Are your panelists losing their flow by saying “Next slide” on repeat as they move through a shared slide deck? With a little creativity and practice, you can use this solution to elevate your audience engagement and add some polish to your presentations. 

Over the last couple years, our producers at The WebiNerd have clocked thousands of hours of virtual meeting time with our clients. Even though there are ways for presenters to control the slides someone else is sharing, sometimes the situation calls for one person to share media while presenters speak to what’s on the screen. Saying “next slide” disrupts the flow of what is otherwise a highly polished presentation from an important presenter. The good news is that we have many suggestions for mastering a slide deck presentation like a pro ,and we have lots of phrases that you can use to let your slide operator know that you’re ready to move on without saying “next slide”…again…

The goal in creating a smooth presentation coordinated with a slide deck is to set up what is about to appear on the screen while keeping your audience engaged in your words. Any repeated phrase like this has the potential to interrupt a desirable, natural flow. Let’s build that cue for the next slide into your delivery. Here’s an example:

“What we hear from our focus groups is that customers want to see colorful, photo-centric graphics to pique their interest in complicated subjects. What you’ll see in a moment are some examples of Instagram posts…”

When our producers advance slides for presenters, we ask them to consider other signaling phrases that fit more smoothly into the conversational flow and we practice them during our rehearsal so we know our cues. Below we share our favorite alternatives to “next slide”.

• “Moving on…”
• “And next we’ll see…”
• “If we look at the following info/slide…”
• “Let’s take a look…”
• “As we move ahead…”
• Now I’d like to discuss….
• “We’ve seen _____, now let’s take a look at _____.”
• A brief silence is okay too, but can easily be missed and should be rehearsed

By integrating these phrases into your virtual event vocabulary, you can keep your dialogue flowing and cohesive. You want your audience concentrating on the information you deliver and its value, not on the mechanics of movement from slide to slide.

Of course there are ways to avoid asking someone to advance your slides by either using Zoom’s remote control feature or by using a shared online slide deck tool like SlidesClicker or Prezi, but our experience tells us there will always be events where one person will control a master deck and panelists will need to cue the next slide. Best to be prepared and bring a fresh voice the next time you’re walking an audience through a slide deck.

As always, let us know if you’d like to learn more about our coaching and production services.