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30 Examples: How to Conclude a Presentation (Effective Closing Techniques)

By Status.net Editorial Team on March 4, 2024 — 9 minutes to read

Ending a presentation on a high note is a skill that can set you apart from the rest. It’s the final chance to leave an impact on your audience, ensuring they walk away with the key messages embedded in their minds. This moment is about driving your points home and making sure they resonate. Crafting a memorable closing isn’t just about summarizing key points, though that’s part of it, but also about providing value that sticks with your listeners long after they’ve left the room.

Crafting Your Core Message

To leave a lasting impression, your presentation’s conclusion should clearly reflect your core message. This is your chance to reinforce the takeaways and leave the audience thinking about your presentation long after it ends.

Identifying Key Points

Start by recognizing what you want your audience to remember. Think about the main ideas that shaped your talk. Make a list like this:

  • The problem your presentation addresses.
  • The evidence that supports your argument.
  • The solution you propose or the action you want the audience to take.

These key points become the pillars of your core message.

Contextualizing the Presentation

Provide context by briefly relating back to the content of the whole presentation. For example:

  • Reference a statistic you shared in the opening, and how it ties into the conclusion.
  • Mention a case study that underlines the importance of your message.

Connecting these elements gives your message cohesion and makes your conclusion resonate with the framework of your presentation.

30 Example Phrases: How to Conclude a Presentation

  • 1. “In summary, let’s revisit the key takeaways from today’s presentation.”
  • 2. “Thank you for your attention. Let’s move forward together.”
  • 3. “That brings us to the end. I’m open to any questions you may have.”
  • 4. “I’ll leave you with this final thought to ponder as we conclude.”
  • 5. “Let’s recap the main points before we wrap up.”
  • 6. “I appreciate your engagement. Now, let’s turn these ideas into action.”
  • 7. “We’ve covered a lot today. To conclude, remember these crucial points.”
  • 8. “As we reach the end, I’d like to emphasize our call to action.”
  • 9. “Before we close, let’s quickly review what we’ve learned.”
  • 10. “Thank you for joining me on this journey. I look forward to our next steps.”
  • 11. “In closing, I’d like to thank everyone for their participation.”
  • 12. “Let’s conclude with a reminder of the impact we can make together.”
  • 13. “To wrap up our session, here’s a brief summary of our discussion.”
  • 14. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to present to you. Any final thoughts?”
  • 15. “And that’s a wrap. I welcome any final questions or comments.”
  • 16. “As we conclude, let’s remember the objectives we’ve set today.”
  • 17. “Thank you for your time. Let’s apply these insights to achieve success.”
  • 18. “In conclusion, your feedback is valuable, and I’m here to listen.”
  • 19. “Before we part, let’s take a moment to reflect on our key messages.”
  • 20. “I’ll end with an invitation for all of us to take the next step.”
  • 21. “As we close, let’s commit to the goals we’ve outlined today.”
  • 22. “Thank you for your attention. Let’s keep the conversation going.”
  • 23. “In conclusion, let’s make a difference, starting now.”
  • 24. “I’ll leave you with these final words to consider as we end our time together.”
  • 25. “Before we conclude, remember that change starts with our actions today.”
  • 26. “Thank you for the lively discussion. Let’s continue to build on these ideas.”
  • 27. “As we wrap up, I encourage you to reach out with any further questions.”
  • 28. “In closing, I’d like to express my gratitude for your valuable input.”
  • 29. “Let’s conclude on a high note and take these learnings forward.”
  • 30. “Thank you for your time today. Let’s end with a commitment to progress.”

Summarizing the Main Points

When you reach the end of your presentation, summarizing the main points helps your audience retain the important information you’ve shared. Crafting a memorable summary enables your listeners to walk away with a clear understanding of your message.

Effective Methods of Summarization

To effectively summarize your presentation, you need to distill complex information into concise, digestible pieces. Start by revisiting the overarching theme of your talk and then narrow down to the core messages. Use plain language and imagery to make the enduring ideas stick. Here are some examples of how to do this:

  • Use analogies that relate to common experiences to recap complex concepts.
  • Incorporate visuals or gestures that reinforce your main arguments.

The Rule of Three

The Rule of Three is a classic writing and communication principle. It means presenting ideas in a trio, which is a pattern that’s easy for people to understand and remember. For instance, you might say, “Our plan will save time, cut costs, and improve quality.” This structure has a pleasing rhythm and makes the content more memorable. Some examples include:

  • “This software is fast, user-friendly, and secure.”
  • Pointing out a product’s “durability, affordability, and eco-friendliness.”

Reiterating the Main Points

Finally, you want to circle back to the key takeaways of your presentation. Rephrase your main points without introducing new information. This reinforcement supports your audience’s memory and understanding of the material. You might summarize key takeaways like this:

  • Mention the problem you addressed, the solution you propose, and the benefits of this solution.
  • Highlighting the outcomes of adopting your strategy: higher efficiency, greater satisfaction, and increased revenue.

Creating a Strong Conclusion

The final moments of your presentation are your chance to leave your audience with a powerful lasting impression. A strong conclusion is more than just summarizing—it’s your opportunity to invoke thought, inspire action, and make your message memorable.

Incorporating a Call to Action

A call to action is your parting request to your audience. You want to inspire them to take a specific action or think differently as a result of what they’ve heard. To do this effectively:

  • Be clear about what you’re asking.
  • Explain why their action is needed.
  • Make it as simple as possible for them to take the next steps.

Example Phrases:

  • “Start making a difference today by…”
  • “Join us in this effort by…”
  • “Take the leap and commit to…”

Leaving a Lasting Impression

End your presentation with something memorable. This can be a powerful quote, an inspirational statement, or a compelling story that underscores your main points. The goal here is to resonate with your audience on an emotional level so that your message sticks with them long after they leave.

  • “In the words of [Influential Person], ‘…'”
  • “Imagine a world where…”
  • “This is more than just [Topic]; it’s about…”

Enhancing Audience Engagement

To hold your audience’s attention and ensure they leave with a lasting impression of your presentation, fostering interaction is key.

Q&A Sessions

It’s important to integrate a Q&A session because it allows for direct communication between you and your audience. This interactive segment helps clarify any uncertainties and encourages active participation. Plan for this by designating a time slot towards the end of your presentation and invite questions that promote discussion.

  • “I’d love to hear your thoughts; what questions do you have?”
  • “Let’s dive into any questions you might have. Who would like to start?”
  • “Feel free to ask any questions, whether they’re clarifications or deeper inquiries about the topic.”

Encouraging Audience Participation

Getting your audience involved can transform a good presentation into a great one. Use open-ended questions that provoke thought and allow audience members to reflect on how your content relates to them. Additionally, inviting volunteers to participate in a demonstration or share their experiences keeps everyone engaged and adds a personal touch to your talk.

  • “Could someone give me an example of how you’ve encountered this in your work?”
  • “I’d appreciate a volunteer to help demonstrate this concept. Who’s interested?”
  • “How do you see this information impacting your daily tasks? Let’s discuss!”

Delivering a Persuasive Ending

At the end of your presentation, you have the power to leave a lasting impact on your audience. A persuasive ending can drive home your key message and encourage action.

Sales and Persuasion Tactics

When you’re concluding a presentation with the goal of selling a product or idea, employ carefully chosen sales and persuasion tactics. One method is to summarize the key benefits of your offering, reminding your audience why it’s important to act. For example, if you’ve just presented a new software tool, recap how it will save time and increase productivity. Another tactic is the ‘call to action’, which should be clear and direct, such as “Start your free trial today to experience the benefits first-hand!” Furthermore, using a touch of urgency, like “Offer expires soon!”, can nudge your audience to act promptly.

Final Impressions and Professionalism

Your closing statement is a chance to solidify your professional image and leave a positive impression. It’s important to display confidence and poise. Consider thanking your audience for their time and offering to answer any questions. Make sure to end on a high note by summarizing your message in a concise and memorable way. If your topic was on renewable energy, you might conclude by saying, “Let’s take a leap towards a greener future by adopting these solutions today.” This reinforces your main points and encourages your listeners to think or act differently when they leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some creative strategies for ending a presentation memorably.

To end your presentation in a memorable way, consider incorporating a call to action that engages your audience to take the next step. Another strategy is to finish with a thought-provoking question or a surprising fact that resonates with your listeners.

Can you suggest some powerful quotes suitable for concluding a presentation?

Yes, using a quote can be very effective. For example, Maya Angelou’s “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” can reinforce the emotional impact of your presentation.

What is an effective way to write a conclusion that summarizes a presentation?

An effective conclusion should recap the main points succinctly, highlighting what you want your audience to remember. A good way to conclude is by restating your thesis and then briefly summarizing the supporting points you made.

As a student, how can I leave a strong impression with my presentation’s closing remarks?

To leave a strong impression, consider sharing a personal anecdote related to your topic that demonstrates passion and conviction. This helps humanize your content and makes the message more relatable to your audience.

How can I appropriately thank my audience at the close of my presentation?

A simple and sincere expression of gratitude is always appropriate. You might say, “Thank you for your attention and engagement today,” to convey appreciation while also acknowledging their participation.

What are some examples of a compelling closing sentence in a presentation?

A compelling closing sentence could be something like, “Together, let’s take the leap towards a greener future,” if you’re presenting on sustainability. This sentence is impactful, calls for united action, and leaves your audience with a clear message.

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Frantically Speaking

50 Speech Closing Lines (& How to Create Your Own) | The Ultimate Guide

Hrideep barot.

  • Public Speaking , Speech Writing

speech closing lines

While speech openings are definitely one of the most important components of a speech, something that is equally as important is the way you conclude your speech.

There are few worse ways to end your speech than with a terse ‘thank you’–no elaboration or addition whatsoever.

Speech endings are just as crucial to the success of your speech as speech openings, and you must spend just as much time picking the perfect ending as you do to determine your best possible speech opening.

The words you speak at the beginning and end of your speech are words that your audience will pay the most attention to, and remember longer than any other part of your speech.

Speech endings can put even the most experienced speaker in flux, and increase their anxiousness manifold as they sit there attempting to figure out the perfect way to end your speech.

If you’re someone who’s in flux about your speech ending too, don’t worry. We’ve got some amazing ways to conclude your speech with a bang!

1. Circling Back To The Beginning

The idea behind circling back to the beginning of your speech is to reinforce the idea of your speech being a complete whole. By circling back to the beginning and connecting it to your ending, you let the audience understand that the idea of your speech is complete & standalone.

Circling back to the beginning of your speech also acts as an excellent way of reinforcing the central idea of your speech in the audience’s mind, and makes it more likely that they will remember it after the speech ends.

Need more inspiration for speech opening lines? Check out our article on 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines & Tips To Create Your Own.

How To Circle Back To The Beginning

The easiest way to do this is to set up your beginning for the conclusion of your speech. That is, if you’re saying something like, say, a story or joke in the beginning, then you can leave your audience in a cliffhanger until the ending arrives.

Another great way to circle back to the beginning is by simply restating something you said at the start. The added knowledge from attending the rest of your speech will help the audience see this piece of information in a new–and better–light.

1. Will Stephen

Ending Line: “I’d like you to think about what you heard in the beginning, and I want you to think about what you hear now. Because it was nothing & it’s still nothing.”

2. Canwen Xu

Speech Ending: My name is Canwen, my favorite color is purple and I play the piano but not so much the violin…

Think of a memorable moment from your life, and chances are you’ll realize that it involved a feeling of happiness–something that we can associate with smiling or laughter. And what better way to generate laughter than by incorporating the age-old strategy of good humor.

The happy and lighthearted feeling you associate with good memories is the kind of emotional reaction you want to create in your audience too. That’s what will make your speech stick in their memory.

Done incorrectly, humor can be a disaster. Done right, however, it can entirely transform a speech.

Humor doesn’t only mean slapstick comedy (although there’s nothing wrong with slapstick, either). Humor can come in many forms, including puns, jokes, a funny story…the list is endless.

How To Incorporate Humor In Your Speech Ending

The simplest way to incorporate humor into your speech ending is by telling a plain old joke–something that’s relevant to your topic, of course.

