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Virtual presentations: an everyday reality
We’ve gone from going to the Office every day, taking planes and traveling the world to living a new life where professional and personal blend together.
You wake up, make coffee, reach for your laptop, and get ready for your next virtual presentation.
Does this routine sound familiar?
If it does, I welcome you among many others.
2020 it’s been the year that the world as we know it has been put to the test – and so has the way we work.
Have we stopped, have we quit making presentations?
No, we’ve changed the way we make them.
Google trend clearly shows a surge of virtual presentations in perfect coincidence with the start of the first lockdowns in March 2020.
Yes, this curve is directly correlated with the number of people who have switched to “virtual presentations” mode from home in their pajamas.
Zoom has claimed to have gone from 10 million meeting attendees daily to 300 million in 2020 alone, while Microsoft and Google have invested significantly in the development of Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
If you use these, you will have realized how quickly updates were released during the pandemic period.
Here again, March 2020 was a peak month for these apps.
Impressive!
So, there you are in front of your laptop, ready for your next virtual presentations.
As if public speaking wasn’t complex enough on its own.
For many, it’s not easy to expose yourself and speak in front of people, even if it’s in front of a small audience such as a meeting room among colleagues or bosses you’ve been working with for years.
Do you think it’s easier behind the camera?
I don’t.
Personally, I think that, in some ways, it is even more difficult because not having direct feedback from your audience makes it hard to modulate your behavior.
Being empathetic means feeling what others are feeling and tuning in, but how can you feel empathy for people who maybe have their cameras off, and you can’t even see?
How many times have you felt like they weren’t even following you and were doing something else, while you were focusing on making the best virtual presentation possible?
Creating an effective virtual presentation is a whole different story than delivering it live.
Do you agree?
Virtual presentation is – by definition – cooler than an in-person one.
Why?
Think about the routine you have been through the last few days – you are in and out of business meetings with the simplicity of a click.
There’s no pre-meeting chit-chat or end-of-meeting exchange.
Conference calls follow each other, one after the other, one ends and you join the next, which often has already begun. A few minutes before the end there is always someone who announces that he has to run to join the next room.
Some might say that it is much more efficient, that less time is wasted, and I agree!
Without a doubt though, it’s much harder to create empathy between people.
Even for you as a speaker, it’s not easy to constantly look into the webcam – and it certainly doesn’t make you feel like you are part of a shared moment between people.
Still, that’s what’s required of you – to focus on the lens to give the impression that you’re watching them during your virtual presentation.
Not easy.
Not to mention all those participants who, unfortunately, don’t have the option of having a quiet environment and forgetting to set their microphone to mute, end up sharing with you their children’s cries and the sound of a vacuum cleaner sweeping the house.
We don’t have the same confidence ourselves, because we are often led to present sitting down.
Think about it – when you walked into the boardroom, you probably gave your presentation standing up and projected slides.
How do you deliver an virtual presentations, on the other hand?
Sitting in front of your laptop, as you do for the rest of the day.
After all, it’s clearly more comfortable.
Surely, you don’t want to get up every time you have to give a virtual presentation.
Or do you?
This is an interesting aspect related to the delivery power of virtual presentations, but I will deal with it in a more detailed way a few sections later on.
And what about connection problems?
They’re great, right?
When you lose the speaker while they’re talking, or when a team is ready to share their presentation and the only one who can’t share their screen is the one they want to present it to.
And then, there are all those cases when you have to explain how to share the screen, what’s the difference between sharing a window, an app or the whole desktop.
Some people still don’t get it, trust me.
If you have any doubts about this ask me in the comments, it’s better to clear them up now and avoid arriving at the next meeting with such questions.
Use my article to leave any doubts behind you now and go confidently to your next virtual presentations.
Have you ever thought about how people see you while you are presenting online?
It’s not a trivial thing.
When you’re presenting in person, your body occupies a certain space – and along with your skills, you develop what’s called “a stage presence”.
I challenge you, though, to have an impactful stage presence during a virtual presentation.
Why?
For the simple fact that people will see you inside a small square at the bottom of a giant slide.
Why do you see such big slides and such small speakers in all of these apps?
I can’t tell you, but I hope someone will soon realize that during a presentation, whether it’s online or not, people make a difference.
I’m not suggesting reversing the size and keep your PowerPoint slides small, otherwise, considering typical business presentations, you wouldn’t see anything.
But I think it would be beneficial to find some balance by enhancing the speaker – or at least letting the speaker or the audience choose how to resize the two windows.
Now, that’s a great idea!
Imagine being able to enlarge or shrink the speaker and slide window at will during a virtual presentation.
See?
Writing gives you some great ideas.
