tips for giving online presentations

How to Give a Great Online Presentation: 11 Pro Tips

Giving a presentation online is much more difficult than presenting in front of a live audience.

People get distracted easily. You can’t read the room. Often, you can’t even see your audience.

Because of this, it’s hard to engage and captivate your participants.

Hard, indeed. But not impossible.

I put together these 11 tips that will help you turn your online presentation from good to great.

And don’t just take my word for it.

Among these tips, you’ll also find the wisdom of  Nathan Gold , high-stakes presentation coach, and seasoned keynote speaker, and Gibson Biddle , former VP of Product at Netflix, now a teacher, speaker, and workshop host.

Ready to take your online presentation to the next level?

#1. Cut the number of your slides and simplify them

Don’t overwhelm your online audience with too many slides or they may easily zone out. In case you have more material, consider splitting the presentation into two sessions.

Also, make your slides minimalistic. One idea, one quote, or one number per slide is ideal. This will make the information more digestible and draw attention to what you’re saying instead of forcing people to read.

#2. Use the rule of three

A good structure helps people follow your story and understand your presented content better. Gibson Biddle recommends following the rule of three because:

• 3 items are easy to remember
• They help you minimize your text
• 3 chapters provide guideposts for the content of your presentation

The rule of three will help you hold the message of your talk together nicely.

Apply it in the design of your slides (3 bullet points a slide), or use it to structure your whole presentation (three main takeaways).

#3. Fail to rehearse at your own peril

Improvisation has a certain appeal, for sure. But don’t leave your online presentation to a chance. Take your time and rehearse your talk well. Otherwise, your online gig might come across as unprofessional and messy.

I usually give as much as one hour of rehearsal time for every minute of my talk before any large presentation that I give.

Nathan Gold goes even beyond that. In this webinar, he says that whenever he trains TED and TEDx speakers, he asks them to commit to around two hours of out-loud practice for every minute of their talk.

Of course, the length and intensity of your preparation is entirely up to you. What’s important is that you’re confident about how you’re prepared. At least, though, run through your slides and content about an hour before your talk and rehearse your opening well so that you start strong.

#4. Start with a strong hook

Speaking of starting strong. Captivate your audience right from the start of your presentation. Open your talk with a powerful statement, story, thought-provoking question, or an eye-opening number.

See our new vlog below where I share 5 types of hooks to open your presentation with.

Another great practice is to actively involve your audience in your talk right from the beginning. Let the tech aid you there.

In his webinar on how to captivate an online audience, Nathan Gold kicked things off with an interactive word cloud : Using one word, describe how you feel about presenting online.

This way, he learned something more about his audience and was able to address their concerns throughout his presentation.

To make it more impactful, he repeated the same word cloud at the end of his webinar to see how his participants’ feelings changed after his presentation. The result was remarkable. Watch it here at 31:30 .

#5. Quiz your audience

A quiz is another brilliant way to start (or finish) your online presentation. Running a quiz is fun for your participants and allows you to connect and “talk” with your audience even if you can’t see them.

Prepare a short, four to six-question quiz on the topic of your presentation and let your participants guess away. You can even motivate your audience to participate by giving away some small treats for the winners.

Tools such as Slido allow you to create your online quiz in a couple of minutes and run it during your online speech, webinar, or workshop.

Read also: Step-by-Step Guide for Hosting a Great Online Quiz

#6. Use a backdrop or a virtual background

Even if the situation forces you to give your presentation from your home, avoid letting your audience peek into your kitchen or living room. You will appear much more professional against a plain wall or a special backdrop that you can install easily in your room.

If your video conferencing tool allows you to set up a virtual background (such as Zoom ), choose one that’s pleasing but not disturbing for your audience to look at.

Canva put together an awesome virtual background library, you can pick one from here .

#7. Position your web camera at eye-level

Even if you can’t always see your audience, that doesn’t mean you can’t be looking them in the eyes.

Nathan Gold advises moving your laptop/phone camera up so it’s approximately your eye level. This way, it will appear as if you’re looking right at your audience which feels much more natural.

You can also play around with tripods and stands to achieve the most comfortable position for you. For example, Nathan has his web camera mounted on a tripod in front of his computer screen which allows him to look at his slides while still being glued to the camera.

#8. Prepare secret notes

Here’s another great hack from Nathan Gold that will help you keep an eye-contact with your online audience.

If you want to keep notes to remind you about some important things you want to mention during your presentation, write them down on sticky notes and stick them behind your camera, close enough for you to read through them comfortably.

This way, your audience won’t even notice that you’re glancing at your notes (as opposed to looking down when reading from your notebook).

#9. Keep engaging with your participants

Throughout your presentation, space out several interaction points that will bring your attendees back in case they tuned out. Take inspiration from Gibson Biddle who likes to break the dynamic of his webinars and workshops by asking his audience questions through live polls .

Live polls offer you a great chance to open a conversation with your audience, get their instant feedback on your presented material, and collect their opinions.

Since people tend to lose attention when attending a presentation online, re-engaging them throughout your talk is even more important. When I present online, I space out live polls every about 5-7 minutes, as opposed to every 7-10 minutes in the live setting.

Another great way to interact with your audience is to let them ask you questions. Collect your participants’ questions using Slido Q&A and then answer their questions at the end of your online presentation.

#10. Have a wrap-up slide to summarize your points

By the end of your presentation, conclude your talk by summing up all the important messages and key lessons on a separate slide. You’ll draw the full circle and your audience will get a nice overview of what they learned.

Or, end your presentation with a call to action or a tangible next step for your audience to do. Encourage your participants to try practices that you shared, provide actionable steps they should follow, and share ways for them to keep in touch with you.

#11. Ask for feedback

Feedback is the best gift your attendees can give you in return for the learnings that you shared throughout your talk. Without it, you don’t know what your audience liked or disliked. In other words, you can’t improve.

Create a simple feedback survey and ask your participants to fill it out at the end of your talk.

Make it easy for your audience to participate in the survey. For example, during his webinar, Gibson had a QR code displayed on the screen and described in detail how the participants should scan the code and take the survey.

The feedback form can be really simple – three questions will do.

Try something like:

• On a scale of 1-10, how did you like this presentation? (Rating)
• What is the one thing that you liked about today’s talk? (Open text)
• What’s the one thing that could have been better? (Open text)

To sum it all up

I hope that by now you’re more confident about presenting online and that the above tips will make you a better online speaker.

See how Slido can help you make your next online talk more engaging for your audience. Try live polls, quizzes, or Q&A and take your online presentation from good to truly great.

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10 Tips For Giving Effective Virtual Presentations

What to know before you go live.

September 26, 2016

Presenting online? Try these suggestions to improve your results. | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

As audiences go global and you need to reach more people through technology (including webinars, conference calls and teleconference), you must consider the challenges to connecting with a virtual audience. Here I pinpoint 10 valuable best practices to ensure you communicate successfully.

1. Be Brief

Audiences begin to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter. If you have more than 10 minutes of content, use interactive activities to keep your audience engaged (for example, take a poll, give quizzes, or ask audience members for their opinions via chat).

2. Be Simple

Keep slides simple — avoid too many words, graphics and animation features. Less is definitely more!

Light yourself well | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

3. Be a TV Personality

Look straight into your camera, not the screen. Wear clothing that is neutral in color (no plaids or stripes). Light yourself well and from above. Be mindful of what appears behind you in the background. Invest in a good microphone.

4. Be Standing

Even though your audience cannot see you, stand when you present. This allows you to stay focused and use good presentation delivery skills such as belly breathing, vocal variety, and pausing.

5. Be Prepared

Practice delivering your presentation with your technology in advance of your talk. Make sure all of the features of the technology work. Record your practice using the recording feature of your tool. Watch and listen to learn what works and what you can improve.

6. Be Assisted

Have someone available to deal with technical issues and to field email/text questions. Also, if you have multiple remote audience members in one location, be sure to pick one of them to be your “eyes and ears.” Ask them to queue up questions and facilitate discussion on your behalf.

7. Be Specific

Ask pointed questions to avoid too many people answering at once. For example, rather than ask, “Are there any questions?” try “Who has a question about the solution I provided?” Set a ground rule that people state their names prior to speaking.

Imagine your audience | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

8. Be Synchronized

Transitions are critical. You must connect what you just said to what is coming next when you move from point to point. Transitions between topics and slides are good opportunities to get people reengaged to your talk.

9. Be Connected

Imagine your audience even though you can’t see them. You can place pictures of audience members behind your camera so you can look at people as you present.

10. Be Early

Encourage your audience to access your call or webinar in advance of the start time so you can iron out any technical issues in advance and get them familiar with the technology.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

Explore More

Communicating through conflict: how to get along with anyone, power, culture, persuasion, and the self: communication insights from stanford gsb faculty, lose yourself: the secret to finding flow and being fully present, editor’s picks.

April 04, 2016 A Big Data Approach to Public Speaking Key takeaways from analyzing 100,000 presentations.

November 19, 2014 Matt Abrahams: The Power of the Paraphrase An expert on public speaking shows how paraphrasing can help you navigate tricky communication situations.

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12 Tips to Give an Amazing Online Presentation

Whether you’re new to giving online presentations or a seasoned veteran, here are some tips that will launch your next presentation into the stratosphere!

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Do you have an online presentation coming up? I’ve given hundreds of virtual presentations, ranging from YouTube presentations to presentations for Microsoft. And from my experience, online presentations are a different ballgame than in-person ones.

In this article, I’ll share my top 12 tips and tricks to save you the trouble and ace your next presentation.

An online presentation is a prepared speech or talk in which a person or group provides information, pitches a new idea, or introduces a new product or service through a video call. Online presentations are given to an audience, usually in a business setting.

Ready to take a dive into the tips? Let’s go!

Start With Momentum

Virtual presentations are like taking a flight on an airplane. The beginning and ending are super important, but the middle’s kind of a blur. 

That’s why, if you’re going to prioritize any part of your presentation, you are better off spending the majority of your energy on the first and last minutes. Let’s focus on the first moments.

The beginning of your presentation is critical because it sets the tone—a good first impression makes you feel confident and your audience relaxed. This forward momentum will carry onto the middle part of your presentation where you’ll be presenting the bulk of your data/statistics/information—so if you don’t nail your first impression, you won’t gain that forward momentum you need for the rest of your presentation.

And believe me, people judge you almost instantly! Here’s what the science has to say about first impressions:

A 2017 University of Toronto study found that observers take as little as 5 seconds to determine whether a person is charismatic or not!

So when you’re delivering a presentation online, you should try to make your beginning as error-free and smooth as possible. This includes being prepared and removing potential roadblocks:

• Fix computer errors: ALWAYS double- or triple-check your equipment before giving a virtual presentation. Make sure your microphone, webcam, and internet is working. If you have to fumble around with technical details during the video call, your audience may have the impression that you are unreliable.
• Eliminate distractions: Silence your phone, turn off desktop notifications, get rid of loud fan noises, and make sure your room is kid/dog free. Keep in mind that your audience will likely be listening through their headphones, so even the tiniest of noises might be heard.
• Dress appropriately: Here’s an easy one that some people actually neglect. Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you should have worn something a little nicer ? If you are giving a business presentation, dress in business appropriate attire (yes, even the pants, too!). It’s best to match your audience—and if in doubt, err on the side of professional! It’s also important to wear a color to stand out from your background, but not a color that’s too distracting.
• Be happy: Like it or not, we can’t hide our emotions. Research shows that people can hear your mood from your voice. So if you’re not in a good mood, try boosting it! Watch some funny YouTube videos or give yourself a small pep talk . Sounding confident and happy is the key to success, so make sure you are in the right mood before you go live.

