Top Tips - November 2009

Tips for giving an online presentation

Users of online and telephone conferences face, with increasing frequency, the  challenge of presenting without being able to visually connect with their audience. Training, virtual meetings, sales, project team meetings, webinars; more and more meetings are done via the Web.

For more and more people, the normal presentation venue is an online meeting without video, using PowerPoint and/or screen sharing. The growing push of this change highlights the difficult challenges that online meetings represent : no body language to see, you don’t know when other participants are having ‘side-bar’ conversations or distractions, not to mention the feeling of ‘insecurity’ that appears when you don’t get the visual feedback and approbation that we all need. You can't get it because you cannot visually interact with your audience.

Exaggerate. TV and cinema can direct the viewer’s attention using the camera. Theater, radio and online presentations don’t have that luxury. That’s why  stage actors and radio performers use their voice and other tactics. Online presenting isn’t very different. To direct your audience’s attention and get them to connect with you, without the benefit of visual cues, you have to exagerrate.

Keep your energy level high. It may feel a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it. Be animated. Make big verbal gestures, statements or rhetorical questions from time to time. Being a little funny or dramatic will help people remember what you’re telling them. It’s surprising what holds people’s attention.

Tell anecdotes and stories. Don’t just give facts and data. People connect and people remember more information when speakers tell stories.

Keep the slides moving. Change the screen at least once every 2 minutes. You will achieve two things:

- first, it adds a bit of interest by presenting something new
- second, it tells the audience that their computer is still working and that the system isn’t blocked.

Do not underestimate the need to demonstrate that all is functioning correctly if you want to avoid having to reassure attendees that all is well; a distraction that you don’t need during a presentation!

Modulate your voice. If it doesn’t come naturally, wait until everyone is out of the house, go to the bathroom and learn to modulate your voice. Play with it, exaggerate and practice.

Our voice is our most powerful tool for communicating - it's not the information. Very few presenters practice using their voice correctly and it becomes the weakest part of the presentation. Take a voice class if you have to. Ask colleagues and friends to attend your presentation and to be critical. Record it and listen to yourself.

Engage your audience and create interaction. Ask questions. Be sure they are clear, relevant, concrete and easy to answer. An online presentation is not the place to ask for deep, meaningful opinions about the meaning of life. You should be able to answer or at least respond to the question yourself. Humour can be ok; however, avoid any but the simplest, most inoffensive jokes. Remember, you don’t know who may be in the other rooms!

Do a little research on the audience ... at least enough to know their names and positions. During the presentation, use that information to bring relevance to the material, e.g. “Here's a challenge I am sure that Sheila and Ricardo can relate to ...” or “This is especially helpful for those of you that work with those long financial/service/employment/outsourcing/sales/ contracts ...”

If there is interactive capability, ask a particular person to 'remind/explain/confirm' to the others why something that I said was important or ask people to submit a short answer/opinion/example via the chat window.

Pause for emphasis. Nothing is worse than a presentation going from point to point, slide to slide, without pause.

Pause is the most dramatic way to emphasize a point. It also gives people time to absorb what you are saying. Practice getting the duration of the pause right and get yourself comfortable with short silences.

Transition naturally from slide to slide. “This is a great chart that explains …” instead of the usual, “on this slide you can see …”

Practice. Never do a presentation unrehearsed. What you have in your mind while you create it, compared with what you actually say or do when you present it can be two very different things.

Keep it professional. This is usually achieved by being brief, focused, elegant and simple. Remember: less is more.

Don't try to cover everything. People only remember a few things. Make them the ones you want them to remember. Do not include everything you would like to say; only the most vital of points.

If you can get the commitment for someone to attend for a one hour presentation only do 45 minutes max and use the rest for questions.

Stay on track. Print out your slides in handout format, six to a page, and mark your speaking notes on that. Put your time checks in the margin. Keep a watch or travel clock by your computer and monitor yourself. Are you keeping to the timings? Have you fallen behind schedule? Put marking time checks in five minute increments next to specific slides. This way, you will avoid the common problem of running out of time at the end or speeding through the final –and often most important- 10 slides in a panic to finish.

Any comments? Drop me an email.

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