But let’s get back to your virtual presentation and get to work on making it effective and impactful.
Virtual presentations public speaking
People make a difference, not slides.
Sure, the way you display your messages is critical to bringing your ideas to life, and even more important is your ability to interact synergistically with your slides during your virtual presentation.
Why are there boring speakers and others who hold our attention from start to finish?
The effectiveness of a presentation is based on several key aspects, and one of them is your performance.
The concept of variation lies at the heart of all the techniques taught by public speaking coaches.
What to vary?
Lots of things.
You could vary the pace of your speech, slowing down in the most important parts and speeding up in the others.
Have you ever had the feeling that you speak too fast or too slow?
The best solution is to vary often, depending on your messages.
You can act on your distance from the camera.
Maurizio, are you telling me to get closer to the webcam?
Exactly!
Whenever you want to really be incisive, you might decrease your speaking pace and move closer to the camera.
How you manage your voice tone also makes a difference.
A sustained voice tone is important during the presentation but, when you want to intrigue, create mystery, and attract attention you could lower the tone as if you were revealing a secret to your audience.
This, for example, is a variation I really like to use when, during a Lean Presentation Design training, I reveal an advanced technique that I know is unknown to my audience.
You will find many different techniques online, but I want you to keep in mind the fundamental concept for success in public speaking: variation.
The tools for an effective virtual presentation
When you’re creating a presentation, you need to focus on designing the interaction experience you’re creating for your audience.
The slides are an important component of the whole experience, but they are still only one of its components.
The focus of attention during a presentation remains the speaker, and in a live setting, stage presence is everything.
So, what about slides?
Slides are a valuable support with which you can interact in a synergistic way.
In an effective presentation dynamic, an optimized interaction with your slides is essential to keep the pace and keep your audience’s attention.
Maurizio, could you elaborate?
Sure. Let’s start with a common mistake.
Imagine you are presenting a slide like the one in the picture below:
I know what you just did….
You read the slide!
Maybe you did not do it consciously, but your eye definitely quickly scanned its content – and your brain made the decision to read it or skip it.
In any case, you have wasted time on a slide that could have given you a message with the same quick glance, but instead, because of the way it was designed, it made you think about what to do.
You should never let this happen during one of your performances, be it online or offline presentation.
Why?
For the simple fact that if you give your audience something to read, they will end up trying to read it, and if they do read it, they will not be listening to you.
Otherwise, if they decide to skip the slide because processing it costs too much energy, then you really could have saved yourself an unnecessary slide.
So, are you saying that I need to change the design?
No, the design is a consequence, I want you to focus on the interaction.
What do you mean by that?
In a synergistic interaction dynamic with your slides, people pay attention to you as a speaker, and they find on the slides a quick confirmation of what you are saying.
In fact, you should never show your next slide before you’ve already stated the message behind it.
Basically, your presentation is a game of anticipating the slides that will follow you as you speak.
Unfortunately, I often see people do the exact opposite.
That is, the speaker sends the slide forward and waits until it is shared to comment on it.
This is how you defeat any efficacy of an online – or even offline – presentation, it barely changes.
Are you trying to tell me that I should always anticipate the message of the upcoming slide?
Yes, you got it right, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
But do I have to know every slide by heart?
Absolutely not!
Imparare a memoria una presentazione è un errore da principianti per svariati motivi.
First, when you give a presentation, it is natural to feel stressed because of the importance that specific presentation has for you or your career, and if you are relying on memory, the risk of blacking out and completely forgetting your talk is very high.
Secondly, people can tell if you’re repeating a memorized script, and you will lose any chance of empathizing with your audience while minimizing the effectiveness of your communication.
After all, it would be like reading in front of everyone!
So, what can you do about it?
You can use PowerPoint’s speaker mode.
What’s that?
It is the screen that PowerPoint activates when you press the F5 key on your keyboard, allowing you to see the next slide after the one you are sharing.
You can think of it as your own little control room that allows you to manage the presentation flow in a really effective way.
I wouldn’t know how to live without it!
With the presenter view on PowerPoint, you always have an eye on the next slide as well as the speaker notes, so you can stay ahead of your audience.
This way, when you share your next slide during a virtual presentation, the audience will be captured by the transition of the slide change and, if the slide is effective enough, they’ll just glance at it to confirm your message and go back to looking at you.
Although in person I would rather you not use notes, as it would be too obvious that you are reading, in a virtual presentation you can jot down a few notes as long as you don’t read for the whole presentation.
A few notes can also help you if you are delivering in a foreign language and don’t remember some of the words.
As long as you don’t read a whole text but only use notes as support for your virtual presentations, no one will notice.