Open With IISSAAQQ

What does this really bad spelling of Isaac stand for? IISSAAQQ stands for the best ways to start an online presentation:

• Icebreaker: One of the best ways to open up your audience is to give a virtual icebreaker. I always keep an icebreaker on hand that can be done over the computer before starting any online presentation—it’s one of the best ways to connect with your audience!
• Illustration: You can say to the audience “Remember when…” and provide a picture, or paint a scene by telling the audience to imagine a scene when xyzzy occurred.
• Short story: A short personal story or story about someone else can really grip people, but the key is to make it short and not drag on.
• Statistic or surprising fact: A really good statistic can get people thinking and challenge their perspective.
• Aphorism: An aphorism is a common phrase or saying, such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Add a twist to the aphorism for added effect (“an apple a day keeps the doctor away… except if you’re sitting with an apple computer for 8 hours a day.”
• Analogy or metaphor: Saying an analogy (“User interface is like peeling an onion”) can really break down complex terms into more simpler ones, making it more digestible for your audience.
• Question: Starting with an engaging question can add a great amount of audience engagement, or even asking a rhetorical question can get them thinking out-of-the-box.
• Quote: A great way to start your online presentation is with a quote–but it should be related to your presentation and from a credible source.

End With a Bang

The ending is the part where your audience is (hopefully) happy that the presentation is over, and they feel like they’ve learned something or feel inspired to change. If you’ve made it this far in your presentation, the LAST thing you want to do is crash and burn. So here are some tips to make an amazing presentation that will remain in your audience’s mind long after it has ended.

• Have an easy solution: The last few slides of your presentation should not be too information-heavy. Keep that for the middle. Your last slides should be both convincing and easy-to-understand.
• Have a clear ending: Avoid the awkward “So, does anyone have any questions?” moment by providing an end slide to your virtual presentation. It can be a simple recap of the presentation, or a call to action.
• Include a digital goodie: Include a digital goodie at the end! Everybody loves getting things, and it shouldn’t stop just because you are online. Digital goodies might include a downloadable PDF or document that includes more statistics/research or a list of relevant sources related to your presentation.
• Lead with a call to action: Calls to action are driven by emotion. And they work because we often respond to emotion over logic. If your business is proposing a new solution to an existing problem, try focusing on the emotional benefits vs. the statistics—happier customers vs. less product returns, cleaner world vs. smaller carbon footprint, etc. You can also try this double method: start with the negative, which amplifies the potential bad that might happen if your recommendation is not taken. Then, you can add in the positive, which highlights the good that can happen when your recommendation is taken.
• End with humor: One of the best ways to end a presentation is to use humor. If you do it right, you can leave a HUGE impression on your audience that will last for days, weeks, or months! There are a few ways to end with humor. First, you can introduce a question in the beginning or middle of your presentation and answer it in a funny, surprising way at the end. Second, you can end a story you started but stopped in the beginning or middle of the presentation. Some really good people to draw inspiration from are stand-up comedians. One great example of callback humor is in the movie, Airplane! In the beginning of a movie, a passenger enters a taxi. The driver tells the passenger to wait for a bit, but the driver never comes back as he ends up on an airplane instead. In the closing credits, this scene is played, which recalls the intro of the movie in a funny but memorable way:

Show Your Face

Did you know that faces are attractive to humans? A study by Richard Fantz demonstrated that infants stare twice as long at human faces! We are just inherently born with an attraction to faces. In short: we love human faces, and yours is no exception.

If you’re giving an online presentation or even getting on video call for the first time with your new online networking contact, a super-easy bump in your likability factor is to simply show your face. Many video call programs such as Zoom or Skype allow you to share your screen while also showing your face. Here’s an example of my face in a webinar I hosted on how to thrive in a digital workplace:

Pro tip: you can even take it up a notch by backing up your webcam. This allows you to show your body language better! In fact, one of the most important nonverbal cues for charisma is your hand gestures . In the Toronto study mentioned earlier, the observers didn’t even need to hear a presenter talking; all they needed to do was see their body language! That’s how powerful body language really is. So push back your computer or phone or camera so your hands and upper torso are showing!

When you use your hands, you can also benefit from the following:

• Showing your wave hello (I ALWAYS do this!)
• Your explanatory gestures while you are speaking
• Visible hands while you are listening

Want more tips on how to make a better video call? Here are our 15 Tips for a Better Video Call !

Stand, Don’t Sit

Sitting is great. Standing is even better! One big mistake a lot of virtual presenters make is sitting down instead of standing. 

When you stand, you can utilize the full range of your deep breathing, therefore increasing your vocal power . You’ll be able to project your voice louder and deeper, and have stronger vocal variance when you stand. Standing also helps you naturally convey a more powerful posture if your chest is up and your back is straight.

If you can, try to utilize a standing desk to your advantage! If you don’t have a standing desk, you can use your kitchen counter or another higher position to place your laptop. If you absolutely must sit, remember to keep your back straight throughout the presentation.

Does your online presentation contain a juicy tip, great piece of advice, or free goodie?

Consider giving it out in the first 5 minutes of your presentation rather than keeping it until the end. This will give your audience a little dopamine boost of motivation to continue listening to your presentation!

“Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first.“ – Robert Cialdini, author of Influence

Leverage Visuals to Your Advantage

Have you ever wondered what is the best way to use visuals in your online presentation? Visual aids are used to:

• engage the audience
• allow the audience to remember the information
• axplain complex ideas in easier-to-digest ways
• add variety to your slides

I try to use visuals in ALL of my online presentations! The thing is, it’s really hard to keep your audience engaged and distraction free, especially if they are online. So if you’re boring your audience by using long lists of words… your message won’t be getting across. According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules :

• If we only read text, we are only likely to remember 10% of the information 3 days later.
• If we add in a relevant image, we are likely to remember 65% of the information 3 days later!

So there’s no easier way to have your information remembered than to add visuals! Here are some examples of visuals you can use in your presentations:

• stock photos
• Youtube videos
• hand-drawn pictures

In my articles, I like to use hand-drawn stick figure comics. That’s because they’re both funny and engaging! They also help nail down important bits of information I want my readers to take away. 

For example, here’s a random fact that you may not have known:

Alligators don’t only eat meat; they eat fruit, too!

Interesting, right? Now here’s an image to really drive in that fact:

I know, it’s not the best picture ever (I blame my lack of art skills!). But see how adding a simple image can really solidify a piece of information? You’ll remember this fact a lot longer by seeing an image rather than just by reading or hearing it. 

Now take the power of visuals and use it to your advantage—if you’re giving a business presentation online, sprinkling in a few key visuals throughout your presentation can help you drive in those really important points. 

If you’re debating whether you should use a visual, here’s a quick checklist to ask yourself:

• Does my visual help the main point of the slide?
• Is my visual appropriate for the audience?
• Is my visual too distracting?
• Does my visual help the audience understand complex information better?
• If a video, is it too long or short?

If your visual doesn’t meet one of the above checklist items, it’s best to cut it. And here’s something important you can write down for each visual you add into your slide:

The purpose for this visual is to ___.

If the purpose is not clear enough, consider removing the visual. Remember: visuals should only ADD value to your slide, not take it away.                                                                           

Add Interaction

A major downside to online presentations is that it’s hard to engage your audience. Besides nicely-placed visuals, you can add an element of interaction to your virtual presentations to make your audience more interested. Here are some interactive presentation ideas:

A great way to increase audience engagement is to use physical props. 

How do you use props in an online presentation? Props should be used to explain a difficult concept, demonstrate a product, create humor, or be memorable. They should always support your presentation, and not distract from it. And the key to using online props is to first make sure that people can actually SEE your prop.

This means if you are in a video call, avoid using small objects that everyone can’t see. If you need to, you can momentarily stop screen sharing and turn to your live video feed so the audience can focus on your prop. 

Pro tip: Don’t show the prop until it is needed. A bad move is to give away the goods and immediately take them away, causing your audience to remain in suspense and be distracted throughout your presentation!

Host Quizzes and Polls

One cool thing you could do during your presentation is to include your audience’s opinions using surveys. If I’m giving a presentation, I can insert a little quiz with a list of possible answers which my audience can then vote on. It’s really interesting to see how many people pick the right (or wrong) answer!

If you want to know how to create awesome quizzes for your presentation, check out our software section below.

Live Q&A’s

One technique I love to use for better interaction is to simply ask questions!

For example, if you have an existing product you are discussing, you might want to ask your team, “What are some common customer complaints about this item?” Your team will then give their answers, pitching ideas of some common customer complaints.

Here’s where it gets good…

You can then go to the next slide that addresses these problems individually. Bam! You’ve done two things: 

• You added interaction, and 
• You provided a nice transition to the next slide. 

Niiiice, a two-for-one combo!                

Cut the Presentation Bologna

What happens when you talk about the same things over and over again in a presentation? One bored audience, that’s for sure. And a whole lotta bologna on the side.

Repeating the same stuff. Facts that don’t need to be there. Extra words that make your eyes tired or are difficult to read.

I call this stuff Presentation Bologna. And it’s NOT the good kind of bologna (is there even a good kind?). Presentation Bologna includes:

• bullet points not relevant to the slide’s topic
• statistics or facts that reinforce already-existing data
• visuals that take up space rather than contribute value
• “fluff” words, or extra words that can be cut from a sentence without changing the original sentence’s meaning

Your goal is to make your presentation slides as small as possible, while retaining the most essential information possible. You can even write down notes on notecards to help assist you in explaining the points you have in your presentation or memorize what you will say altogether.

Online presentations should be simple and straightforward, like live presentations. The biggest difference here is that your audience will likely be straining their eyes, trying to look at their (potentially tiny) computer screens while you are giving a presentation.

That’s why it’s essential to cut the bologna. I usually do this step after creating the bulk of my presentation, but before practicing my presentation. Speaking of practicing, let’s move on to the next step…

#Screen Record Yourself         

The great thing about giving online presentations is that you can practice everything in the comfort of your own home. You can practice in the same room you’ll present in, with the same lighting, with the same computer setup, and everything. When practicing, make use of the screen recording feature! Screen record is an absolute must, especially for virtual teams . Most newer Mac and Windows computers have a built-in screen record feature already. 

When going over your video recordings, take careful consideration of the following:

• Do I use too many/not enough hand gestures?
• Is my body language unnatural or distracting?
• Do I sound loud and confident enough?
• Do I have any technical issues?
• Am I under the time limit or going over?

You can even send your presentation over to a friend or family member for them to review at their convenience. Yay for technology!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Pick Your Presentation Tools

When giving an online presentation, you have to have the right tools for the job. There are a lot of presentation tools out there—tools exist for: 

• making your own animations
• creating Infographics
• planning conferences
• creating mind maps
• finding great images for your slides
• making your entire presentation

Depending on your needs, you’ll need to choose the right tools for your virtual presentation. I recommend choosing one tool to create your presentation and adding in visual tools along the way, based on your needs. Here are 5 of my favorite online presentation tools I use:

Pixabay is by far my most favorite image-finding tool. This site has over 1.7 million free, high-quality stock images and videos you can use to insert into your virtual presentation. Using a stock image is a great way to break up text, add a little emotion, and make your presentations a little more exciting.

