It’s likely that, for most of your presentations, your audiences will be comprised of both introverts and extroverts. How you cater to both groups can have a huge impact on how well your presentation is received. If you haven’t even considered how being an introvert or extrovert can impact the audience’s reaction, then you definitely should. “In any given audience, half of the room will be introverted while the other half will be extroverted,” writes Caitlin McGuire in an article for Ethos3. “If you don’t address each of them uniquely, you will wind up inadvertently leaving half of your audience exhausted.”

One tip to keep everyone comfortable is to avoid randomly calling out audience members. You may think that this type of interaction will further engage the audience. And, it will; but only some audience members. For the introverts, it could cause complete panic. “By randomly calling on an audience member to respond, you have a 50/​50 shot of isolating an introvert and placing fear into the rest of the introverts in the room,” McGuire explains. It’s not worth the risk. Instead, she suggests asking for volunteers if you want members to participate. This allows the extroverts to step up without making introverts uncomfortable. 

That is just one bit of advice McGuire shares (check out her article for two other tips). By acknowledging the very different personality types of your audience members, you set the stage for your presentation to be well-​received by everyone. As McGuire points out, not only will they be more likely to retain the information you share, they are also more willing to “join you in your cause.”