Another feature that I find great is the possibility to jump from one slide to another at any point in the presentation, changing the flow as needed.
Just click on “see all slides” to access the virtual presentations overview mode and select the next slide to show.
You also have the option to browse the presentation by section using the panel on the left.
Thanks to this huge potential of PowerPoint, which I use a lot, I often create a 100% complete presentation and choose the presentation flow by jumping from one section to another depending on the point I want to make, the type of audience or, as is often the case, the time I have available.
This technique comes in very handy if you find yourself presenting a typical business presentation, which is often much richer than what you really need to share in a meeting.
Thanks to this technique, you can choose the order and the slides to show in real time.
Do you know what the best part is?
That, while you’re making all these decisions in the director’s office, the audience won’t notice anything and will just keep seeing, one slide at a time, just what you wanted to show them.
Virtual presentations: PowerPoint speaker mode with multiple screens
How do I activate speaker mode on PowerPoint?
To activate it by default you should have a screen connected to your laptop. In fact, this mode is typically used to present by connecting your PC to a projector.
There are two types of dual screens I use:
Home dual screen
I often work on the move, so I use a small, ergonomic, powerful and very elegant laptop, in my opinion the best 13″ that has been on the PC market for years: the famous Dell XPS 13” latest edition
As versatile as it is, however, it has a small screen – not the best if you have to work on it every day for long hours.
For this reason, when I’m at home I use a much larger screen, with an excellent resolution, perfect for working in maximum comfort.
After careful research I chose the Sceptre Curved 27″ Gaming Monitor, which I am really happy with.
It’s really great for working and creating presentations – after all, it’s a gaming-optimized monitor.
Portable dual screen
When I am on the road, I need agility and functionality.
You might decide to work from your parents’ house, from the mountain home, or maybe from the beach house.
I, for example, might be abroad for a few months and still be able to work remotely.
You certainly cannot carry around a 27″ monitor in these cases, but I don’t want you to compromise the quality of your next virtual presentation.
So?
I have equipped myself with a handy portable travel monitor that perfectly does the job.
Maurizio, isn’t that going to be a bit much?
Absolutely not – the second screen is the foundation of an effective virtual presentation.
Even if you did not use it for speaker mode, it would be essential to keep the class under control and be able to interact with it constantly, as we’ll see later on.
What portable monitor to buy?
Without spending a fortune, I find myself quite comfortable with the 13.3 Inch Portable Monitor, LABISTS
It comes by default with a protective foldable case, all the necessary cables, and a small stand to set it in the desired position.
The importance of active cameras during virtual presentations
Keeping the camera active is a good rule of thumb for interacting in an effective manner.
If you don’t see the audience you are presenting to, it will be very difficult to imagine their reactions during your virtual presentation.
Do they seem attentive, are they following you, or are they visibly doing something else?
These are basic questions that allow you, though, to start getting a handle on things.
Have you ever seen someone taking calls while you’re presenting? Maybe they get up, go for coffee, and you don’t know if they’re still listening or not.
In these cases, with the cameras on, you can intercept these behaviors and immediately intervene.
Don’t be strict with your audience, but always make them respect you.
How?
For example, you could stop for a moment and say that you are waiting for everyone to be connected and finish their calls before you start again.
That way, you’ll make it clear right away that that behavior isn’t acceptable while you’re pitching, and you’ll likely see that it won’t happen again.
Use the wait to interact with those who are listening, asking a few direct questions – don’t ask if anyone has any questions.
There is nothing worse than a speaker trying to force questions from the audience.
If they have questions, they will ask them – otherwise move on.
When the person reconnects, start the virtual presentations again by smartly pointing out that you were waiting for them.
In general, when they have the camera on, people tend to be more attentive and present.
Or at least they should!
Okay, there are cons in asking to keep the cameras on, but with proper care, it’s the only tool we have left to give a semblance of humanity to our remote meetings.
The best framing for virtual presentations
Of all the choices to take when setting up a virtual presentations, placing the camera at the right height is crucial.
Think about it.
Your laptop’s webcam is positioned around the screen, but it rarely allows you to broadcast an effective shot.
When it comes to this, I’ve seen it all.
I have seen laptops placed on stacks of books to raise the frame, I’ve seen people in calls holding their laptops in their hands and lifting them up, trying to guess the best height.
What is the right framing, then?
Let’s take a cue from some BBC journalists.
As you can see, they are shot from the waist up, but there is a trick for identifying the correct height and proportions – the rule of thirds.
This is a golden rule that photographers typically use to give their shots proportionality.
Yes, but how does it work?
In short, it is a grid that divides an image into 9 equal parts, identifying 4 intersection points.
Try to guess the name of the 4 intersection points.