When I use Canva, I feel like I’ve been given a magic design wand. That’s because there are a ton of free infographics, logos, pictures, posters, and even presentation templates you can use and customize to your heart’s content. And they’re surprisingly high quality for being free! Canva  even has a section for Zoom Virtual Backgrounds that you can add to your video call when giving your online presentation!

Did I mention it’s free? I use the Premium version, although the Free version is great, too!

• Poll Everywhere

Here’s one that I mentioned earlier in the article. This is a great software I use to create live polls and quizzes for my virtual presentations! Whether it’s a multiple choice quiz, true/false test, or just a general Q&A poll, users can participate on their computers, phones, or tablets! It’s super easy to use and integrates easily with Keynote as well. 

Want to eliminate distracting noises completely? Sometimes that’s not possible. But the closest thing I have found to help is Krisp. Krisp is a software that’s free to use (up to 120 minutes a week!) and works by blocking out all background noises so only your voice can be heard by other conference call members. You can download and install it, but I use the Chrome extension! It’s seriously worth giving a shot if you’ve got loud noise in the house.

Here’s the golden question: Should I make a Keynote online presentation, or a Microsoft PowerPoint one? Since I have a Mac, I use Keynote. It’s intuitive, easy-to-use, and it’s built into all Mac computers already. Keynote has a ton of presentation templates you can use, and you can even create tables and charts in the app itself! For me, Keynote is a must for my presentation-creating needs.

I compiled a list of the best tools my team uses. You can check them out here:

15 Best Remote Tools

Embrace The Fear

Have you ever been skydiving? Even if you haven’t, you can just imagine that pit-in-the-stomach feeling of jumping out of an airplane. And if you shy or a natural introvert , giving presentations is not so different than skydiving.

After giving hundreds of presentations—both in-person and online—my best piece of advice to those with presentation anxiety is to give up on trying to get rid of that fear. That’s because that fear will probably never go away . 

But here’s the silver lining: the fear does get better. The more you give presentations and get comfortable speaking in front of people, the less giving presentations suck . If you hate giving presentations like I once did, you might even turn to love them—once you learn how to walk with confidence and have the power to influence the way people think, you feel like you’re on top of the world! 

And that pit-in-the-stomach feeling? It changes to a good fear—the kind that makes you look forward to giving presentations! And the more presentations you give, the better you get.

Life is better when you build your social skills. As a recovering awkward person, I was terrible at socializing—I would often lock myself in the bathroom at parties just to avoid conversation! But now, I want to inspire people to take charge of social situations because I know that social skills are the key to a happier, more productive life. That’s why I gave all my secrets about how to be ridiculously likable in Chapter 5 of my book. Interested? Here’s a free gift for you today– click here for the free first chapter of Captivate !

Unlock the Secrets of Charisma

Control and leverage the tiny signals you’re sending – from your stance and facial expressions to your word choice and vocal tone – to improve your personal and professional relationships.

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Bonus: Other Creative Presentation Tips

Congratulations, you have arrived at your destination!

As a thank you for taking this Science of People flight with me, I’d like to share with you some bonuses to take your presentation skills to the next level. 

Here are some techniques you may want to master:

All too often we end up using the same old social scripts and asking people the same questions over and over again. If you want to do a team icebreaker before, during, or after your presentation, use my list of conversation starters:

57 Killer Conversation Starters

People who don’t feel confident often believe that confidence is something we are born with. It’s not . Confidence is a skill that can be developed. If you are nervous about your presentation, try boosting your confidence with these scientific techniques:

11 Scientific Strategies For More Confidence

Not everyone can work from home. But if you find a way to do it properly, you can reap some pretty amazing benefits. Check out the 7 Deadly Problems of working at home and how to combat them:

How to Work from Home Successfully in 7 Steps

Finally, I put together a guide on how to manage remote teams. If you’re leading a team of remote workers, this is one guide you shouldn’t miss! Check it out here:

12 Reliable Tips to Manage Remote Employees

Popular Guides

24 thoughts on “12 tips to give an amazing online presentation”.

I’ve never seen such a detailed guide anywhere else! Excellent! In recent months, probably almost everyone who works or studies remotely had to make online presentations. I like that you emphasized humor and the different visualization techniques that can be used to diversify the monotony of the narrative. I also find some of the platforms that you mentioned very useful. Thank you! I am preparing for a big and important presentation and hope to perform at my best!

Thank you so much Vanessa!

Love your article. So much to learn from! I’m preparing a presentation in few months and you gave all I needed.

Thank a lot Vannesa. You provide me excellent information.

Fantastic resource! I couldn’t ask for more.

I usually give some advice to my engineering students for doing good presentations. This is a powerful resource. Thanks for sharing the tips.

Comments are closed.

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Best practices for virtual presentations: 15 expert tips that work for everyone.

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In today’s COVID-19 world, virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm. While many presentation skills and best practices apply to both in-person and virtual presentations, expert virtual presenters understand the importance of adjusting their approach to match the medium. With in-person presentations, you more or less have a captive audience — you still need be engaging, but your audience is kind of stuck with you for the duration. But with virtual presentations, your audience has a greater opportunity to stray. You now have to compete for their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds against diminished attention spans, increased home and work life distractions, and conflicting priorities. 

Here are 15 expert tips to set you up for success in your next virtual presentation:

1.     Get the Lighting Right:  As a presenter, it is essential that people can see you well. Make sure you have good front light—meaning the light shines brightly on your face. If your back is to a window, close the shades. While natural light is often the best choice, if your home office doesn’t have natural light and you do a lot of virtual presentations, consider purchasing supplemental lighting to enhance your image.

2.     Choose the Right Background:  Try to use a background that enhances your professional image and is aligned with your message. Avoid a cluttered background or anything that can be distracting. Learn whether your presentation platform enables you to use virtual backgrounds (like Zoom) or whether you can blur your background (like Microsoft Teams). Your background can either add to your professional presence or detract from it.

3.     Know the Technology:  Nothing kills a presentation faster than a presenter who fumbles with the technology. This is a performance, so make sure you know how to make it work. A dry run is essential so that you’re comfortable with the platform features. It’s best to have a co-host (or producer or moderator) assist you with the technology so that you can focus on your presentation. Make sure you practice with the same technical set up (computer and internet connection) that you will use when you deliver the presentation.

4.     Play to the Camera:  When you are the one speaking, look directly into your computer’s camera , not on the screen or at the other participants. This takes some practice, but it makes the viewer feel as if you are looking right at them. Some presenters turn off their self-view so that they aren’t distracted by their own image. Put the camera at eye level . Try not to have your camera too far above or below you. If it’s too low, then you run the risk of creating a double chin. A camera too high makes it difficult to maintain eye contact, as you may find your gaze dropping as you speak. If you are part of a panel or a team of presenters, make sure you are aware of when your camera is on. If you are not speaking but your camera is on, make sure you look like you are paying attention! Powerful presenters understand the importance of making eye contact with their audience, so this means you have to simulate the same effect virtually.

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5.     Get Close (But Not Too Close).  You want the camera to frame your face, neck, and shoulders. People are drawn to faces, so you don’t want to lose that connection by being too far away, but you also don’t want your face to take over the whole screen like a dismembered head because, well, that looks weird. Practice your positioning and distance.

6.     Stand Up:  If possible, use a standing desk or position your laptop so you can stand at eye level with your computer. Standing up provides a higher energy level and forces us to put our body in a more presentation-like mode. If you have to sit, lean forward as you would if you were presenting at a real meeting or as if you were a TV news anchor. Avoid slouching away from the camera, as that sends a signal that you are disconnected from the audience.

7.     Be Animated:  Just like in a live presentation, you want to present with a little energy and animation. Too slow or too monotone in your voice makes it easy for folks to disengage and tune out. Keeping people engaged virtually requires you to actually be engaging.

8.     Pace Yourself:  Without real-time visual audience feedback cues, getting the pacing right can be difficult. Even though you want to infuse some animation and energy into your presentation don’t pump up the speed too much. If you tend to be a fast talker in real life, practice slowing down just a bit. If you’re a slow talker, you may want to speed up just a bit.

9.     Do A Sound Check:  If your sound is garbled, people will tune out. While people may forgive less than perfect video, if they can’t clearly hear you, they will leave. Practice with someone on the other end of the presentation platform. Make sure your sound emits clearly. Sometimes headphones or external microphones work better than the computer audio, sometimes not. Every platform is different, so make sure your sound quality is excellent every time. And again, you should practice with the same technical configurations and location that you will use for your presentation.

10.  Plug into Your Modem:  If possible, plug your computer directly into your modem using an Ethernet cable. This will give you the strongest signal and most stable internet connection. The last thing you want to happen during your presentation is to have a weak or unstable internet signal.

11.  Incorporate Redundant Systems.  If using slides, make sure someone else (another webinar co-host or producer) also has a copy of the slides just in case your internet goes wonky and you have to present by calling in. If you are using slides, make them visually appealing. Use high-quality graphics and limit the amount of text on each slide. It’s your job as presenter to deliver the content. The slides are meant to enhance your spoken words, not replace them.

12.  Engage Your Participants. Just as if you were doing an in-person presentation, craft your presentation to engage the audience. Incorporate chats, polls, raised hand features, etc. Try not to speak for more than ten minutes without some sort of audience engagement. Use the participant list to interact with your participants by name. Have people chat or raise a hand if they want to speak. Keep track of the order of people and then call on them to invite them to turn on their mics or cameras. 

13.  Let Someone Else Check the Chats.  Don’t get sidetracked by the chats during your presentation. You’ll be shocked at how distracting it is to your train of thought if you attempt to read the chats while speaking. Instead, have your co-host or producer monitor the chats. If you ask people to chat you answers or comments to a question you’ve posed, then pause your talking and engage directly with the chats by acknowledging them, reading them out loud, and commenting on them. 

14.  Evaluate and Enhance:  If possible, record the session and take the time to play back and look for areas that worked well and areas that you might want to improve upon. Great presenters, whether virtual or in person, understand the value of continually honing their craft. Be sure to acknowledge your strengths as well as your areas of improvement.

15.  Be Yourself and Have Fun:  Again, just like in face-to-face presentations, audiences connect to authenticity, so be yourself! Let your personality show through. Have fun. If you look like you’re enjoying the presentation so will others. Research shows that happy people retain information better than bored or disinterested people, so model the energy that you want to create. The audience takes its cue from you.

Remember, whether you are presenting in-person or virtually, all presentations are performances. And all performances are in service to your audience. Their time is valuable, so honor that time by delivering the best presentation you can. No matter what kind of presentation you are giving, you must find ways to create authentic audience connection, engagement, and value.

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How to Deliver the Perfect Online Presentation

In this digital era, online presentations have become more and more common every day. And there are many things that distinguish them from traditional live presentations! To make the most out of them and to learn how to make effective online presentations, it’s important to learn the best practices that apply to this type of media. Here you’ll learn some tricks on how to deliver the perfect online presentation.

9 tips for making effective online presentations

There are many things on online presentations that work similarly to live ones. However, there are also extra aspects to take into account to make sure you deliver the best possible online presentation.

1. Use presentation slides!

Whether it’s PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, o Prezi, presentation slides can truly take your presentation to the next level. Especially for online presentations!

Online presentations are always a challenge. In an online presentation, it’s impossible to control the distractions around your audience. A good slide design can help you channel your audience’s attention into your presentation with its visual aspect.

Presentation slides are a great way to illustrate your information and make it more digestible for the audience. Even better, a good slide design can also help your presentation be more memorable!

