audience wants to leave on time too! Instead, carve out 5-10 minutes or more for questions (and cut some content to make room if needed; your audience prioritizes the information they want to get over the information you want to share).

> USE A PLANT: Have a “plant” in the audience who’ll ask the first question (one you’re comfortable answering), which encourages other audience members to ask (and saves them the awkwardness of going first) and gives them time to think of something to ask.

> CHANGE YOUR PHRASING: Your audience may interpret the phrase “Any questions?” as a sign that you don’t expect or even want questions, which discourages them from asking. Instead, encourage questions by phrasing your question with a more upbeat, expectant tone:  “Who’s got a question?” or  “Who’d like to go first?”

> ASK IT YOURSELF: Ask yourself a common question:  “One question I get often is…” Then answer it. Again, this encourages the audience to follow suit, and gives them more time to think of a question.

3. ENDING YOUR Q&A: ADD THAT BANG!

Q&A or not, ending your presentation by saying you’re ending your presentation (“OK, I guess I’m done”) will end your presentation with a whimper. You can easily replace that whimper with a “bang” by restating your main takeaway and thanking your audience:

“Folks, I hope my presentation has shown you that when it’s raining and you want to stay dry outside, use an umbrella! You won’t regret it. Thanks so much for your time.”

And thank you so much for your time!

by Andy Saks

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Guide for Handling Questions after a Presentation

October 19, 2017 - Dom Barnard

The questions at the end of a presentation can be terrifying for many speakers as they can’t be controlled and are hard to prepare for. However, questions form an important part of the presentation for the whole audience as they allow for clarification and consolidation of learning.

The presenter can enhance the usefulness of the question and answer session by treating it as a formal part of the presentation that requires as much careful planning and control as the delivery of the core material.

Identify possible questions and scope in your preparation

The background work that you undertook whilst planning your presentation is the key to handling questions effectively and understanding what  type of audience  you’ll be faced with. If you have defined a focus for your presentation and have explored this thoroughly in your research and planning, you are more likely to be able to confidently respond to questions.

When planning your presentation, you will need to prepare prompts for questions that are open and straightforward, for example saying “That’s the end of my presentation. I’ll be taking questions for the next 10 minutes”.

You might also want to define topics for discussion before taking questions, by stating the areas you’re willing to field questions in. Your preparation will help you identify topics you are not confident with and want to avoid in the questioning.

Set some rules for asking questions

At the start of your presentation, make it clear when you would prefer to deal with questions – as you go along or at the end of the presentation.

Some speakers prefer questions to be raised as they arise during the presentation. The advantage of this approach is that any misunderstandings can be dealt with immediately. However, there is also a danger that the question will disrupt or distract the speaker, or that questions are raised that would have been covered later in the presentation.

If you leave questions until the end, plan to leave plenty of time for questions so that the audience doesn’t feel rushed.

Framework for responding to questions

Answering questions under pressure can make you say things you shouldn’t have – the nerves can force you to give an inappropriate response. In your panic you might have misinterpreted the question or given away company information that was sensitive. Use the following framework to help you respond effectively to your audience.

Practice answering AI-generated questions on your speech or presentation with  VirtualSpeech .

1. Listen to the whole question

You don’t have to answer a question immediately. Pause for a few seconds,  actively listen  to all parts of the question and think about the best way to answer.

Frequently questions can change direction at the last moment, particularly if the questioner is thinking on their feet. This can throw you if you have already started to prepare an answer. Remember that questioners will frequently try to make a point whilst asking their question – it’s therefore important to both hear the content of the question and try to decipher the questioner’s intention.

2. Understand the context

If you are worried that you haven’t understood a question, ask them to clarify what they mean. Check for confirmation by paraphrasing the question back to the questioner – “You want me to list the improvements of X?”.

3. Involve the whole audience

It is important to remember that even though you are taking a question from one member of the audience, you are still responsible for the interest of the other audience members. This is particularly important in large groups as the audience will become bored if the presentation descends into a series of one-to-one discussions.

To involve the rest of the audience, make sure the whole audience has heard and understood the question by repeating it or paraphrasing it to the audience.

4. Respond concisely

When you reply to a question, direct your answer to both the questioner and other members of the audience. Try to keep your responses as focused as possible, leaving space for other questions. To avoid going into too much detail, check back with the questioner to see if you have answered their query – “Does that answer your question in enough detail?”.

We’ll cover different ways to respond in a later section.

5. Allow follow-up questions via email

You can also encourage your audience to ask questions after the event has finished by providing your email address. This shows a high level of respect for your audience and implies that the topic still has much further scope for enquiry.

Two good resources for handling questions

• What’s the art of answering a tricky question?
• Dodging the Question

Practice Answering Questions

Practice answering questions after your presentation using a 4 step process. Learn More

Options for answering the question

There are five possible choices depending on how well you understand and can answer the question. It’s okay to say that you don’t know the answer to something. This can add to your credibility instead of trying to waffle through an answer you don’t really know.

If you have a good answer for the question from the audience, go ahead and answer it in a short and clear message.

Ask a question back the audience member, such as “Can you clarify what you mean by that”. You can also attack the question if it is not related to the issue, factually inaccurate, personal or based on false assumptions. Be careful with this method.

Ask the question back to the audience or pass it to another panel member if possible. If suitable, another technique is to imply the question has been asked already, with you stating you don’t want to cover old ground.

Tell the audience member you will talk to them after the event. This gives you more time to think of a good answer and there is less pressure to give a perfect answer.

Or mention that that point is coming up in a slide.

This involves answering the question but changing the subject. You can also give a partial answer or give a negative answer, saying that something else will happen instead.

Avoid answering questions that fall outside of the remit of your talk: “I’m afraid that really falls outside of my objectives for today’s presentation. Perhaps we can resume discussion of that particular point later?”

Diagram Explained : Once you receive a question, you’ll have a few moments to think about it and reframe it in a way that makes sense to you. This will give you five choices on how to react – you can answer, reflect, deflect, defer or change the scope of the question. Once you’ve answered concisely, you can then follow up to check if the person asking the question is satisfied and then continue with the presentation.

Strategies to use when struggling to answer

Here are some strategies to use when you are struggling to answer the question posed to you. For more information, read this article on  Dodging the Question .

• Acknowledge the question without answering it – “That’s a good question, let’s consider the impact by looking at…”
• The question fails to tackle the important issue.
• The question is based on a false assumption.
• The question is factually inaccurate.
• The question is too personal or objectionable.
• Decline to answer. Refuse to answer on the basis that it is not your area of responsibility or it is sensitive company information – “You will have to ask [name] because I wasn’t involved in that particular project.”
• Partial answer
• Start to answer but change the subject
• Negative answer. You state what won’t happen instead of what will happen
• Answer a similar question
• State or imply the question has already been answered – “We’ve already covered that topic”

Things to avoid

When handling questions and answers, you will still need to be as professional as you have been for the main delivery of your presentation. There are some common dangers to avoid.

Answering the question you wished you’d been asked

A common trick played by politicians, this strategy ignores the precise nature of the question and uses a predetermined answer to the broad topic area. If handled poorly, this technique is very obvious to the audience and frustrating to the questioner.

Giving a lengthy response

This is the process whereby you make a lengthy response, including all the information you’d left out in planning the main presentation. Your unplanned response will be unstructured and rambling, so keep things focused and brief. If you find yourself rambling, ask them to talk to you after.

Passing the blame

Passing the blame to others comes across as weak and evasive. If an idea from the audience is a good one, acknowledge its value. If it isn’t, make a polite rebuttal and move on.

Defensive answers

Occasionally, questions can really put you on the spot, but it is important to remain calm and in control. An aggressive or defensive reply will be seen as weakness on your part and will spoil the effect of an otherwise successful presentation.

