Delivering Effective Virtual Presentations

K. Virginia Hemby

• Éditeur: Business Expert Press
• Année: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781631579684
• Sujet: Business
• Sous-sujet: Meetings & Presentations

Delivering Effective Virtual Presentations provides the reader with clear guidelines for creating and delivering webinars, e-meetings, and virtual presentations, including checklists and examples.

In an era where technology and the skills required to navigate its use are deemed innate, people can experience some difficulty in transferring face-to-face skills to the virtual environment when they have not received any training or instruction in that regard. In many cases, books designed to assist in the learning process can be lengthy and cumbersome, rather than the clear, concise, complete, and correct format appreciated by readers.

Delivering Effective Virtual Presentations provides the reader with clear guidelines for creating and delivering webinars, e-meetings, and virtual presentations, including checklists and examples. The concise content of this book will help fill the gap between existing knowledge, skills, and abilities for delivering effective presentations and those necessary for doing so in the virtual environment. This book is a user-friendly guide to prepare college students, employees, supervisors, managers, and executives, to be highly effective virtual presenters.

CHAPTER 1

What Are Virtual Presentations?

In 2011, the American Management Association (AMA) posted an ­article titled “Perfect Your Virtual Presentations.” This article encapsulated an interview conducted by AMA’s podcast program, Edgewise, of Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook. Courville discussed the process for an electronic presentation and how it differs from that of a traditional presentation. In his closing remarks, Courville stated that he was working on a special program on virtual presentations for AMA and that it should launch in August of that same year. He stated, “Increasingly, executives and managers will be asked to use the new technology and deliver virtual presentations. And they will need to perfect the skills this will demand” (AMA Staff 2011).

Fast-forward almost a decade to 2020. Using the browser of your choice, conduct a search at the AMA website for anything related to presentations or building presentation skills, and you find no mention of virtual presentation skills—only traditional presentations. You find reference to virtual teams—leading, coaching, and being a successful member of—and the virtual trainer who delivers live online training. Again, though, no mention of developing skills for a virtual presenter (American Management Association 2019). Review any business communication textbook and you will likely find a mention of preparation required for virtual presentations. However, that mention is often buried in the chapter related to developing effective presentation skills whose content largely focuses on traditional presentations.

What changed? Did the AMA fail to see a definite need for developing virtual presentation skills? Do textbook authors feel that developing traditional presentation skills is more important than the ancillary skills needed for online presentations? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We could hypothesize that most people believe if we learn and develop the basic presentation skills, then those skills can easily be translated to the virtual environment. This same belief often underlies the request of administration to faculty when telling them to create and deliver more online courses and giving them a month to make it happen. “If you can create and teach a course in the traditional environment, then you just simply take that course material and adapt it to the online environment”—always an easier said than done mandate and certainly a process that takes longer than a month.

Before we move forward in our journey toward the goal of creating and delivering effective virtual presentations, we must first explain what we mean by virtual presentation.

The Definition of Virtual Presentations

Defining virtual presentation is not as easy as you might expect. Asking a search engine to find the definition of virtual presentation may result in a list of links that tell you how to create a virtual presentation or that define a virtual event but none of which actually explain what a virtual presentation is. You might suppose that authorities on the subject expect that we can surmise the meaning of virtual presentation from the plethora of examples, software programs, meeting platforms, and conversations about them. However, are they presupposing that we will look at the broad picture or merely discuss them in terms of the definition of a presentation by way of a virtual environment?

For purposes of this book, we will define virtual presentations in the broader sense, as a component of virtual events.

Meetings Today defines a virtual event as “an occurrence of people gathering together where some or all of the attendees are not physically in the same location but are connected in a common environment. The common environment might be one of many types but is usually enabled through the use of computers and the Internet” (Meetings Today 2013).

Virtual presentations occur as part of a virtual event, whether scheduled as a synchronous webinar, a meeting, or a speech and, therefore, must be discussed from that perspective.