Make sure your presentation slides are there to complement your speaker, not compete with them. Avoid text as much as possible, and instead work with visual elements: icons, pictures, illustrations, and graphs.

To make the most effective online presentation possible, use your visual complements strategically. Ask yourself: What is the purpose of this visual? Avoid “filler” pictures, and instead, use visuals that will make an impact on your audience.

2. Take your time for the technical aspects

One of the main aspects people have problems with is the technical aspect of an online presentation. While a computer or projector can always fail on a live presentation is way less likely.

To deliver the perfect online presentation it is vital for you to make sure as much as you can that you’re not going to have any technical difficulties. There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a video conference and losing the internet connection, or finding out your microphone doesn’t work.

Take some extra time to review that your internet connection, your camera, microphone, and any extra equipment you might need are working just fine. It’s important to check these points in advance, so you can have a backup plan in case you need it.

For example, an ethernet cable is a great way to reassure that you’ll have a stable internet connection instead of relying on wifi.

You should also try the video conference platform you’re going to use! While all of them have similar features, it’s important that you are fully confident about how to work with them. This way, you’ll be able to focus on delivering your presentation and not on where is the ‘share screen’ button!

3. Set the scene

And since you’re already taken some extra time to try out the place where you’ll be giving your presentation. Make things easier for your audience by removing potential distractions from your background.

If you don’t have a good option for a neutral background, many video conferencing platforms offer digital backgrounds! You should try them beforehand to make sure they work well for you, but they can be a great option.

Lighting is also an important aspect to take into consideration. Avoid as much as possible sitting in front of a window or a strong light source, as this will make your face too dark.

4. Avoid potential distractors

And talking about distractions, it’s also important to avoid distractions of your own! There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a presentation and get a loud text message for all your audience to hear.

Try to deliver your presentation in a place that’s calm and quiet so there are no outside interruptions from your side of the screen. If you’re now able to find one, a headset with a microphone might be a good investment! This will help you isolate outside noises, and will make your own voice clearer for your audience.

You can also improve your online presentation delivery by making sure your desktop notifications are turned off! This way, you’ll reduce potential distractors when you’re going through your presentation.

5. Body language is key

Just like in a live presentation, body language can help you make a more effective online presentation! Body language helps you convey confidence, make yourself more approachable or likable to the audience, and overall improve your presentation.

Just like the previous points, however, online presentations require special considerations. Avoid setting yourself too far away from the camera (as this will be too impersonal) but also too close (intimidating!).

The best way to place yourself is so your camera gets all the way down to your shoulders. This way, you’ll look friendly while still being able to use your hands’ movements to emphasize key points.

You can also give your conference standing up! Giving your presentation standing up can actually improve your delivery and diction, as this will force you to stand up straight. Put your laptop on a counter or stack up books to make sure your camera is at the optimal height for you.

Another trick is to train yourself to look at the camera! Many people make the mistake of looking at the screen, as there’s where your audience is. However, they won’t get the connection made by eye contact, unless you talk to the camera!

6. Inject energy into your presentation!

Delivering a good online presentation can be especially difficult because of the gap between yourself and your audience.

By default, online presentations are less engaging than live ones, as the speaker feels more distant. That’s why it’s extra important to make sure your presentation is engaging enough to keep your audience hooked.

Humor is a great way to make your presentation more engaging and to make sure your audience is paying you 100% of their attention.

7. Engage with your audience

Making an effective online presentation is all about keeping your audience’s attention. And what better way to do this than to make them a part of it?

Asking questions, and having moments for your audience to participate is a great way to keep your audience invested in your presentation. You can even add a quiz to make your audience stay on their toes!

There are also a wide array of online tools you can use to make your online presentation more engaging. Tools like Slido and Metimetric allow you to get live polls you can easily integrate into your online presentations.

8. Practice makes perfect

Just like in a live presentation, the key to an effective online presentation is practice, practice, and more practice!

Make the most of your digital resources to make sure your presentations end up just like you want them to be. While you’re practicing, record yourself so you can mark what you should improve or change.

You might also like: What is a Pecha Kucha Presentation?

9. Share it with your audience!

One of the best things about an online presentation is that you have all the power of technology from the get-go! You don’t need any extra equipment to record it and share it.

Whether it’s a complete recording, a highlights video, a summary, or PowerPoint slides, you can easily share it with your audience through the video conferencing platforms.

Leave your slide design to us!

Preparing a presentation, whether it’s live or online it’s never an easy task. And most of the time, it’s hard work you must do on your own! So why not save some time to work on your delivery and your research, and leave the slide design to us? 24Slides works with some of the biggest companies all around the world creating amazing presentations. Our designers are specialists at creating outstanding slides that will catch your audience’s eye from the get-go, convey your message perfectly, and showcase your brand!

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6 Tips for Giving the Best Virtual Presentation

October 14, 2021 by Brian Tracy --> Public Speaking

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to shut down in-person activities and connect primarily online, the desire to engage online-only continued to grow.

This opened up the door to so many new, incredible opportunities, including more chances to become a virtual presenter and public speaker.

Previously, a field where standing on a physical stage in front of an in-person audience was the norm, today, giving a virtual presentation is one of the most common and effective ways to speak to your audience.

Like many new opportunities, though, presenting virtually also comes with its own challenges. For example, while it may be easier to gather an audience virtually, keeping their attention online can be extremely difficult.

Before you start your virtual sessions on topics you’re passionate about, make sure you use these tips to keep your audience entertained and wanting to come back for more.

Virtual Presentations vs. In-Person Presentations

While you may not have a captive audience in the same way you do with in-person presentations, virtual presentations have quite a few benefits.

For instance, they’re convenient for both the presenter and the audience to attend. Neither you nor your attendees need to make travel arrangements to connect with each other. 

This vastly increases your potential to reach a much wider audience. Since the limitations of geography are removed, you can reach a worldwide audience who simply needs an internet connection to tune in to your speaking engagement.

Virtual presentations are also more cost-effective. They don’t require sophisticated AV equipment, venue fees, decor, furniture rentals, or food and beverage costs.  All they need is you, the audience, and your presentation skills .

You might find your fear of public speaking dissipate through virtual presenting, too. If presenting in front of an in-person crowd makes you feel intimidated, you may have a better time finding your confidence and comfort behind a screen and virtual audience.

Speaking to the camera in the comfort of your familiar surroundings can help you feel like you have an intimate audience of one instead of many.

Master the Art of Online Speaking & Presenting Download My Top 5 Tips for Virtual Public Speaking

6 Successful Tips for Your Next Virtual Presentation

Preparing well for your virtual presentation ahead of time will give you confidence and poise once you’re in front of your audience. Use these six tips to master your public speaking skills before you launch your next virtual presentation. 

1. Set Up a Clean Shot

Even though you don’t have to worry about booking a venue for a virtual presentation, you should still plan to set up in a quiet, well-lit area.

Make sure the place where you’ll be doing your presentation is clean and free from distractions. Let your coworkers, family, or roommates know you’ll be giving a presentation so they know not to disturb you. 

If your background is messy or loud, your audience will be more focused on what’s going on behind you than what you’re actually saying. Keep it clean, simple, and pleasing to the eye.

To help see what your audience will see, set up your camera so that you’re not too close or too far from it. The ideal shot frames your face, neck, and shoulders. If you are able to stand for your presentation, it could also help you maintain good posture and give you the opportunity to use hand gestures when appropriate. 

Good lighting will also ensure your online presentation keeps your audience engaged. Cast lighting on your face instead of behind you.

If available to you, natural lighting is best. Consider opening the blinds and facing the window for your presentation, and pay attention to any shadows your lighting casts to eliminate distractions. Just don’t stand with a window behind you. Having a light source behind will make it difficult for your audience to see you.

Now that your shot is all set, practice making eye contact with your online audience. Speaking into a camera instead of in front of people can be difficult and awkward. Practice speaking and looking into your camera lens to ensure your audience sees you as if you’re looking right at them on their screen.

Ensure you’re framed the right way and place your camera at eye level. To make online public speaking even easier, try putting a picture of a person or two eyes staring back near your lens if it helps.

Once your shot is set up, you can also turn off any self-view you have set up so you’re not tempted to look at yourself while presenting. 

2. Get Familiar With Your Technology

When giving online presentations, you rely on fast, reliable internet to carry your message and voice all around the world. So make sure you have a good internet connection.

If your internet is slow or cuts in and out, you run the risk of frustrating and losing your audience due to a poor user experience.

Another technology tip to consider is to ensure you mute your audience upon entry to the presentation. This will prevent distracting background noises and accidental conversations or noise during your important talk.

With that said, also be sure your own distractions and noises are removed.

Put your phone on vibrate, turn off notifications on your phone and computer — except for those pertaining to your meeting — and place your technology on a surface away from your setup so your audience won’t hear it if it happens to make a sound.

Becoming familiar with the features your hosting software offers will help you eliminate technology distractions faster, as well as improve your presentation experience.

Knowing how to share your screen, read comments, unmute participants, break participants into discussion groups, run polls, and so on will make your presentation run smoothly and keep your audience engaged.

Additionally, consider having a co-presenter run the technical aspects of your presentation so you can focus more on presenting. 

3. Set Expectations for Questions Early 

Audience participation is a key part of successful public speaking. It’s important to answer questions the audience may have, but timing is also essential.

Have a plan for answering questions that are set up ahead of time. Before jumping right into your virtual presentation, explain how your audience can ask questions and how they should expect them to be answered. 

Again, co-presenters can be very helpful in this regard, since they can be answering questions in the chatbox for you. Make sure your ground rules specify what types of questions will be answered and when. 

Technical issues, however, such as not being able to hear or not receiving a download should be addressed immediately. Other questions can wait for breaks or pauses to be answered so your audience is still listening to you instead of reading the chatbox.

Don’t forget to ask your audience questions as well, and let them respond in the chat!

This is an important way to keep participants engaged during a virtual presentation, where losing their focus is much easier than during a live presentation.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice

Know your material and have your presentation well planned out so you can give a confident, impactful presentation. An important element of this is to speak about something you’re passionate about. 

Put your camera on video and take some practice runs speaking into the camera. Then, go back and watch your recorded sessions to critique yourself and improve for the live presentation. Consider asking a friend, family member, or colleague to give you honest, constructive feedback, as well.

Remember to check the following while you practice:

• How’s the lighting?
• Are you looking at the audience?
• Are you smiling and relaxed?
• Do you show that you care about your audience?
• Are you an expert on your topic?

Don’t forget to practice the technical aspects of virtual public speaking too. Know how to split your screen or use two screens so you can have your presentation software open, the chatbox and participants in view, and your documents or slides accessible at the same time. 

5. Close with a Bang!

At the end of your presentation, deliver a powerful, memorable closing to help further gain trust as a presenter and drive your points home.

As an online presenter, your goal is to deliver valuable information, engage your audience and motivate them to take action — which includes coming back for more of your content. 

Ways to end your virtual presentation

The opening and closing lines of your speech will often be the ones your audience will remember most. Make sure your main points don’t get lost with a closing that falls flat. Here are three of the best ways to close your virtual presentation with a bang:

• Close with a story. Recap your talk by telling a story that illustrates what you’ve shared with your audience. This will give them a tangible example of how to apply your principles. Likewise, you can end with an inspirational quote to motivate your audience to take action.
• Always end your speech with a call to action. Make it clear what you want your audience’s next steps to be, and deliver your request with enthusiasm and confidence.
• Make it apparent that you’re done. Avoid ending with, “Well that covers it, thank you for coming.” After you deliver your call to action, make a bold statement that your presentation has ended instead of allowing it to drag on. 

