Virtual presentations have become a very familiar part of corporate life in recent years, driven by the rise of hybrid working and teams that are more geographically dispersed. They are convenient and they are efficient, but they are more difficult for the presenter.
The goal of a presentation is to get across a series of key messages to your audience. To do this, you need to hold your audience’s attention. For every presentation, the level of audience attention is highest at the beginning, and then tends to wane naturally over time before increasing again at the very end. The presenter needs to find ways to lift the attention levels on a regular basis, and try and hold them at as high as level as they can.
Even for the most naturally talented communicators, this is not always easy. And it becomes much more challenging when you are trying to do it through a screen, when an audience is faced with the temptation to surreptitiously check emails or browse the internet.
Here are some key top tips for keeping virtual presentations lively, engaging, and increasing the audience’s attention levels.
1 Keep the slides simple and keep them moving
When used badly, slides are one of the biggest attention killers you’ll find. The most common pitfalls are either that there is too much text on the slide, or that confusing graphs or graphics are used. Either way, the result is that your audience stops listening to you and starts focusing on reading/deciphering the slide instead.
What’s better is to keep the text on the slide limited, ensure that any graphs are easy to understand, and look for ways to convey your point through the use of a compelling image. Try not to linger on one slide for too long. Transitioning from one slide to the next is one of those moments when the audience attention can be lifted naturally. In the virtual format, try and make these transitions that bit more frequent.
2 Lift the energy that little bit more
Like anything in life, the more practice and preparation time that goes into a presentation, the better the outcome is likely to be. The reality is that many presenters are dealing with busy workloads, which makes carving out prep time more difficult, but good practice makes a meaningful difference and is very worthwhile. It’s not just about working out what to say, it’s also about working out how to deliver it. Conveying your sincere enthusiasm and passion for the subject matter is half the battle: you need to bring a certain level of energy to the table so as to demonstrate that your presentation is something that people should care about or be interested in. Through the online medium, that extra energy needs to be magnified further to compensate for the format.
3 Interactivity
Interactive elements like polls, Q&A or audience reactions are another useful tool for periodically increasing audience attention, as well as injecting a level of authenticity and spontaneity into your virtual presentation. We encourage clients to use these tools, but careful thought is needed in advance, as to when, how and why a particular tool is being used. Is there a possibility that it could fall flat if you are relying on a certain level of participation that may not be forthcoming? How will you react if that is the case? All of this goes back to the importance of practice and preparation, working through all the eventualities so you are not caught on the hop, and have a plan for how to react if something doesn’t go according to plan.
To learn more about Drury's range of communications services, feel free to contact Gavin McLoughlin via LinkedIn or at gavin.mcloughlin@drury.ie.