Handling difficult questions

It is important not to start responding to a difficult question before you have thought about the answer. Repeating the question and asking for clarification will help create some space for your thoughts.

Sometimes you will need to think about a question for a moment before responding. You may be able to buy a little bit of thinking time to help focus your response. Useful strategies include searching for an appropriate visual aid to help focus your response or simply pausing for a moment or two to think. For even more time, suggest that you’ll come back to the topic later (but don’t forget to do this).

7 myths when answering tough questions during presentations

Sometimes questions are too difficult to answer. Don’t worry about admitting that you don’t know something or haven’t considered an alternative approach. An enthusiastic “That’s an interesting idea, I’d not thought of that” is much more positive than a mumbled “I don’t know ”. Remember that a presentation is a two-way process and it is important to show that you are learning from your audience as well.

Finally, you can come across a questioner who disagrees strongly with your argument. Although this can feel very awkward, remember that you are still responsible for the whole audience and that you cannot allocate all of your question time to one individual.

If you feel that you have answered the initial question, announce that you will move on and suggest that you might continue discussion after the presentation. If the questioner persists, assert your position calmly by saying “I’m afraid I need to move on”.

You can read more on this topic here:  Responding to questions effectively (PDF)

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Five must-ask questions to end your job interview on a high note.

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By asking about company culture, team dynamics, success metrics, professional growth, and ... [+] challenges, you not only show that you are well-prepared and thoughtful but also ensure that you have a clear understanding of what to expect if you join the organization

In job interviews, the final moments of your conversation with a potential employer can be as crucial as the first.

The common question, “Do you have any questions for me?” is not merely a formality but a golden opportunity for you to understand the role further and demonstrate your genuine interest in the position. Asking insightful questions can leave a lasting impression and help you determine if the job is indeed the right fit for you. Here are five essential questions to consider asking your interviewer at the end of your interview.

1. Understanding Company Culture

Firstly, asking about the organizational culture is paramount. It gives you a glimpse into the day-to-day environment and helps you assess if it aligns with your values and work style. You might phrase it like this: “Can you describe the company culture and what makes it unique?” This question shows that you are considering how well you will fit within the organization and are interested in the firm’s ethos. For instance, if you are interviewing for a position at a tech startup, the interviewer might explain how the culture is fast-paced and collaborative, emphasizing innovation and creativity. They may mention team-building activities, flexible work hours, and an open-door policy. This information helps you decide if the dynamic and less structured environment of a startup suits your working style and professional goals.

2. Inquiring About Team Dynamics

Secondly, inquiring about team dynamics and collaboration can provide insight into the interpersonal aspects of the job. You could ask, “Can you tell me more about the team I would be working with and how we will collaborate?” This question reveals your interest in teamwork and your proactive approach to understanding how you will integrate into existing structures. An example response might highlight that the team uses agile methodologies, has daily stand-up meetings, and values open communication. If you’re someone who thrives in structured environments with clear communication channels, knowing these details can be reassuring and help you visualize your potential role within the team.

3. Measuring Success in the Role

Thirdly, understanding the metrics for success is crucial for aligning your efforts with the company’s expectations. A good question might be, “How do you measure success in this role, and what are the most important goals for the first six months?” This demonstrates that you are goal-oriented and eager to understand how you can contribute effectively from the start. For example, if you are applying for a marketing position, the interviewer might explain that success is measured by key performance indicators (KPIs) such as lead generation, conversion rates, and social media engagement. They might also mention specific projects or campaigns you would be expected to spearhead in your initial months. This information is invaluable as it provides clear targets to aim for and a sense of the priorities and challenges you might face.

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Fourthly, asking about opportunities for professional growth within the company shows that you are ambitious and see a future with the organization. You might ask, “What are the opportunities for professional development and career advancement here?” This question signals your long-term interest in the firm and your desire for growth. For example, the interviewer might outline various training programs, mentorship opportunities, or pathways for promotion. They might share stories of employees who started in similar positions and advanced to leadership roles. Understanding the organization’s commitment to employee development can help you gauge if there are sufficient opportunities to grow your skills and advance your career.

5. Identifying Potential Challenges

Lastly, it is beneficial to understand the challenges and expectations associated with the role. A thoughtful question could be, “What are some of the biggest challenges someone in this role might face?” This shows that you are realistic and prepared to tackle potential obstacles. For instance, if the role is in project management, the interviewer might mention challenges like coordinating across multiple departments, managing tight deadlines, and adapting to shifting client demands. By discussing these challenges, you can assess your readiness to handle the difficulties of the job and demonstrate your problem-solving abilities.

Bringing It All Together

To tie it all together, let’s consider an example scenario: You are interviewing for a senior software engineer position at a mid-sized tech firm. Towards the end of the interview, you ask about the organizational culture and learn that it is highly collaborative with a strong focus on work-life balance, which aligns well with your personal values. Next, you inquire about the team dynamics and discover that the team follows agile methodologies with regular sprint reviews and retrospectives, which matches your experience and preferred way of working.

When you ask about success metrics, the interviewer details specific performance goals related to software delivery timelines and code quality standards, providing clear targets for you to aim for. Your question about professional growth reveals that the company offers continuous learning opportunities, including access to courses and a mentorship program. Finally, by asking about challenges, you learn that the role involves navigating complex legacy systems, which you feel confident in handling given your background.

These insights collectively paint a comprehensive picture of what working at the firm would be like, helping you make an informed decision about the job. Moreover, your thoughtful questions leave a positive impression on the interviewer, showcasing your proactive mindset and genuine interest in the role.

And so, the questions you ask at the end of an interview are more than just a chance to gather information; they are a strategic tool to demonstrate your interest, assess fit, and leave a lasting impression. By asking about company culture, team dynamics, success metrics, professional growth, and challenges, you not only show that you are well-prepared and thoughtful but also ensure that you have a clear understanding of what to expect if you join the organization. These questions help bridge the gap between candidate and employer, setting the stage for a successful and mutually beneficial relationship.

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Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Which Is Best for Online Learning in 2024?

30.05.2024 • 6 minutes

We tried and tested Poll Everywhere and Kahoot for two weeks to find their strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases. Here's what we found:

Poll Everywhere is a great platform for creating surveys, polls, and open-ended feedback forms without having to use a web form builder. Participants can easily respond to your questions over the web or via text messaging. It can be used to complement presentations, but its features make it particularly useful for making webinars more interactive. On the downside, it has an outdated user interface and relies on third-party integrations to get the most out of its features.

On the other hand, Kahoot , with its fun and vibrant UI, is the perfect tool for K-12 education. It’s the best platform for turning learning into a highly gamified experience by allowing students to create custom avatars, participate in competitions, and celebrate the top 3 students on a podium at the end. However, it’s not ideal in professional settings or higher education where understanding audience sentiment and taking questions in real-time come into play.

Since neither platform has the perfect blend of gamification and professionalism, we’ve included Wooclap in this comparison. We’ve been building Wooclap for almost a decade for precisely the use cases where those two are important.

Its diverse question types, fun but unobtrusive UI, presenter view, two-way interaction tools, and competitive mode make it perfect for higher education lecturers and professional training environments to encourage active participation, boost knowledge retention, and conduct comprehensive assessments.

Let’s take a closer look at Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap and see how they compare in the following categories:

• Event Management
• Question Types

We’ll also touch on ease of onboarding, support, and user reviews in the comparison summary below to give you a comprehensive overview of each tool.

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Comparison Summary

What is Poll Everywhere?

Jeff Vyduna, Brad Gessler, and Sean Eby were coworkers tasked with hosting internal presentations. One day, to keep the audience engaged, they decided to conduct a poll through cell phones. One thing led to another, and in 2007 , Poll Everywhere debuted as an online service for audience response systems.