Let your audience know you’ll follow up with any lingering questions by email. Smile warmly into the camera as you end your speech. Allow some silence and discipline yourself to refrain from fidgeting, then disconnect the presentation software.

6. Provide a Follow-up Destination

The beauty of giving a virtual presentation is that your audience is already in front of a computer. Utilize that and point them to your website or another follow-up to continue reaping the benefits of your talk. 

You can also take the opportunity to open up a future Q&A session on your social media page or group.

Follow up by sending a recording to those who signed up to attend your speech. This will help you establish your reputation and grow your audience as you become a motivational public speaker .

Start Your Best Virtual Presentation Yet!

Use these tips to give your best virtual presentation yet and connect with more people online, anywhere in the world. 

To learn more about how to succeed as a virtual public speaker, check out my free guide !

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About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

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14 Expert Tips for Online Presentations

What’s the best tip for giving an online presentation? To help you give an online presentation, we asked CEOs and business leaders this question for their best tips.

From setting up a practice run to citing your sources, there are several strategies that may help you give an effective and engaging online presentation.

Here are 14 tips for giving an online presentation:

Give Your Audience a Role

There’s nothing worse than having to sit through a long online presentation that’s not very engaging. To avoid this, try giving your audience small questions throughout your presentation. This way, you’ll keep them engaged and they’ll be able to retain information better.

It also gives your presentation a bit of an edge since you’re involving your audience instead of having them listen to you throughout the whole thing. Not to mention, it can create great talking points and make your presentation much more powerful and memorable.

Ebnu Sudarso, Milkwhale

Set Up a Practice Run

Be sure you’re in a room with great acoustics and a great background. If you’re doing an online presentation from a room that has a distracting background, and bad acoustics, you’ll likely find yourself distracted and your audience even more distracted.

Try setting up test calls, or recording yourself in advance to see which rooms work best for your presentation. Once you know you look good and sound good, you’ll be much more confident speaking and presenting to your online audience.

Saneem Ahearn, Colorescience

Keep It Simple for a More Effective Presentation

For many of us assigned to giving a presentation, we feel it is necessary to get out as much information as possible; however, that can lead to data overload, so it is best to keep it clean and simple.

Studies have shown that over 50% of online presentations are non-verbal, meaning that slides and other visuals will be a large part of filling in the gaps. Therefore, minimizing the amount of slide text, using clear fonts, bullet pointing reminders and important information, and keeping it below four relevant items per slide, will go a long way in keeping your audience clear and engaged.

Moreover, pay special attention to the last slide of your presentation, as it should effectively summarize the key points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway or call to action.

Online presentations are best when they are concise, clear, and quick. By following these guidelines, you will avoid overloading and confusing your audience and will make your presentation much more effective.

Yuvi Alpert, Noémie

Use Storytelling to Engage Your Audience 

While reporting is a data-driven process that quantifies your results, storytelling is essential to qualify your efforts when it comes time to present your report.

Every story has a main character- the hero, a conflict- the challenge, and a resolution- how the challenge is overcome. And using a similar framework in your presentation will tell a story that informs why the numbers are the way they are.

The high-performing area of your sales strategy is, of course, the hero of your story and represents the robust portion of your sales revenue. 

The conflict of your story concerns where you are underperforming and how it is affecting your overall growth. And the resolution to your story involves making recommendations that will help you get the results you want.

Though you may not make the final call on strategic vision, explaining your ideas and your reasoning behind them will show accountability and ownership. It may even help you achieve your desired results.

Chris Gadek, AdQuick

Adopt Interactive Tools

Since the pandemic forced many businesses to accommodate remote work for the first time, many innovative tools have emerged that help with online presentations.

My favorite tool to use in this area is Apple Keynote. It allows me to present seamlessly with my team when we can’t be together in person.

It includes dozens of features, but a few of my favorites are turning handwriting into text instantly, creating gorgeous charts and editing objects with precision.

Jae Pak, Jae Pak MD Medical

Give a Quick Overview Before Presenting

To avoid any confusion, as well as the awkward transition between introducing yourself and beginning the presentation, try to provide your audience with a quick overview of the topics you will be covering in your presentation and why they are important.

It goes without saying that it is essential to rehearse your presentation before it is time for your actual meeting, however, too much rehearsal might actually hinder your presentation.

You may find yourself rushing through your slides or reading from your notes while not considering your audience.

To ensure that the audience is following along from the beginning, take some time to provide them with a short summary of what you will be presenting to them.

Not only does this help your audience stay in the loop, but it will also ensure that you are connected and present with them throughout the presentation.

Himanshu Agarwal, WorkBoard

Start with a Story and End with Something Memorable 

Psychology tells us that people have a tendency to remember the beginning and the ending. The longer something lasts the stronger this effect is.

There is a reason why we all know and say to each other “first impressions count the most” and “end with a bang”. So, instead of jumping right away into the weeds, tell an interesting story, share an anecdote or an applicable statistic.

The more unexpected the story (although still topically relevant) the better. So while everyone is expecting you to monotonously start reading off the slides, here you shake them out of their slumber.

Similarly, towards the end, don’t finish with the stale “So…any questions?”. Instead, tell a joke, outline the next steps, pose an important question or offer a “digital freebie”.

You’ll want to succinctly wrap up your most important points so that upon leaving everyone is still invigorated and motivated to act upon the information just presented.

Peter Bryla, ResumeLab

Nail Your Backdrop and Lighting Setup

Though sad to say, people form initial impressions of others within seconds of meeting or seeing them for the first time. Something as small as your clothes, backdrop or camera appearance can actually affect your credibility and authenticity.

As such, my absolute best advice is to make sure your backdrop and appearance are on point. Dress smartly, and ensure your backdrop is professional, but not pretentious.

In addition, invest in a photography studio lighting kit to place you in the best light (no pun intended). Simple softbox lights can make a world of visual difference and can be purchased for less than $100 on Amazon.

For camera position, place the camera just above eye level, so you’re looking slightly up at it. And more importantly, invest in a high-quality webcam that’s at least 1080p.

You can find these on Amazon for less than $40. If you can nail these things, you’ll be way ahead of the curve before you even speak a word in your online presentation.

John Ross, Test Prep Insight

Turn off Screen Sharing when Engaging with People

If you’re using PowerPoint, don’t do a full-screen share or share your whole PowerPoint window, tools, and all. Instead, run your slideshow and then share the presentation window so the slides on the left and toolbars at the top aren’t visible.

Importantly, turn off the screen share when you’re answering a question or otherwise engaging with people, other than for very quick questions.

Look straight in the camera when listening and answering, so it looks like you’re looking directly at the person.

Adam Goulston, MBA, MS, Scize Group

Use Microsoft Whiteboard

The whiteboard feature on MS teams is highly underrated.

You can add energy to your presentation by switching over to the whiteboard to allow for some real-time explanations or collaboration with the rest of the team, depending on the settings you use.

It’s a great way to engage your audience, even if you just bring up the whiteboard for a few fun minutes.

Stewart Guss, Stewart J. Guss

Maintain an Illusion of Eye Contact

When giving an online presentation it can be tempting to keep your eyes locked on your screen, whether it’s to read from your notes and slides or to study your audience’s reactions.

However, it’s absolutely crucial to make a conscious effort to look up from your screen and lay your eyes on the camera instead.

That gives your listeners the illusion of maintaining eye contact with you, which can tremendously improve their engagement as well as the reception of your presentation.

If you have trouble looking away from other participants’ thumbnails, try to at least glance into the camera from time to time!

Maja Kowalska, Zety

Cut the Number of Your Slides and Simplify Them

Giving a presentation online is much more difficult than presenting in front of a live audience. People get distracted easily. You can’t read the room.

Often, you can’t even see your audience. Because of this, it’s hard to engage and captivate your participants. Hard, indeed, but not impossible.

Ready to take your online presentation to the next level? Less is more! People can’t retain or process much info at once. Make your slides minimalistic.

One idea, one quote, or one fact per slide is ideal. Even if your slides look plain, it’s better to have 100 simple slides than 10 super dense slides. And it’s best to have a presentation video .

Don’t overwhelm your online audience with too many slides or they may easily zone out. In case you have more material, consider splitting the presentation into two sessions.

This will make the information more digestible and draw attention to what you’re saying instead of forcing people to read lots of content.

Nick Robb, design hero

Stand Up So Your Online Presentation Stands Out

Standing is the secret to online presentations. You instantly have more confidence when you breathe easier. Your gestures will be more natural and standing gives you an energy boost that’ll give you a more powerful delivery.

Try right now! Deliver a presentation sitting, then standing. No comparison! The only downside is you can’t wear sweatpants. If you absolutely cannot stand, lean forward in your seat, don’t slouch and always look at the camera when speaking!

Nirav Sheth, Anatta Design

Cite Your Sources

Know your stuff and cite your sources when giving an online presentation. Nothing is worse for your credibility than giving out inaccurate information or not being able to back up your statements with evidence.

It’s alright if you don’t recite a quote perfectly, as long as you let your audience know where to find the precise information; better yet, provide a simple resource list as a follow-up.

Not only will this boost your confidence when you deliver your online presentation, but you’ll build trust with your audience in that you’ve done your research and made it easy for them to do theirs.

Russell Lieberman, Altan Insights

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• Jun 22, 2020

14 Tips for Giving Engaging Virtual Presentations

Angela Stephanou

Career and Lifestyle Writer

Reviewed by Melina Theodorou

As more and more organisations implement  remote working , virtual presentations are becoming increasingly common. But with this new digital workplace also come several new challenges.  

For example, people are more likely to tune out of a virtual presentation than they are when attending one in-person. Professionals, therefore, have to work extra hard to keep participants engaged through their screens. 

So, how do you make your visual presentation interesting, and what ways can you keep your audience engaged? Here are 14 useful tips that will help you deliver a compelling virtual presentation.

1. Practise, practise, practise 

As with any presentation or form of  public speaking , it’s essential that you practice beforehand. Run through your virtual delivery in front of friends or family and let them offer feedback on your work. 

If you’re not accustomed to online presentations or  video conferences , rehearse by looking into your camera as you speak. You can record yourself practising so you can look back at it later and work on where you can improve. 

2. Check your tech 

Make sure you avoid any tech blunders during your presentation by checking your  conferencing tools  and connection ahead of time. You don’t want a computer crash or inaudible microphone while presenting to your team, right? Nor do you want to be fidgeting with wires and programmes and cutting your talk short. 

Do a sound check, get comfortable with your technology and make sure everything functions properly in the lead-up. Always have a plan B in case something does go wrong. 

3. Be on time 

Punctuality is crucial for any professional endeavour, as it reflects professionalism and commitment. Make sure you are on time for your virtual presentation and don’t keep your audience waiting. 

Whether it’s a tech fault, your needy child, or forgetfulness, there’s no excuse for late attendance. In fact, you should make extra effort to be early, so there’s enough room for preparation. Log in at least half an hour early to avoid letting attendees down. 

4. Dress to impress 

Dressing down is one of the  benefits of working from home . When standing in front of a virtual professional audience, however, it’s wise to dress in formal work attire. Ditch the jeans and tank tops (and those pyjamas!) and dress to impress. 

