Here are some tips for presenting to various audiences. The general tips are useful in all situations. In addition, if you are speaking to an audience about one of the specific subject areas below, please click on the appropriate link for specific tips. Tips For Engaging Your Audience on Pollination Services Tell a Good Story. • Mix facts with anecdotes, quotes and poetry. • Be humorous and creative. • Give a life history or travel guide of a particular pollinator in your area. • Bring in a cookie, beer or fruit salad and describe the pollinators involved in producing the ingredients.

Illustrate the Message. Audiences can lose interest quickly if overwhelmed with facts and figures. Visuals and metaphors help to get ideas across and enliven a presentation. • Use slides, colorful graphs or cartoon overheads to highlight important points and to keep your audience awake and focused. • Bring in models, toys, or "the real thing" – Your University biology lab might have models of flowers and insects. – Illustrate using flowers and insects that you collect. • Use objects as metaphors to elucidate concepts. – Lint and felt to demonstrate how some pollinators collect pollen. • Use simple demonstrations or games.

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Involve Your Audience. A good presentation keeps the audience engaged. • Pose questions and get people to talk about their own experiences. • Role-playing can be effective. • Start off with a quiz: Is the honey bee native to North America? How many miles does a monarch migrate? Give a list of 6 animals and ask which one is not a pollinator. • Give your presentation outside and identify the pollinators or pollinated plants. • Bring in an apple or cucumber and slice them open to discover how successfully they were pollinated. Let everyone eat the demonstration.

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