Poll Everywhere is a web-based audience response system with several features to facilitate interactive presentations and gather real-time feedback. It can create live polls, word clouds, quizzes, competitions, Q&As, and more. Plus, it uses various response methods including via text message, web browser, or mobile app, ensuring accessibility for diverse audiences. Poll Everywhere also integrates with presentation tools like PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote, seamlessly incorporating interactive elements into existing presentations. After each presentation, it generates reports on audience engagement metrics, including response rates, scores, and rankings.

Poll Everywhere isn't designed to host events but it can integrate with presentation and collaboration platforms, as well as learning management systems. This makes it a great option for individuals and small teams that need a quick and easy tool for creating surveys and other audience feedback systems.

What is Kahoot?

Morten Versvik teamed up with Professor Alf Inge Wang to work on “Lecture Quiz” as a research project. The goal was to unlock the learning potential of students of all ages by making learning fun and enjoyable. Ever since its official launch in 2013 , Kahoot has engaged over 10 billion participants across 200+ countries.

Kahoot excels in making learning fun through games. It has a large library focused on K12 topics and general trivia and allows users to make custom quizzes. After each question and at the end of a quiz, the scores are revealed to encourage healthy competition. Students can even create their own avatars before a session—yet another way to personalize the experience and engage kids. Some other notable features include background music, randomizing questions and answers, and collecting feedback.

The playful, competitive, and gamified experience makes Kahoot great for K-12 teachers aiming to enhance classroom engagement and participation. However, the colorful and playful approach isn’t suitable for professional settings or higher-education lectures.

What is Wooclap?

Sébastien Lebbe and Jonathan Alzetta met at a lecture hall and bonded over their love of technology and learning. They noticed teachers were having a tough time capturing and retaining student attention, so they launched Wooclap with the help of veteran educators, neuroscientists, and tech experts. Since 2015 , it’s grown to serve 50+ million users globally.

Wooclap’s roots in neuroscience show through tools, based on modern learning best practices. Its most valued feature, the numerous question types , allows students to engage with interactive exercises that help with knowledge retention. On the other hand, this enables teachers to gauge where students get confused in real time. After a learning session, teachers also get detailed reports on student performance and can send feedback. Wooclap also allows integrations with every common learning management system, allowing learning organizations to plug it seamlessly into their curriculum.

Wooclap supports some gamification features with its ‘ competition mode ’ but its main focus is on higher education classrooms and employee training where knowledge retention is the priority. Its toolbox is geared for learning and understanding more complex topics.

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Event Management

Poll everywhere and wooclap allow live two-way interaction during events, while kahoot only allows feedback at the end..

Poll Everywhere uses Activities to ask questions, collect feedback, and interact with audiences during events.

It allows you to pin activities, keeping them open in the background even as you collect responses to other questions. With this, you can watch upvotes, downvotes, and other submissions to your pinned activities come in live.

Poll Everywhere also includes live moderation—allowing you to see responses before displaying them on-screen to prevent inappropriate submissions.

Wooclap outdoes Poll Everywhere with a real-time messaging system.

Students can send messages and images to the Message wall , allowing them to express ideas, ask questions, provide feedback, and more, without having to speak up. They can also like each other's messages, showing what your audience is most interested in.

When presenting, you can assign different color tags to student questions, making it easier to categorize and address them effectively.

For even more detailed feedback, you can create questionnaires for students to fill out at their own pace, even during the event. As long as the questionnaire is online, students can send responses and review their performances when done.

But that's not all.

The “ I’m confused ” button is a handy feature that helps you understand how well your audience is following your lectures or seminars, without anyone in the audience having to speak up. It shows the number of confused participants in real-time at the top of your presentation, and you can reset it after resolving the issue.

Kahoot doesn’t have messaging features. But it does offer a Kahoot live class with interactive tools available. 

Instructors only receive basic feedback when students recommend the Kahoot and provide an overall rating. Students can also state whether they learned something new during the presentation.

All three support presentation slides, but Wooclap offers more options.

Poll Everywhere doesn’t offer built-in support for presentation slides. 

However, you can use third-party presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams to activate questions and display live results on your slides.

With the Slack integration, you can incorporate polls and real-time messaging into your events. However, the interface feels slow and unintuitive.

Kahoot lets you import slides from a PowerPoint, PDF, or Keynote and use them to build presentations for your Kahoot event. However, it converts these slides into static images, so you lose editing capabilities, as well as any animations and transitions from the original document.

In addition to importing slides, Kahoot offers integrations with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Hopin, and Microsoft PowerPoint, allowing you to host events directly from these platforms. But, it doesn’t support Google Slides integration.

Wooclap integrations , on the other hand, include Google Slides, as well as almost all platforms supported by Poll Everywhere and Kahoot. Additionally, they include unique integrations like Moodle, Brightspace, and Canvas.

The Moodle integration, in particular, allows teachers to access all of Wooclap’s features without leaving the platform. It also synchronizes the results of Wooclap events with students’ gradebooks.

Like Kahoot, Wooclap offers built-in presentations , which you can import from a PDF or PowerPoint file. It lets you use the in-app editor to insert questions between slides and display the results in real-time when presenting. Additionally, you can upload presentation files in the Participant Pace section as part of the event’s training material.

Kahoot and Wooclap offer event templates, while Poll Everywhere doesn’t offer any.

Kahoot offers 20+ templates that serve as a starting point for your business events. These range from icebreaker games to onboarding selfies and brainstorming meetings.

You also get an AI-assisted question generator that creates games from the contents of a PDF file or an input topic.

Wooclap also provides a public event template library with over 50 templates, covering all kinds of areas like education, business & training, feedback, co-creation, knowledge evaluation, and icebreakers.

In addition to the template library, you can import events from a colleague’s account using the author’s event code. And, the Moodle integration lets you import questions in XML format. This way, you can copy, create, and reuse events on the go.

Poll Everywhere doesn’t offer any event features or templates. Instead, you create individual questions as Activities and activate each of them manually.

Wooclap wins for addressing the event management shortcomings of the other platforms. Kahoot offers built-in presentations but limits third-party integrations, while Poll Everywhere offers lots of integrations but no built-in presentations. Wooclap provides full support for both types of event presentations and tops it off with two-way messaging.

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Question Types

Poll everywhere has 8, kahoot 13, and wooclap 21 question types..

Poll Everywhere has 8 question types that let you engage participants and collect feedback:

• word cloud,
• open-ended,
• multiple choice,
• clickable image,
• and competition.

Surveys combine multiple question types for detailed responses. And Competitions consist of one or more multiple-choice questions, along with scores for each question.

Poll Everywhere can receive responses through a special activity URL or by text message. And, you can set how many responses each participant is allowed to send, as well as a timer to limit participant response time.

Kahoot has 6 basic question types for testing knowledge, scoring, and ranking participants:

• pin answer,
• type answer,
• and true or false.

You can specify the right answers, set a time limit, and select a scoring method.

If you want to collect feedback and encourage discussions, Kahoot offers 7 additional question types including poll, brainstorm, word cloud, NPS scale, and drop pin.

When it comes to collecting responses, Wooclap is unmatched with its whopping 21 question types for assessing student comprehension, collecting feedback, and showcasing information.

It features similar assessment question types to Poll Everywhere and Kahoot but stands out with unique ones like:

• Matching — students pair related items.
• Fill in the blanks — students complete a given text with missing words and phrases.
• Label an image — an engaging way to test knowledge using diagrams or pictures.

In addition to standard feedback question types like polls, ratings, and word cloud, Wooclap also includes collaborative formats to facilitate brainstorming and idea collection. Notable ones include:

• Framework — facilitates group collaboration with predefined categories that guide users' contributions, allowing for a more structured and focused group discussion.
• Brainstorming — lets you create interactive boards where users can submit and vote on each other's ideas.
• Whiteboard — fill a blank canvas with users’ ideas, allowing all participants to co-create visual representations of ideas.