Any guesses?
I’ll tell you.
They’re called PowerPoints!
You didn’t expect that, did you?
PowerPoints are the points of maximum eye attention on a visual built on the rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds is widely applied in the creation of presentation layouts, and I’m sure you’ll find the guide where I explain how to use it fascinating: Creating an effective presentation in PowerPoint with the Rule of Thirds.
We are interested in making sure that your eyes match the top two PowerPoints.
Easy, right?
Maurizio, how can I create such a framing with my laptop’s webcam?
Simple, just don’t use that webcam.
Are you kidding me?
Think about it – you always have a far superior camera always available and with you.
Do you know what I’m talking about?
Your smartphone, exactly!
I’m suggesting you use your smartphone as a webcam to present yourself in high quality and with the right shot during your next virtual presentations.
With a simple tripod, you can position your smartphone at the height you deem most appropriate, just below your laptop screen.
See this setup in the photo below:
Besides noticing me taking pictures of myself, you’ll notice my strategically placed smartphone popping up slightly above the screen.
If you’re wondering, my smartphone is leaning against a simple, height-adjustable tripod, like the Kodak photogear lightweight tripod, for example.
So, with a simple tripod and your smartphone’s camera, which is significantly better than your laptop’s, you are now able to bring your screen image to a much higher level of quality.
How to get your smartphone to choose between webcams when using a video conferencing software?
Let’s talk about it in the next paragraph.
Use your smartphone as a professional webcam
By default, no video conferencing software gives you the option to choose your smartphone among the available webcams.
If you look at my Microsoft Teams, however, you can see that in addition to the integrated and external Logitech ones, I have another one called e2eSoft iVcam – and that’ s my smartphone.
How do you make it available?
You’ll just need to install one of the following two apps:
Thanks to these apps, you can make your smartphone available among the selectable options. It will be up to you to choose whether to use the front or the rear camera to record yourself.
The front camera allows you to see yourself projected, which can be useful because you can see how your audience sees you, but it can also be counterproductive when your own image distracts you from looking into the camera.
The rear camera solves this problem because by not seeing yourself, you no longer have the distraction, and the image is of higher quality.
However, should anything go wrong, you won’t have a preview of your image.
So, what can you do?
Usually, if I am presenting online for a few hours, I use the rear one so I can never get distracted.
If I’m doing fast video conferences, I can use the front one, so I can have direct access to my smartphone screen and the setup is easier.
Recently I’ve been testing another good alternative that doesn’t require the installation of additional apps.
On Microsoft Teams there is a feature that allows you to use multiple devices connected to a single user.
This way, I can use my iPhone’s camera and microphone to communicate and my laptop’s screen to share.
How does it work, exactly?
Imagine that you are joining your next video conference from your PC via Microsoft Teams app. Disable your webcam and microphone, but enable screen sharing to show your slides.
To share the screen, use the button in the upper right corner showing a screen with an arrow at the bottom.
Choose whether you want to share your screen or just the PowerPoint.
Since you’re interested in keeping PowerPoint’s speaker mode, I recommend sharing the screen, otherwise, if you only share the PPT, you won’t be able to activate it.
Now all you have to do is launch the Microsoft Teams app from your smartphone, and you’ll be prompted to connect the device to the video conference.
On Microsoft Teams will only be recognized a user, that is, you will only appear once, but you will have the ability to talk through your smartphone’s earphones and camera. I, for example, use air pods and an iPhone while continuing to comfortably share the screen from my PC.
How to present while seated and still be effective
Good posture in the room conveys energy, enthusiasm and confidence, but you have to be careful, because similarly, bad posture could convey disinterest and boredom.
Even in video conferences?
Absolutely yes!
Especially if you’re shooting yourself respecting the rule of thirds, as we saw earlier.
While during a in-person presentation you will likely be standing in a conference room, during a virtual presentations it is common to find yourself sitting at your desk.
When we sit down, we tend to hunch over, which leads to choking on our voice.
Like an ineffective posting, speaking in a muffled voice will not have a good effect on your audience, and it will cause you to lose stage presence on camera.
If you want to be incisive in your presentation then prepare yourself well, sit upright, stretch your legs, don’t cross them even if no one can see you, take a deep breath and clear your voice.
If up to 5 minutes earlier you were lying in bed, consider some warm-up exercises for your voice – they could completely change the outcome of your presentation.
Amy Cuddy in her Ted Talk – Your body language may shape who you are – says:
So, having the right posture increases your confidence, and consequently the way you will be perceived by your audience.
Why you should always look into the camera during virtual presentations
Have you ever thought, during a live presentation, of presenting with your back to your audience?
