Home office: This is how the presentation also works in a video call

To protect against the corona virus, many work in the home office. Meetings and presentations therefore often only take place digitally.

In video calls or presentations via Zoom, Teams and Co., the speaker moves into the background and it is more difficult to interact with the audience.

Presentation professional Jonas Keller explains how your presentation can also be a success online.

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In times of social distancing and home office, video calls have become part of our everyday work. To protect against the corona virus, most meetings are now held digitally. We even meet in front of the computer for the Christmas party. For many, this takes getting used to – and not easy.

Not only conferences, but also presentations now run online. Conveying information in an interesting way is extremely important in everyday work – even when the audience is sitting in front of the screen and not in the same room. Being able to speak well in front of an audience often decides how eloquent and intelligent an employee appears to his customers, colleagues and bosses.

“Terribly boring lectures and meetings are unfortunately still sad everyday life,” says Jonas Keller in an interview with Business Insider. He is the head of the presentation agency Explain. Its main business is developing concepts that will help others present their ideas better. The agency conceives content, designs slides and coaches the speakers. In the meantime, companies like Adidas and Deutsche Bahn are among Keller’s customers.

Virtual meetings create distance

In the corona pandemic, says Keller, his job has become even more exciting. It was clear relatively quickly that communication was shifting to the virtual. “We wanted to find solutions for this,” said the CEO. The main problem lies in the distance created by purely virtual meetings. The presenter shares his Power Point slides on his screen and thus takes a back seat. He and his colleagues only see each other as little avatars. “That creates a barrier,” explains Keller. With the help of software, the agency has therefore developed a solution in which the speaker not only appears as a small avatar, but is integrated into the presentation.

Nevertheless, it is easy to lose momentum in an online presentation. If the listener is in the same room, the presenter can quickly respond to the mood of his audience and include it. This is more difficult in a virtual meeting. The speaker often does not see his audience – and so cannot assess how they will react to his presentation.

The inhibition threshold to deal with something else during a zoom call is significantly lower than when the presenter is standing in front of you – especially when the cameras are off. “The speaker doesn’t know what the other person is doing,” says Keller. That is why the challenge of actually delivering in an online presentation is significantly higher.

Meeting etiquette and check-in

But how do you keep your audience happy virtually? The first step is to implement meeting etiquette. So lay down rules in advance how a virtual conversation or presentation should run. Keller, for example, asked his audience at every lecture to turn on the camera at least to greet them so that he could get an impression of his audience. “The direct feedback from the audience is incredibly important,” he says.

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Because there is no personal contact in the virtual meeting, you should establish a connection with the audience at an early stage. You can do this with a good check-in. Keller advises joining an online conference a few minutes before the agreed time. Start a quick chat with your colleagues or customers as soon as they get around to it. “A little small talk at the beginning activates the audience,” says Keller.

Tell a story

A good presentation stands or falls with its content. You should therefore ask yourself exactly with which topic you want to address whom. Who is the target group? And what is the meaning of what you want to convey. “In the best case scenario, the presenter solves a problem,” says Keller. Think about good storytelling and find a good mix of facts and other stylistic devices such as metaphors.

The software used, such as Power Point, should only support you. Continuous text on the slides, which the presenter simply reads aloud, bores any audience – whether analog or virtual. With good infographics or diagrams, however, you can visualize your core messages well. Pay attention to a beautiful and above all clear design.

Small tasks integrate the audience

Include your audience in your presentation. You can also do it virtually. Keep asking questions or even small tasks in between. In this way you encourage them to think along. In many lectures there are passages that can be replaced with a small quiz. For example, have the audience guess numbers before showing the graph. Or you give three guidelines on a slide and let the audience vote briefly which solution might be the right one. A short physical activity will wake up tired listeners. It is enough to ask everyone to get up briefly.

Present at eye level

Find the right angle for your presentation. Nobody likes to listen to someone who looks out of the picture. “It’s not easy,” says Keller. With a few tricks, you can also communicate virtually with your counterpart at eye level. It helps not to sit down. Nobody would give a lecture at a face-to-face meeting. Make sure that the webcam is at eye level. Put a few books under the laptop if necessary. So that you can look directly into the camera, you can slide your notes on the desktop directly underneath, advises Keller. “Then nothing more can actually happen,” he says.

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