You can also tell them a short, funny anecdote–may be an unexpected conclusion to a story you set up in the beginning.

Another way would be by employing the power of repetition. You can do this by associating something funny with a word, and then repeating the word throughout your speech. During the end, simply say the word or phrase one last time, and it’s likely you’ll leave off your audience with a good chuckle.

1. Woody Roseland

Ending Line: “Why are balloons so expensive? Inflation.”

2. Andras Arato

Ending Line: “There are three rules to becoming famous. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.”

3. Hasan Minhaj

Ending Line: “And you want to know the scariest part? Pretty soon every country on the earth is going to have its own TLC show.”

4. Sophie Scott

Speech Ending: In other words, when it comes to laughter, you and me baby, ain’t nothing but mammals.

5. Tim Urban

Speech Ending: We need to stay away from the Instant Gratification Monkey. That’s a job for all of us. And because there’s not that many boxes on there. It’s a job that should probably start today. Well, maybe not today, but, you know, sometime soon.

6. Hasan Minhaj

Speech Ending: Showing my legs on TV is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. And keep in mind last week I went after the Prince of Saudi Arabia.

3. Question

The idea behind posing a question at the end of your speech is to get the wheels in your audience’s minds turning and to get them thinking of your speech long after it has ended. A question, if posed correctly, will make your audience re-think about crucial aspects of your speech, and is a great way to prompt discussion after your speech has ended.

How To Add Questions To Your Speech Ending

The best type of questions to add to your speech ending is rhetorical questions. That’s because, unlike a literal question, a rhetorical question will get the audience thinking and make them delve deeper into the topic at hand.

Make sure your question is central to the idea of your speech, and not something frivolous or extra. After all, the point of a question is to reinforce the central idea of your topic.

1. Lexie Alford

Speech Ending: Ask yourself: How uncomfortable are you willing to become in order to reach your fullest potential?

2. Apollo Robbins

Speech Ending: If you could control somebody’s attention, what would you do with it?

Quotes are concise, catchy phrases or sentences that are generally easy to remember and repeat.

Quotes are an age-old way to start–and conclude–a speech. And for good reason.

Quotes can reinforce your own ideas by providing a second voice to back them up. They can also provoke an audience’s mind & get them thinking. So, if you add your quote to the end of your speech, the audience will most likely be thinking about it for long after you have finished speaking.

How To Use Quotes In Your Speech Ending

While adding quotes to your speech ending, make sure that it’s relevant to your topic. Preferably, you want to pick a quote that summarizes your entire idea in a concise & memorable manner.

Make sure that your quote isn’t too long or complicated. Your audience should be able to repeat it as well as feel its impact themselves. They shouldn’t be puzzling over the semantics of your quote, but its intended meaning.

1. Edouard Jacqmin

Speech Ending: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

2. Chris Crowe

Speech Ending: “It’s more certain than death and taxes.”

3. Olivia Remes

Speech Ending: I’d like to leave you with a quote by Martin Luther King: “You don’ have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

4. Tomislav Perko

Speech Ending: Like that famous quote says, “In twenty years from now on, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do.

5. Diana Nyad

Speech Ending: To paraphrase the poet, Mary Oliver, she says, “So, what is it? What is it you’re doing with this one wild and precious life of yours?”

5. Piece Of Advice

The point of giving a piece of advice at the end of your speech is not to pull your audience down or to make them feel bad/inferior about themselves. Rather, the advice is added to motivate your audience to take steps to do something–something related to the topic at hand.

The key point to remember is that your advice is included to help your audience, not to discourage them.

How To Add Piece Of Advice To Your Speech Ending

To truly make your audience follow the advice you’re sharing, you must make sure it resonates with them. To do so, you need to inject emotions into your advice, and to present it in such a manner that your audience’s emotions are aroused when they hear it.

Your advice shouldn’t be something extra-complicated or seemingly impossible to achieve. This will act as a counter-agent. Remember that you want your audience to follow your advice, not to chuck it away as something impossible.

Our article, 15 Powerful Speech Ending Lines And Tips To Create Your Own , is another great repository for some inspiration.

1. Ricardo Lieuw On

Speech Ending: “Learn something new, or a new way of approaching something old because there are a few skills are valuable as the art of learning.”

2. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Speech Ending: “If we want to improve the competence level of our leaders, then we should first improve our own competence for judging and selecting leaders.”

3. Sharique Samsudheen

Speech Ending: “Some people love money, some people hate money, some people crave money, some people even kill for money. But what they miss is they just need to learn how to manage money well, and that will give them financial freedom.”

4. Kate Simonds

Speech Ending: Teens, you need to believe in your voices and adults, you need to listen.

5. Melissa Butler

Speech Ending: When you go home today, see yourself in the mirror, see all of you, look at all your greatness that you embody, accept it, love it and finally, when you leave the house tomorrow, try to extend that same love and acceptance to someone who doesn’t look like you.

6. Iskra Lawrence

Speech Ending: Speak to your body in a loving way. It’s the only one you got, it’s your home, and it deserves your respect. If you see anyone tearing themselves down, build them back up And watch your life positively grow when you give up the pursuit of perfection.

6. Contemplative Remark

As the name itself suggests, contemplative remarks are intended to make your audience contemplate or mull over something. The ‘something’ in question should be the idea central to your speech, or a key takeaway that you want them to return home with.

The idea is to get your audience thinking and to keep them thinking for a long, long time.

How To Add A Contemplative Remark To Your Speech Ending

To add a contemplative remark to your speech ending, you first need to figure out your key takeaway or main theme. Then, you want to arrange that as a question, and propose it to your audience at the end of your speech.

Remember that your question shouldn’t be something too wordy or complicated to understand. As with the quotes, you don’t want your audience stuck on the semantics. Rather, you want them to focus on the matter at hand.

1. Lisa Penney

Speech Ending: “So I invite you to pay more attention to your thoughts & consider the legacy you leave behind.”

2. Grant Sanderson

Speech Ending: “Some of the most useful math that you can find or teach has its origin in someone who was just looking for a good story.”

3. Greta Thunberg

Speech Ending: “We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up & change is coming whether you like it or not.”

4. Bill Eckstrom

Speech Ending: Now, think about this: it’s not the complexity-triggering individuals or events you should fear the most, but it’s your own willingness to accept or seek discomfort that will dictate the growth of not just you, but our entire world.

5. Robert Hoge

Speech Ending: Choose to accept your face, choose to appreciate your face, don’t look away from the mirror so quickly; understand all the love, and the life, and the pain that is the part of your face, that is the art of your face. Tomorrow when you wake up, what will your choice be?

7. Personal Anecdote

Personal anecdotes, as the name suggests, are anecdotes that are personal to the speaker or instances from their life. Personal anecdotes are a great way to incorporate the magical powers of storytelling in your speech, as well as to make a personal connection with the audience. Using personal anecdotes, you can hit two birds with one stone!

How To Add Personal Anecdotes To Your Speech Ending

To add personal anecdotes to your speech ending, you need to filter through your life experiences to find out ones that directly relate to your topic at hand. You don’t want to include an anecdote, no matter how compelling it is, if it doesn’t relate to your topic.

Remember to not keep your anecdote too long. Your audience will most likely lose their attention if you do so.

1. Sheila Humphries

Speech Ending: “Why do you go work for these people?” My answer to them was, “If I could help one child make it in this world, it’ll be worth it all.”

8. Call To Action

A call-to-action is one of the absolute best ways to conclude a speech with a bang. A well-written speech should aim to alter the audience’s mind or belief system in some way and to make them take an action in that direction. One crucial way to assure your audience does this is by using a call to action.

How To Add A Call To Action To Your Speech Ending

A call to action comes right before the ending of your speech to provide your audience with a clear idea or set of instructions about what they’re supposed to do after your talk ends.

A call to action should provide a roadmap to the audience for their future steps, and to outline clearly what those future steps are going to be.

1. Armin Hamrah

Speech Ending: “So tonight, after you finish your Math homework & before you lay your head down on that fluffy pillow, bring a piece of paper and pen by your bedside…”

2. Graham Shaw

Speech Ending: “So I invite you to get your drawings out there & spread the word that when we draw, we remember more!”

3. Andy Puddicombe

Speech Ending: You don’t have to burn any incense, and you definitely don’t have to sit on the floor. All you need to do is to take out 10 minutes out a day to step back, familiarize yourself with the present moment so that you get to experience a greater sense of focus, calm, and clarity in your life.

4. Amy Cuddy

Speech Ending: Before you go into the next stressful evaluative situation, for two minutes, try doing this in the elevator…

5. Jia Jiang

Speech Ending: When you are facing the next obstacle or the next failure, consider the possibilities. Don’t run! If you just embrace them, they might become your gifts as well.

9. Motivational Remark

As the name clearly explains, a motivational remark motivates your audience to carry out a plan of action. It ruffles the audience’s mind and emotions and has a powerful impact on the steps that your audience will take after you’ve finished speaking.

How To Add A Motivational Remark To Your Speech Ending

The key to a good motivational remark is to inspire your audience. Your motivational remark should act as a ray of hope to your audience and positively inspire them to take a desired course of action.

Your motivational remark should not be negative in any way. You don’t want to guilt or coerce your audience into doing something or feeling a certain way. You want to leave them on a positive note to move forward with their life.

1. Khanh Vy Tran

Speech Ending: “No matter what you’re going through right now & no matter what the future holds for you, please don’t change yourself. Love yourself, accept yourself & then transform yourself.”

2. Mithila Palkar

Speech Ending: “Get a job, leave a job, dance, sing, fall in love. Carve your own niche. But most importantly: learn to love your own randomness.”

3. Andrew Tarvin

Speech Ending: “Anyone can learn to be funnier. And it all starts with a choice. A choice to try to find ways to use humor. A choice to be like my grandmother, to look at the world around you and say WTF–wow, that’s fun.”

4. Laura Vanderkam

Speech Ending: There is time. Even if we are busy, we have time for what matters. And when we focus on what matters, we can build the lives we want in the time we’ve got.

5. Julian Treasure

Speech Ending: Let’s get listening taught in schools, and transform the world in one generation into a conscious listening world, a world of connection, a world of understanding, and a world of peace.

6. Mariana Atencio

Speech Ending: Let’s celebrate those imperfections that make us special. I hope that it teaches you that nobody has a claim on the word ‘normal’. We are all different. We are all quirky and unique and that is what makes us wonderfully human.

10. Challenge

Much like a call to action, the aim of proposing a challenge at the end of your speech is to instigate your audience to take some desired course of action. A challenge should make an appeal to your audience’s emotion, and motivate them to meet it.

How To Add A Challenge To Your Speech Ending

To apply a challenge effectively to your speech ending, you need to make sure that it’s something relevant to your topic. Your challenge should drive the central topic of your speech forward, and make your audience engage in real-life steps to apply your idea in the real world.

While its always a good idea to set a high bar for your challenge, make sure its an achievable one too.

1. Jamak Golshani

Speech Ending: “I challenge you to open your heart to new possibilities, choose a career path that excites you & one that’s aligned to who you truly are.”

2. Ashley Clift-Jennings

Speech Ending: So, my challenge to you today is, “Do you know, would you even know how to recognize your soulmate?” If you are going out in the world right now, would you know what you are looking for?

11. Metaphor

Metaphors are commonly used as a short phrase that draws a comparison between two ideas in a non-literal sense. People use metaphors quite commonly in daily life to explain ideas that might be too difficult or confusing to understand otherwise. Metaphors are also great tools to be used in speech, as they can present your main idea in a simple and memorable way.

How To Add Metaphors To Your Speech Ending

To add a metaphor to your speech ending, you need to first decide on the main idea or takeaway of your speech. Your metaphor should then be organized in such a way that it simplifies your main idea and makes it easier for your audience to understand & remember it.

The key is to not make your metaphor overly complicated or difficult to retain and share. Remember that you’re trying to simplify your idea for the audience–not make them even more confused.

1. Ramona J. Smith

Speech Ending: “Stay in that ring. And even after you take a few hits, use what you learned from those previous fights, and at the end of the round, you’ll still remain standing.”