As with anything involving speeches and presentations, you will find that those occurring in the virtual environment also have their advantages and disadvantages. In the next portion of this chapter, we will review the benefits and the downsides to virtual presentations.

Benefits of Virtual Presentations

If you look objectively at the advent of virtual presentations, you could say that they began when television became a staple in the home and broadcast networks aired news segments. Individual broadcasters reported the news of the day in real time prompting many to believe that if the viewer watching the news program could see the individual broadcasters live on the air, then those broadcasters could likewise see the viewer. People would dress up to watch television because they believed the individuals on the television programs could see them, the viewers. So, the viewers wanted to look nice for them. At that juncture in our history, we can definitively say that was not the case; however, the advent of virtual platforms, smartphones, and other technologies now make some of that scenario possible.

Those of us of a certain age can remember the television cartoon series, The Jetsons, and the videophone that was introduced in that show. Characters heard the ring of the videophone and saw the caller on the screen. In fact, Jane Jetson was seen talking with her mother via the videophone in the first episode of the series when it aired in 1962 (Novak 2013). You read that correctly—1962. However, the first videophone—outside of fictional television programs—was physically presented to the public at the 1964 New York World’s Fair when Bell Telephone’s Picturephone went on display (Darlin 2014). Despite the hype, the videophone never reached the height of popularity anticipated.

Having traversed more than five decades since that much hyped debut, we know that the videophone in its original design did not survive. However, the idea behind the videophone never disappeared. The concept merely evolved into an embedded application that is part of our smartphones, tablets, and computers (Novak 2013). Today, we use our devices as the conduit for video chatting, meeting, training, and ­presenting—activities the original developers of the Picturephone most likely never imagined.

In fact, if you think of the way meetings, conferences, training, and sales calls were handled a mere two decades ago, you can see how far we have traveled; we can only guess at what the next decades will bring. The first mobile phones were available for sale to consumers in 1994. The first cell phone was created by IBM—dubbed the Simon Personal Communicator—and had a monochrome display, a battery life of 1 hour, and limited features. The cost of the Simon Personal Communicator was $1,100. This phone was used primarily to make phone calls, although it had e-mail capability.

The first iteration of the iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2007. This version of the mobile phone changed the complexion of the industry. Enhanced features were available with the iPhone, including web browsing and searching. Battery life allowed for 8 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby. The cost of the iPhone averaged $499 to $599, depending on the memory size selected by the consumer, a far cry from the cost of the Simon Personal Communicator (Owen 2018).

Between 2007 and 2019, advances in technology led to additional features being added to smartphones, escalated competition among competitors, and a proliferation in the use of smartphones across all demographics. In its 2018 report, the Pew Research Center revealed that
95 percent of Americans owned a smartphone of some type, up from its 2011 initial study findings that showed ownership to be at 35 percent (Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology 2018). The growth in the use of smartphones brought about another advancement—the development of applications designed to work specifically with the phones’ operating systems to allow users to participate in meetings, take online courses, conduct research, play games, read books, maintain a social network presence, manage exercise, and many other activities too numerous to include. These apps and the additional capabilities of advanced smartphones have led to the devices being deemed replacements for computers.

Nonetheless, many still use computers and/or tablets to access virtual events. Companies that created applications for smartphones also have a similar or identical presence on the Internet. Platforms for virtual meetings, webinars, training, and learning can easily be accessed and used. Thus, when planning for virtual events, you must also consider the types of devices that participants may employ for those meetings, presentations, or training sessions.

Now that we have had a brief review of the development of technology and its impact on the proliferation of virtual events, we must delve into the benefits of those events for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.

The benefits of virtual events are extensive, reaching beyond the most obvious—a reduction in travel costs—to the less obvious—the myriad of opportunities available to us because of virtual events.

The following is not an all-inclusive list of benefits for virtual events as we are dealing with continually evolving technologies and platforms. We need to consider only artificial intelligence to hypothesize how the future of virtual events will be further impacted as that technology continues to expand. Therefore, presenting a list of every benefit of virtual events is simply not possible. We can, however, offer an overview of the main benefits.

