Create a “word cloud” for your presentation

What to do when you have a list of complex terms / words to explain to your audience? You may consider creating a so called “word cloud” for your presentation. This is especially helpful in case you don’t know precisely the level of knowledge of your audience and what complex terms, words or concepts they know or don’t know. This is how it works:


Preparation before the presentation:

  • Make a list with all the complex terms / words that you need to cover
  • Put the complex terms / words on a presentation slide and/or flip-over chart by creating a cloud. You may consider using different font sizes and colours to add a level of interest and priority to the word cloud.
  • For some complex terms / words you may want to create additional slides / supporting material to be able to support your explanation during the presentation.

Example of word cloud:

During the presentation:

  • Show the word cloud to your audience.
  • You can add a level of interactivity by asking your audience to have a look at the terms / words in the cloud and then ask what is of most interest for them and what they would like you to further explain or talk about.
  • When you get feedback from your audience you explain about the word / term. If you have prepared additional slides / supporting materials you can use this.
  • If a member of your audience ask about a certain word you can also ask a question back to understand why this is of particular interest. Due to this you get a more interactive presentation and get a better understanding of the level of knowledge of your audience and what is of importance to them.
  • If a certain word / term is not asked for by your audience you can obviously raise it yourself. You can even ask your audience why they didn’t ask for it. Based on the responses you may want to talk about it further or skip it.
  • You don’t have to cover all the words / terms in the word cloud depending on the importance. By means of this you can also manage the timing of your presentation.
  • For completeness purposes you can also ask if there are any words / terms that are not in the word cloud that your audience would like you to talk about. In case you get a question from your audience and you don’t know the answer there are multiple tips on how best to address this. Have a look at the book “Public Speaking Excellence” that is part of the Public Speaking Kit for these and many more tips.