2. Shi Heng YI

Speech Ending: “If any of you chooses to climb that path to clarity, I will be very happy to meet you at the peak.”

3. Zifang “Sherrie” Su

Speech Ending: “Are you turning your back on your fear? Our life is like this stage, but what scares are now may bring you the most beautiful thing. Give it a chance.”

12. Storytelling

The idea behind using stories to end your speech is to leave your audience with a good memory to take away with them.

Stories are catchy, resonating & memorable ways to end any speech.

Human beings can easily relate to stories. This is because most people have grown up listening to stories of some kind or another, and thus a good story tends to evoke fond feelings in us.

How To Incorporate Stories In Your Speech Ending

A great way to incorporate stories in your speech ending is by setting up a story in the beginning and then concluding it during the end of your speech.

Another great way would be to tell a short & funny anecdote related to a personal experience or simply something related to the topic at hand.

However, remember that it’s the ending of your speech. Your audience is most likely at the end of their attention span. So, keep your story short & sweet.

1. Sameer Al Jaberi

Speech Ending: “I can still see that day when I came back from my honeymoon…”

2. Josephine Lee

Speech Ending: “At the end of dinner, Jenna turned to me and said…”

Facts are another excellent speech ending, and they are used quite often as openings as well. The point of adding a fact as your speech ending is to add shock value to your speech, and to get your audience thinking & discussing the fact even after your speech has ended.

How To Add Facts To Your Speech Ending

The key to adding facts to your speech ending is to pick a fact that thrusts forward your main idea in the most concise form possible. Your fact should also be something that adds shock value to the speech, and it should ideally be something that the audience hasn’t heard before.

Make sure that your fact is relevant to the topic at hand. No matter how interesting, a fact that doesn’t relate to your topic is going to be redundant.

1. David JP Phillips

Speech Ending: 3500 years ago, we started transfering knowledge from generation to generation through text. 28 years ago, PowerPoint was born. Which one do you think our brain is mostly adapted to?

14. Rhethoric Remark

Rhetoric remarks are another excellent way to get the wheels of your audience’s minds turning. Rhetoric remarks make your audience think of an imagined scenario, and to delve deeper into your topic. Rhetoric remarks or questioned don’t necessarily need to have a ‘right’ or one-shot answer, which means you can be as creative with them as possible!

How To Add Rhethoric Remarks To Your Speech Ending

Since rhetorical questions don’t need to have a definite answer, you have much freedom in determining the type of question or statement you wish to make. However, as with all other speech endings, a rhetorical question shouldn’t be asked just for the sake of it.

A rhetorical question should make your audience think about your topic in a new or more creative manner. It should get them thinking about the topic and maybe see it from an angle that they hadn’t before.

Rhetorical questions shouldn’t be too confusing. Use simple language & make sure it’s something that the audience can easily comprehend.

1. Mona Patel

Speech Ending: Pick your problem, ask “What if?” Come up with ideas. Bring them down. Then execute on them. Maybe you’re thinking, “What if we can’t?” I say to you, “What if we don’t?”

2. Lizzie Velasquez

Speech Ending: I want you to leave here and ask yourself what defines you. But remember: Brave starts here.

Another great way to end your speech with a literal bang is by using music! After all, if there’s something that can impact the human mind with just as much force as a few well-placed words, it’s the correct music.

How To Add Music To Your Speech Ending

To add music to your speech ending, you must make sure that the music has something to do with your speech theme. Remember that you’re not playing music in your concert. The piece of music that you choose must be relevant to your topic & work to have a contribution in your overall speech.

1. Tom Thum

Speech Ending: *ends the TED Talk with beat boxing*

16. Reitirate The Title

The title of your speech is its most important component. That’s why you need to pay careful attention to how you pick it, as it is something that your viewers will most likely remember the longest about your speech.

Your title will also act as a guiding hand towards how your audience forms an initial idea about your speech and is what they will associate your entire speech with.

By repeating your title at the end of your speech, you increase the chances that your audience will remember it–and your speech–for a long time.

How To Retierate The Title In Your Speech Ending

Your title is something that your audience associates your entire speech with. However, you don’t want to simply add the title in your speech end for the sake of adding it. Instead, make it flow naturally into your speech ending. This will make it seem less forced, and will also increase the chances of your audience remembering your entire speech ending and not just the title of your speech.

1. Ruairi Robertson

Speech Ending: I feel we can all contribute to this fight worth fighting for our own health, but more importantly, our future generations’ health by restoring the relationship between microbe and man. There is SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Need more inspiration for speech closing lines? Check out our article on 10 Of The Best Things To Say In Closing Remarks.

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To sum up, speech endings are just as imperative to the success of your speech as speech openings, and you must spend just as much time picking the perfect ending as you do to determine your best possible speech opening. The words you speak at the beginning and end of your speech are words that your audience will pay the most attention to, and remember longer than any other part of your speech.

Still looking for inspiration? Check out this video we made on closing remarks:

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10 Powerful Examples of How to End a Presentation

  • By Illiya Vjestica
  • - January 23, 2023

a picture of a speaker ending his presentation facing towards the audience

Here are 10 powerful examples of how to end a presentation that does not end with a thank you slide.

How many presentations have you seen that end with “Thank you for listening” or “Any questions?” I bet it’s a lot…

“Thank you for listening.” is the most common example. Unfortunately, when it comes to closing out your slides ending with “thank you” is the norm. We can create a better presentation ending by following these simple examples.

The two most essential slides of your deck are the ending and intro. An excellent presentation ending is critical to helping the audience to the next step or following a specific call to action.

There are many ways you can increase your presentation retention rate . The most critical steps are having a solid call to action at the end of your presentation and a powerful hook that draws your audience in.

What Action do You Want Your Audience to Take?

Before designing your presentation, start with this question – what message or action will you leave your audience with?

Are you looking to persuade, inspire, entertain or inform your audience? You can choose one or multiple words to describe the intent of your presentation.

Think about the action words that best describe your presentation ending – what do you want them to do? Inspire, book, learn, understand, engage, donate, buy, book or schedule. These are a few examples.

If the goal of your presentation is to inspire, why not end with a powerful and inspiring quote ? Let words of wisdom be the spark that ignites an action within your audience.

Here are three ways to end your presentation:

  • Call to Action – getting the audience to take a specific action or next step, for example, booking a call, signing up for an event or donating to your cause.
  • Persuade – persuading your audience to think differently, try something new, undertake a challenge or join your movement or community.
  • Summarise – A summary of the key points and information you want the audience to remember. If you decide to summarise your talk at the end, keep it to no more than three main points.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

1. Asking your audience to take action or make a pledge.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

Here were asking the audience to take action by using the wording “take action” in our copy. This call to action is a pledge to donate. A clear message like this can be helpful for charities and non-profits looking to raise funding for their campaign or cause.

2. Encourage your audience to take a specific action, e.g. joining your cause or community

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

Here was are asking the audience to join our community and help solve a problem by becoming part of the solution. It’s a simple call to action. You can pass the touch to your audience and ask them to take the next lead.

3. Highlight the critical points for your audience to remember.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

Rember, to summarise your presentation into no more than three key points. This is important because the human brain struggles to remember more than three pieces of information simultaneously. We call this the “Rule of Three”.

4. If you are trying to get more leads or sales end with a call to action to book a demo or schedule a call.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

Can you inspire your audience to sign up for a demo or trial of your product? Structure your talk to lead your prospect through a journey of the results you generate for other clients. At the end of your deck, finish with a specific call to action, such as “Want similar results to X?”

Make sure you design a button, or graphic your prospect can click on when you send them the PDF version of the slides.

5. Challenge your audience to think differently or take action, e.g. what impact could they make?

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

6. Give your audience actions to help share your message.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

7. Promote your upcoming events or workshops

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

8. Asking your audience to become a volunteer.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

9. Direct your audience to learn more about your website.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

10. If you are a book author, encourage your audience to engage with your book.

10 Examples of How to End a Presentation

6 Questions to Generate an Ending for Your Presentation

You’ve told an engaging story, but why end your presentation without leaving your audience a clear message or call to action?

Here are six great questions you can ask yourself to generate an ending for your presentation or keynote talk.

  • What impression would you want to leave your audience with?
  • What is the big idea you want to leave them with?
  • What action should they take next?
  • What key point should you remember 72 hours after your presentation?
  • What do you want them to feel?
  • What is the key takeaway for them to understand?

What to Say After Ending a Presentation?

When you get to the end of a book, you don’t see the author say, “thank you for reading my last chapter.” Of course, there is no harm in thanking the audience after your presentation ends, but don’t make that the last words you speak.

Think of the ending of the presentation as the final chapter of an epic novel. It’s your chance to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Close with an impactful ending and leave them feeling empowered, invigorated and engaged.

  • Leave a lasting impression.
  • Think of it as the last chapter of a book.
  • Conclude with a thought or question.
  • Leave the audience with a specific action or next step.

How to End a Presentation with Style?

There are many great ways you can end your presentation with style. Are you ready to drop the mic?

Ensure your closing slide is punchy, has a clear headline, or uses a thought-provoking image.

You want to capture the audience’s attention before closing the presentation. Make sure the fonts you choose and are clear and easy to read. And What are the Best Colours for Your PowerPoint presentation? Use them wisely.

Do you need to consider adding a link? If you add links to your social media accounts, use icons and buttons to make them easy to see. Add a link to each button or icon. By doing this, if you send the PDF slides to people, they can follow the links to your various accounts.

What Should you Remember?

💡 If you take one thing away from this post, it’s to lose the traditional ending slides. Let’s move on from the “Thank you for your attention.” or “Any questions.” slides.

These don’t help you or the audience. Respect them and think about what they should do next. You may be interested to learn 3 Tactics to Free Your Presentation Style to help you connect to your audience.

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Different Ways to End a Presentation or Speech

November 6, 2017 - Dom Barnard

The beginning and ending of your presentation are the most important. The  beginning  is where you grab the audience’s attention and ensure they listen to the rest of your speech. The conclusion gives you a chance to leave a lasting impression that listeners take away with them.

Studies show  that when people are tasked with recalling information, they “best performance at the beginning and end”. It’s therefore essential you leave an impact with your closing statement. A strong ending motivates, empowers and encourages people to take action.

The power of three

The rule of three is a simple yet powerful method of communication and we use it often in both written and verbal communication. Using information in patterns of three makes it  more memorable  for the audience.

Examples of the power of three being used:

  • This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning – Winston Churchill
  • Blood, sweat and tears – General Patton
  • I came, I saw, I conquered – Julius Caesar

A compelling story

Ending your presentation on a short story, especially if that story is personal or illustrates how the content presented affects others is the best way to conclude.

If you want to talk about a customer experience or successful case study, think about how you can turn it into a meaningful story which the audience will remember and even relate to. Creating empathy with your audience and tying the story back to points made throughout the presentation ensures your presentation will be well received by the audience.

A surprising fact

A surprising fact has the power to re-engage the audience’s attention, which is most likely to wane by the end of a presentation. Facts with  statistical numbers  in them work well – you can easily search online for facts related to your speech topic. Just make use you remember the source for the fact in case you are questioned about it.

A running clock

Marketing and advertising executive Dietmar Dahmen ends his Create Your Own Change talk with a running clock to accompany his last statement. “Users rule,” he says, “so stop waiting and start doing. And you have to do that now because time is running out.”

If you’re delivering a time-sensitive message, where you want to urge your listeners to move quickly, you can have a background slide with a  running timer  to add emphasis to your last statement.

Example of a running timer or clock for ending a presentation

Acknowledging people or companies

There are times when it’s appropriate to thank people publicly for helping you – such as

  • Presenting a research paper and want to thank people involved in the project
  • Presenting data or information obtained from a company or a person
  • When someone helped you build the presentation if it’s a particularly complex one

You can even use the  PowerPoint credits  feature for additional ‘wow’ factor.

A short, memorable sentence

A sound bite is an attention magnet. It cuts to the core of your central message and is one of the most memorable takeaways for today’s  Twitter-sized  attention spans. Consider Steve Jobs’ famous last line at his commencement address at Stanford University: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Think about how you can distil your message down to a crisp, memorable statement. Does it represent your authentic voice? Does it accurately condense what your core message is about? Listeners, especially business audiences, have a radar that quickly spots an effort to impress rather than to genuinely communicate an important message.