Forget the fact that you’re presenting from home and choose an outfit you would wear if it were an in-person presentation – a suit, formal dress, or a shirt. It’s also advised that you wear colours that neither clash nor blend in with your background. 

5. Enhance your lighting 

When you do not have the benefit of a well-lit office or conference room, it’s vital that you check and adjust your lighting for your presentation. Let natural light in the room so you can be visibly seen on camera, too. 

You can also invest in professional lighting to enhance your image. Aim for a soft spotlight on your face, and if there’s a window behind you, close the shutters. Sufficient light will also boost your energy and  productivity  for the show! 

6. Fix your background 

When you work from home, it can be challenging to find an appropriate location for your virtual  meeting  or presentation. Too many plants, photos or décor can be distracting for your audience. 

Choose a setting that reflects professionalism and aligns with your message. Ideally, it should be a plain background with little clutter. You don’t want to sit in front of your retro patterned wallpaper, nor do you want your shelf lined with Star Wars figurines behind you. You can even use the virtual backgrounds on Zoom or blur your backdrop with Microsoft Teams.   

7. Minimise distractions 

When giving a virtual presentation, eliminate any distractions and pay attention to your audience. Prepare your setting by avoiding noisy environments that can potentially deviate participants’ attention. If attendees are wearing headphones, these noises can be even more distracting – especially things like rustling papers and ringing cell phones. To avoid this, mute your devices, have your notes ready, and chose a setting that will shut out noise from your surroundings. 

8. Remember the camera 

When presenting, remain focused on the camera rather than the screen. Maintaining eye contact helps you concentrate and connect with your audience.  Inc.  recommends looking someone in the eye for three to five seconds, as this will naturally slow down your speech and make you sound more ‘presidential’. 

Meanwhile, turn off self-view to avoid checking yourself, try not to rely excessively on your notes and make sure that you are at eye-level with the camera for sufficient eye-contact. 

9. Stand up and move around

Even though you are conducting your presentation from home, avoid sitting down. By giving a presentation while standing up, you can ensure professional delivery and achieve authority as a presenter. Public speaking coach Lisa Braithwaite told  Convene  that moving around with a wired headset mic will help you ‘breathe deeper and access more energy for your audience.’ So, ensure that you are standing while speaking and use hand motions and vocal variety to keep your audience engaged. 

When not moving around, make sure the camera frames your face, neck, and shoulders as this achieves more connection.  

10. Communicate clearly 

The trick to a successful presentation is  communicating clearly  and coherently. Other than investing in a high-quality microphone for optimal sound, you need to hone your  presentation skills  to nail professional communication. 

With video calls, it’s easier to miss what someone said, so make sure to speak slowly and clearly. Vary your pitch and volume and maintain your energy to keep people engaged. A monotone voice and constant rambling will only cause your audience to switch off. 

11. Interest the audience 

Keeping attendees engaged during a virtual presentation isn’t as easy as it is in-person. In fact, according to the molecular biologist,  John Medina , you have 10 minutes to keep someone’s attention before they lose interest entirely. 

Make your presentation brief engaging through enticing visuals like charts, animations, images and video. Pay special attention to font size and colour as well, as they can make your text more readable, while easy-to-read and brief slides will sustain your audience’s attention. You can even incorporate props, music or a guest speaker into your presentation to make it all the more enjoyable.  

12. Engage with participants 

In a virtual presentation, you must rely on technology to interact with your participants. Schedule time for interactive activities within your delivery but also encourage your audience to chat and provide feedback. 

Make sure to engage with questions by reading and discussing them aloud so other participants can follow the discussion, too. You can also invite individual participants to turn on their microphones or cameras for a virtual Q&A time. You can also keep everyone entertained by providing polls, quizzes or contests.  

13. Get some help 

Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Ask a friend or family member to be your assistant during the presentation so you can focus on your delivery. Have them prepare your notes, take care of tech errors, and manage any slides or videos. An assistant can also be responsible for fielding incoming messages and questions, so you don’t get side-tracked from the main subject.  

14. Be yourself 

While you  are  putting on a performance, you don’t have to be Chris Rock to be entertaining, or Steve Jobs to sound convincing. Just be yourself. Your audience will appreciate your authenticity during your presentation. Let your personality shine through as you make your delivery and remember to relax, smile and enjoy the presentation.  

If you’re accustomed to presenting explicitly in-person, conducting virtual presentations can be terrifying. But with our list of best practices, you can master your delivery and make your speech one to remember. 

What other tips do you have for giving virtual presentations? Let us know in the comments section below!

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How to Give a Virtual Presentation: Tips, Challenges, and More

For many, virtual presentations are an acquired taste. But, with remote teams becoming increasingly popular—especially now due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—virtual presentations are not only to be expected, but they are also rapidly becoming the norm in our day-to-day professional lives. In addition to helping colleagues stay aligned on major projects, virtual presentations are a useful sales tool that helps you improve your profit margins and are also a staple of customer or client engagements, whether in the form of quarterly business reviews, new feature introductions or providing regular reporting.

How Do Virtual Presentations Differ From Regular Presentations?

It’s tempting to think that the same rules that apply to in-person presentations would apply to virtual presentations as well. In reality, however, the two require different approaches to keep viewers engaged in the presentation. Here are two major differences between virtual and regular presentations:

Virtual presentations are competing with more distractions

Participants viewing a virtual presentation are far more easily distracted than a typical meeting participant would be when viewing the content in the same room as the presenter. With in-office presentations, participants are typically in the conference room, which is a controlled environment with fewer distractions  competing for attention, making it easier to tune into body language and what the speaker is saying. With virtual presentations, the context is very different.

Often, viewers are on mute (video or audio), making it much more difficult for presenters to understand who is engaging with the content. At any moment attendees may be answering a phone call, checking email, browsing social media or simply multitasking due to lack of interest, to all of which the presenter would be none the wiser.

Virtual presentations offer greater scalability

Virtual presentations allow you to present to more people at the same time, aided by group video conferencing services such as Lifesize, which allow for hundreds of participants per meeting . To participate, all that meeting attendees need is a device with an internet connection, greatly simplifying logistics when compared to a traditional in-office presentation, which often requires making travel plans, blocking a few days to travel and booking a conference room. Even then, you can’t be sure that everyone will show up on the agreed date and time until the meeting begins.

While virtual presentations are convenient, that doesn’t necessarily make them easier for you or your audience members. We’ve all experienced the pains of failed virtual presentations plagued by poor audio or video quality or presenters who don’t feel fully comfortable navigating controls to share content. Additionally, when you’re not physically presenting to an audience face to face, you have to work that much harder to establish a connection and sustain their attention. Here’s how to do it.

4 Virtual Presentation Tips for Your Next Meeting

Great content, preparation and practice speaking in public are key factors for every presentation, but if you can’t keep your audience engaged by getting rid of all distractions, your presentation is likely to flop. Here are four presentation tips that will help you minimize distractions next time you’re in the meeting spotlight.

1. Keep it short

When presenting virtually, your audience has a near-infinite supply of distractions at their fingertips, from email to instant messaging to social media feeds. So if you’re doing a virtual presentation, keep it concise and straightforward. Even if you’re committed to a longer presentation like a webinar , staying focused and not meandering is critical.

The average attention span when listening to a presenter is between 5 and 10 minutes. Even elite, experienced speakers struggle to hold an audience’s attention for longer than 20 minutes. In order to avoid listener fatigue and hold the attention of the (virtual) room, you want to pack a punch in your presentation, condensing content to no more than five key points along with a succinct summary of the action you want the audience to take after the presentation.

One way to do this is by starting with the end in mind. For example, if you’re giving a presentation on how to be productive working from home , your goal may be to have the audience put the advice into practice and provide feedback on their experience. Having identified this, you will know the amount of information you need to provide that will lead them to take that specific action you want them to take.

2. Close out windows you don’t need

Before you share your screen, make sure you have the content you want to present already prepared. The first few moments of your presentation are critical to establishing a connection with the audience, and no one enjoys watching a speaker scramble nervously to find their presentation on a cluttered desktop or, worse, inadvertently sharing sensitive or personal information that may be displayed from another application.

Additionally, if you’re using the same presentation for different audiences, make sure you evaluate every slide to ensure it’s relevant and tailored to the room. Distracting your viewer by having to go through a bunch of generic slides that haven’t been tailored to their organization, job function or priorities makes you seem unprepared, giving the audience the perfect excuse to tune out what you have to say. Whenever you do this, you break the flow of your presentation and their willingness to stick around till you’re done.

3. Ask the audience to commit to a distraction-free meeting

Many remote companies have an unspoken rule: mute your mic if you’re not presenting. It’s easy for an ambulance passing by to throw a presentation off track, so before you start, ask participants to mute their mics until you’re ready for Q&A. Luckily, many video conferencing platforms allow meeting hosts to mute participants’ mics to better control the meeting experience. As an additional benefit, muting helps presenters hold the attention of meeting participants by establishing when it will be their turn to speak.

For fully remote and distributed teams, it’s also common to ask meeting participants to avoid multitasking and mute phones for the duration of the meeting. This creates a meeting environment that more closely resembles an in-office meeting with minimal distractions competing with the speaker for attention.

4. Test your equipment beforehand

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely participated in an online meeting where someone presented for several minutes without knowing that their microphone was muted or that their content wasn’t showing on the screen. It’s an uncomfortable experience for both the presenter and the audience and, luckily, very easy to avoid.

Before your next virtual presentation, make sure to test your mic, screen sharing and camera 5-10 minutes before you go live. This helps you identify what’s working and what isn’t and rectify it. This is also a great opportunity to check your lighting to ensure your video feed is clear and ready for prime time.

Besides, knowing that your tools are in good condition boosts your confidence because you’re sure they won’t interrupt your presentation.

How to Virtually Present on Lifesize

Lifesize is a high-definition, secure video conferencing solution for online meetings that helps you hold uninterrupted presentations and deliver an exceptional experience for meeting participants across different devices. Here are a few steps to help you use Lifesize for your next virtual presentation:

1. Have your presentation ready

Compelling visuals and copy make any presentation better. Don’t worry if your design chops are lacking; use content from your company’s website, blog or social media feeds.

Great copy helps back up your slides and persuades your audience to take action. You want to talk about the benefits of taking action, overcome objections and provide irresistible calls to action to make it easy for your audience to get involved.

For your most critical presentations, consider hiring a copywriting service to help you create compelling slides that leave a lasting impression in the minds of your audience so that when you ask them to take action, they’ll be ready to do so. Interactive presentation development tools like Visme also simplify the process of building unique, immersive content that will show great during meetings. The company also regularly publishes presentation best practices  to help users avoid overly cluttered or text-heavy layouts.

2. Click “Present”

Once you’re ready with your presentation, join your Lifesize meeting from the desktop/web app, confirm that your attendees are present, then click on the “Share your screen” icon to start your presentation. You’ll then be prompted to select which display or application you want to share.

3. Share your slides or the entire screen

Once you’ve made your selection, click on the “Share” button to show your slides. Remember, you can’t share slides at the same time as another presenter, so make sure any other speakers have ended their presentation before you try to share your slides.

What to Do After the Presentation

Great news — you crushed the presentation. Now what do you do? The best presenters don’t stop once the meeting ends. After every presentation, take a few minutes to evaluate yourself, or ask colleagues for feedback, to see how well you did and whether you achieved your objective. In addition, here are a few ways to ensure the presentation translates to business impact.