I don’t think so.
It’s the same thing online.
Looking into the camera replicates the effect of casting your gaze over the audience during an in-person presentation.
It’s a good idea to look a little bit at everyone during a speech, in order to make everyone feel engaged.
The speaker’s eyes are a powerful tool because they attract and direct the audience’s attention. In fact, if you were to address only one person in the audience during a live presentation, you would intimidate them.
This is a well-known technique in conflict management.
If someone is disruptive during your presentation, you will direct the attention of the entire audience to them, which will generate intimidation and resolve the conflict situation.
In a virtual presentation, the only way you can make everyone feel included is to look into the camera.
If you can stare into the camera, people will individually feel that you’re addressing each of them, which will make them feel more engaged.
Easy?
Not at all!
In fact, during a virtual presentation you will have two or three screens in front of you that will likely cause a distraction.
If you have a screen showing your participants’ cameras, it will be natural to spend time looking at the people you’re talking to, but unfortunately, they won’t have the same perception, because you’re not looking into their cameras, but into your screen.
So, focus on the camera for as long as possible – especially when communicating important messages within your presentation.
Everything you need to know about lighting
Talking about lighting seems exaggerated when it comes to simple corporate video conferencing, but I can guarantee you that lighting is a key part of an impressive setup, and it has a significant impact on the way your audience will perceive you.
Natural light is unquestionably your best ally.
A good window placed behind your screen – and therefore in front of you – is an invaluable resource.
However, you can’t always rely on it. You may be working past sundown or on a particularly gloomy day.
You may not even have a window positioned right in front of your workstation.
So, what can you do?
You will need to resort to artificial lighting.
Without complicating things, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
First, you’ll need diffused light, typical of LED panel lighting. So, avoid placing too strong or concentrated lighting that will only risk annoying you while you are presenting.
How to position these lights?
I think a good setup is to use a main panel and a secondary one.
The main panel will have a higher intensity, will be oriented at 15-45° to you and will illuminate you highlighting one part of your face.
Why only one part?
Because this way you will define your shape and give your face depth.
Then, you will have a secondary panel of lower intensity in order to attenuate the shadows generated by the main one.
The light sources can be composed in synergy with the surrounding environment. You could have a window play the role of secondary source and add a panel for the main one. Or maybe the natural light is strong, so you can use it as a primary source during the day.
Keep in mind the combination of primary and secondary and find the composition that best suits your context.
Which led panels to buy?
I find the Elgato Key Light Air very elegant and professional, and you can easily place them on your desk.
They have a compact layout, are height-adjustable and manageable via app. You can change the light intensity and warmth.
How to make virtual presentations interactive and engaging
But sorry, wouldn’t the presentation be much more interactive live?
This is a typical question I get asked whenever comparing a virtual presentation to an offline one.
Live, it’s only natural that the interaction between people is more spontaneous.
Online, things get more complicated.
The most successful presentations, though, are often more form than content, and interaction is a key part of the form.
During a virtual presentation, interaction is definitely more complex and less spontaneous, but, from experience, I can guarantee you that it can be achieved – and well too!
How do you create interaction during a virtual presentation?
Always keep an eye on your audience
First, if you want to interact with people and therefore try to empathize with them, you have to be able to see them.
Maurizio, this sounds pretty obvious to me.
It really isn’t, in the context of a virtual presentation.
If you’re using one screen with the direction of the speaker mode and the other to share slides as if it were a projector, where do you think you’re going to see the audience?
Your video conferencing app will probably be behind the PowerPoint windows.
Maurizio, you were the one who told me that PowerPoint’s speaker mode is critical for a virtual presentation.
It is, indeed, and we’re not giving up on that one.
Where do I project the video conferencing app, then?
You have two alternatives:
Option #1: the ALT + F5 shortcut
Many know that with F5, PowerPoint goes into speaker mode, but very few are aware that if you combine F5 with ALT, you can launch presentation mode on the same screen you’re working on.
Incredible, isn’t it?
To help you understand, I will show you how it works.
See how if I shrink the speaker mode window, I have the slide in projection mode behind it?
Usually, these two windows are located on two different screens and you, via the video conferencing app, would share the screen where the slide is projected.
In this case you would have everything on the same screen.
You are interested in the speaker mode, while your audience is interested in the full-screen slide.
So, you will have to share the slide as an active window.
The audience will see the active window, but you can quickly switch windows and manage the presentation from your control room in PowerPoint speaker mode.
Thanks to this trick, you’ll have the second screen available to project your videoconference app on, and you’ll be able to keep your audience in sight and maximize interaction.
Option #2: Duet App
If you have plenty of space at home, you could also consider using a third screen to project slides on.