An interesting quote

A relatively easy way to end your speech is by using a quote. For this to be effective, however, the quote needs to be one that has not been heard so often that it has become cliché.

To access fresh quotes, consider searching current personalities rather than historical figures. For example, a quote on failing from J.K. Rowling: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

You need to figure out what resonates with your audience, and choose a quote that fits the presentation theme. If you’re up to it, you can round off the quote with your own thoughts as well.

A visual image

Make use of this power by ending your presentation with a riveting visual that ties to your take-home message. Leave this slide on when you finish your presentation to give the audience something to look at and think about for the next few minutes.

Use a summary slide instead of a ‘thank you’ slide

‘Thank You’ slides don’t really help the audience. You should be verbally saying ‘Thank you’, with a smile and with positive eye contact, putting it on a slide removes the sentiment.

Instead of a ‘Thank You’ slide, you can use a  summary slide  showing all the key points you have made along with your call to action. It can also show your name and contact details.

This slide is the only slide you use that can contain a lot of text, use bullet points to separate the text. Having all this information visible during the Q&A session will also help the audience think of questions to ask you. They may also choose to take photos of this slide with their phone to take home as a summary of your talk and to have your contact details.

Example summary slide for a presentaiton or speech

Repeat something from the opening

Closing a presentation with a look back at the opening message is a popular technique. It’s a great way to round off your message, whilst simultaneously summing up the entire speech and creating a feeling of familiarity for the audience. Comedians do this well when they tie an earlier joke to a later one.

Doing this will signal to the audience that you are coming to the end of your talk. It completes the circle – you end up back where you started.

There are a few ways to approach this technique:

  • Set up a question at the beginning of your speech and use your ending to answer it
  • Finish a story you started, using the anecdote to demonstrate your message
  • Close with the title of the presentation – this works best with a provocative, memorable title

Link the main points to the key message

At the beginning of your talk, it’s important to map out the main ideas you will talk about. An audience that doesn’t know the stages of the journey you are about to take them on will be less at ease than one that knows what lies ahead. At the end of your talk, take them back over what you’ve spoken about but don’t just list the different ideas you developed, show how they are related and how they support your main argument.

Finish with enthusiasm

It’s only natural that you’ll feel tired when you get to the end of your talk. The adrenaline that was racing through your body at the beginning has now worn off.

It’s crucial that the audience feels that you are enthusiastic and open for questions. If you’re not enthusiastic about the presentation, why should the audience be?

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Don’t end with audience questions

When the  Q&A session  is over, stand up, get their attention and close the presentation. In your closing give your main argument again, your call to action and deal with any doubts or criticisms that out in the Q&A.

A closing is more or less a condensed version of your conclusions and an improvised summary of the Q&A. It’s important that the audience goes home remembering the key points of the speech, not with a memory of a Q&A that may or may not have gone well or may have been dominated by someone other than you.

If possible, try and take questions throughout your presentation so they remain pertinent to the content.

Getting rid of the “questions?” slide

To start, let’s talk about what you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t end a presentation with a slide that asks “Questions?” Everyone does and there is nothing memorable about this approach.

Ideally, you should take questions throughout the presentation so that the question asked and the answer given is relevant to the content presented. If you choose to take questions at the end of your presentation, end instead with a strong image that relates to your presentation’s content.

Worried about no audience questions?

If you’re afraid of not getting any questions, then you can arrange for a friend in the audience to ask one. The ‘plant’ is a good way to get questions started if you fear silence.

Chances are that people do want to ask questions, but no one wants to be the first to ask a question. If you don’t have a ‘plant’, you might need to get the ball rolling yourself. A good way to do this is for you to ask am open question to the audience. Ask the most confident looking person in the room for their opinion, or get the audience to discuss the question with the person sitting beside them.

A cartoon or animation

In his TED talk on  The Paradox of Choice  , Barry Schwartz ends his presentation with a cartoon of a fishbowl with the caption, “You can be anything you want to be – no limits.” He says, “If you shatter the fishbowl, so that everything is possible, you don’t have freedom, you have paralysis… Everybody needs a fishbowl”. This is a brilliant ending that combines visuals, humour and a metaphor. Consider ending your presentation with a relevant cartoon to make your message memorable.

Ask a rhetoric question

So, for example, if you’re finishing up a talk on the future of engineering, you might say, “I’d like to end by asking you the future of manufacturing, will it be completely taken over by robots in the next 30 years?”

The minute you  ask a question  , listeners are generally drawn into thinking about an answer. It’s even more engaging when the question is provocative, or when it touches potentially sensitive areas of our lives

Thank the audience

The simplest way to end a speech, after you’ve finished delivering the content, is to say, “thank you.” That has the benefit of being understood by everyone.

It’s the great way for anyone to signal to the audience that it’s time to applaud and then head home.

Call your audience to action and make it clear

It’s not enough to assume your message will inspire people to take action. You need to actually tell them to take action. Your call to action should be clear and specific. Your audience should be left with no doubt about what it is you’re asking.

Use the last few minutes of the presentation to reinforce the call to action you seek. Examples of strong calls to actions include:

  • Retain 25% more employees with our personal development solution
  • Save your business 150% by using this framework
  • Donate today to save millions around the world

Make it clear that you’ve finished

Nothing is more uncomfortable than the silence of an audience working out if you’ve finished or not.

Your closing words should make it very clear that it’s the end of the presentation. The audience should be able to read this immediately, and respond. As we mentioned previously, saying “thank you” is a good way to finish.

If the applause isn’t forthcoming, stand confidently and wait. Don’t fidget and certainly don’t eke out a half-hearted, ‘And that just about covers it. Thank you’.

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25 Ways to End a Speech or Presentation

You have just given a great presentation that had your audience wrapt the entire time, and it is time to bring it to a close. Just as you want to start your presentation strong, you want to finish strong to really bring home your point and leave your audience with a positive lasting impression. Here are 25 effective ways to end a speech or presentation.

1. Plan Your Closing Remarks Word for Word You have to be careful about how you end your speech or presentation, so planning your conclusion word for word is the best way to go. Ask yourself what the purpose of this speech is, and your answer should involve the actions that you want to see be taken by your listeners after you finish speaking. Be clear about the end result you prefer to have, and it will become much easier to create a conclusion that will motivate your listeners to take that action. Sometimes planning your close before the rest of your speech is the best strategy.

2. Quote Depending on what kind of quote you use, it can stay with audience members long after they leave the room. If you are presenting a speech about how to motivate staffs at the workplace, you can share tips and techniques that have worked for you, but a powerful way of getting your message across to the audience is to wrap your message around a simple quote that is relevant to what you discuss.

“Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” -Zig Ziglar

3. Call to Action The primary purpose of most business presentations is to compel the audience to take action. Use the last few minutes of your presentation to reinforce the call to action you seek. Whatever you say in telling the audience what to do, imagine an exclamation point at the end. Pick up your energy and tempo as you get to your conclusion, speak with authority and emphasis, and drive the final point home. Whether they agree or disagree with your message, you should make it perfectly clear to the audience what you are asking for. Examples of strong calls to action include:

“Finish the Fight” “Start the Adventure” “Improve the Process” “Contribute Today”

4. Summary Speeches have a simple formula. First, you tell people what you are going to tell them. Second, you tell them. Then, you tell them what you have told them. When you reach the end of your speech, say something like “Let me briefly restate my main points”, and you then list your main points one by one. By showing the audience how each point is linked with each other, they will learn to appreciate the structure of your message. Having a summary at the end is effective in getting the audience to understand why all of your points related to each other and mattered.

5. Close With A Story Especially if it is of personal significance to you, or if it illustrates how the presented content affects other people, telling a compelling story to end your presentation is one of the strongest ways to conclude. When approaching the end of your talk, you can say “Let me tell you a story that shows you what I mean” , then you tell the story that has a moral to it. You tell the audience what the moral is, and you don’t leave it to them to figure it out for themselves.

6. Humor Having a sense of humor lightens the mood of any speech, especially if your speech ends with laughs. Telling a joke that circles back into your core subject and repeats the main point you are making with a certain detail that makes the audience laugh will have a lasting impression. While it is not as easy as saying “Two bears walk into a bar”, highlighting a funny part of an otherwise serious story establishes common ground between you and the audience, and it won’t take away from the key points you were making in your speech.

7. Repetitive Close In some cases, repetition can be a negative thing, but when it comes to speeches and presentations it can play a pivotal role in motivating an audience. Find a phrase and structure it in a repetitive format that beats to its own drum, building to a crescendo ending of a motivational speech. As long as your chosen phrase remains consistent to the heart of your message, repeating the phrase brings the message home for your audience.

“Governments cannot legislate it. Judges cannot adjudicate it. Lawyers cannot litigate it. Politicians cannot appropriate it. Only you can orchestrate it.”

8. Be Poetic There are many great poems that contain messages that summarize the main points you want to make. Choose a poem that is moving, dramatic, or emotional, and it doesn’t necessarily have to rhyme. Some of the best poems ever made don’t rigidly rhyme word for word. As someone who writes speeches, this is the chance for you to express yourself in a creative way while you also keep the emphasis on the main points of your message. Delivering a powerful close to a speech sometimes involves having a poetic tone and structure, as long as you stay consistent with the core of your message.

9. A Running Clock PowerPoint has a feature where a timer is often seen in its software. You can use a timer to schedule breaks in between presentations, but you can also implement timers for speeches themselves, putting yourself on the spot as a speaker. In the “Create Your Own Change” talks run by marketing and advertising executive Dietmar Dahmen, a running clock accompanies his last statement. Dahmen normally says “Users rule, so stop waiting and start doing. And you have to do that now because time is running out.”

If you deliver a time-sensitive message and you want to urge your listeners to move quickly, add a background slide with a running timer to put more emphasis on your last statement.

10. Echo Close Focus on a single word in a quotation and continue to emphasize that word to echo your last statement. For example, if you want to wrap your message around the word “understand”, consider using it at least five times at the end of your speech. This will let the audience know that having a great understanding of the topic you are discussing matters.

“Once we understand what is required of us in advertising, we go forward with that knowledge. Successful advertisers understand that powerful messages sell. If you don’t understand how to sell, you can’t advertise. Understand that we are in this together as a team. Before we can grow our business, we must understand the business.”

11. Make It Clear You Have Concluded All too often there is the temptation for you to shuffle papers around, fidget with your clothes or microphone, or move forward, backward or sideways. If you do anything else aside from standing still like a tree, then chances are that you won’t make an impact when ending your speech. When you say your final words, they should be made clear. No ambiguity or confusion should be in the minds of your audience. They should know when it is over. When you finish, discipline yourself to stand perfectly still. Select a friendly face in the audience and look straight at that person.

12. Title Close Your speech should have a provocative title attached to it. Having a title that encapsulates your message memorably will stay in the minds of listeners for some time. Use the title of your speech as your closing words to encourage your audience to think harder about what they have just heard, reinforcing the title of the speech that you referenced earlier. Mentioning the title of your speech at the end allows you to bring everything logically back full circle.

13. Blank the Screen If you are using slides for your presentation, consider blanking the screen towards the end of it. This will change the mood of the audience in the room and it will force them to put their focus back on you as you deliver your last statement. If you know you are working with an audience that loves to see visuals, blanking the screen will send a message of its own to keep things in perspective. Afterward, you can refer back to the visuals you presented and reveal to the audience the main reasons why you presented them.

14. A Visual Image Sometimes you will be speaking to an audience that needs to see an image at the end to remember all the key points of what you said. End your presentation with a riveting visual that connects to your last statement. Leave this slide on when you finish, and give your audience enough time after your presentation to look at this image. Remember that famous saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” , and apply that saying to this close. A lasting image reinforces your message.

15. Bookend Close If you want to give your speech a bookend, then you will have to refer back to your opening anecdote or quote and say something like “Now we have arrived at where we began.” After saying this, reiterate the message that you want your audience to remember. The classic three-part speech outline of “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them, then tell them what you just told them” will be completed with closings like this. By coming back full circle to what you said in the beginning, the entirety of your message will be remembered more clearly by the audience.