Poll Everywhere has limited gamification, Kahoot is the most playful, while Wooclap is the most flexible.

Poll Everywhere lets you limit the time participants have to answer each question in a Competition. You can set the timer anywhere from 5 seconds to 180 seconds but you can't set individual timers for each question.

When using timed responses, each question starts with a score of 1,000 points and decreases as time passes. This means that the longer participants take to answer a question, the lower their score. 

Without the timer, each question is scored solely on correctness, creating an “all or nothing” style Competition.

With Kahoot , you can award standard points for a question, double the points, or give no points at all. You can also set a timer that affects the score.

After each question, Kahoot automatically displays the top 5 ranked participants. It also gives special shoutouts to players on an answer streak or those who move up three or more spots. When the competition is over, it shows the top 3 players on a special podium.

Kahoot doesn’t support anonymous responses. Instead, participants must create avatars before joining a competition. While this offers a fun and engaging experience for kids, it may be off-putting for higher education or corporate participants.

Like Poll Everywhere, Wooclap lets players participate with or without nicknames, as well as anonymously. And, in Competition mode , you have more control over when and how to display player rankings than Kahoot.

You can show the top 3, 5, 10, or 15 participants and their scores on the leaderboard with the toggle of a button. Meanwhile, participants see their scores and rank on their screens.

Wooclap also offers timed responses, which you can set individually on each question, or all questions at once. 

In Competition mode, points are awarded according to the speed and correctness of your answers. This means the first correct answer gets maximum points while subsequent responses get fewer.

Kahoot and Wooclap offer templates and AI-generated questions, while Poll Everywhere doesn't.

When adding questions in Kahoot , you can pull them from your library or the community-driven question bank, based on themes, keywords, filters, and type.

With the Al-powered question generator, you can create questions or entire games by providing a:

• Topic — generates questions using the provided prompt,
• or PDF file — uses the information contained in the file to generate questions.

You can then further customize the generated questions, add media to them, and include more questions.

Wooclap 's generative AI is more powerful.

It can generate multiple-choice or open-ended questions from topic, document, text, URL, audio, and video. Unlike Kahoot, which only supports PDF with file sizes less than 50 MB, Wooclap supports PDF, PowerPoint, Pages, Text, and OpenDocuments up to 200 MB. And that’s only for the documents—you can add audio and video files in several additional formats.

It also lets you customize the type of question you want to generate and specify the number of correct and incorrect answers.

In addition to the generative AI, Wooclap also lets you import questions from previous events, Excel, Brightspace, and Wooflash —an intelligent micro-learning platform from the developers of Wooclap.

Unlike Kahoot and Wooclap, Poll Everywhere doesn't have an AI assistant. Instead, it generates a few options for each question with placeholder text.

Wooclap ’s unique and plentiful question types and gamified but professional features make it perfect for higher education and corporate use. Kahoot has an expansive public question bank, but with a heavily gamified experience that works out better for K-12 education

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Reporting

Kahoot offers basic reports, poll everywhere is more detailed, while wooclap reports all interactions..

Kahoot offers three report types (1):

• Players — ranks players by percentage and raw scores,
• Questions (2) — displays each question with the percentage of correct answers,

and Feedback — displays the saved feedback from students.

It also provides a summary view of all this data and lets you export reports as an Excel file for further review.

Poll Everywhere provides five report types for visualizing participant responses to questions.

• Executive summary — big-picture overview of engagement, responses, and participants with a screenshot of each question.
• Audience response — one section per participant with one line per question.
• Response pivot table — full detail view with one row per response, useful for grouping or computing sums and averages.
• Participant response history — one section per participant, shows when and how each response was submitted.
• Gradebook — compact table with participants listed on the left and questions across columns.

It lets you export any report as CSV for manipulation in spreadsheet software like Excel.

Like Kahoot and Poll Everywhere, Wooclap ’s Views and reports feature tracks your students’ understanding of each question. It provides four Views of participant responses:

• Full presentation — shows the results of Q&A sessions within the presentation used.
• Questions — shows all the results of your event based on the questions you created.
• Participants — quickly filter the answers per participant.
• Grid — lets you review the data per question and per participant.

If you set up authentication for your event, you can send individual reports to participants with just a click, which makes it perfect for instant feedback after lectures or seminars. You can download these reports as Excel and PDF files.

In addition to question reports, Wooclap lets you export event messages to Excel. You can also export results from surveys created in the Participant Pace section.

Wooclap is the only platform here that lets you export the results of all events at once. This way, you can see the results of every interaction each student had with your events over a given period.

Wooclap offers reports on the event, messages during the event, and questionnaires in the participant pace section. Poll Everywhere offers more detailed reports with a Gradebook for each participant.

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Pricing

Poll everywhere, kahoot, and wooclap offer free plans..

Poll Everywhere ’s free plan lets you create unlimited questions for up to 25 participants. You get access to all question types and can export screenshots of responses. However, the functionality is very limited—you can’t create reports, register participants, or moderate responses. 

Kahoot ’s free plan for schools lets you create unlimited events, view reports, set up team mode, and access the question bank. However, the functionality on the free version is limited—you only get access to multiple-choice question types, and a live event is limited to 40 participants.

Wooclap ’s free plan unlocks all question types and allows you to add 2 questions per event but you can create unlimited events. And, unlike Kahoot, the free plan lets you import slides and host up to 1,000 participants per event.

Poll Everywhere offers multiple pricing structures based on organization type and use case.

Poll Everywhere offers four pricing structures for businesses , higher education , K-12 education , and one-time use . All pricing structures, except the one-time use, offer free accounts. 

Here’s a breakdown of Poll Everywhere’s business & non-profit plans:

If you’re hosting a one-off event with a large audience, you can opt for the one-time pricing plans which offer unlimited questions for 1,000 participants or more. You also get access to the full range of Poll Everywhere’s features. The pricing ranges from $499 to $4,999+.

For uses in the education sector, Poll Everywhere’s paid plans vary between higher education and K-12 institutions. For higher education , the individual instructors will pay $349 per semester, or the pricing can be divided among the students. Department-wide licenses go from $5,000 up. For K-12 , the individual teachers will pay $50 per year. School-wide pricing goes from $1,000 up.

Poll Everywhere’s pricing is easier to understand than Kahoot’s but still more complicated than Wooclap’s pricing structure.

Kahoot’s paid plans unlock more participants and features, but choosing a plan is difficult because of the complicated pricing structure.

Kahoot offers two main pricing structures:

• Education ,
• and Business .

Both of these are grouped based on two use cases:

• Individual , for teachers and professionals,
• and Team , for professional groups and schools.

Here’s a breakdown of Kahoot’s Education individual and team pricing structures:

And here’s a breakdown of Kahoot’s Business individual and team pricing structures:

We haven’t even included the higher education, home, and study plans, which are further divided based on use case. Moreover, Kahoot offers premium and one-time plans.

As you can see, the biggest hurdle with Kahoot’s pricing is the complexity—finding the right plan is like trying to get through a maze. Having said that, it’s easy to see that the Education plans are more affordable.

Wooclap has the simplest pricing structure and offers the best value for money.

Wooclap ’s pricing structure is easier to understand than Poll Everywhere’s and Kahoot’s. However, while the number of events is unlimited, Wooclap limits the number of participants to 1,000 on the Basic and Pro plans.

Wooclap also offers pricing plans for one-off events depending on the number of questions and participants.

Poll Everywhere vs Kahoot vs Wooclap: Pros & Cons

Final verdict: poll everywhere vs kahoot vs wooclap.

Poll Everywhere lacks robust event features but is great at creating surveys, opinion polls, and open-ended responses, making it a quick and easy tool for collecting audience feedback.

