Twelve Tips for More Masterful Virtual Presentations: II

The Web offers much advice about slide design — use bright colors, beautiful visuals, and more slides with less content on each one. And present from a quiet room, turn off your cell phone, and so on. But there's much lass advice about engaging the audience, competing for their attention, and holding it once you've got it. Here's Part II of a little collection of tips for masterful virtual presentations.

Unless legalities are at issue, don't read or over-practice

Reading from scripts might be necessary if legal liability is a risk, as in presentations to press, regulators, or investors. But for other situations, to truly engage your audience, you must sound natural. Reading from a script doesn't work. And over-practicing is just as bad.

Use a remote mouse

If you're using slides and standing, leaning over to click the mouse compresses your diaphragm, draining power from your voice. Because using a remote mouse is more like presenting face-to-face, the face-to-face illusion is stronger, which adds to a sense of engagement with the audience, even if you can't see them.

Some virtual presenters have their assistants operate the mouse, prompting them with pauses, glances, or head nods. In virtual presentations, if the audience can't see the assistant or doesn't know about the assistant's role, these signals can seem awkward.

Use avatars

If you're presenting in an empty room, post images on the wall to represent the audience. If you know them personally, use actual photos. If you don't know them, use photos of an audience of similar size. This ruse actually fools your brain. You'll feel more like you're speaking to a live audience, and that comes across in your voice and manner.

For video, get coached

Few of us have Few of us have natural video
presence. Find a coach who
knows how to dish
tough love.natural video presence. Most of us can benefit from coaching. Find a coach who knows how to dish tough love.

Be aware of virtual presentation software issues

Good slide design for virtual presentations skirts the limitations of some virtual presentation software, which doesn't always fully support presentation apps. Two examples: animations and fancy slide transitions. If you need animation, test it in your presentation environment first. Wipe and fade transitions are reliable; many others aren't. And unusual, fancy transitions are distractions. In the virtual environment, we already have enough distractions.

Use a high-quality mic

Use a headset or a clip-on microphone for best sound quality. Don't rely on speakerphones or computer microphones. For Q&A, use a headset to avoid the feedback or echoes.

Reading this little piece takes most people 5-15 minutes. How many times were you interrupted? How many times did you interrupt yourself, to make a note about something else, send a message, or make a call? Maybe now you can imagine a little more clearly the distractions your audience members face. First in this series   Top    Next Issue

Do you spend your days scurrying from meeting to meeting? Do you ever wonder if all these meetings are really necessary? (They aren't) Or whether there isn't some better way to get this work done? (There is) Read 101 Tips for Effective Meetings to learn how to make meetings much more productive and less stressful — and a lot more rare. 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.

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 Effective Meetings:

Think Before You PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a useful tool. Many of us use it daily to create presentations that guide meetings or focus discussions. Like all tools, it can be abused — it can be a substitute for constructive dialog, and even for thought. What can we do about PowerPoint abuse?

Tangled Thread Troubles

Even when we use a facilitator to manage a discussion, managing a queue for contributors can sometimes lead to problems. Here's a little catalog of those difficulties.

Virtual Meetings: Dealing with Inattention

There is much we can do to reduce the incidence of inattention in virtual meetings. Cooperation is required.

Allocating Airtime: II

Much has been said about people who don't get a fair chance to speak at meetings. We've even devised processes intended to more fairly allocate speaking time. What's happening here?

Favor Symmetric Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are notorious for generating more frustration than useful output. One cause of the difficulties is asymmetry in the way we connect to virtual meetings.

See also Effective Meetings and Effective Communication at Work for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming September 25: Planning Disappointments

When we plan projects, we make estimates of total costs and expected delivery dates. Often these estimates are so wrong — in the wrong direction — that we might as well be planning disappointments. Why is this? Available here and by RSS on September 25.

And on October 2: Start Anywhere

Group problem-solving sessions sometimes focus on where to begin, even when what we know about the problem is insufficient for making such decisions. In some cases, preliminary exploration of almost any aspect of the problem can be more helpful than debating what to explore. Available here and by RSS on October 2.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenmhXARWRMUvVyOdHlner@ChacxgDmtwOKrxnripPCoCanyon.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 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info

Public seminars

The Race to the South Pole: Lessons in Leadership

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough. But to organizational leaders, business analysts, project sponsors, and project managers, the story is fascinating. We'll use the history of this event to explore lessons in leadership and its application to organizational efforts. A fascinating and refreshing look at leadership from the vantage point of history. Read more about this program.

Here's a date for this program:

• Baldwin-Wallace University, 275 Eastland Road, Berea, Ohio 44017: November 7, Kerzner Lecture Series/International Project Management Day, sponsored by Baldwin Wallace University and the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
   

The Power Affect: How We Express Our Personal Power

Many people who possess real organizational power have a characteristic demeanor. It's the way they project their presence. I call this the power affect. Some people — call them power pretenders — adopt the power affect well before they attain significant organizational power. Unfortunately for their colleagues, and for their organizations, power pretenders can attain organizational power out of proportion to their merit or abilities. Understanding the power affect is therefore important for anyone who aims to attain power, or anyone who works with power pretenders. Read more about this program.

• A recording of a program presented June 29, 2017, Monthly Webinar, sponsored by Technobility Webinar Series. PMI members can earn 1.0 Category 'A' PDU by viewing this program. View this program now.