How to Present Over Video Conference
This article appears as an appendix in The Storyteller’s Spellbook available on Amazon (link at the end of the article). Updated and amplified because current pandemic work conditions require it.
Presentation skills are my thing. I study them. I practice them. I teach them to others. The most challenging place to practice any of them is over audio or video conference calls. This article is about how to deliver such a presentation with memorable skill.
Understand that remote audience is different than a live one and it makes it much harder to engage with them. I’ve been part of remote audiences and I’ve never enjoyed it. Generally, I will listen for a while, giving the speaker a chance, and then pull out my laptop and get some work done. Since the speaker can’t see me, I am even more inclined to ignore him. Moreover, I think there is psychology affecting speakers that compounds this divide, one that holds us back. The inability to see an audience and gauge their reaction and response to what you are saying makes it especially hard to connect with them.
Most speakers don’t handle remote presentations well and become even more monotone and less animated than in real life. So, the result is that the most challenging presentation circumstances are compounded by speakers being worse than usual. No wonder we’re not going out of our way to be on either end of a video presentation. But thanks to the coronavirus, we have no choice but to figure this out.
A presentation is a presentation
For starters, a video presentation has all the needs and requires all the same skills that an in-person presentation requires. It’s about:
1. What you say.
2. How you say it.
3. What you do while you are saying it.
Now for a video call, these things differ in very subtle ways. But they are important ways and you can make or break a remote presentation by the way you handle each one. Let’s take them individually.
What you say
The words you choose for a video call are even more important than the words you choose for an in-person presentation. Particularly when the call is audio-only, words are pretty much all you have. You are going to want to dote over them and fuss about the details all that much more. This means spells like Profundity, Repetition and Summon Authority (see The Storyteller’s Spellbook) are really important because they focus exclusively on the words you say.
If it sounds like the stakes are higher, well that’s because they are. You can’t afford to get the words wrong. You can’t afford to stumble over them. Remember, your audience can’t see you moving around and your words are harder to support with a prop or some grand gesture. Your words are quite literally a proxy for you. They need to be right.
Fortunately, since the audience is remote, you can make heavier use of cue cards, notes and scripts than you can in-person. No one is going to see you reading from your notes. Take advantage of that. Print your outline (take care not to rustle the pages when you handle them). Have your tablet or laptop at the ready (tablet preferred, keyboards make more noise). List all the points you want to make. Video gives you enough privacy to ensure that you have the organization to nail your message completely.
So, in a nutshell, work harder on your message. Make it clear and concise. Spend more time wordsmithing than you ordinarily would. Organize your notes and then deliver your message with power.
Which brings us to the next point. Once you have the right words, it’s time to ensure a good delivery.
How you say it
A deadpan, monotone, boring delivery has no place in any presentation. But, for video, where your voice is your only weapon, it is a total deal-killer. Remember, you can’t see them walk out. Bore them and they will.
A remote presentation ups the ante on your voice inflection, enunciation, pace and cadence. So, here’s my advice.
Take the notes you develop in the ‘what you say’ section and color code them with intonation needs. Italicize the words you intend to emphasize using a different voice cadence. Bold the words you intend to raise your voice on. Use … a … notation … that … reminds … you … to … speak … slower.
You basically have several tools you need to consider using:
Volume. Speak louder to emphasize a crucial point, softer to underscore a subtle one. Realize that you don’t have to actually raise your voice, you can just lean into the microphone.
Pace. Speak faster to convey excitement, slower for clarity, conspiracy or passing along a secret.
Cadence. Don’t speak in a monotone voice. Mix up voice inflection sentence to sentence and, for really important sentences, word to word. Take care not to overuse this embellishment though. Save it for the important stuff.
Pauses. Pause before and/or after an important point to let it sink in. Otherwise, don’t use this oratory effect because the audience may think they lost the connection. It’s important that they recognize the pause as a signal to anticipate what you are about to say next.