Kahoot ’s gamification features, such as custom character creation and leaderboards, make it ideal for sparking fun, excitement, and engagement in classroom sessions.

Meanwhile, Wooclap ’s diverse question types, LMS integrations, and detailed reports make it easy for professors, lecturers, and corporate trainers to create comprehensive assessments while tracking performance across the board.

Use Poll Everywhere if:

• You want detailed reports on participant responses.
• You want to create interactive webinars.
• You want to create one-time events.

Click here to get started with Poll Everywhere!

Use Kahoot if:

• You’re teaching students at the K-12 level.
• You’re looking for a heavily gamified experience to make learning fun.
• You don’t need real-time messaging for students during learning sessions.

Click here to get started with Kahoot!

Use Wooclap if:

• You’re a lecturer or instructor, teaching complex topics.
• You want the flexibility to engage your audience on complex and diverse concepts during events.
• You want to gain an in-depth insight into your audience’s understanding so you can adapt your teaching methods and provide valuable feedback.

Click here to get started with Wooclap!

The Wooclap team

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• Biden Administration

Read the Full Transcript of President Joe Biden’s Interview With TIME

Read our full cover story on President Joe Biden here . You can also read the full fact check here and buy a copy of the issue here .

President Joe Biden sat down for an interview with TIME at the White House on May 28.

Over the course of the interview, Biden spoke at length about his foreign policy agenda, including his views on China, Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, as well as concerns about his age as he runs for re-election.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of the interview conducted by TIME Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi and Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. Click here to read our fact check .

Thank you for doing this, Mr. President. We appreciate your time. Busy moment. I'll dive right in. You're traveling next week to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day to commemorate a turning point in America's leadership with the free world. But the anniversary comes at a time when the US under your leadership has been unable to deter crises. First in Afghanistan, then Ukraine, Israel, and mounting tensions in the Far East. Is America still able to play the role of world power that it played in World War Two, and in the Cold War?

Biden: Yes, we're planning even more. We are, we are the world power. And what I inherited, as a consequence of the mistake that we made in Afghanistan is a—was not a loss in Afghanistan, excuse my cold. But I think that, look, I believe, I have a fundamentally different view than Mr. Trump has on a range of things. Number one: I really believe that we have a values-based as well as practical-based alliances around the world. And he, Trump, wanted to just abandon them. He says he's practical, one-on-one things he's doing.

Well, he didn't get much done. And so we end up in a situation where, when I came into, when I got sworn in, we were in a position where we didn't have—for example, there's a quote from Macron at the time saying that, in 2019, that Trump wants to eviscerate NATO. He thinks NATO is useless. And we have to rethink our entire relationship with the United States, they no longer lead the world. 

I have that exact quote here. And they no longer lead the world and the transatlantic alliance has to be reexamined. And the interesting piece of that is you now have his former adviser John Bolton saying, he’s certain that the first thing Trump would do if he got reelected is get out of NATO completely. 

And so I've always believed that there are two elements to American security, and the biggest element and, and our normative example, is our alliances, our alliances. We are—we have, compared to the rest of the world, we have put together the strongest alliance in the history of the world, number one. Number two, we're in a situation where we are able to move in a way that recognizes how much the world has changed and still lead the world. And it's our security. For example, the idea that if when Putin decided to go into Russia—I mean, he's gonna go from Russia into Ukraine—the reason why I cleared the intelligence so we can release the information we knew that he was going to attack, was to let the world know we were still in charge. We still know what's going on.  

This, by the way is, if you haven't read it, you should. [Pulls out copy of speech Putin delivered on Feb. 21, 2022] It's the address to the Russian people on the Donbass problem on February 21, when Moscow was going in. And it lays out why I believe Trump—what he never understood—which is that Russia, he wasn’t just going into Moscow, I mean from Russia into Ukraine, for purposes of keeping them from having weapons, etc. He believes it is an essential part of Russia, from the beginning. 

He has just laid out, straight out. He said, he said, ‘I would like to emphasize again, Ukraine is not a neighboring country of us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space…Since time immemorial, the people living in the south-west of what has historically been Russia, Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians.’ And he goes on. He makes this whole speech about why it is part of reestablishing the Soviet Union. 

So understanding Putin's aims, the world, the West, the United States, and you find yourselves facing a difficult situation in Ukraine. The war is stalled. Every day, an average of 42 Ukrainian civilians are killed or wounded. Is Russia's proposal for, to end the war in Ukraine, the best that Ukraine can hope for at this point?

Biden: No, it's not. And by the way, I don't know why you skip over all that’s happened in the meantime. The Russian military has been decimated. You don’t write about that. It’s been freaking decimated . Number one.

Number two, NATO is considerably stronger than it was when I took office. I put it together. Not only did I reestablish the fact that it was the strongest alliance in the history of the world, I was able to expand it. While I was in one of the G7 meetings in Europe. when I got back I called on the President of Finland because when I had met earlier in the year with Putin, he said he wanted to see the Finlandization of NATO. I told him, he's gonna get not the Finlandization, the Natoization of Finland. And everybody thought, including you guys, thought I was crazy.

And guess what? I did it. I did it. And we're now the strongest nation. We have the strongest alliance in all of America, all of history. In the meantime, what we keep skipping over is what the consequence of the success of Russia in Ukraine would be. That's why I brought this along. You probably haven't read it. Most people haven't read it. He says this is part of reestablishing the Soviet Union. That's what this is all about. It wasn't just about taking part of—He wanted, he wanted to go back to the, to the days when there was NATO and there was that other outfit that Poland, everybody belonged to. So that’s what it was about. And in the meantime, what happened was, we were able to—and by the way, we spent a lot of money in Ukraine, but Europe has spent more money than the United States has, collectively . Europe has spent more money in taking on Russia.

So what is the endgame though in Ukraine and what does peace look like there? 

Biden: Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That's what peace looks like. And it doesn't mean NATO, they are part of NATO, it means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future. But it is not, if you notice, I was the one when—and you guys did report it at TIME—the one that I was saying that I am not prepared to support the NATOization of Ukraine.

It should not, it is not— I spent a month in Ukraine when I was a Senator and Vice President . There was significant corruption. There was a circumstance that was really difficult. And so, the point is, though, that if we ever let Ukraine go down, mark my words: you'll see Poland go, and you'll see all those nations along the actual border of Russia, from the Balkans and Belarus, all those, they're going to make their own accommodations.

I want to switch to Israel. But on that last point, is there a danger that NATO is on a slippery slope to war with Ukraine—with Russia, as things stand?

Biden:  No, we're on a slippery slope for war if we don't do something about Ukraine. It’s just not gonna…anyway…

So in Israel, obviously, a difficult time there. What steps are you prepared to take against Israel now that Netanyahu appears to have crossed your red line in Rafah, Mr. President?

Biden: I'm not going to speak to that now because you're going to report this before I make, before—I'm in the process of talking with the Israelis right now. So I'm not going to…

What does that mean? 

Biden: If I tell you, you’ll write it.  It’s not time for you to write it. 

What are the nature of your conversations with the Israelis right now? Have you spoken with Bibi? 

Biden: I have not spoken with Bibi since—I have not spoken with Bibi since the attack on Sunday. Was it Sunday?

Ben LaBolt: Yep. Sunday.

Biden: I have not. My team has. 

But has he crossed your red line?

Biden: I'm not going to respond to that because I'm about to make a…anyway.

More broadly, from the intelligence in the evidence you've seen, either currently or in the last months, have Israeli forces committed war crimes in Gaza?

