Inviting the Audience In: Why Interaction Is the Key to Lasting Impact in Scientific Presentations

Most speakers dread the moment when someone in the audience raises a hand. For scientists, even more so. Yes, you know your material, but science is incredibly vast, and no one can know it all. That fear is why so many scientific talks collapse into monologues. Yet if you want your message to last beyond your talk, you have to invite people in.

As a neuroscientist, Marwa knows why: the brain can only stay focused for about fifteen minutes before it starts to wander. Even when people look attentive, they’ve likely drifted toward lunch plans or unanswered emails. Without breaks or interaction, your message slips away.

In our first article together, Prompting the Audience to Care: A Skill Every Scientist Needs Outside the Lab, we explored how hooks pull people in. But hooks only get the audience through the door; engagement keeps them there.

Interaction is what creates clarity. Those quick check-in moments show you what your audience understands. That conversational rhythm, the back and forth, helps people feel connected to you, like you’re a really smart friend they can relate to. Without it, you risk coming across as distant or overly certain, and your ideas may vanish the moment they stand up to walk out the door.

1. Take a Pause (for You and Your Audience)

Because the brain can only sustain about fifteen minutes of focused attention before needing a reset, we encourage scientists to deliver talks in short bursts, then pause.

A pause can take many forms: a quick rhetorical question, a show of hands, or an interactive tool like Mentimeter. These moments make your talk dynamic and memorable.

Remember: you don’t know everything. And your voice of authority, while well-intentioned, is not what you want your audience to adopt. You want them to pause and think for themselves. What people tell themselves will last far longer than anything you tell them. You can create space through interaction to help people apply what you say to their own thinking. Leaders and scientists who design their talks as conversations, even subtly, leave audiences with something they can use and remember.

2. The Fear of Questions (and the Power of “I Don’t Know”)

Invite your audience to ask questions. The reason most speakers avoid interaction is fear: What if a question exposes what I don’t know? Slides feel safe. The audience feels risky.

Here’s a reframe: I know a lot, but I don’t know everything. From that mindset, two strategies open up:

• Call in others. Invite a mentor, colleague, or even the room itself to help answer. It shows humility and collaboration.

• Name your curiosity. Simply say, “I don’t know, but I’d love to find out.”

Both approaches earn respect. You’re not dodging; you’re modeling intellectual honesty.

Even the most experienced scientists will tell you: the fear of an unexpected question never disappears. It just transforms from a threat into an opportunity to connect and dig deeper.

3. Designing for Interaction

Interaction doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be built into the design.

When planning your talk, start with your Audience, Goal, and Prompt (aka the hook) — our AGP framework from the first article. Once those are clear, plan moments for engagement.

If your presentation runs an hour, aim for three touchpoints: around the 15, 30, and 45-minute marks. The final one can transition naturally into Q&A.

These pauses aren’t distractions. They help you land your message because your audience has a moment to think, and they give you a moment to rest before you dive into the next segment.

Final Thoughts

Science communication isn’t about projecting a wall of data. It’s about opening a door and inviting others to walk through with you. Interaction is that doorway.

Try one or two of these techniques in your next presentation. Over time, you’ll build an instinct for connection that transforms you from a presenter into a communicator people remember.