How should you close a speech? I recently was asked a question I first tackled over a decade ago, posed by a fellow coach who specializes in working with engineers and tech firms. Her complaint then – which is just as valid today – was that far too many speeches end with a slide reading “Any Questions?” She was looking for other, more interesting ways to end a presentation.  And my more recent questioner was looking for options beyond just stopping and saying, “And now I’d be pleased to answer any questions you may have.”

It’s hard to imagine a flatter way to finish, aside from simply walking off the stage in silence. Or, in the virtual world, just clicking “End Meeting for All.”

First, there’s the slide issue itself. Slideware – PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, AI-generated decks, take your pick – doesn’t help; it distracts, because it requires the audience to multitask. And all the research on multitasking shows that we humans can’t do it. We first pay attention to one thing, and then another. Moreover, the research on how our brains process visual information indicates that we don’t actually see what’s in front of us, but rather an approximation of it that our brain matches to reality based on its memory.

So, what really happens when we’re confronted in a meeting or a presentation with a speaker and a set of slides is that we look at the speaker – because we’re inherently more interested in people than pictures – and when our attention starts to wander, we look at the slides. Reading slides and looking at people occupy two different parts of our brain, and there’s a lot of inefficiency in switching back and forth. The result is two incomplete sets of information. That’s tiring and annoying, so we get cranky and tune out.

That was true a decade ago. It’s even more true now. Audiences in 2026 are more conditioned than ever to short-form content – the quick hit, the fast scroll, the 90-second video. Their tolerance for a weak ending is lower than it’s ever been. The close of your speech is the last thing they’ll remember. Make it count.

So how should you end a speech? Here are five suggestions for ditching that “Any Questions” slide.

1. Just say “thank you.” The simplest way to end a speech, after you’ve finished the content, is to say, “thank you.” That has the virtue of being universally understood, unexceptional, and unambiguous. It remains my go-to recommendation for anyone who isn’t going to take questions for a variety of reasons and wants a clean signal to the audience that it’s time to applaud and move on. Neat, simple, gets the job done – in person or on a video call.
2. End with a question of your own. A personal favorite of mine is to close with a question suggested by the talk – something related that broadens the discussion and gets people thinking. If you’re wrapping up a talk on the future of AI in the workplace, for example, you might say: “We’ve covered a lot of ground today on how AI is reshaping how we work. I’d like to leave you with this: ten years from now, what do you think will still be uniquely, irreducibly human about your job?”

That should give them something to chew on well past the end of the meeting – virtual or otherwise.

3. Turn the audience loose on an action. As I’ve recommended many times, the best way to end a speech is to give the audience something to do. After all, you’ve been asking them to sit passively for 20, 30, or 50 minutes. Give them a chance to engage. It should be related to what you’ve been talking about, specific, and relatively simple. In person, get them to turn to a neighbor and make a concrete commitment. Virtually, drop a prompt in the chat, open a poll, or ask them to type one word that captures their takeaway. The medium has changed; the principle hasn’t.

This is also where AI tools can genuinely help. Platforms that aggregate live audience questions, surface themes from chat, or run real-time polls can make the close of a virtual or hybrid presentation more dynamic than a roomful of people staring at each other waiting for someone to speak first.

4. Plant a question – or prime the pump another way. If you’re worried about getting no questions, you can arrange for a friend in the audience to ask one. The “plant” is a reliable way to get things started if you fear silence. In a virtual setting, this is even easier: a colleague can have a question ready in the chat before you’ve finished your last sentence.

But if you’ve handed the job of asking for questions over to a slide, that suggests either you don’t really want to engage, or you’re afraid. If it’s the former, get over yourself – you’ve had the floor for 45 minutes; now it’s someone else’s turn. If it’s the latter, consider naming it: “I’ll be honest; there are people in this room, or on this call, who know more about this than I do. So, let’s agree that anyone who’s better positioned to answer a question should feel free to jump in.”

5. Borrow from the theatre: try a “talk back.” Some theatre groups invite the audience to respond directly to the actors, director, and crew after a performance. It’s a critique, a Q&A, a focus group, and a therapy session rolled into one. The same idea works beautifully at the end of a presentation – particularly in a hybrid setting where you have both in-room and remote participants who might not otherwise get a voice.  You have the option at this point of bringing in other people who have been involved in the event to help you with the talk back.

It’s a bit risky, because you’re at the mercy of people who just want to ventilate, but then Q&A can surface those tendencies too. If you choose this option, it’s a big help to have someone else MC the discussion – and in a virtual setting, a good moderator managing both the room and the chat window is worth their weight in gold.

No excuses. There are plenty of interesting ways to end a presentation. Throw away that “Any Questions” slide – and while you’re at it, put some real thought into your close before you hit “Share Screen.”