16. Movie or Book Close Making a reference to a well-known movie or book will allow the audience to view your speech from a different angle. If you want to provide a history lesson to the audience, you can refer back to the 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” and its last line of “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever!” , and use this line to relate to your political message. You can also refer to fictional stories like “The Prince and the Pauper” and how its ending can relate to a message about the economy. “That means that as long as you live, you’ll have money to live on. And if anybody’s unkind or cruel to you, they’ve committed an offense against the Crown.”

17. Thanking People or Companies There are times when it is appropriate for you to thank people publicly for helping you. These times include when you present a research paper and want to thank people involved in the project, presenting data or information obtained from a company or person, or when someone gave you considerable help in building a presentation that was particularly complex to begin with. If you are using PowerPoint to show slides, use its credits feature to spruce up your speech.

18. End with a Statement One mistake you will often make when you are just beginning your journey in public speaking is that you end your speeches by asking the audience a question. Upward inflection is a question, and this means that you are implying to the audience that there is more coming. Saving questions for the end doesn’t work well. Downward inflection is a statement. When you know for certain that you have a strong ending, you automatically speak with authority, which makes it easier to add impact with your voice and emphasize your message.

19. Let Them Applaud When you finish your speech, the audience members will want to give start clapping. What they will need from you will be a clear signal that now is the time to begin applauding. Some people will recognize sooner than others that you have finished. In many cases, when it becomes clear that you have stopped talking, the audience members will be silent. They may not know what to do until someone else does something. Within seconds one will start clapping, then another, and then the entire audience will clap. You look at the first person who starts clapping and say “Thank you”, and let the round of applause come.

20. Cartoon or Animation Sometimes a single visual image that doesn’t change won’t be enough to illustrate your final point to the audience. Depending on what your speech is about, you will find the need to use a relevant cartoon or short animation to convey your message to the masses. For example, if you want to warn people not to fall into any holes that the business world has in store for them, you can play a short clip of a cartoon character walking down a road and then falling into a hole. Have your message relate to becoming more aware of the dangers that can come from unhealthy work environments.

21. Third-Party Close Leverage the use of a quotation in the context of your message. Use the premise of that quotation to frame your closing. This will serve as a launching pad to lift up your message for the audience to better appreciate. Here is how you can conclude a speech on the importance of embracing change:

“Change plays a significant role in life. Recall the insight of President Abraham Lincoln, staring at a Civil War and fighting the near 100-year long tradition of slavery in the United States, Lincoln addressed change by saying:

‘The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present and future. As our circumstances are new, we must think anew and act anew.’

We need to look at this old issue in a new way, not simply for today but to make our tomorrows more rewarding, more fulfilling, and more compelling because of the change we make today. With your help, we can think anew and act anew on the issue before us today.”

22. Callback Close If you started your speech with a story, but some activity in it wasn’t fully completed, it would be wise to finish your story and close it around your theme. Here is how to call back to your story:

“Remember that paintbrush that toddler held so gently in his hands? Well, now those same gentle hands are poised skillfully for designing graphics. Today he runs a graphic design company.”

23. Sing Song Close Ask the audience to repeat a phrase that you used several times in your speech. If your phrase happens to be “We finish the race together” , you repeat that phrase many times over, and just before you finish your speech, you say: “I know that all of you are talented and driven. I know that this race can be long and tiring, but we don’t quit on each other. We (pause) finish the race (pause until the audience responds) together.”

24. Surprise Introduction of a Person Making an emphatic final statement about your speech sometimes involves the element of surprise. Throughout your speech, you will mention a person you have known well to the audience, and they will start thinking about this person. They will wonder why this person is important to you. At the end of your speech provide a brilliant bridge to your conversations with the audience afterward by introducing that person on stage. Having that person attend your speech and confirm your message will make that person a success story in the eyes of the audience.

25. Rhetorical Question It is recommended to avoid asking the audience general questions where they expect more to come from your speech. However, asking a single rhetorical question, in a way that challenges the audience, can have an impact. Listeners are generally drawn into thinking about an answer, and they can engage when the question is provocative, or when it touches potentially sensitive areas in our lives. You could say “I’d like to end by asking you the future of grocery stores, will they be completely taken over by automation in the next 20 years?”

How you close your presentation will depend on the content and tone of what you have just presented. Regardless of which strategy you choose to use, closing your speech with one of these strategies will ensure that your presentation finishes strong and resonates with your audience.

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How to End a Presentation? [Top 8 Strategies with Examples]

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Guru - May 9, 2023 - Leave your thoughts. 9 min read

animaker deck , presentation , presentation ideas , Presentation Software , presentation tips

How you end a presentation is just as crucial as its opening. It can make or break the impression that you leave on your audience.

A strong conclusion can reinforce your key message and ensure that your audience remembers it even after the presentation is over.

A well-concluded presentation can leave your audience impressed, energized, and motivated to take action.

So now, are you wondering what’s the best way to conclude your presentation? Don’t worry! You have come to the right place!

To help you make a powerful ending to your presentation, we have compiled a list of 8 different strategies in this blog post.

Each of these strategies is designed to help you create a memorable and impactful conclusion to your presentation.

By choosing the most appropriate one for your presentation, you can ensure that your audience remembers your key message and feels motivated to take action.

Let’s jump right in,

1. Emphasize the core message 2. Mirror your opening statement 3. Pose an open-ended question 4. End with a Call to action 5. Thank the audience 6. End with a powerful quote 7. Acknowledge your contributors 8. Ask for feedback

1. Emphasize the core message:

One of the most important aspects of any presentation is ensuring your audience understands your core message.

Reiterating your main points and summarizing your message at the end of your presentation can reinforce this and leave a lasting impression.

It helps to ensure that your audience understands the purpose of your presentation and has a clear takeaway from the information you have provided.

In this video, the speaker restates her topic to conclude her speech firmly and gives a pause, resulting in tremendous applause from the audience.

Similarly, by restating your core message, you can also create a sense of cohesion and give your presentation a firm closure.

This can be particularly important if you want to motivate your audience to take action or influence their behavior in some way.

However, it's important not to repeat EVERYTHING you have said. Instead, focus on the most crucial elements and highlight them in a concise and clear manner.

2. Mirror your opening statement:

A great way to end your presentation is by mirroring your opening statement in your conclusion.

Highlighting your presentation's key message at the end and emphasizing the central idea you aimed to communicate will help your audience to retain it in their memory.

During the conclusion of the presentation, the speaker effectively utilized the technique of mirroring the opening example she had presented - ordering a pizza on the phone by herself.

The speaker demonstrated the remarkable transformation she had undergone in terms of personal growth and confidence, which strongly reinforced her message to the audience.

By mirroring her opening example, she created a sense of familiarity and connection with her audience while simultaneously driving home the key message of her presentation.

This technique allowed the audience to understand better and relate to the speaker's personal journey and the message she was conveying.

Similarly, you can also use this strategy to conclude your presentation. This can be particularly effective if you are trying to reinforce a specific theme or idea throughout your presentation.

3. Pose an open-ended question:

One of the best ways to conclude your presentation is to elicit a response from your audience using an open-ended question that can effectively engage them and make your presentation more memorable.

Look at how the speaker concludes her speech with an open-ended question in this video.

Similarly, you can also raise open-ended questions to help your audience look from a different perspective and encourage them to investigate more thoroughly on the information presented.

Most importantly, ensuring that your question is relevant to your presentation and doesn't detract from your overall message is essential when eliciting a response.

So make sure that you kindle your audiences’ thoughts and ideas with the open-ended question at the end. This helps create a good long-lasting impression of your presentation.

4. End with a Call to action:

One of the best ways to end your presentation is by concluding with a call to action slide.

Incorporating a call to action into your presentation can be a powerful way to encourage your audience to take the next step.

Whether it's signing up for a program, making a purchase, or supporting a cause, a clear call to action is essential to achieving your desired outcome.

Similarly, according to your type of presentation, you can include a relevant call to action.

For example, this might involve providing specific instructions or offering an incentive for taking action, such as a discount or free trial.

It's essential that you understand their pain points and make your call to action compelling. Ensure that your core message and the needs of your audience are aligned so that they are motivated enough to act.

5. Thank the audience:

At the end of your presentation, it's essential to recognize that your audience has taken time out of their busy schedules to attend and listen to your message.

Thanking your audience for their time and attention can create a positive impression and make them feel appreciated.

It's essential to make your gratitude genuine and sincere rather than a superficial gesture. For example, consider expressing your gratitude with a personal anecdote or acknowledging specific individuals in the audience.

This simple act of gratitude can also create a sense of personal connection and signal to your audience that the presentation has reached its conclusion, paving the way for future interactions with them.

6. End with a powerful quote:

One effective strategy to end your presentation on a high note is by leaving the audience with a powerful quote.

However, it's crucial to choose a quote that is not only impactful but also unique and relevant to your topic.

Using a commonly known quote may come across as unoriginal and irrelevant, losing the attention and interest of your audience in most cases.

In this presentation, Steve Jobs concludes his speech with an inspiring and powerful message, “Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish”. Thereby emphasizing that you should never stop learning, pursue more goals, and never stop being satisfied.

Similarly, in your conclusion, consider using a relevant quote to make an impact.

7. Acknowledge your contributors:

Another best way to conclude your presentation is by showing gratitude to your contributors.

For example, if you deliver a business presentation on behalf of a team or a department, it's essential to recognize the collective effort that went into creating the presentation.

The concluding moments of your speech are the perfect opportunity to acknowledge your team members' hard work and dedication.

You can express gratitude to your team as a whole, thanking them for their contribution to the presentation.

However, if you want to ensure that the individual efforts of team members are recognized, highlighting specific contributions may be a better approach.

Some examples include:

"Join me in giving a round of applause to my incredible team, who played a significant role in arranging this pitch deck."

"Finally, I would like to mention that my tech team experts provided me with insight into the technical nuances, and without their contribution, this presentation would not have been as informative as it is now."

"As I conclude, I want to express my gratitude to Mark and Serene from the Marketing team, whose assistance in gathering the data and designing the slides was invaluable."

By acknowledging individual team members, you are demonstrating your appreciation for their work and giving them the recognition they deserve.

This will not only make them feel valued but also motivate them to continue contributing to the success of future presentations.

So be sure to end your presentation with the required acknowledgment for all the contributions.

8. Ask for feedback:

You can conclude your presentation seamlessly by thanking the audience and asking for feedback from them.

Encouraging feedback from your audience can greatly benefit your future presentations. It allows you to understand how your message was received and how you can improve for the next time.

So, how can you gather feedback effectively?

Firstly, ask attendees to share their thoughts on your presentation after you finish speaking. This can be done by initiating a Q&A session or by approaching individuals directly.

Another option is to set up a QR code near the exit and ask people to scan and jot down their thoughts on the online form as they leave. This allows attendees to provide their feedback in a confidential and hassle-free manner.

Also, consider having a suggestion box for handwritten feedback notes or creating an anonymous online survey that links to your presentation slides. This method is beneficial if you want to gather feedback from a large audience or if you prefer to have quantitative data.

By actively seeking feedback, you show your audience that you value their input and are committed to improving your presentation skills.

However, this strategy does not apply to all the general presentations. So use this way of concluding your presentation where it makes more sense to you and the audience.

In summary, an impactful conclusion is vital to wrap up your presentation successfully.

Each of these strategies serves a unique purpose, and by combining them, you can create a conclusion that is both engaging and impactful.

By incorporating the 8 critical strategies mentioned in this guide, you can leave a lasting impression on your audience, ensuring that your message stays with them even after the presentation has ended.

Now that you have learned the pro strategies of how to end a presentation, take a look at this guide on “How to start a presentation” as well and nail your presentation from start to end!

If you are still uncertain about how to make a presentation from the ground up, we suggest checking out Animaker Deck - the world's first avatar-driven presentation software.

With over 40 distinct and creatively designed templates at your disposal, we are confident you will find it worth trying!

We hope this article was helpful. Do let us know your thoughts on which strategy worked best for you, and also suggest your own ways of ending a presentation.