Biden: The answer is it's uncertain and has been investigated by the Israelis themselves. The ICC is something that we don’t, we don't recognize. But one thing is certain, the people in Gaza, the Palestinians have suffered greatly, for lack of food, water, medicine, etc. And a lot of innocent people have been killed. But it is—and a lot of it has to do not just with Israelis, but what Hamas is doing in Israel as we speak. Hamas is intimidating that population. I went over right after that attack on the Israelis. What they did was—exceeded anything I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot. Tying mothers and daughters together with rope and pouring kerosene on it and burning them to death. That kind of thing, attempting to intimidate. And it is dastardly. 

On what Hamas has done, are the eight US hostages there in Gaza is still alive?

Biden: We believe there are those that are still alive. I met with all the families. But we don't have final proof on exactly who's alive and who's not alive. And by the way, I’ve been calling for—we should have a ceasefire, period. And to get those hostages. That’s the main reason why we push. Both the Israelis desperately want a ceasefire in order to get the hostages home. And it's a way to begin to break the momentum. And so that's why we're pushing hard for the—and we’re—Is our intelligence chief in? Where is he now? 

Kirby: He is back, sir. He was just over in Europe, in Brussels, over the weekend.

And whose fault is it that the—that deal, the ceasefire for hostages—has not been consummated? Is it Hamas or Israel or both?

Biden:  Hamas. Hamas could end this tomorrow. Hamas could say (unintelligible) and done period. And, but, and the last offer Israel made was very generous in terms of who they'd be willing to release, what they'd give in return, et cetera. Bibi is under enormous pressure on the hostages, on the hostages, and so he's prepared to do about anything to get the hostages back.

You mentioned the hunger in Gaza. Some have alleged that Israel is intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Do you think that's the case?

Biden: No, I don't think that. I think they've engaged in activity that is inappropriate. That is…When I went over immediately after the—Hamas’ brutal attack, I said then, and it became public, I said, don't make the same mistake we did going after bin Laden. Don't try—The idea of occupying Afghanistan, the idea that you had nuclear arsenals in Iran that were being, I mean, in Iraq, that were being generated, simply not true. And it led to endless wars. They were not true. Don't make the mistakes we made. And they're making that mistake, I think. Excuse my voice, I apologize.

Not at all. Some in Israel have suggested that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation. Do you believe that?

Biden: I'm not going to comment on that. There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion. And I would cite that as—before the war began, the blowback he was getting from the Israeli military for wanting to change the constitu—change the court. And so it's an internal domestic debate that seems to have no consequence. And whether he would change his position or not, it's hard to say, but it has not been helpful.

Trump has said that Netanyahu is rightfully criticized for Oct. 7. Do you believe that he bears some responsibility for the fact that Oct. 7th happened?  

Biden: I don't know how any one person has that responsibility. He was the leader of the country, so therefore, it happened. But he wasn't the only one that didn't pick it up. He wasn’t the only one that didn’t pick it up. That's why there's got to be—my major disagreement with Netanyahu is, what happens after, what happens after Gaza’s over? What, what does it go back to? Do Israeli forces go back in? I've been talking to the Egyptians and been talking to the Saudis. I’ve been talking to the Jordanians, I've been talking to the Emiratis. The answer is, if that's the case, it can't work. 

There needs to be a two-state solution, a transition to a two-state solution. And that's my biggest disagreement with Bibi Netanyahu.  

Do you have agreement from all the other parties to this multi-part package of deals that would deliver that in Israel, in the region, other than Bibi?  Is Bibi the only thing standing in the way of that?

Biden: I gotta be careful, because you're gonna print this before the article comes out and I'm in the process of negotiating a lot of that. The answer is that I think there is a clear path for a transition where the Arab states would provide security and reconstruction in Gaza in return for a longer-term commitment to a transition to a two-state solution. And that extends all the way from Saudi Arabia, who I continue to talk to—my team—to the Jordanians that are trying to work bringing in goods and certain goods now, food, medicine, etc. And the Egyptians who I've been talking with frequently about what happens in terms of access for more material to get into Gaza to prevent this catastrophe from continuing.

Mr. President, you mentioned at the beginning value-based alliances, and you mentioned the Saudis. Do you believe we share the same values? 

Biden: Remember, I said what the other one was: there's values-based and there's practical-based. And it's overwhelmingly in our interest. For example, you may recall a resolution I introduced at the G20 that no one thought would go anywhere and it passed by providing for a railroad and oil line—oil, excuse me, I misspoke. Railroad lines and transportation, all the way from Riyadh—to Saudi Arabia, to Jordan, to Israel, all through Europe and continuing. And the reason for that is that the economy can be used to bring people together as well. The fact of the matter is the world's changing. We are at a significant inflection point.

The Saudis are aware that oil is not going to be their ticket to the future 10 years from now. They know it. They know what's happening. The same way with the rest of these countries. So if you have mutual economic interests in mind, you’re less likely to have conflict. So that's what—and it passed, by the way, that resolution. 

We have a lot of the world to cover. Elsewhere in the region in Iran, but also in the Far East, there are troubling national security developments, long-standing problems that appear to be getting worse, Iran is expanding its stockpile of enriched, highly enriched uranium. North Korea has reportedly restarted its nuclear program and is testing missiles capable of reaching the mainland US, some even as far as New York potentially. Is it effectively American policy now to live with a nuclear or near-nuclear Iran and North Korea?

Biden: No, it's not. And by the way, that's been going on for some time. You could have sat here five years ago and said the same thing with regard to North Korea. So…

But that situation is getting more threatening, don't you think, Mr. President? 

Biden: No, I don't. I think it's equally as threatening as it was before. I don't think it's more threatening and North Korea has something else that it has to deal with. I did something that you would have been too cynical to think I could possibly do. I put together an Indo-Pacific strategy that is incredibly broad. 

Did you ever think if I told you that Japan would be devoting 3% of its GDP to defense and make a rapprochement at Camp David with South Korea as an overwhelming threat that exists to North Korea as well as to Europe? You know, I've been able to put 50 nations together to help in Ukraine, led by us but also engaged with, with Japan's leadership.

So there is—look as long as there are nuclear weapons available, it's always going to be a problem. It's gonna—the question is how do we stop it? That's why I thought Trump was wrong in not wanting to work early on five years ago, and three years ago, when he left office—with trying to control, work out an arrangement to control access to North Korea, to nuclear weapons and/or nuclear weapons that are available to any other area. And that's why I was able to put together four or five major initiatives in Europe. I put together a quad that never existed before . I put together—I mean personally put together—worked on it, I put together AUKUS with Great Britain and Australia. I put together an agreement between Japan and the Philippines dealing with making sure that we know the international rules of the road pertaining in terms of air and water and territorial integrity.

And so the point is we've invested billions of dollars. We are much stronger in the Pacific than we ever were before. China, by the way, China is very concerned about it. They asked me—I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping than any leader in the world, over 90 hours alone with him since I've been Vice President. And we have a very candid relationship. 

You know, I don't have any (unintelligible) He wanted to know why I was doing all these things. I said the simple reason I’m doing those things: to make sure that you don’t, that you aren’t able to change the status quo any. 

So getting to exactly that point. Pretty much everybody agrees that managing China's rise is the most important foreign policy and national security issue for America and Americans in the coming century. CIA director Bill Burns says the President Xi Jinping of China has ordered the Chinese military to be ready by 2027 to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan. You said on multiple occasions that you would use US forces to defend Taiwan. What does that mean? Is it boots on the ground? What, what shape would that take? 

Biden: It would depend on the circumstances. You know, by the way, I've made clear to Xi Jinping that we agree with—we signed on to previous presidents going way back—to the policy of, that, it is we are not seeking independence for Taiwan nor will we, in fact, not defend Taiwan if they if, if China unilaterally tries to change the status. And so we're continuing to supply capacity. And, and we've been in consultation with our allies in the region.

So if I might, not ruling out the possibility of deploying US troops to Taiwan in the case of an invasion?