1. Send out your recorded meeting link

Depending on the material, your audience might need to rewatch the meeting to help them get hold of crucial details in your presentation. Lifesize allows you to record and share your presentations so that once you’re done, all you need to do is share a link of the recording with your attendees for later reference. You can also use a video editor to stitch different videos together to use for added material in any future webinars, meetings or presentations.

2. Schedule a follow-up meeting if necessary

When is the appropriate time to reconvene and discuss progress? In a week? Two weeks? All great virtual meetings result in some type of action, so don’t wait to schedule and send a meeting invite for your next Lifesize call. Follow up meetings are great way to stay top of mind with customers, move projects forward or course correct if there is any misalignment concerning next steps.

Your next presentation won’t suck because of one thing: keeping your audience engaged. You’ve got excellent presentation skills and great content, but distractions are your biggest enemy.

By implementing the ideas we’ve discussed above, it’s possible to get rid of these distractions to help you focus on getting the most out of your presentations.

Virtual Presentation FAQ’s

How do you create a virtual presentation.

You’ll need some sort of visual medium to create a virtual presentation (such as PowerPoint) and a teleconferencing solution like Lifesize that allows you to share screens. With the visuals in place, you just have to come up with a speech or speaking plan to accompany your presentation.

How do you engage the audience in a virtual presentation?

To create an engaging virtual presentation, make sure that the presentation flows smoothly with no awkward pauses, and that you have a number of things to say for each slide or visual reference. From there, you have to speak in a lively and engaging manner, and ask the audience questions if possible to keep them engaged.

What are some of the challenges you need to consider when presenting in an online environment?

The wild card is technical difficulties: lag time, poor video/audio quality, or connectivity issues can ruin a presentation. If you have an integrated video conferencing solution in place, then the main challenge is keeping the audience’s attention (which can easily be lost).

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Improving the Video Conferencing Experience in the Era of Remote Work

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, it’s clear that remote work and distributed teams are here to stay, even after the pandemic recedes. While some workers will gradually find their way back to in-person (office or otherwise) workplace settings, this is just the on-ramp to the highway of working from anywhere for many others.

12 virtual presentation tips to get your audience’s attention

Delivering an effective virtual presentation is no easy task. 

Whether it’s for pitching to potential clients or discussing project goals with your team, you’ll have to compete for your audience’s attention and ensure your message gets through.  

In this article, we’ll cover the top 12 virtual presentation tips and best practices for your next virtual meeting. We’ll also look at some of the key benefits of virtual presentations.

This article contains: 

(Click on the links below to jump to a specific section)

• Research your Audience Well in Advance
• Be Vigilant with Technical Checks
• Embrace the Use of Technology and Visual Aid Tools
• Start with an Agenda in Mind
• Reduce and Eliminate Distractions
• Stick to Short, Punchy Sentences
• Interact with your Audience
• Pace Yourself and Plan for Delays
• Incorporate Back-Up Systems
• Allot some time for Q&A Sessions
• Know When to Stop
• Reach Out for Feedback and Reflect
• 3 Useful Benefits of Virtual Presentations

Let’s begin! 

12 practical tips for your next virtual presentation 

Virtual presentations can be intimidating for someone just starting out with them. 

But don’t worry. 

Here are some practical tips and best practices to ace your next virtual presentation. 

1. Research your audience well in advance

With virtual presentations, you need to do a little more research than you’d usually do. It’s best to know your audience and their expectations from the presentation. 

For a webinar or similar events, you can create a registration page or an electronic submission form a week in advance. 

Collect general information about who’s attending the event; ask questions about what they expect to gain from the meeting, or if they have any pressing questions. 

If you’re giving an office presentation, you can set an agenda for the concepts you’ll be covering. For example, think about what your keynote will be.  

Seek input from team members about your presentation structure and prioritize the action items that need to be addressed. If possible, send your meeting agenda in advance and have your managers/seniors glance through the key points. 

2. Be vigilant with technical checks

You cannot control an unexpected power-cut or internet connectivity issue no matter how much you prepare. So, your best bet is to be super precise with technical checks. 

Here are some things you should consider: 

• Is your camera working? Can the audience see you clearly?
• Do you have a proper mic and speaker installed? 
• Are you well-versed with the tools you’ll be using? For example, can you switch between google slides or enable screen sharing? 

These are some questions you should ponder over.

Most importantly, make sure you have solutions for any last-minute technical glitches. Prepare to have a backup or appoint someone who can handle the IT. 

3. Embrace the use of technology and visual aid tools 

The entire concept of a virtual presentation is based on the premise of technology. So naturally, you want to make good use of as many tools as possible.

You can use Canva to create a Canva QR code , Microsoft Powerpoint, Google slides, etc., to create an interactive presentation . 

You can also integrate your virtual meeting software with various tools for better audience engagement during the presentation. For example:

• Tools like Zoom , WebinarNinja, etc, let you conduct virtual polls and quizzes during video conferencing.
• You can also use a tool like Poll Everywhere to create word clouds in real-time. 
• Online game tools like Kahoot are great for creating group quizzes.
• Zoom or ClickMeeting can be useful as a whiteboard tool .

Another advantage of being well-equipped with the right tools is having better control over your audience. Virtual presenter tools can help with audience engagement. You can also monitor any distractions and eliminate them. 

For example, virtual presenters can mute an audience member due to disturbances or pin an important comment for everyone to see.

4. Start with an agenda in mind

In virtual meetings, if you do not start out with an agenda in mind, you’re setting yourself up for distractions. 

A good rule of thumb is to prepare a chronological list of things to be achieved during the presentation. What’s the most important concept you need to cover? Take notes, and make sure that all your other points transition back to your main concept and flow with the structure. 

Next, try to simplify your data points. Use visual imagery, gifs, videos, or animations to attract attention to the key points. 

Define the outcomes of your presentation, and set a time limit for each goal. For example, if the schedule has four points in total, don’t spend more than 30 minutes on each. 

5. Reduce and eliminate distractions

A remote audience is always multitasking between work, so there are bound to be some distractions. 

You can brief your audience about these best practices to minimize distractions: 

• Everyone stays on mute while the presenter is speaking.
• Instead of directly interrupting the host, people can ‘raise’ their hand on the virtual platform if they wish to speak.
• Request your audience members to limit any distraction on their end. This could be due to background noise, kids, pets, social media, or another family member.

Apart from this, make sure that you run technical checks and prepare for any possible problems. For example, close down all unnecessary tabs if you’ll be using screen sharing features. 

On your part, your chats will probably be filled with queries, doubts, or suggestions while you’re interacting with the audience. Instead of getting side-tracked by these chats, it’s a good idea to let a colleague or co-host moderate them for you.

6. Stick to short, punchy sentences 

When explaining concepts to a remote audience, you should always stick to shorter, more humorous sentences. That’s because most audiences often tune out after 10 minutes . 

Especially in a remote work environment, you have to capture and re-capture your audience’s attention while talking. Shorter sentences are easier to understand. But if it’s your first time being a virtual presenter, you can try these tips: 

• Maintain eye contact with the audience (through the webcam).
• Use appropriate hand gestures , facial expressions, and body language. 
• If possible, the person presenting should stand up. Set up your webcam accordingly.
• Ensure that your lighting is bright and lively. Make use of natural light for a better virtual background.

Moreover, keep your content prompt and precise. Avoid repetition of points, and do not over-evaluate any concepts. Ideally, do not speak for more than 10 minutes without some form of audience engagement (a story, quiz, or question).

7. Interact with your audience

According to a 2019 Duarte survey , over 68% of people believe that an engaging virtual presentation is more memorable than traditional one-way presentations. 

That’s because virtual users have a very limited attention span. It’s fairly easy for them to get distracted, especially if they have to sit through a presentation without any form of interaction. 

Interacting with the audience also makes you more ‘human’ in their eyes; you become more relatable. You can also plan your interaction activities in advance. 

For example, you can host a quiz or poll or use a whiteboard session every 10 minutes to encourage virtual participation. You can also encourage the use of breakout rooms for audience discussions. 

8. Pace yourself and plan for delays

There are little to no social cues to rely on from your audience in a virtual environment. You’ll need to practice and maintain a good pace to not speed through your presentation. 

Ideally, rehearse with someone virtually. Take notes of any delay in response you may experience or points that come across as confusing to the attendees. 

A remote audience often takes more time to respond. This could be due to technical issues, network delays, or unfamiliarity with the tool. But on your part, you can pace yourself according to your audience. 

For example, you’ll need to incorporate longer pauses after questions or slow down your talking speed for better clarity. These changes can be observed during your practice run so that you’re better prepared for your live presentation. 

9. Incorporate back-up systems

It’s important to plan for a worst-case scenario while presenting virtually, i.e., if you lose access to the meeting or content. In this case, it’s handy to share your presentation material with a co-host or a moderator. 

If you’re giving a video presentation, your co-host can have access rights to the meeting if you accidentally go offline. They can interact with the audience or present the video slides while you go back online. 

It’s also a good idea to be well-versed with your content. If you ever face a delay or glitch in your tools, you can always continue presenting the points with the help of a whiteboard. 

10. Allot some time for Q&A sessions

When conducting a virtual presentation, it’s good to allot a specific time slot for all the doubts and queries. You can do this before or during the event. 

In addition to having your own set of potential questions, inform your audience that you’ll be solving all the queries towards the end of the session. 

This serves two purposes:

• Your attendees can pay full attention to the presentation, knowing that their doubts will be cleared towards the end. 
• You do not get distracted by stopping and answering questions after every concept. 

A Q&A platform like Tribe or BoostHQ can be useful for noting down everyone’s questions. Participants can even ask anonymous questions. This way, all your queries are stored in a single database, and you can run a more organized, distraction-free Q&A session. 

11. Know when to stop 

Knowing when and how to close a presentation is one of the most important virtual presentation skills you could pick up. 

In a virtual event, you are bound to get distracted or carried away, so much so that you may lose track of your points. In that case, you should be precise with how much time you spend on each topic and when you should stop. 

Towards the end of the presentation, it’s more productive to be brief and to-the-point and conclude with an informative synopsis. You should properly summarize the conference proceedings, highlight key points, and create a lasting impression on your virtual audience. 

Here’s how you can do that:

• Prepare a clear and concise closing statement.
• Include a summary of your main agenda.
• Include a call to action.
• Include a powerful quote/message.
• Allow your audience to stay in touch with you. Consider adding a QR Code linked to your business card to your presentation.

12. Reach out for feedback and reflect

When you’re done with your presentation, a great practice is to reach out to the participants or attendees for any feedback. 

If you’re presenting to your office colleagues, you can ask for feedback on your talk. Note down how you can improve, including your content, speech, engagement, or presentation structure.

You can also provide post-presentation support. This could include: 

• Extra materials/data to support the topic you covered.
• A brief recap or summary of your presentation.
• Recordings of the online presentation.
• A link to a survey to note the material you could cover in the next presentations, ways you could improve, etc. 

Now, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of virtual presentations.

3 useful benefits of virtual presentations

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual presentations have been the norm for most organizations and companies. They’re more accessible and can accommodate a larger audience. 

Here’s how you can benefit from an effective virtual presentation. 

1. Higher inclusivity 

Virtual presentations offer more room for individuals to collaborate and learn. 

In a traditional presentation, most of the audience is limited by their geographical location. Only people who can access the location, and manage the time, can attend. 

In contrast, a virtual presentation has no bounds. 

People from all over the world can join in at the same time. It’s also highly accessible for people who otherwise wouldn’t attend physically due to health, childcare, or disabilities. 

