We have all been on them, you know the webex where the presenter just drones on and on, flipping from slide to slide or clicking through a demo without ever changing the inflection in their voice. Presenting via webex or any remote tool is tough, as a presenter you are missing the immediate feedback loop that you get when standing in front of an audience just by looking at their faces. When you are presenting via webex you can feel flat as a presenter, I know I did.
That is until my friend Brian Tobia told me what I was doing wrong. “Stand up when you are presenting, and act like you are in front of a live audience.”
Holy cow that is so simple it’s not even funny, so I set to improve the way I present remotely. Here are a few tips that I have found work for me.
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Speaker phone or wireless mic are key. I talk with my hands a lot so holding a phone just doesn’t work this is an easy way to make it feel like I am talking to people who are in the room with me.
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Stand up, Tobia was dead on, I stand and walk around while I present in person why shouldn’t I do the same thing when on webex. This works to increase the energy in your voice and make you more comfortable.
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Use a big display. When I present remotely I leverage Air Play on my apple TV and push the presentation or demo onto the 42” TV in my office so I can feel like I am presenting in a conference room.
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Close the loop, you have to ask questions to make sure the audience is listening and engaged. I do this in person, so it only makes sense that I do this remotely. It works you just have to give them a second to come off of mute and pretend that they are formulating a question 🙂
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Have fun seriously this is true of any presenting but if you are having fun your audience will have fun. Unless you are a funeral director giving a bereaved family their funeral service options you can make jokes and keep the crowd and yourself entertained.
That’s it pretty simple it’s like dodgeball, if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball, except in this case if you can treat it like an in person presentation you can make your webex more engaging.
What are your tips for presenting remotely?