How to give a presentation at a virtual meeting

As technology improves and travel budgets decrease, virtual meetings have become almost the norm, especially for younger generations who use this type of technology in their daily lives anyway. If you have a virtual meeting coming up and need to give a presentation, here are our top tips for giving a virtual meeting presentation.

Virtual meeting Tip #1 – Make sure the technology works!

According to the Productivity at the Office report by Jabra (2015): “Over half (51 percent) of respondents agree that meetings without direction or a clear agenda lead to wasted meeting time, 32 percent cite lack of decision-making, 31 percent cite lack of follow-up, 26 percent a lack of preparation and 25 percent the effect of latecomers.”

In a conference call situation specifically, the survey says: “some of the most annoying issues are due to sound, whether not being able to hear people’s voices, irrelevant background noise, connection issues, overall audio quality or not knowing if speakerphones are working as intended.”

Virtual meeting tip #2 – Make conference calls engaging!

Conference calls or video calls need an extra special effort to be engaging and easy to listen to because you have no (or less) body language to help your message be understood.

• Make it a two-way conversation – ask for hands up or comments in the dialogue
• Use tag questions (more about that in Dee Clayton’s book, “High-Performance Presentations – Public Speaking Tips & Presentation Skills to Engage, Persuade and Inspire!”) because tag questions work. Don’t they?
• Quickly communicate WHY people should want to listen (not flick through their inbox)

Virtual meeting tip #3 – Have a clear structure

Use the Simply Amazing Structure (SAS) to guide your call content, otherwise, it’s easy for the listener to get lost. You may benefit from breaking your SAS into even smaller chunks than you would with a face-to-face meeting. Try not to cover too much in one call. As you come to the end, ensure people have committed to their action/deadlines rather than assuming they have, and when you are fielding questions having a helper to group any questions that are sent in while you answer others is useful.

For more tips and techniques on making conference calls effective and engaging, and for ideas on where specifically your “Presenter Personality Style” could improve in the context of  virtual meeting presentations, discover more about our tailored one to one presentation skills mentoring, or read “High-Performance Presentations – Public Speaking Tips & Presentation Skills to Engage, Persuade and Inspire!” by Dee Clayton or contact us today!

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