Everyone is doing more and more presentations online, but are you sure that your audience is listening to you? Do they remember what you’re saying?

Make sure that your online presentations are successful and memorable for all the right reasons with my top tips:

  1. Turn your camera on. Many people are afraid of doing this, but it’s the first thing you should do. Even if you are sharing your screen, the participants should be able to see you. As soon as people see you – a real moving and speaking person, they are drawn to look at you and will concentrate more. Be honest, if you’re attending a presentation online and you can’t see the speaker, how much do you really concentrate on what they’re saying?
  2. Look into your camera! It’s tempting to look at yourself, at other people on the screen or at your slides, but if you look into the camera, people feel like you’re really talking to them.
  3. Make it interactive. Use techniques to capture the audience’s attention, like the ones we learn and practise in the “Public speaking in English” training programme. Use online tools such as polls, using the built-in emojis or interactive slides (I like Mentimeter.)
  4. Don’t write sentences on your slides. You may as well just send the other people your slides and avoid the meeting altogether. Write keywords only. You are still your presentation, even online, and your slides are supporting you.
  5. Use notes if you need to. When you’re online it’s easier to use notes because no one will know. Put them in front of your screen just underneath your camera, or stick post-it notes around your computer.
  6. When I say use notes, I don’t mean write out a script and read it! Your voice changes when you do this: it doesn’t sound natural and people can tell that you’re reading. It’s better to make some mistakes but speak naturally than read from a perfectly prepared script.
  7. Your voice is even more important when you’re online as everything comes out flatter. Try videoing yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Practise your using strong sentence stress when you’re presenting in English.

Do you want to know more about presenting on and offline in English? We run two training programmes: Public speaking in English and impactful online presentations, to make sure you feel confident and deliver your message with impact in all your English presentations. We are opening impactful online presentations in webinar format on March 12th 2021. Interested? Click here to find out more. And yes, you can use your CPF!.