Whether presentations are your area of expertise or public speaking sends a shiver down your spine, delivering a deck to a remote audience can be dramatically different than doing so in person.
Over Zoom or related platforms, it can be difficult to determine how to make your presence felt — and it can be tough to deliver points with the same kind of passion that your charisma and dynamic body language would convey in person. Staring at a sea of screens, especially if only some of your attendees’ video streams are turned on, can be daunting, even dispiriting.
And yet, since the pandemic led many tech companies to pivot to virtual work environments, it’s more important than ever to know how to deliver a compelling remote presentation. With that in mind, how can you read the room, and engage your audience, from a distance?
Samantha Bergin has honed this particular skill in her role as 98point 6 Inc.’s chief marketing and communications officer. “Remote presentations require preparation and practice, just like in-person ones,” Bergin said, emphasizing that knowing how to capture listeners’ attention is the secret to any great presenter’s success.
Kara Heinrichs of Convoy Inc. agrees. As senior program manager of leadership development, she’s learned that incorporating the audience into her presentation — in other words, not treating it like a one-way street — makes all the difference. “People are much more likely to stay engaged when they are asked to contribute their ideas, and their comments often make my presentations better,” Heinrichs said.
98point6 is a software startup providing patients with easy access to primary care through an on-demand text-based platform.
What’s your best tip for giving a better, more engaging remote presentation?
Have a good internet connection and test your equipment ahead of time. Check your background before you present. What shows up in the frame? Is it clean and organized? How does your lighting look? Engage the audience. Have them answer questions in chat or via real-time polling. Don’t do this too often, though, or it gets tiring. If using slides, vary them up. If one has bullets, the next should have an image. This helps optimize your presentation in terms of listening versus reading dense content.
We are all in our own unique environments with various distractions; we are together, yet apart.”
What’s the biggest mistake you see people make when giving remote presentations, and what should they be doing instead?
Not engaging the audience in some way. We are all in our own unique environments with various distractions; we are together, yet apart. When presenters don’t engage with the audience, such as posing a question to be answered in chat or incorporating breakout rooms for discussion, it’s too easy to tune out what is happening on the screen and ultimately not get as much value out of what is being presented.
Convoy is a digital freight network that uses technology to connect shippers and carriers across the global transportation industry.
What’s your best tip for giving a better, more engaging remote presentation?
Make solid connections with your audience members and encourage them to make connections with each other. If I have a small group of five to10 people, I try to reference my work with someone specifically in the group whenever possible. I look for opportunities to get my audience’s opinions and feedback throughout the presentation. It will never be a “just sit here and listen to me” situation.
If it’s a larger group of 50 or more participants, I deliver some information, but never more than 10 minutes of content at a time, and then build some questions for people to discuss during a breakout session. This allows people to have a voice and agency as part of my presentation. Ultimately, I’m grateful that audience members have great ideas I may not have thought of, and that they also can make their own connections to my content by drawing on their own experiences.
The biggest mistake I see presenters making in a remote context is that they treat their presentations like they are a one-way dialogue.”
What’s the biggest mistake you see people make when giving remote presentations, and what should they be doing instead?
The biggest mistake I see presenters making in a remote context is that they treat their presentations like they are a one-way dialogue. It’s hard to connect in a remote work environment, but your presentation will be much more likely to make a positive impact if you include people whenever possible during the presentation. Using Zoom polls makes my presentations more engaging, as does asking a question and requesting responses in the chat box. I like to make time to call on a couple of people to discuss their responses at greater length, to reference individuals in my audience by name whenever possible, and to design my presentations so there’s a back-and-forth conversational feel during the presentation, whether that involves pre-designing questions to get opinions or soliciting comments during the presentation.