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15 powerful ways to close your last minutes of a presentation

Usually, speakers pay particular attention to the beginning of their speeches. And it’s obvious. Hundreds of articles have been written about the importance of the first impression and the ability to catch an audience from the first sentence. Meanwhile, although every skilled speaker should know how to start a presentation, at the same time, it is equally important to know how to correctly end a presentation so that all efforts are not in vain. Why is it important? It’s obvious that you should leave a positive impression, be remembered, and bring listeners to the desired actions. In this article, we will learn how to do it.

Here, we gathered 15 effective methods that will help you find out how to end a presentation correctly so that be sure that your message is kept in listeners’ minds. When using one of the below-mentioned techniques, you’ll definitely find the right option for your presentations and will be able to create attractive and memorable projects.

A call to action

Do not leave an audience in limbo. Take the initiative in your own hands. After all, your work had some specific goal – so outline it. Tell attendees what they have to do next and how it will help. Encourage your listeners to contact you by leaving contacts, filling in a form, asking additional questions, getting details, ordering products or services, purchasing a product. 

how to end the presentation speech

The main thing to remember is that your last words must clearly call them to make a certain step. Otherwise, they’ll be uncertain and your speech is in vain.

Quote the words of a famous person, tell a catchphrase – this will always be appropriate for both speakers and listeners. A common mistake of this method is the choice of the wrong quote, which illogically ends the presentation.

In this case, it is important to find the right expression that will contain the main message of your speech. Thus, even if attendees don’t remember all the details of a presentation, they’ll at least recall the last quote.

A compelling story

This is one of the best and more effective methods to end a presentation. The main thing is to find the right story. It can be your own experience or just a story that will demonstrate the practical use of your message. Or at least it will help build an analogy and remember your topic.

An impressive photo, illustration, or infographics

Visualization is an important part of a speech. You can place a memorable photo on the last slide of your visual material. It is important that the chosen visual element is associated with your speech.

Contact information

To draw a line, speakers can display their contact information. Let the last thing a public sees in your presentation be contact information. Indicate the following: your name/ company name; phone number; E-mail address; a website; links to social networks; your photo and/or logo.

A contradictory example

British writer Ken Robinson successfully used this technique. He managed to draw everybody’s attention by speaking about viruses while the topic of his report was education system reforms. His vivid contradictory comparison with viruses made everyone remember his speech. 

how to end the presentation speech

A picture of the future

Outlining the future is an option that is not suitable for any topic. It will work perfectly in the case of new technologies if a speaker outlines an idealistic society.

A picture of the future will also come in handy for presentations on ecology topics. In this case, you can outline two pictures:

  • What will happen if humankind continues the same route – scorched wastelands, lack of greenery, suffering animals?
  • What happens if we act reasonably?

The essence of this method is an emotional impact. It is necessary to touch the inner core of every attendee, to show the possible benefits or unpleasant consequences of his/ her actions. Nevertheless, it can serve as one more way to use other words for concluding a speech.

A dialogue with an audience

Invite listeners to take part in a short survey or a poll. For example, a psychologist talks about harmful co-dependent relationships and at the end asks an audience to mentally answer “This is about me” or “This is not about me” to three short statements:

  • “I often think about what my partner thinks over now.”
  • “I can’t go about my business when my partner is not at home.”
  • “I actively follow the page of my partner on social networks.”

And then the psychologist says: “If at least two of these statements are true for you, you are in a dependent relationship.” This technique involves each listener, and after that, you can call for action, give your contacts, offer psychotherapy to those present and their friends. A similar method of involvement can be used both at the end and at the beginning of a presentation.

Jokes or funny stories

Humor performs three important functions at once:

  • It leaves a pleasant “aftertaste”.
  • It causes an audience a personal affection for the speaker.
  • It helps simplify perception and remembering of a presentation. 

how to end the presentation speech

But, like any conclusion to a speech, the joke should be appropriate for a problem that the speaker develops.

The connection between the beginning and the end

The beginning and end of a speech should always be connected logically. But in order to attract attention, you can connect both parts of your speech with the help of an illustration that evokes strong emotions.

For example, a speaker talks about relaxation techniques, and at the very beginning shows a picture or gif that depicts an exhausting cat. It is torn between screaming kittens and fish, which it should catch in order to have some food.

At the end of a presentation, there is another picture – the same cat that basks in the sun, kittens play in the distance, and fish splash in the water, and so close that it is enough to raise a paw. But the cat is resting. This image would not be remembered so much if there was no picture at the beginning of a presentation.

A rhetorical question

This is one of the standard methods of how to end a presentation. But, despite its prevalence, it does not lose relevance. A rhetorical question is able to leave a certain “aftertaste” after a speech, tune in attendees to certain thoughts and make people think over a particular topic. 

how to end the presentation speech

Make a compliment to an audience

In fact, a banal compliment can significantly attract your listeners, leave a good impression about a speaker. Aren’t these perfect presentation endings? Say something like this: “It is an honor for me to speak before you ...”; “I have never spoken to such a pleasant audience ...”; “Being here with you is the best pastime for me ...”; “You are the best listeners ...” etc.

If you deliver a speech, for example, at a conference or seminar that takes place on Friday night, wish everyone a good weekend. This will shake up an audience after your presentation, set them up in a positive way.

This is the best way to end a presentation. Inspire listeners. Just because every person naturally likes to hear words of approval and support. Thus, you will make an attendee make the first step. Thus, you’ll be sure that your speech causes action and is helpful. 

how to end the presentation speech

Summarizing

In the 21st century, every person daily processes a huge amount of information. That is why the perception of new data is significantly complicated. Simplify your speech due to the use of a summary. If during a presentation you spoke about several important things – at the end, recall what was discussed. Describe the key points of your speech.

What should be avoided

Many speakers advise avoiding a FAQ section as the final part of a presentation. It is recommended organizing a Q&A section as a pre-closing part of a speech. As if it is the final part, then listeners can get bored.

Slides with “Thank you for watching” will ruin all your speech even if it is brilliant. Forget about this slide and never even recall it!

Visualization as a useful tool of speech delivering

Nowadays, visual material serves as an indispensable (or even obligatory) part of any speech at a seminar, meeting, or conference. It adds vividness to speeches and simplifies topics consideration. Thus, it is important to properly choose the final slides for your speech. Not only words but also visual materials play a key role. Thus, it is possible to choose slides with quotes, contact information, funny illustrations, or infographics. The main rule is that their stylistics should be properly chosen. Colors and decorative elements should match your logo or brand.

For this reason, we have something to offer you! We suggest getting acquainted with a website that will significantly simplify the above-mentioned task. If you want to know how to end a  PowerPoint presentation  vividly, you should visit  this website . Below, you’ll find some links to the slides that can be used as another way to say some words in conclusion.

On the site, hundreds of slides and premade packs are waiting for skilled speakers. The resource is a real library of useful templates for different types of business and marketing presentation, or other digital projects and reports. There are available elements for different software. What is more pleasant is that many of them are available for free! Click on the link and start searching for the necessary element.

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As you see, the mood with which listeners will leave a hall and the message that remains in their heads depend on few last sentences of your performance. Therefore, do not underestimate the importance of how to end a presentation and speech. We hope that the above-mentioned tips will be useful for you and help make speeches more memorable and vivid.

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30 Powerful Ways to End a Speech or Presentation

April 15, 2023 by smartmovesonly

Public speaking is a powerful tool that can be used to inspire, educate, and motivate people. Whether you’re giving a speech to a large audience or a presentation to a small group, ending on a high note is essential to leave a lasting impression on your listeners. However, finding the perfect way to end your speech or presentation can be a challenge, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of using clichéd phrases or simply running out of steam.

In this article, we’ll explore 30 powerful ways to end your speech or presentation that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. We’ll cover a range of techniques that will help you to engage your listeners, inspire them to take action and leave a lasting impression. From using humour to making a bold statement, inviting your audience to connect with you on social media, or challenging them to think differently, this article is packed with practical tips and strategies that you can use to end your speech or presentation with impact.

Whether you’re a seasoned public speaker or just starting out, this article is for you. By the end of this article, you’ll have a wide range of techniques to choose from, allowing you to tailor your closing to your specific audience and topic. So, let’s dive in and explore 30 powerful ways to end your speech or presentation.

Top Reads:  7 Effective Techniques on How to Start a Speech
  • 1 1. Thank your audience for their attention
  • 2 2. Summarize your main points
  • 3 3. Provide a call-to-action
  • 4 4. Ask for questions or comments
  • 5 5. Encourage feedback
  • 6 6. Offer resources for further learning
  • 7 7. Highlight the impact of your message
  • 8 8. Provide a memorable quote or anecdote
  • 9 9. Share personal experiences related to your topic
  • 10 10. Discuss the importance of your message
  • 11 11. Express gratitude to your audience or team
  • 12 12. Challenge your audience to think differently
  • 13 13. Offer a solution to a problem
  • 14 14. Discuss potential next steps
  • 15 15. Offer a memorable takeaway for your audience
  • 16 16. Provide a summary of key takeaways
  • 17 17. Discuss the implications of your message
  • 18 18. Highlight the benefits of your message
  • 19 19. Offer a word of caution or warning
  • 20 20. Provide a list of action items for your audience
  • 21 21. Invite your audience to connect with you on social media or via email
  • 22 22. Share relevant statistics or data
  • 23 23. Discuss the significance of your message in a broader context
  • 24 24. Use humour to end on a light note
  • 25 25. Make a bold statement or prediction
  • 26 26. Highlight the success of past initiatives or projects
  • 27 27. Provide an inspiring story or example
  • 28 28. Discuss the importance of collaboration or teamwork
  • 29 29. Challenge your audience to take action
  • 30 30. End with a powerful closing statement or question
  • 31 Conclusion

1. Thank your audience for their attention

When you’re giving a speech or presentation, your audience is taking time out of their day to listen to what you have to say. It’s important to acknowledge this by thanking them for their attention. This simple gesture can make a big difference in how your audience perceives you and your message. You can express your gratitude by saying something like, “Thank you all for being here today. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to what I have to say.”

2. Summarize your main points

One of the keys to making your message stick is to summarize your main points at the end of your speech or presentation. This helps reinforce what you’ve said and gives your audience a clear understanding of what you want them to remember. To do this effectively, you should condense your main points into a few key takeaways that are easy to remember. For example, you might say, “In summary, my main points today were X, Y, and Z.”

3. Provide a call-to-action

If you want your audience to take action after hearing your message, then ending with a call-to-action is a great way to do so. This can be anything from encouraging them to sign a petition or make a donation, to asking them to take a specific action related to your topic. To be effective, your call-to-action should be clear, concise, and easy to follow. You might say something like, “I urge you all to take action by doing X. Together, we can make a difference.”

4. Ask for questions or comments

Ending your speech or presentation with a question-and-answer session is a great way to engage your audience and encourage them to participate in the discussion. This gives them an opportunity to clarify any points you made earlier, address any concerns or objections, and provide additional information. To do this effectively, you should be prepared to answer any questions that come up, and encourage your audience to share their thoughts and opinions.

5. Encourage feedback

Asking for feedback from your audience is a good way to gauge how well you did and what areas you could improve upon. This can be done in person or online, and can help you improve your future speeches or presentations. To encourage feedback, you might say something like, “I would love to hear your thoughts on my presentation. Please feel free to share your feedback with me after the session.”

Top Reads:  15 Simple Tips To Write Motivation Letter Or Statement Of Purpose

6. Offer resources for further learning

If your audience is interested in learning more about your topic, then providing additional resources such as books, articles, or websites is a great way to help them continue their education. This shows that you are knowledgeable and committed to your topic, and can help your audience feel more engaged with your message. To provide resources, you might say something like, “For those of you who are interested in learning more about this topic, I recommend checking out X, Y, and Z.”

7. Highlight the impact of your message

If your speech or presentation is focused on making a difference in the world, then it’s important to highlight the impact that your message can have. You can do this by sharing stories of individuals or communities who have been affected by your topic, or by providing examples of how your message has already made a positive impact. To highlight impact, you might say something like, “By taking action on this issue, we can make a real difference in the lives of X, Y, and Z.”