• •Save costs for both participants and organizers
• •Increase participation in meetings, conferences, and training sessions
• •Complement in-person events
• •Create new value and opportunities to strengthen your brand
• •Track and create custom reports based on the available resources of the platform you choose for your virtual events
• •Access subject matter experts
• •Spend less time traveling—or away from job responsibilities
• •Learn new skills at your own pace
• •Complete just-in-time training

Now that we have examined some of the ways in which virtual events are beneficial, we must consider their disadvantages so that we can provide a balanced view. Knowing the downsides to virtual events can help us to be proactive rather than reactive. We still might experience issues in the virtual environment; but by identifying those difficulties, we can put plans in place to assist us when they arise.

The Downside to Virtual Presentations

My favorite comment often heard when someone is discussing the wonders of technology goes something like the following: Technology is great—when it works. No truer words were ever spoken. Technology has been a boon to many aspects of our lives. However, our dependence on technology has led us to expect it to always work. When technology fails us for whatever reason, we get frustrated.

One of my favorite professors from my doctoral program always told his students to never assume that the technology will work. His philosophy was to be prepared with a backup. Of course, in the dark ages when I attended graduate school, we did not have the types of technology that we see today; but what we did have available to us often caused problems, albeit on a much smaller scale than today’s technology. Nevertheless, we persevered and overcame those little annoyances. In looking at the disadvantages or downsides to virtual presentations, however, problems with the technology can mean that the virtual event cannot take place, it ends early, or it prohibits participants from accessing it. Any type of technical difficulty in the delivery of a virtual event can result in the loss of your audience, and that is something you absolutely wish to avoid.

The following list of disadvantages is not all encompassing. We all know that when technology is involved, we can surmise that additional problems are always just one program or platform iteration away.

Technical Difficulties. We covered some of the concerns about technology and the difficulties inherent in the virtual environment. However, other areas of potential technical problems are outside of your purview and involve the different types of computers, tablets, and/or smartphones participants employ when accessing the virtual event. The unique operating system configurations, connection speeds, Internet browser choices, and software applications can hinder participation or deny access.

Another technical issue over which virtual presenters or facilitators have no control involves potential firewalls. If a participant is attempting to connect to your virtual presentation, webinar, or e-meeting via an employer’s Internet platform, he or she may experience problems because of a corporate firewall. Again, these technical issues are not the fault of the virtual presenter or facilitator. Nevertheless, participants may become frustrated and simply disconnect from the virtual event.

Technical difficulties that virtual presenters or facilitators can control are those that arise from a lack of familiarity with the platform being used for the virtual event or the absence of support personnel to assist with the virtual event (e.g., technology person to manage the platform, person to monitor the chat area for participants’ questions and comments). If you wish to deliver a successful virtual event, you want to familiarize yourself with the platform being used and to rehearse numerous times before the actual event is scheduled to take place. You also want to make sure that you have people in place to handle technology issues that may arise on your end as well as to serve as monitors for the Q&A and/or chat forum.

Body Language Issues. Chapter 3 in this book covers detailed information about nonverbal communication and its role in virtual events. As a disadvantage or downside, though, the inability to see the presenter or facilitator in the virtual environment as clearly (if at all) as you do in the traditional setting means that those nonverbal cues—eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions—are missing. In a traditional presentation, if a presenter pauses for effect, to build suspense, the audience knows what is occurring. In the virtual environment, if that same pause happened, participants would think the presenter lost his or her place or accidentally muted the session. Those nonverbal cues add context to a presentation and help the presenter or facilitator establish credibility with participants. When the nonverbal is missing, the presenter or facilitator must work harder to ensure participants know what is taking place at every point in the virtual event.

Environmental Difficulties. In traditional settings, the presenter generally controls the location, lighting, and seating. Because other individuals are in the room to hear the presentation, peer pressure keeps side conversations a...