Maurizio, but at the moment I only have the screen of my laptop and a second screen connected.
I know, and that’s why we’re going to use a tablet with the Duet app to get a third screen.
Duet is a simple, affordable app that allows you to turn a mobile device into a screen for your PC or Mac.
I generally use a mini-iPad as a third screen, and that’s where I project my slides.
Consider that you don’t even need to have it in sight because you can manage everything right from the speaker mode on your laptop.
Regardless of the mode you choose to adopt, keeping your audience in view allows you to keep an eye on your presentation’s effects and to get an idea of what’s happening during your virtual presentations.
The right way to use the chat
All video conferencing tools provide a chat tool that can be used in real time during a virtual presentation.
It is usually employed to keep everyone from speaking into the microphone at the same time as the presenter, but I believe it has a higher and untapped potential.
In fact, the chat is a phenomenal engagement tool.
If it is used correctly.
Have you ever asked to use the chat to ask questions and no one used it?
It was probably too late by the time you asked.
In fact, the first fundamental technique to trigger the use of a chat is to separate it from the need to expose oneself by asking questions or making observations.
What are you talking about, Maurizio?
Simple, follow me.
Instead of asking people to come to the chat room for a question, make it natural to use the tool by writing your greetings at the beginning of the conference.
At that point you will see that they’ll start to respond to you, and if you want to further encourage its use, simply ask them to say something nice back.
No one will feel they have to think of a question before they can write and, frequently in a nice way, they will write you a good morning or a simple comment with some emoticons.
The result of all this?
You will have normalized the use of the chat from the start, and during the virtual presentations people will feel free to use it even for simple comments or observations.
Secondly, try to trigger interaction between participants by leveraging the chat.
During workshops in workshop in Lean Presentation Design, I often ask participants to share their proposed solutions to my exercises.
Afterwards, I always ask them to look at and vote for the others’, with a simple like or maybe a heart.
To increase interaction, I comment on those who have the most by complimenting them, triggering the dynamics of competition.
During the last workshop it happened to me that some participants, amused by the competition, began to play with likes and hearts to get an advantage over others.
The result was a pleasant interaction between colleagues and an excellent opportunity to compare your work with that of others.
For participants to feel free to take advantage of the chat and interact with you during your virtual presentation, it is essential that you keep an eye on it and can comment whenever someone posts a comment.
To make the connection with the audience even more empathetic, remember to read the name and the comment you will be responding to before giving a verbal response, since it is not guaranteed that all participants have already read it.
How to integrate video into virtual presentations
Videos are a valuable support in any type of presentation, whether it is online or not.
Videos have always been used as a presentation aid to engage the audience at key moments in the storyline.
They can be used for a dramatic opening, or for a rich explanation of a product or service.
Do you use video in your presentations?
I often do.
Videos allow you to break the rhythm and give an immediate change of pace.
You must be careful, though.
If the pace of the video is much more engaging than your own, resuming the presentation after having played one could cause you to lose your public’s attention.
In any case, if used correctly, videos are definitely a valuable tool to integrate into your virtual presentations.
That’s right, I wrote integrate.
In fact, it is crucial to avoid links from the presentation to external resources, especially during virtual presentations.
The risk that the resource won’t open, or the video won’t start is too high.
Therefore, if you want to use videos in your presentations, it is essential to integrate them within your PowerPoint.
How do I integrate a video into PowerPoint?
First, you need to import it.
It may be on your hard disk, so all you need to do is follow Insert > Video
Or you might want to download it from YouTube, so you could use the YouTube Video button of MLC PowerPoint Add-in.
In any case, always remember to set your videos to auto play so that when you change slides you can be sure that they will start automatically.
To do this go to Playback > Start > Automatically
At this point you might be wondering how to share a video within a video conferencing presentation.
After all, you’re sharing a PowerPoint in screen sharing.
How to do it, then?
When sharing the screen, you have the option of sharing the system sound.
For example, in Microsoft Teams you only need to activate the “Include computer sound” option so that all your guests in the conference can hear your system sound.
On Zoom, you’ll need to check “Share computer sound”.
Recently, the ability to share your system audio was also released on Google Meet, but you can only do so if you share a tab in your browser.
Be careful, though.
With this option you are sharing your system’s audio, which includes whatever sounds your PC makes during the conference.
If you have WhatsApp web or receive notifications with sound, even if these apps are in the background, the noise will disturb your virtual presentation.
So, make sure that you do not get notifications and other sounds that will interfere with your audio and distract your audience.
Breakout rooms – what they are and how they work
Taking interaction to the next level is possible, thanks to this new tool that is catching on and becoming increasingly popular.
But what is a breakout room?