You must remember to mix it up. Over-reliance on any of these individually will reduce their effectiveness. That’s why I notate my script as described above. It gives me a chance to spread the vocal changes around a little more evenly.
But whatever you do, make sure it sounds like you. Don’t use so many flourishes that you sound like David Attenborough. Although, he is one hell of a lesson in voice command and control. Sheer perfection even. But you and I are not him.
What to do while saying it
Now we get to the biggest handicap you have while using video. On audio-only calls, you aren’t going to have a great deal to do except talk into the microphone. Even on video calls, you are unlikely to have the same range of motion you have in-person. In general, my video presentations require me to sit within a couple of feet of my laptop’s camera and microphone. Not a lot of room for choreography! So, no dancing around the stage. No moving in and out of the audience. No eye contact or audience participation. All those things I talk about for live presentations aren’t tools you can deploy over video.
Still, there are a few things you can do. First, place the camera at exactly eye level. This is the best way to simulate direct eye contact. No one wants to look up your nose and you don’t want to look down on them. Don’t mess this up, thank you.
Second, the self-image pop-out screen should be put directly beneath the camera. You know you can’t stop glancing at it, so put it somewhere that doesn’t require you to keep gazing away from the audience. It’s rude to do that in person so don’t do it over video.
Third, think about the audience’s field of view. Study the image of yourself to understand how far to the left and the right of you the audience can see. If in doubt, assume is it no more than a foot or so in either direction.
Finally, pay some attention to the background behind you. I do not recommend artificial backgrounds of the grand canyon or the northern lights. They are too distracting for the audience and often cause rendering issues, especially for people with more hair than I have. Plus, they are fake and people know it, leaving them to wonder what shitty home environment you are hiding from them. They do nothing to represent you or your personal tastes. Instead, pick a cool nook in your home that shows a little bit of your personality. I like to use my booze cellar and my music room. They are interesting and not so busy that they distract attention from me as the speaker.
Now you have a location and range of motion that you can work with. Here are some ideas to use it to good effect:
- You generally have only your head and your hands in view of the camera. So, gestures like think (tapping your temple with your finger), meh (shrugging your shoulders), surprise (placing both hands on your cheeks) and pay attention (two fingers to the eyes) and others of this genre are all you really have access to. Still, there is a lot of room to be creative here.
- Move closer to the camera when you are making an important point. Your face will grow larger and your voice will be naturally louder as you move closer to the mic. This visual effect of taking up more of their screen will help draw their attention and emphasize your point.
- Sit back further from the screen if you need to use hand gestures. Sitting back increases the audiences’ field of view so they can see your hands.
- Sit back too if you need to wax philosophical or at the beginning of a long series of points you want to make. It’s a subtle way of informing the audience to settle in. It also gives you a chance to lean forward to emphasize a specific point you want to make.
Remember too that lack of any gesture is itself a gesture. Too much movement will seem like you are nervous and fidgety. Sometimes a still, sober monolog is itself a gesture that can grab attention as well as any specific movement.
And finally
Now you have some tools that will support your next video presentation. Experiment with them and mix and match until you’ve found the ones that work for you and support your own unique personality and style. Remember to ask the attendees to mute their mics and, if you want, ask them to interact with you in the chat window. You can always ignore it or peruse it quickly to understand whether you are getting through. It gives me a burst of energy to see “this is an amazing talk!” here and there in the chat window while I am speaking.
Remember, the inability to see and hear your audience is disconcerting but it doesn’t mean you should give up. There are much bigger audiences in the wide world that you will not have local access to. Getting good at video presentations means expanding your audience and increasing your influence. You want this. If it helps, imagine your audience loving your talk. Imagine them hanging on every word. This will increase your confidence while you are presenting and will also serve as your ultimate goal: just because you can’t see your audience doesn’t mean you can’t blow their freakin’ minds.
Want more storytelling advice? https://www.amazon.com/Storytellers-Spellbook-compelling-career-magical/dp/1546393706.
