Virtual Presentations

The modern workplace, team-oriented for many years, has turned virtual. More people telecommute, many teams are global, and travel costs limit face-to-face meetings. With increasing frequency, we deliver presentations by telephone or Internet. Here are some tips for making your virtual presentations more effective.

Limit interruptions

Mute all audible signals in your environment: telephone, mobile devices, computer, pet macaw and teapot. If at home, disable the doorbell. If in a hotel or at work, use a do-not-disturb sign. Close your office door or find a room with a door to close.

Use high-quality equipment

If you're connected by telephone, have the highest quality available — avoid speakerphones or mobile phones. Use a headset to keep your hands free. If using the Internet, high-speed connections are best. If using video, check the lighting and have a good quality camera.

Use video and graphics only if needed

Use simultaneous Web and video channels in parallel with audio only if the presentation truly requires them. Using video or graphical channels exposes the presentation to technology risk, and that risk should be justified by a need.

Prepare for technical contingencies

Have backup channels in case your intended communication channel fails. Prepare to make do without video or Webcasting if necessary by prepositioning materials for the audience to download.

Attend to your physical needs

Have drinking water available, and drink through a straw if you're using a headset. For your best voice, sit upright or stand.

Have good access to your materials

If you need reading material, avoid paper shuffling by spreading the pages on a desk, or tape them to a wall if you aren't on camera. If you're on camera, use a teleprompter or cue cards. Keep a notepad and pen handy. Have your appointment calendar ready.

Guide your audience

Use simultaneous Web and
video channels in parallel
with audio only if the
presentation truly
requires them

If your audience is following your presentation in written form, announce your place whenever you change to a new page or slide. If some exhibits are documents, prepare them in advance with page numbers, line numbers, internal hyperlinks, and bookmarks to ease direction and navigation.

Remember the recording

If your presentation is recorded, and if some of the audience is present audio-only, take care to describe explicitly what they cannot see: page or slide numbers, features of graphics, URLs, and other items they might not have.

Speak clearly

Speaking clearly is always essential, but in virtual presentations, you might be unaware of some competing noise sources, such as line noise and local noise at the listener's location.

Be fascinating

In the virtual presentation context, you're competing with powerful distractions for audience attention, including email, texting, games, food, and interruptions. Be funny, dynamic, and intriguing. Omit long descriptions of what everyone knows.

Most important: every location, every connection, and every presentation is unique. If you want things to go well, practices and dry runs are essential.  Top    Next Issue

Is your organization a participant in one or more global teams? Are you the owner/sponsor of a global team? Are you managing a global team? Is everything going well, or at least as well as any project goes? Probably not. Many of the troubles people encounter are traceable to the obstacles global teams face when building working professional relationships from afar. Read 303 Tips for Virtual and Global Teams to learn how to make your global and distributed teams sing. Order Now!

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

Coaching and Haircuts

Lifelong learners use a variety of approaches, usually relying heavily on reading. Reading works well for some ideas and techniques, especially for those with limited emotional content. For adding other skills and perceptions, consider a personal coach.

Astonishing Successes

When we have successes that surprise us, we do feel good, but beyond that, our reactions are sometimes self-defeating. What happens when we experience unanticipated success, and how can we handle it better?

Clueless on the Concept

When a team member seems not to understand something basic and important, setting him or her straight risks embarrassment and humiliation. It's even worse when the person attempting the "straightening" is wrong, too. How can we deal with people we believe are clueless on the concept?

Preventing Sidebars

Sidebar conversations between meeting participants waste time and reduce meeting effectiveness. How can we prevent them?

Getting Value from Involuntary Seminars

Whatever your organizational role, from time to time you might find yourself attending seminars or presentations involuntarily. The value you derive from these "opportunities" depends as much on you as on the presenter.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness, Effective Communication at Work and Virtual and Global Teams for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming April 24: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 1

Knowing how to recognize just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can be helpful in reducing the incidence of problems. Here is Part 1 of a collection of communication antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure. Available here and by RSS on April 24.

And on May 1: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 2

Recognizing just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can reduce the incidence of problems. Here is Part 2 of a collection of antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure, emphasizing those that depend on content. Available here and by RSS on May 1.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info