Imagine being able to divide all the participants in your virtual presentation into separate rooms connected to the main conference room.
In each room a part of the participants will be able to interact as if they were in a completely different conference.
You, as the organizer, will be able to enter and exit the rooms through the main room.
Finally, when the time comes, you can call everyone back to the main room.
Brilliant, isn’t it?
Definitely an interesting tool for organizing interactive workshops.
Zoom was definitely a forerunner of breakout rooms.
Recently, however, Microsoft Teams has also integrated this feature at its users’ request.
Break out rooms are a valuable ally in all those circumstances where you need the active collaboration of your audience to co-create results.
Experiment with a few colleagues or friends first before using them during a virtual presentation, as they require some practice.
You’ll see that once you discover them, you won’t be able to live without them.
Designing an effective virtual presentations
We never design presentations for ourselves, we design them for others.
We often make the mistake of designing slides assuming that our audience will enjoy them in the way we think.
Browsing on SlideShare I found a presentation about ICOs.
You do not need to be a blockchain expert to understand the following example, but it’s essential to put your mind to it in order to create an effective design.
Remember, an effective design must always include the message it is conveying – otherwise it’s just a simple layout, anyone can do it!
Let’s go into the details of the example.
This slide was conceived by someone who envisioned how people would benefit from it, but you can clearly see that it does not work.
Do you perceive the feeling of total bewilderment too?
The average user’s visual path will probably not be what the designer of this slide envisioned.
At first glance, their eyes will fall on the explosion-shaped cartoon because it stands out from everything else.
They will notice the number +15,573 and their brain will need to understand its meaning. By the principle of similarity applied to objects of the same color, their eyes will jump to the right yellow bar.
If the eyes read the numbers in the bars there could be a moment of confusion, because the two percentages would not explain the meaning of the number.
From here on out there could be several scenarios that could lead the audience’s eyes from one side of the slide to the other in search of its meaning.
Can you see why this slide is not effective?
If you want to learn how to redesign presentations with technical analysis take a moment to read my guide: Neuro Presentation Design: How Eye Path Control can dramatically improve your presentations.
Now that you’ve read the guide, we can apply the techniques you’ve learned.
What is the key message of this slide?
It is the message contained in the title:
ICOs broke out in 2017. Demand continues to grow with claims of over US$15b raised in the first half of 2018.
Which chart in the slide supports this evidence?
The main chart with 15.573 written big.
What do we need everything else for?
But Maurizio, it adds information.
Exactly!
That’s a lot of other information polluting the slide and diverting attention from the main message.
If the other graphics add important concepts, we’ll handle them later with other slides, but for now let’s focus on the main message.
Remove the parts that are not relevant to the key message.
Keep the graph, its title, sources and footer.
Give space to the graph by extending it from one side of the slide to the other and highlight the growth data mentioned in the title.
To do this, use the same color between the body of text in the title and the growth number in the 2018 bar. Arrows help you draw attention and emphasize growth; they are not just a graphic decoration.
In Lean Presentation Design we don’t decorate presentations – we make them work!
A Lean Presenter focuses on effective communication, let’s leave the art to the artists.
Add data within the bars so that your audience will have no doubts.
The initial slide is dangerous, because it can cause the audience to do some calculations to reconstruct the components of the graph, which will unnecessarily divert their attention.
Give the audience the answers they are looking for right away, without wasting their time. Don’t let the audience look for them on their own, show them the way and don’t lose them, not even for a second.
You can finally add the source, but give it the importance it deserves.
Simplifying your presentation in this way also ensures that you are protected against situations where the presentation is used on the move.
You mean from a smartphone, Maurizio?
Exactly!
How many times have you opened the email from your smartphone, launched the presentation and had a look at it on the go?
The first slide on a smartphone is incomprehensible, but this one you redesigned gets the message across.
Imagine your interlocutor giving the presentation a quick glance from their smartphone and understanding its main messages.
Do you realize the communication power you could have in your hands by designing effective slides?
If you want to be effective, be respectful of the time of the people you are sending your presentation to, and if they give you their time, make sure you make the most of it – they will be grateful for it.
We could deal with the other parts of the slide, but I’ll stop here for now. If you’re curious about how we could have redesigned it, leave me a comment and if there’s any feedback I’ll dedicate a live webinar session where we could do it again together.
Virtual presentations: the ultimate setup
In order to create an effective virtual presentation, it is essential to pay attention to every single detail.
Compared to a live presentation, technology plays a decisive role.
So, if you think your virtual presentations are important, I strongly recommend that you don’t cut corners when it comes to technology.
I’ll summarize my complete setup so that you can compare it with yours and evaluate any upgrades that could significantly affect the quality of your next virtual presentation.
