Project Management Knowledge Corner

Project Manager at University: Starting and Ending the Questions Section

In a project presentation, it is necessary to have strong finish, allowing participants to ask and then have a nice flow to finish up...

Some phrases to use are:

• I’d now like to give some time for your questions.

• We now have time for questions.

• Please feel free to ask questions.

• I / We will now take questions (from the audience).

• That’s all we have time for.

• We now need to wind up.

• There’s time for one more short question, or we can end there.

Feel free to comment or add your phrase.

Previous comments are modified from Alida Bedford www.Port.AC.UC/ASK, 2015

Project Manager at University: Summing Up and Finishing Up

In a team presentation, it is necessary to have a clear end and drive everyone to the finish line:

Some phrases to use in this case:

• I’d like to leave questions to the end.
• I / We will take questions at the end of each section.
• We will have a comfort/coffee break after about
• Thank you for listening… (pause) then section 10

Previous comments are modified from Alida Bedford www.Port.AC.UC/ASK, 2015

Project Manager at University: Setting the Agenda

In a team presentation, it is necessary to have a clear agenda... Some phrases to use are:

• I’d like to leave questions to the end.
• I / We will take questions at the end of each section.
• We will have a comfort/coffee break after about

                ... x minutes
                ... an hour

Feel free to comment or add your phrase.

Previous comments are modified from Alida Bedford www.Port.AC.UC/ASK, 2015

Project Manager at University: Linking to another speaker

Transition to Another Speaker

In a team presentation, it is necessary to transfer control between speakers.

The abrupt way to do this is to simply have one person stop talking, and then have the other person start talking. It is much smoother, however, to pass the verbal baton to the next speaker (X):

• To talk about our next topic, we have X …
• I’ll pass the microphone to X who will describe …
• To guide us through a demonstration of this, we have X …

Feel free to comment or add your phrase.

Previous comments are modified from http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-transitions/

Linking to another speaker
• Now X will tell you about…
• Now I will hand over to X, who will…

Feel free to comment or add your phrase.

Previous comments are modified from Alida Bedford www.Port.AC.UC/ASK, 2015

Project Manager at University: Speaking Skills - Going from one point to another 

Whether writing or speaking to an audience you can use the following useful phrases in a presentation to go from one point to another.

Going from one point to another
• Secondly, thirdly…
• Next…
• The next point I would like to consider is…
• I’d like to move on to…

Feel free to comment or add your phrase.

All comments are modified from Alida Bedford www.Port.AC.UC/ASK, 2015 to reflect project manager point of view.  This post is not intended to add anything new but to share great insights obtained from University Background that might be helpful to other Project Managers.