Biden: Not ruling out using US military force. There’s a distinction between deploying on the ground, air power and naval power, etc. 

So you're maybe striking from bases in Philippines or Japan, is that… 

Biden: I'm not going to get into that. You would then criticize me with good reason if I were to tell you.

The competition in the Pacific Rim is broader than hard power and you've expanded Donald Trump's trade war with China. Mr. President, which you once criticized. 

Biden: No, I haven’t. Go ahead. 

Most economists say tariffs raise prices. 

Biden: They do. 

Cumulative inflation means that prices are up 18%, at least since you took office and wage increases have not kept pace.

Biden: Since who took office? Since I took office? 

Yeah, cumulative inflation means prices are up nearly 20% since you took office and wage increases have not kept pace. 

Biden: Wage increases have exceeded what the cost of inflation , which you're talking about as the prices that were pre-COVID prices. Pre-COVID prices are not the same as whether or not they—you have American, corporate America ripping off the public now. You have everything from shrinkflation to what's going on in terms of the way in which they're artificially moving significantly to increase their, their, their, their, their profits. That's not the same as inflation. That's price gouging.

But Mr. President, won’t your newly announced tariffs raise the prices on American consumers?

Biden: No, because here's the deal. There's a difference. I made it clear to Putin from the very beginning that—I'm not, we're not engaging in…For example, Trump wants a 10% tariff on everything. That will raise the price of everything in America. [Editor’s note: Biden appeared to mean Xi here, not Putin.]  

What I'm talking about, I said, we're gonna play by the same rules. You tell me if I want to, if an American corporation wants to invest in China, it has to give 50% ownership, 51% ownership to a Chinese operator. And that goes on from there. And I said, so you're gonna do that to us? (unintelligible) We’re going to do the same thing if you want to invest here. We're not putting a tariff on. We’re just saying, if you want to do that, well, we're gonna do that. And you cannot change the market in a way where you flood the market by—ignore all Chinese government subsidies to undercut their ability as to deal with electric vehicles. And we're not going to put up with it. That’s the thing we talked about. And that's what we're talking about. We're not talking about tariffs across the board.

Okay, I'm gonna do a couple of rapid fire here. Another of your first acts as President under the banner of value-based leadership was to lift various punitive Trump-era immigration measures, Mr. President, that you and others said were inhumane. In retrospect, do you think those humanitarian moves helped drive record illegal border crossing? 

Biden:  No.

Were you wrong to lift any of those measures?

Biden: If I was wrong, it’s because I took too long, 

You've put some back in place. The Green Card issue, it's been reported that you're looking at reinstating Remain in Mexico. Are you looking at reinstating… 

Biden: No 

The last two years of Presidents, two-term President's tenure are usually focused on foreign affairs. You are 81 years old, and would be 86 by the time you left office. Large majorities of Americans, including in the Democratic Party, tell pollsters they think you are too old to lead. Could you really do this job as an 85-year old man?

Biden: I can do it better than anybody you know.  You’re looking at me, I can take you too.

Did you consider not running again because of your age?

Biden: No, I didn't.

And what do you say to Americans who are worried about it?

Biden: Watch me. Look, name me a president that’s gotten as much done as I've gotten done in my first three and a half years. When all of you wrote in Time magazine I couldn't get any of it done. When you told me there's no pay, no way, no way he can get a trillion-plus dollar bill done in terms of, to deal with infrastructure, where there's no way he gets $368 billion for dealing with the environment, where there's no way I could get the, the, the legislation passed on. 

I remember when I was heading to Taiwan, excuse me, to South Korea, to reclaim the chips industry that we had gotten $865 billion in private-sector investment, private-sector investments since I’ve been in. Name me a president who’s done that.

You pledged at the beginning to restore unity. Both Trump and top Democrats, including some of your aides, say the greatest threat to America's national security is its—and its ability to lead the free world comes not from abroad, but from within, from US politics. Do you agree with that?

Biden: I think it has a significantly diminishing impact on our ability to get things done internationally. Look, I tell you, I’ll just—let me give you one example. After I was elected, the first G7 I attended as President was in, in London—in England, along the beach down there. And I sat down with the seven leaders that were there. And I was sitting where you were, at this longer table.

I said, “Well, America's back.” Macron looked at me and he said, “For how long? For how long?” And then Scholz said to me, “What would you say Mr. President, if tomorrow you pick up The London Times and found out that thousands of people stormed the British Parliament, broke down the doors, killed two Bobbies to prevent the implement—the swearing in of a, of a prime minister, a choice of prime minister?”

And it made me realize just how fundamentally what he allowed to happen sitting in this room, looking at that television for three hours and didn't do a damn thing, said about America, and how much confidence people lost in America. There's not a, there’s not a…I’m gonna, say, be careful what I say…There's not a major international meeting I attend that before it’s over—and I've attended many, more than most presidents have in three and a half years—that a world leader doesn’t pull me aside as I’m leaving and say, “He can’t win. You can’t let him win.”

My democracy and their democracy is at stake. My democracy is at stake. And so name me a world leader other than Orban and Putin who think that Trump should be the world leader in the United States of America.

LaBolt: We’ll have to leave it there.

Let me ask you one on the…if you do win in November, Mr. President, with a mandate to continue your approach to foreign policy, what would your goals be in the second term?

Biden:  To finish what I started in the first term. To continue to make sure that the European continent—I'll tell you, I got a call from Kissinger about 10 days before he died. And he used the following comment. He said that not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over their shoulder at dread with what Europe—what Russia may do, until now. Until now, you can't let that change. 

The point is that we have an opportunity to have the decisions we make in the last couple of years, in the next four years, are going to determine the future of Europe for a long time to come. And so that's why we can not let NATO fail, we have to build that both politically and economically. And militarily, which we're investing significantly. In addition to that, I am desperately focused on making sure that we deal with the…what they are calling the south now. There are going to be a billion people in Africa in the next several years . We have to, we have to be a catalyst for change for the benefit, for the, for the better, we have to help them build back better, we have to help them.

We, on the climate side, have come along and we've done everything that is reasonably—and three other countries are the reason we’re in the problem we’re in. But what happens if all of a sudden, on the Amazon, they're starting to clear, vast swaths of land, cut down forests, etc. Back when Dick Lugar was alive, he and I started something back in the 90s, where we said—late 80’s, excuse me—where we said to, in the Amazon, they said, look, if you, we’ll make a deal with you Brazil. You don't cut your forest, we'll pay you not to do it. We’ll pay you not to do it, We have to prevent—And that's why we're working so hard to make sure Angola can be in a position that they have more solar capacity than almost any place in the world, to help that whole continent. 

That's why we want to build a railroad all the way—with others in Europe—all the way across the continent. So that you have, you have countries that have overproduction of agriculture and some that don’t have it, but no way to get a transfer. There's so much opportunity in Africa. And we have to work it. 

In addition to that, we have to deal with the Indo-Pacific. I've had 15 island presidents and leaders here twice now. They know if they—if we don't do something about global warming, a couple of them are going to be underwater. I mean, literally underwater, not to—So we're putting together coalitions of people that have a similar interest. And it makes it difficult. You know, you're talking, everybody talks about how, how strong China is and how powerful they are. Name me—Would you trade places with Xi Jinping and any other country? Not a joke, I'm being deadly earnest, a rhetorical question. But would you? You’ve got a population that’s considerably older than the vast majority of the youth in Europe, that is too old to work. And they are xenophobic. Where is it coming from? Where is it going to grow? You’ve got an economy that's on the brink there. The idea that their economy is booming? Give me a break.

I do have one last on China, which is are they meddling in the election? Have you seen evidence that they're meddling with AI or in other ways in the US election?