Ecco il mio setup:
- Sceptre Curved 27″ Gaming Monitor
- Dell XPS 13” latest edition
- DELL – USB Keyboard US SK-8115
- Razer Mamba Elite Wired Gaming Mouse
- Apple iPhone come webcam (ma ne parliamo più avanti)
- Apple Airpods
Bonus: how to present your video in large size next to slides in virtual presentations
After writing so much about the importance of your speaking performance during virtual presentation, it is truly absurd to think that you will be reduced to a square much smaller than the slide you will project during your virtual presentation.
Basically, you can’t be seen!
I believe that, sooner or later, videoconferencing software will evolve and give us the ability to choose the size of the slide in relation to that of the speaker.
For the time being, however, we have to settle for what we are given.
Or maybe not?
Actually, I know a little trick.
Look, I’ll show you the result:
To accomplish this, you need to make a small change to PowerPoint and clean up your desktop.
What does the desktop have to do with it, Maurizio?
Don’t be hasty, let’s start with PowerPoint.
You need to set the slideshow mode to be launched in a window rather than full screen.
Now, when you launch your presentation with the F5 shortcut on your keyboard, PowerPoint will present full slides within a window that you can place on the right side of the screen.
On the left, you’ll place the video of yourself using the webcam app you’re filming with.
Specifically, I use EpocCam or iVcam to use my smartphone as a camera.
All that’s left is to share your screen.
That’s right – the screen, not the app.
So, you’ll have to be careful to share your entire screen so that you can see clearly both the app filming you and the PowerPoint window with the presentation.
Now that you see the result, do you realize the importance of having a clean desktop and preferably a black background?
The only problem with this technique is that you have to be ready to sacrifice PowerPoint’s speaker mode, which is not available in this modality.
What to do, then?
If you are well-prepared to the point that you can avoid using the speaker mode, don’t hesitate to enhance yourself with this technique.
If not, it is better to use the speaker mode and enhance the interaction with your presentation.
Conclusions
Virtual presentations are now part of our daily routine. These days, all we do is walk in and out of digital rooms.
In some cases, you listen to other people present, in others it’s your turn.
Delivering an effective virtual presentation requires the ability to control your own performance, an in-depth knowledge of video conferencing and PowerPoint tools, the ability to create effective storylines and to design slides that bring your messages to life.
It’s a lot of different skills and knowledge scattered all over the web, to which you should add hours of field experience.
With this guide I wanted to collect and cover all the key aspects that can radically improve the way you present online.
The topic is challenging and rapidly evolving.
Don’t worry, though.
I’ll take care of keeping this guide updated, and I’ll tell you about it through my monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to by simply downloading this PDF guide.
From now on, you will always have a complete and updated reference point to improve your virtual presentations and make a difference.
The sources that inspired me
Any guide should include, first and foremost, the contributions of all those who have already made significant contributions to the topic.
You can find a lot of material on the Internet about virtual presentations, but my purpose is to provide you with a concise and complete version of everything you need to know to become more effective and efficient.
So, after my guide, I thought I would share with you a summary of the most significant resources that have enriched my experience and allowed me to create this complete guide.
From those who do business in presentation design:
- https://www.duarte.com/virtual-presentation-tips/
- https://www.present-perfect.fr/en/blog/3-tips-to-stand-out-for-your-next-virtual-presentation/
- https://www.presentation-guru.com/top-10-tips-for-creating-an-engaging-virtual-presentation/
- https://visme.co/blog/virtual-presentation/
- https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/training-for-virtual-presentations/
- https://presentationexperts.co.uk/the-ultimate-guide-to-delivering-effective-presentations-online/
Interesting articles:
- https://www.scienceofpeople.com/online-presentation/
- https://tamsenwebster.com/virtual-presentation-checklist/
- Your Body Language On A Videoconference
Universities:
- https://hbr.org/2020/11/yes-virtual-presenting-is-weird
- https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/10-tips-giving-effective-virtual-presentations
Others:
- https://www.dummies.com/careers/business-communication/creating-presentations/preparing-for-a-virtual-presentation/
- https://www.goskills.com/Soft-Skills/Resources/Virtual-presentation
- https://convene.com/catalyst/virtual-presentation-tips/
- https://virtualspeech.com/blog/tips-virtual-presenting
- https://www.inc.com/joe-hirsch/how-to-create-a-powerful-virtual-presentation.html
- https://www.lafabbricadellarealta.com/20-virtual-presentation-tips/
- https://www.aslantraining.com/process-deliver-virtual-presentation-part-1/
Some illustrations were taken from Freepik and modified by MLC Design Team
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