These FAQs aim to answer your most pressing questions about developing and conducting a presentation during an online meeting. If you have a question that hasn’t been covered below, please feel free to get in touch.
Question: Does an online meeting need a presentation?
Answer: Absolutely. The best online meetings are those that engage their participants. One way of doing that is through an interesting presentation. It isn’t enough to just direct people to websites; you need to make sure that you are bringing your meeting to life through a good presentation. Since online meetings take place on a computer, it is easy to simply listen to the presenters while working on the background. As a host, this is not what you want from your participants. So you can make sure that you have their full attention by creating a presentation that is interesting, fun and relevant.
Question: Are all presentations PowerPoints?
Answer: No, although PowerPoint is by far the most popular way of creating a presentation for both online and offline meetings.
Online meetings are great, because there is a wealth of materials available online that you can draw from to make your meeting stand out. Use your creativity to break from the Power Point mould and create presentations that use videos, audio, pictures and websites that are all readily available to you at the click of a button. With the variety of online meeting tools that offer screen sharing, you can easily choose all different kinds of media that will help you make your point and keep your presentation engaging. By using screen sharing, participants will not need to download any of the presentation materials or change between websites.
Question: I am not a great public speaker. How can I ensure that my presentation will not be boring?
Answer: There are several tips that you can follow to ensure that your presentation will be interesting, and that you will build rapport with the participants. One of them is to rehearse what you will say before the presentation. By writing it all down and speaking it out loud, you will see if what you will present is too short, or too long. For online meetings, it is always good to aim for something that conveys your message in as little time as possible. This is because the Internet is a medium of urgency, where people’s attention shifts quickly.
Another good idea is to speak enthusiastically, or even in a humorous way, even if it is a dry subject. A good way of doing this is to smile as you talk. Even though the participants may not be able to see it, you will sound happier and more interesting. Do not speak too fast or too slow.
Question: How do I know if the attendees are paying attention to the presentation?
Answer: This is one of the tricky parts of conducting online meetings, since not all tools let you know when participants have minimized the meeting screen. Keep in mind that unfortunately, sometimes even the greatest presentations will lose a participant’s attention as they check their inbox or chat to other colleagues nearby.
A great strategy is to fill the meeting with opportunities for opinion-sharing and collaboration by frequently stopping to take questions from the participants or asking them questions. If there is not enough time for that, you can insert polls throughout the meeting and encourage participation.