Solicit Feedback through an Alternative Medium

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Finally, you may decide to get listener reactions from someone who is observing your audience in their location. One tip is to ask an individual to pass some feedback along to you—especially if yours is a longer presentation with time for questions and comments. A simple way to do this is to have this individual (usually a session moderator) text you simple messages regarding the audience’s level of engagement, comprehension, skepticism, interest, enthusiasm, or even boredom. Be sure to keep your phone checking discreet so that your audience doesn’t see it and think that you are distracted. (Note that if you’re using a group chat function, your observer may be able to use it to send you private real-time feedback.) Ask this individual to keep the feedback simple, so that you can check it and adjust your delivery as needed. In this instance, the back-channel feedback source becomes a second pair of eyes for you.