8. Provide a memorable quote or anecdote

Ending your speech or presentation with a memorable quote or anecdote can help leave a lasting impression on your audience. This can be anything from a famous quote related to your topic, to a personal anecdote that illustrates the importance of your message. The key is to choose something that is relevant to your topic and resonates with your audience. To use a memorable quote or anecdote, you might say something like, “As the great philosopher once said, ‘X’. This quote has always resonated with me, and I believe it speaks to the importance of our topic today.”

9. Share personal experiences related to your topic

Sharing personal experiences related to your topic can be a powerful way to connect with your audience and help them relate to your message. By sharing your own struggles, successes, and lessons learned, you can inspire and motivate your audience to take action. To end by sharing personal experiences, you might say something like, “I hope my personal experiences have shown you that we all have the power to overcome adversity and achieve our goals, no matter how daunting they may seem.”

10. Discuss the importance of your message

Ending your speech or presentation by discussing the importance of your message can be a great way to leave your audience with a sense of purpose and urgency. This can be a reminder of why your topic is important and why it matters. To end by discussing the importance of your message, you might say something like, “I hope that my message has highlighted the importance of taking action and making a difference. It’s up to all of us to create the world we want to live in.”

11. Express gratitude to your audience or team

Ending your speech or presentation by expressing gratitude to your audience or team can be a great way to show appreciation for their support and hard work. This can be a thank you for their time, their attention, or their contributions to your message. To end by expressing gratitude, you might say something like, “I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for your support and for being a part of this journey with me. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Top Reads: Best Time Management Techniques For Small Business Owners

12. Challenge your audience to think differently

Ending your speech or presentation by challenging your audience to think differently can be a great way to encourage them to take action and make a change. This can be a challenge to their beliefs, their actions, or their mindset. To end by challenging your audience, you might say something like, “I challenge each of you to think differently about how you can make a difference in your own life and in the world around you. It’s time to take action and create the change we want to see.”

13. Offer a solution to a problem

Ending your speech or presentation by offering a solution to a problem can be a great way to leave your audience feeling empowered and inspired. This can be a solution related to your topic or a more general solution to a common problem. To end by offering a solution, you might say something like, “I hope that my message has offered you a solution to a problem you may be facing, and has given you the tools and motivation to take action and make a change.”

14. Discuss potential next steps

Ending your speech or presentation by discussing potential next steps can be a great way to help your audience take action and make a difference. This can be a list of actionable steps they can take, resources they can use, or people they can connect with. To end by discussing potential next steps, you might say something like, “I encourage you to take the next step in your own journey, whether it’s volunteering, connecting with others, or simply taking a small action. Together, we can make a difference.”

15. Offer a memorable takeaway for your audience

Ending your speech or presentation by offering a memorable takeaway can be a great way to leave a lasting impression on your audience. This can be a quote, a story, a statistic, or a simple phrase that encapsulates your message. To end by offering a memorable takeaway, you might say something like, “I hope that you will remember this one thing: that you have the power to make a difference in your own life and in the world around you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

16. Provide a summary of key takeaways

Ending your speech or presentation by providing a summary of key takeaways can be a great way to reinforce your message and help your audience remember the most important points. This can be a brief recap of the main ideas you’ve covered or a list of key takeaways. To end by providing a summary of key takeaways, you might say something like, “Before I conclude, I want to recap the key takeaways from today’s presentation. First, we discussed… Second, we talked about… And finally, we learned… Remember these key points as you move forward and take action on what you’ve learned today.”

17. Discuss the implications of your message

Ending your speech or presentation by discussing the implications of your message can be a great way to help your audience understand the broader context of your topic and the potential impact it can have. This can be a discussion of the social, economic, or political implications of your message. To end by discussing the implications of your message, you might say something like, “I hope that my message has shed light on the broader implications of this issue and the impact it can have on our communities, our society, and our world.”

18. Highlight the benefits of your message

Ending your speech or presentation by highlighting the benefits of your message can be a great way to motivate your audience to take action and make a change. This can be a discussion of the personal, social, or environmental benefits of your message. To end by highlighting the benefits of your message, you might say something like, “I hope that my message has shown you the benefits of taking action and making a difference in your own life and in the world around you. Together, we can create a brighter future for all.”

19. Offer a word of caution or warning

Ending your speech or presentation by offering a word of caution or warning can be a great way to leave your audience with a sense of urgency and encourage them to take action to avoid negative consequences. This can be a warning related to your topic or a more general caution about the potential consequences of inaction. To end by offering a word of caution or warning, you might say something like, “I urge you to take action and make a change before it’s too late. The consequences of inaction can be dire, but together, we can create a better future.”

20. Provide a list of action items for your audience

Ending your speech or presentation by providing a list of action items for your audience can be a great way to help them take concrete steps to make a difference. This can be a list of specific actions they can take or resources they can use. To end by providing a list of action items, you might say something like, “I encourage each of you to take action by doing one or more of the following… Remember, even small actions can make a big difference.”

21. Invite your audience to connect with you on social media or via email

Ending your speech or presentation by inviting your audience to connect with you on social media or via email can be a great way to continue the conversation and build relationships with your audience. This can be a call to action to follow you on social media, sign up for your newsletter, or reach out to you with questions or feedback. To end by inviting your audience to connect with you, you might say something like, “I would love to continue this conversation with you on social media. Please feel free to connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.”

22. Share relevant statistics or data

Ending your speech or presentation by sharing relevant statistics or data can be a great way to reinforce your message and make a compelling case for action. This can be a discussion of the latest research or data related to your topic. To end by sharing relevant statistics or data, you might say something like, “As you can see from these statistics, the need for action on this issue is urgent. Let’s work together to create a brighter future for all.”

23. Discuss the significance of your message in a broader context

Ending your speech or presentation by discussing the significance of your message in a broader context can be a great way to help your audience understand the bigger picture and the potential impact of your message. This can be a discussion of how your message relates to larger social, economic, or political issues. To end by discussing the significance of your message, you might say something like, “My hope is that by taking action on this issue, we can create positive change not just for ourselves, but for future generations as well.”

24. Use humour to end on a light note

Ending your speech or presentation with a joke or humorous anecdote can be a great way to leave your audience with a positive impression and end on a light note. This can be a joke related to your topic or a more general funny story. To end with humour, you might say something like, “And on that note, I’ll leave you with a joke… Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything!”

25. Make a bold statement or prediction

Ending your speech or presentation by making a bold statement or prediction can be a great way to leave your audience with a sense of excitement and inspire them to take action. This can be a bold statement related to your topic or a more general prediction about the future. To end by making a bold statement or prediction, you might say something like, “I believe that if we work together and take action on this issue, we can create a world where everyone has access to the resources they need to thrive.”

26. Highlight the success of past initiatives or projects

Ending your speech or presentation by highlighting the success of past initiatives or projects can be a great way to inspire your audience and show them that positive change is possible. This can be a discussion of successful initiatives related to your topic or a more general discussion of inspiring success stories. To end by highlighting the success of past initiatives, you might say something like, “Let’s take inspiration from the success stories we’ve seen in the past and use that energy to create positive change today.”

27. Provide an inspiring story or example

Ending your speech or presentation by providing an inspiring story or example can be a great way to motivate your audience and show them the potential impact of your message. This can be a personal story or an example of someone who has made a positive difference in the world. To end by providing an inspiring story or example, you might say something like, “Let me share a story with you that has inspired me to take action on this issue. It’s the story of…”

28. Discuss the importance of collaboration or teamwork

Ending your speech or presentation by discussing the importance of collaboration or teamwork can be a great way to encourage your audience to work together towards a common goal. This can be a discussion of the power of collective action or a personal reflection on the value of teamwork. To end by discussing the importance of collaboration or teamwork, you might say something like, “We all have a role to play in creating positive change. Let’s work together, collaborate, and build a brighter future for everyone.”

29. Challenge your audience to take action

Ending your speech or presentation by challenging your audience to take action can be a great way to inspire them to make a difference. This can be a call to action to get involved, sign a petition, or make a donation. To end by challenging your audience to take action, you might say something like, “I challenge each of you to take action on this issue. Whether it’s volunteering your time, donating to a cause, or speaking out, we all have the power to make a difference.”

30. End with a powerful closing statement or question

Ending your speech or presentation with a powerful closing statement or question can be a great way to leave a lasting impression on your audience. This can be a powerful statement that summarizes your message or a thought-provoking question that encourages your audience to reflect. To end with a powerful closing statement or question, you might say something like, “Let us not forget that we are all connected and that our actions have the power to shape the world around us. So let me ask you, what kind of world do you want to create?”

Ending a speech or presentation on a high note is crucial for leaving a lasting impression on your audience. By using one or more of the 30 techniques outlined in this article, you can ensure that your audience will remember your message long after you’ve finished speaking. From sharing personal experiences to providing a memorable takeaway or challenging your audience to take action, there are many ways to end your speech or presentation with impact.

However, it’s important to remember that the key to a successful closing is to tailor it to your specific audience and topic. By taking the time to think about what will resonate with your listeners, you can choose a closing that will inspire and motivate them to take action. With these powerful techniques at your disposal, you can deliver a speech or presentation that will leave a lasting impression and help you achieve your goals.

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Practical Media Training and Public Speaking Tips

How to Close a Speech – 15 Unique Ways

how to end the presentation speech

The question of how to close a speech is an important one that every presenter must ask, given the weight those final words have on your audience.

As the open of your speech sets the stage, your close seals the deal. It is your last chance to restate a key idea, make a final impression, inspire the audience, move a group to action, or change a person’s perspective. A tall order, yes, but it’s far from impossible.

When speakers think about how to close a presentation, there are several key elements to consider when it comes to their close:

  • Is it engaging?
  • Does it reiterate your message?
  • Have you clearly identified the next step you want your audience to take?

Too often, speakers mistakenly believe that the audience will be able to infer what they should do next. The truth of the matter is even the most talented presenter can benefit from sending the audience off with a clear call to action . When it is specific, easy to execute, and aligns with their needs, wants, and concerns, they are more likely to take you up on your request.

Since these final words are so important, you’ll want to make a singular impression.

Here, we offer 15 unique ways to close a speech.

15 Unique Ways to End a Speech

These presentation closes highlight many different approaches in how to end a speech that work for our clients in our public speaking classes . What they are not are recipes for quick escapes. Save the “thank you for your time,” “feel free to email or call me with questions,” and “that’s all I have for today” for another day. Your close is what you want them to remember, so make sure it’s something they can’t forget.

1. The Summary Close –  Let’s talk turkey. This close is about the most straightforward, direct, and unequivocal one in the list. In the annals of how to close a presentation speech, it also could be called the “recap” close. If you opt to close a speech with a summary, you want to be clear with your biggest idea and convey to the audience that it is what you want them to remember. That doesn’t mean, however, the summary close is never engaging.

For example, you’re a doctor who is encouraging an audience to adopt lifestyle changes that can lead to longevity. You could end your talk by saying:

“In conclusion, while genetics plays an important role in our lifespans, there are decisions you can make that can improve your chances for a longer and more productive life. There are three letters I want you to remember, “i”, “a,” and “n.” Why? They come at the end of three important words: octogenarian, nonagenarian, and centenarian. If you plan to be active in your 80s, 90s, and 100s, you better start eating better, getting more exercise, eliminating unnecessary stress, and scheduling those routine screenings. A thriving future is in your hands.”

illustration of The Ants and the Grasshopper

2. The Illustrative Close – The artistry in this close comes from your ability to appropriate a first- or third-person anecdote, case study, or fable; an apocryphal (fictional but plausible) tale; or another storytelling device to serve as an illustration of the main points you made during your talk. Quick tip: Many talks begin and end in this manner.

Example No. 1: You are a senior vice president of a nonprofit that provides health and humanitarian care to locations around the world. You are talking to a group of would-be donors about the significance of their contributions. You decide to end your speech with a personal experience.