Biden: There, there, there, there is evidence that meddling is going on. I'm not going to get into, I don't think I should from an intelligence standpoint, there…

It sounds as if they are.

Biden: I think China would have an interest—let me put it this way—would have an interest in meddling. Everybody, all the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man. Not a joke. Think about it. Think about it. I mean, that line that Macron used, and it says that…I was making notes for this. It said, Macron, they know the experience of brain death unlike any time. Because lack of US leadership, we should reassess the reality of NATO in light of the lack of US leadership.

You know, we talked about what they're looking at in terms of Asia. One thing that I was able to convince the Japanese of is we're not walking away from Japan. Because Japan, collected with us, is a source of great economic strength and stability, physical stability for both of us. You're not going to have, I mean, the idea that China wants to screw with everybody is a different place.

By the way, the cost of China to build their military is multi-billions of dollars. And guess what they're, you know, they're, they’re…what they call it? Going around the world? The Belt and Road initiative? It's become a nuisance graveyard initiative. I'm serious. Think about it. I've been saying this for three years, and you guys write, “No, China’s on the right—China’s gonna break through.” Where are they, where are they breaking through? And look what's happening in Africa.

Well, I could I could go on with that question for a long time, Mr. President, thank you very much I've taken—

Biden: After this is all over, I'm happy to talk with you. For real.

Correction, June 5

The original version of this transcript misspelled the surname of someone President Biden mentioned while recalling conversations with fellow world leaders. It was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, not Schultz.

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Pressure on Netanyahu builds as Biden questions his motives, Hamas sticks to demands

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Israel-Hamas war for Tuesday, June 4. For the latest on the conflict, see our story for Wednesday, June 5.

The pressure is intensifying for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut a cease-fire deal and gain freedom for scores of hostages, as President Joe Biden seems to question his motives and Hamas leaders emphasized Tuesday that any agreement must include a permanent cease-fire across the entire Gaza Strip.

The Hamas conditions would cut against Netanyahu's repeated pledge not to end the war until Hamas is crushed. But his government on Monday confirmed the deaths of four more hostages , fueling protests and angst among the loved ones of those still held captive. The government says more than a third of the hostages − 43 of the 124 − are now confirmed dead.

"With every day that passes, more and more hostages die in captivity," the International Red Cross warned Tuesday on social media . "This loss of human life is not inevitable. All hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally."

Biden has repeatedly clashed with Netanyahu during the crisis while still vowing support for Israel. In a Time magazine interview conducted a week ago and published Tuesday, Biden was asked if Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his political self-preservation and, after initially declining to comment, said: ''There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.''

Netanyahu's coalition partners Shas and United Torah Judaism said Tuesday they would support a hostage deal even if it involves a major change in war strategy. At least two farther-right partners, however, have warned they could dissolve the coalition government if such an agreement does not include destruction of Hamas.

Asked at the White House about the possibility Netanyahu may be "playing politics with the war,'' Biden said he didn't think so and added, “He’s trying to work out a serious problem he has.”

Hamas political official Osama Hamdan said Tuesday the militants could not agree to a deal that does not secure "complete withdrawal" of Israeli troops from Gaza. And Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri blasted Washington and the West for pressuring the group to accept an Israeli proposal unveiled by Biden last week "as if it is Hamas who is hampering the deal."

Delegations from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar planned to meet Wednesday in Doha in an effort to revive truce negotiations, Egyptian media reported. Biden sent CIA director William Burns and Middle East envoy Brett McGurk to the region Tuesday to seek a pact, the Times of Israel reported .

Netanyahu doubles down: IDF tells 4 hostage families loved ones are dead

Developments:

∎ Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said new intelligence confirmed the death of the four hostages, all male. Hagari said they died together in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis months ago while Israel was conducting military operations there. It was not yet clear whether they were executed or died in the assault.

∎ Five Americans hostages in Gaza are still believed to be alive; three are confirmed dead. Their families met Tuesday for a ninth time with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and said in a statement: "Israel has made their proposal; Hamas needs to take the deal. It is up to them to end this crisis.''

∎ The Israeli Defense Ministry announced a $3 billion deal with Lockheed Martin to buy 25 stealth F-35 jets. Up to five planes will be delivered annually starting in 2028, the ministry said in a statement.

∎ The Israeli military said it had seized rocket warheads stashed in U.N.-marked bags, destroyed a tunnel almost a mile long and killed multiple militants in targeted raids on the Sabra neighborhood of Rafah.

∎ Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the latest cease-fire proposal Tuesday with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. Blinken said "it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire,'' the department said in a statement.

Israel targets UN school, says it was a base for Hamas

Israeli ground forces swept across a refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday while fighter jets struck Hamas targets from the air, the Israel Defense Forces said. The ground assault came hours after Israeli drones struck a Hamas outpost hidden within a U.N. school compound, the IDF said in a social media post . The site included headquarter buildings, weapon depots, rocket launch positions, observation posts and other infrastructure, the military said.

Palestinian authorities said three members of a family and eight police officers were killed in the earlier drone strikes. Israel has drawn global outrage for multiple strikes on U.N. buildings and equipment the military said was being used by the militants, including an attack two months ago that inadvertently killed seven World Food Kitchen aid workers. After Tuesday's strike, the military published photos of weapons it said were seized at the site.

"The attack was carefully planned and carried out using precise weaponry and avoiding as much as possible harm to those not involved," the military statement said.

Israel near decision on taking fight to Hezbollah

Israel is about to decide whether to turn up the heat on the conflict that has been simmering with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since the war against Hamas began, the Israeli military chief of staff said Tuesday.

“We are prepared after a very good process of training up to the level of a General Staff exercise to move to an offensive in the north,” Herzi Halevi said in a recorded statement. “We are approaching a decision point.”

Hezbollah said it's not looking to widen the conflict but will be ready if it happens.

Israel and its militant rival to the north − which is better armed than the other Iran-backed militias in the region − have been trading fire for months, prompting tens of thousands of residents from both sides to evacuate. The exchanges have been picking up in recent weeks, and their confrontations have raised concerns about the war in Gaza expanding regionally.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Biden administration wants to see the dispute resolved without military intervention. “We’ve heard Israeli leaders say the solution that they prefer is a diplomatic solution,'' Miller said. "And obviously that is the solution that we prefer too and that we’re trying to pursue.”

Arab lawmakers in Israel pitch two-state solution

An Israeli legislative conference hosted by an Arab-Israeli lawmaker drew calls for recognition of a Palestinian state and angry rebuttals from other lawmakers. The conference, sponsored by Aida Touma-Suleiman, focused on last week’s recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Norway and Ireland. They were joined Tuesday by Slovenia, whose parliament voted in favor of such recognition.

Over 20% of Israelis are Arab, and several lawmakers spoke in favor of the two-state solution. Yosef El-Tawana told the mostly pro-Palestinian participants that the only solution to the conflict is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and granting the Palestinian people their full rights.

"The vast majority of the countries of the world recognized the Palestinian state and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," El-Tawana said. "Only the fascist Israeli government insists on ignoring the rights of the Palestinian people and continuing the conflict."

Lawmaker Tally Gotliv, a member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, drew boos for briefly arguing against Palestinian statehood before walking out of the conference. Polls show most Israelis oppose Palestinian statehood.

Iranian general reportedly killed in Israeli airstrike in Syria

Iranian government media reported that a Revolutionary Guard adviser stationed in Syria, Gen. Saeed Abyar, was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the city of Aleppo. Several other people also were killed in the attack Monday, Syria’s defense ministry said. The attack comes two months after two senior Revolutionary Guard generals and five other officers were killed and a building was destroyed in an airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus. That strike led to retaliatory attacks by both sides that raised concerns about the war expanding beyond Gaza.

The Israeli military, contacted by USA TODAY, declined to confirm or comment on the report.

Contributing: Reuters