“I’ve spent the past 20 minutes encouraging you to dig into those pockets to help make the world a better place for others. I want to tell you one more story. It’s about a personal decision I made some 10 years ago after visiting a coffee shop. I plunked down my two dollars, grabbed my coffee, and headed out the door. During my five-minute walk back to my office, my one-minute walk up the stairs, and the four minutes I spent catching up on email, I had finished it. In 10 minutes, I had managed to spend and consume the amount of money that the world’s poorest people live on in a day. Could I give up that coffee to help others? You bet I could, and I did. Since then, no matter what else I donate each year, it always contains $520, what I call my “coffee fund.” Simple measures not only add up but have the power to change lives.”

Example No. 2:

You are a guidance counselor who is speaking to a group of students who are applying to college. Throughout your talk, you impress upon them the importance of planning and setting deadlines. You could end your speech by referencing Aesop’s fable The Ants and the Grasshopper .

“I want to tell you all a story, and perhaps it is one you remember. Long ago, a grasshopper decided to spend his summer making music and otherwise lazing about. In contrast, a group of ants busily set aside food for the winter. The grasshopper thought he would be fine if he waited to the last minute. He wasn’t, nor will you be if you put off the tasks that need to be done today. Applying for college is an intense and important process that can’t be rushed at the end.”

3. The Surprise Close – Some of the best movie endings of all time were wicked twists, surprising conclusions, and outright shockers. Why are they so memorable? First, they are unexpected. It turns out our brains are more active when we experience something we didn’t anticipate. Second, we expected a different conclusion. When a pattern is broken, we become particularly attuned to what comes next . When you close a speech with a surprise ending , you are signaling to your audience to listen up. Here are some ways to do that:

  • Your talk is about how positive thinking gives you the power to overcome overwhelming obstacles. Your talk has been about a woman who “beat the odds.” At the end, you reveal that person is you.
  • You lead a school building committee, and you are giving a presentation about the renovation plans for an 80-year-old school. You want to persuade the community to back the plan. As you end your speech, you concede that speaking about the design is a lot less effective than seeing it. You could close with this:
“We all know seeing is believing. So, while I do not have an actual building to show you, I want to take you on a virtual tour of our new middle school. You are the first to see this. (You reveal a screen and project a short video.) This plan provides for the students’ futures and doesn’t keep them stuck in the past.”

4. The Metaphor Close – When it comes to how to close a speech, you may feel that you are drowning in options, but if you take a careful look at your topic and what you want to convey, you will find it’s as easy as pie. We bet that’s music to your ears. Welcome to the metaphor close. We just gave you three. Metaphors are figures of speech that make an indirect comparison between two things that are symbolically similar but literally different. You are not literally drowning in options, but it sure can feel that way.

Here’s a way to employ this close: You are a spokesperson for a technology company that is releasing a new residential surveillance product. You outlined its merits throughout your talk and have arrived at the end. Here, we show you two closes, one without and one with a metaphor.

Example No. 1 (Without)

“Our proprietary technology makes our product stand out. By installing our surveillance system, you have – at your fingertips – one of the industry’s strongest lines of defense against would-be thieves, intruders, and other unwanted visitors.”

Example No. 2 (With)

“When you install our surveillance system, it is as if you have dozens of lookouts guarding your home.”

5. The Forward-Looking Close – Calling all dreamers and visionaries: Paint a picture of what the world might look like in the future. This speech close is a good option if you are talking about recommendations to adopt or future trends that could have a bearing on your topic. It’s important to create a vivid and vibrant picture to help the audience better visualize what it is you hope to accomplish. Say you are a financial advisor talking to a group 15 years away from retirement. During your talk, you have shared a portfolio of products and your firm’s approach to investment. Your close could be this:

“I have shared with you some tips and techniques that will help you to grow your money, so you have it when you need it most. We have talked about your bottom line, market variability, and the strategies that go into investing. But, I want to leave you with a different picture. When you pay attention to your investments today, your tomorrows will be spent poolside, hiking mountains, traveling the globe, learning a new skill, or finally attaining what you have always dreamed of doing. You will no longer be working for your money. Your money will be working for you.”

close a speech

6. The Backward-Looking Close – We move away from the future and reach into the past. Some audiences, including those who are discouraged or complacent, may need to be reminded of how far they have come. Say you are the manager of a sales team that has spent the past two years working full tilt to hit revenue goals. During your speech, you outlined an ambitious approach to the coming year that some audience members believe is unattainable. Your close, then, encourages them to move forward with confidence, given their past successes. You could offer this:

“I know how hard you all worked these past two years to increase revenue and create a more thriving and vibrant environment. You may not think it, but I can hear your silent groans of frustration. Yes, we do have an ambitious path before us. However, I have no doubts that you are all up to the task. In the past two years, you have taken a company with $500,000 a year in sales to one that clears $1 million. The expressions of doubt and concern that face me now were the same I saw two years ago. But guess what? During these past two years, whatever challenges we faced were met and managed quickly – and that is entirely due to your work ethic. I know we can do this. I know we will do this.”

7. The Next Steps Close – You probably have several to-do lists in your life. There are those that cover daily needs; others focus on short-term goals. There’s likely one lurking out there for long-term dreams, too. Although the timeframe may be different, each list has its own set of tasks that must be met to ensure that things get done. You can close a speech with a similar list. In this case, you want to lay out the sequence and timeline of steps needed to make a decision or achieve a goal.

8. The Rhetorical Question Close –  You don’t have to wait until the end, as rhetorical questions are effective throughout a talk. However, asking one at the conclusion of your presentation is powerful since the audience leaves with your question rattling around their minds. One of the most famous rhetorical questions came during a 1980 presidential debate between President Jimmy Carter and his challenger, Governor Ronald Reagan. In the ensuing years, Reagan’s message has become an oft-asked question during every presidential election cycle: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Here’s what he said to end that 1980 debate:

“Next Tuesday is Election Day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place, and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago?” And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.”

9. The Provocative Close – Merriam-Webster defines provocative as “serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate.” Of course, every presenter hopes to stimulate the minds of their audiences, but a provocative close snaps people to attention. Here’s how to end a presentation speech provocatively. For instance, you are:

Man with beard in front of a white background appears to be skeptical

  • Delivering a wake-up call – You conclude with a forceful call to action. This is particularly effective if you have power or hold sway over the group to whom you are presenting. For example, you have just delivered a talk to employees about a new technology they are going to have to learn – no ifs, ands, or buts.
  • Talking to a group that resists change – You could end with the consequences if no action is taken regarding your topic. You want to paint an “if we fail to act” vision, but it’s also important to take it easy. Too much negativity could lead to a sense of hopelessness, and hopelessness is not the greatest of motivators.

10. The PowerPoint Close – When you dispense with cluttered visual presentations and instead offer an image that draws your audience in, PowerPoint can create a memorable close. Powerful visuals encourage curiosity. Here are a few options to close a speech with a PowerPoint slide. You might project:

  • A photo that is seemingly unrelated to your speech topic and requires your explanation.
  • An image that is humorous but makes a profound point.
  • A line graph showing two potential outcomes – one if the audience gets involved and another if they don’t.

11. The Recommendation Close – In the long-running game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” contestants, who are dressed in outlandish costumes, are urged to, yes, make a deal for cash and prizes. They must choose a prize or gamble for another, which is often behind a curtain or some other wall or obstruction. “Let’s Make a Deal” contestants don’t know what’s behind the curtain, but your audience will. With the recommendation close, you provide your audience with the plusses and minuses of several different options – no curtains or costumes needed.

To be viewed as credible, however, you should offer honest pros and cons for each recommendation. It should not appear to the audience as if you are stacking the odds in favor of one column over the other. Just be mindful not to tip your hat, and the audience will get an unvarnished look at the options before them.

12. The Activity Close – As you can see, how to conclude a presentation speech is as unique to the presenter as it is to the message. In this close, you engage in an activity that drives your main message home. For instance, you could employ a group “pop quiz” to see how many of your key points landed. ( Added bonus: The feedback affords one more opportunity to clarify and reiterate what you want the audience to remember.) You could also end with some of the following activities:

You are a representative for a cosmetics company and are unveiling a new foundation. For your close, you break the audience into groups, provide samples, and ask the groups how it delivered. You run a government agency that is implementing a new program for requests for proposal. You are running some information sessions for contractors, consultants, and other businesses. For your close, you could lead participants through one test round of the system.

13. The Takeaway Close – Parents of young toddlers and teenagers do this every day, to mixed results, but when used to close a speech it can be entirely effective. You ask the audience to reflect on two or three things they heard you say that resonated with them the most. You might even ask them to write them down. The exercise has a twofold benefit – you get to see whether your messages stuck, and the audience is forced to recall what you said, but on their terms.

14. The “Since I Started Speaking” Close – This close works well when talking about a health issue, a societal phenomenon, or anything that can be explained through statistics and further broken down into concrete examples. Say, for instance, you are a spokesperson for a smoking cessation program, and you are talking to a group of employees about the dangers of smoking. After you have outlined how smoking leads to disease and is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, you could end with this:

“In the 60 seconds it will take me to finish my presentation, someone in the United States will have died from cigarette smoking. That happens every minute, making smoking the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. The dangers are real, and the dire consequences of smoking are relentless, yet it remains an unhealthy habit that too many are unable to quit. What will it take to make that change? After you leave here today, why don’t you take a minute and think of how much it costs you to smoke. Then think of what you could be doing with the money instead. Vacations? Home renovations? New bikes? A new wardrobe? Philanthropic pursuits? Find the incentive that finally gets you to stop lighting up. Quitting is difficult, but it isn’t impossible. And we’ll be here to help you, even if you fall down a few times along the way.”

Vintage cogs and gears mechanism in detail

15. The Relevance Close – In today’s fast-paced society, yesterday’s news ain’t what it used to be. A fresh tidbit during the morning news cycle is stale by lunchtime. Such an environment can make it hard for a presenter whose talk is historical or retrospective in nature. How to close a speech in this scenario? Connect old ways or thoughts to contemporary norms or thinking. Perhaps, you find that your topic reflects an adage that stands the test of time. Say you are a museum curator whose latest exhibition delves into the history of work and the machines that revolutionized different industries. You have just wrapped up a presentation about the show to a group of donors. You have laid out the main points and are heading for the close. Here are some closing techniques:

You might remind the audience how the machines of yesterday were once the state-of-art technology of their day. Then, encourage them to think about what will replace current technology and how that will affect the nature of work. Map out the historical line between an object of today with its predecessors to show how the technology of work is ever evolving. Find an adage or quote that covers the overall theme of how technology and human industry have been and will be linked into the future.

One caveat: For most talks, speakers would want to establish such a relevance early on (i.e., what now seems old was once state of the art). However, for some talks, such as the one referenced above, the moment might have more impact and resonance if it is saved until the end.

Need Help Closing Your Speech?

While every presenter needs to think about how to close a speech, the answer is not always going to be the same. It’s a personal decision that should reflect your personality, your goals, and the content of your presentation. You might choose one that is straightforward, traditional, creative, or innovative.

Whichever you choose, aim to end on a high note. This is not the time for quick goodbyes, mumbled thank-yous, or body language that suggests all you really want to do is flee. There are many public speaking tips  we share with our clients, and a key one is to remember that a presentation’s close is one of its most important parts.

It’s your last chance to make an impression on your audience – which in turn will help you to inspire them to think big, persuade them to change their perspective, or move them to action. Make it count!

Most speakers benefit from teaming any of these unique endings with a second close, which can make for a more powerful and memorable ending. Want to learn more? In this post , we delve into the art of wrapping up your talk with two closes, rather than just one. 

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    Here are 10 powerful examples of how to end a presentation that does not end with a thank you slide.. How many presentations have you seen that end with "Thank you for listening" or "Any questions?" I bet it's a lot… "Thank you for listening." is the most common example. Unfortunately, when it comes to closing out your slides ending with "thank you" is the norm.

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    This helps create a good long-lasting impression of your presentation. 4. End with a Call to action: One of the best ways to end your presentation is by concluding with a call to action slide. Incorporating a call to action into your presentation can be a powerful way to encourage your audience to take the next step.

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    You lead a school building committee, and you are giving a presentation about the renovation plans for an 80-year-old school. You want to persuade the community to back the plan. As you end your speech, you concede that speaking about the design is a lot less effective than seeing it. You could close with this: "We all know seeing is believing.