2. More flexibility

Virtual presenters often offer recordings of the event for those who can’t attend. Moreover, you can also choose to keep your camera off while still attending. 

This makes it easier to participate in meetings. You also save more time by hosting shorter, more effective presentations. 

3. More economical 

When you’re virtually connecting with an audience, you use fewer resources than regular presentations. Organizers incur fewer electricity/venue costs, while participants have no travel costs at all. 

Virtual presentations also lower the company’s carbon footprint by lowering the number of unnecessary travel trips. They’re a great way to practice sustainable business practices.

Final thoughts

Virtual meetings and webinars often test your public speaking and presentation skills. 

You need to plan your presentation design and slide structure, manage distractions, and effectively deliver the content to the audience. You can also make good use of online presentation software to engage your audience better.

Use the tips and tools we covered here to understand how you can deliver effective virtual presentations today.

View a free demo of Time Doctor

Liam Martin is a co-founder of Time Doctor which is software to improve productivity and help keep track and know what your team is working on, even when working from home.

Hiring flexible staff: Everything you need to know

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29 Killer Presentation Tips to Wow Your Audience

Written by: Chloe West

Looking for the top presentation tips to help you deliver an unforgettable slideshow?

When you’re preparing to give a presentation, you have one thing on your mind. You want your audience to really love what you’re saying.

There’s no worse feeling when you’re up on stage or at the front of the board meeting presenting your information than when you can visibly watch your viewers’ eyes glaze over, see them start to get bored and antsy, and notice they’re not all that invested in what you have to say.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit preseentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

Making sure your presentation wows your audience starts at the very beginning, right after you’ve been assigned or chosen your topic .

We want to help you make sure your audience is talking about your presentation for days (and even weeks or months) to come. So we’ve put together a list of presentation tips that cover the design, performance and overall reach of your slideshow.

To really knock the socks off your audience, be sure to check off each one of the tips below.

1 Focus on one idea per slide.

You don’t want to crowd too much information into one slide. If your slide design is cluttered and ugly, your audience is immediately going to zone out of your presentation and look elsewhere.

Instead, use one slide for each thought or idea.

Check out the way this slide from one of our presentation templates was designed.

It’s a testimonial slide that includes nothing but a couple of quotes from past customers.

Whether it’s a new section heading, an about slide, a team slide, etc., you want to keep the information you include on a single slide to a minimum.

There’s no need to try to cram your entire presentation or even a whole section of it onto one slide. Your slideshow will be much more visually appealing if you break your content up into multiple slides.

2 Use two or three fonts max.

Nothing clutters up a design like too many fonts. We recommend sticking to just two fonts throughout your entire presentation, and three at the most.

It's a good idea to find one larger, bold font for your headers and a separate sans serif font for the rest of your copy. But presentations often utilize an accent font like an italicized or serif font.

Take a look at the presentation slides below. There are two different fonts being used on these slides—a thin sans serif for the quotes and a serif for the names and locations.

Choose two or three fonts and use them throughout your presentation. Consistency is key, and you want to make sure your slides look cohesive and like they belong together.

3 Pay attention to visual hierarchy.

Visual hierarchy is a design strategy for organizing elements depending on importance. This goes for font sizes, icon size, contrast and any other visual element in your presentation.

This is an important presentation tip because you want your viewers to know exactly which part of the slide they should be looking at first, second, third and so on.

It’s all about focusing on what can grab the user’s attention first, whether it’s larger font, more space between elements or creating deliberate alignment.

You can learn more about visual hierarchy and how to use it in your next presentation by watching this video.

4 Keep it to less than six lines of text.

Your slide shouldn’t be a huge wall of text. That’s what your speaking is for. Instead, be sure to keep it to less than six lines of text at a maximum. Ideally, you’ll have even less.

The content included on your slide should be limited to your main talking points (or a single point, if you really want to keep your slides minimalistic), and your voice should do the rest.

And if you’re not giving this presentation live?

You can always record your audio over your slides. Visme’s presentation maker allows users to record their own audio right in the design dashboard to create stand alone presentations and webinars.

The presentation slides below are a great example of limiting text. There’s a quick snippet of text, and the rest of the content as well as the speaker’s voice will add any context the viewer needs.

Like we mentioned in point one, don’t try to fit your entire presentation on a single slide. Let your voice do the talking and your slide include the most pertinent information.

Don’t bore your audience with a slide filled with words. Visuals are just as important.

5 Don’t use bullet points.

Here's another one of our “don’t use too much text” presentation tips. Bullet points have plagued presentations for years. But if you want yours to stand out, it’s best to stay away from them.

There are so many other more engaging and visually appealing ways to design your presentation slides. Bullets just aren’t one of them.

Consider this slide template layout below. The icon blocks help to differentiate the different points in a unique way so that you don’t have to revert to overused bullet points.

Customize this presentation template and make it your own!

• Add your own text, images, colors and more
• Add interactive buttons and animations
• Customize anything to fit your design and content needs

And to help you get even more creative with your slide layouts, Visme’s presentation themes offer hundreds of different options to choose from.

6 Create strong contrast.

In your audience, you might have people sitting in the back of the room, relatively far away from your screen. To make sure they can still see your presentation slides , you need to create strong contrast.

This means your text should easily stand out against your background. If you have a dark background, all of your text and design elements should be light in contrast, and vice versa.

Check out this slide from one of our presentation templates . The white and yellow easily pop against the dark background, giving this slide great contrast.

When putting this presentation tip to practice, make sure that your text and other elements are easy to see and don’t blend into your background, even from the back of the room.

7 Stick to two or three colors.

Just like you should use no more than two or three fonts throughout your presentation, the same goes for colors. Don't forget, there's such a thing as too much of a good thing.

We love color, but trying to fit too many colors in a single presentation can easily backfire.

When you start to get four, five, six colors into a presentation, it can start to look messy and like the slides don’t actually match or go together in the same slideshow.

A good presentation tip is to choose a color scheme with up to three different colors, or consider a monochromatic scheme of a single hue, similar to this presentation slide.

The use of different shades of blue/grey help tie the slide together and give it a cohesive color scheme.

Finding a color scheme for your presentation doesn’t have to be the hardest part of your entire design. Choose from a basic scheme like cool or warm colors, match your colors to your topic or incorporate your company colors into your presentation to communicate your brand values and identity.

8 Add audio and video.

One great way to create an interactive presentation is by adding audio and video elements to your slides. This helps you take a break from talking and can give your presentation another dimension.

Using Visme, you can easily embed videos into your presentation slides, upload audio files, choose audio clips from our free library and even record your own audio over your slides.

Hey executives! Looking to cut design costs?

• Spend less time on presentations and more time strategizing
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9 Stick to one image per slide.

You’re probably finding a theme here. When it comes to fonts, colors, images and other design elements, you don’t want to go crazy. Simple is almost always better.

And when it comes to images and photographs, it’s best to incorporate just one in each slide. There are several different ways to use these images, like as a background, an accent photo or with a color overlay.

This presentation slide is a great example of how to use a single photo to add a little something to your slide so it’s not just text, graphics or charts.

While there are reasons and ways to use multiple images tastefully, a good rule of thumb is to stick to just one main image as a background or accent.

10 Use high-quality graphics.

You don’t want any of the photos, graphics or icons in your presentation to be low-resolution or blurry. Always use high-quality vector graphics that look great no matter how big or small they are.

Icons and graphics can be an effective way to visually represent your words and context and further help your audience understand what you’re saying.

Here’s a sample presentation slide from one of our templates. Each of these graphics are high-quality, represent different words and help to tell more of a story.

Visme’s library includes thousands of free vector icons, shapes and graphics in different styles for users to incorporate into their presentation slides.

11 Use data visualization.

Data visualization can include anything from charts and graphs to radials and icon charts.

It’s essentially taking numbers and statistics and showcasing them in a visual form so that it's easier for your audience to understand at a glance.

This presentation slide template below includes an attractive vertical bar graph illustrating the company’s revenue and funding over the years.

12 Make it interactive.

We talked briefly about how adding audio and video to your presentation slides can help make it interactive, but there are many more ways to do just that.

In fact, we’ve written a blog post with 17 different ways to make your presentation interactive. Some of these have to do with your performance, but we’re talking about design right now.

Adding in links to your presentation, whether it’s between slides or even between elements in a single slide, is a great way to create a unique slideshow that your audience will love.

Watch this quick video to learn more about linking your slides together to create a non-linear presentation.

You can also put together an interactive quiz by linking elements in a single slide to appear on your click and so much more.

13 Keep transitions and animations consistent.

When adding transitions and animations to your slides and design elements, it can be easy to get excited about all of your options and go overboard.

But it’s important to keep all transitions and animations consistent within your presentation or it can easily overwhelm your audience. In fact, we recommend sticking to a single transition and animation type throughout your entire slideshow.

You also don’t have to animate every single one of your elements. Let some of them stay static while other, more important elements are animated on the screen.

14 Be energetic.

Your audience can feel your energy, and if you’re standing up at the front of the room and speaking through each slide with an unenthusiastic and monotone voice, they’re going to quickly lose interest.

You’re on the stage, and you need to command their attention. Practice this presentation tip by being energetic. Move around the front of the room or use hand motions.

It's also a good idea to drink water or fresh juice before your presentation to energize yourself. Don't forget to keep a water bottle with you during your presentation!

Learn how to use your voice to entertain your audience through your presentation. Vocal delivery matters , so practice beforehand and get comfortable changing intonation based on your content.

15 Tell a story.

When you’re able to tell a story that resonates with your audience and grabs their attention, you’ve got them wrapped around your finger for the rest of your talk.

There are many different storytelling techniques that can make your presentation stand out. Think about how you can incorporate one or two of these while putting together your content.

16 Use strong structure.

The structure of your presentation is important. It helps give your story and your presentation depth.

There are many different ways to structure your presentation based on its messaging, and you want to make sure that the one you choose makes sense for your topic.

Learn about seven potential methods for structuring your next presentation in the video below.

17 Know your audience.

Understand who is going to be in your audience—how many people, what their backgrounds are, who else will be speaking at the event that they’d be interested to see and more.

If you’re giving a presentation at a conference or networking event, you should be able to speak with the organizers to get answers to all of these questions. Once you really know your audience, you’ll be able to determine what they want to learn and how you should present the information.

18 Make eye contact.

Another presentation tip to remember while in front of your audience is to make eye contact. It exudes confidence when you’re able to look directly at the people you’re speaking with.

It can also help to persuade them to your point of view and keep your audience focused on you and what you’re saying to them.

Maintaining good eye contact with your presentation audience can even help you to speak more slowly and clearly so they can follow along more easily.

Making eye contact can be nerve-wracking for some presenters, so make sure you keep some tips in your back pocket , like holding eye contact for just four to five seconds, looking at people’s heads or making eye contact during your most critical lines.

19 Be funny.

Want to keep your audience engaged and help them fall in love with your presentation?

Make them laugh!

Incorporating humor into a presentation is always a great way to pass the time and make your information that much more interesting.

You don’t want to force it, because that can make things awkward for all parties involved, so make sure you plan some lighthearted humor that you can easily pull off.

Also ensure the jokes you tell are actually relevant to your content. You don’t want to start off by making your audience laugh and immediately jump into, “Now let’s talk about [entirely different topic]!” That will turn them off faster than if you didn’t use any humor at all.

Avoid controversial topics and sarcasm, and try testing out a few jokes before delivering them during your presentation.

20 Use your hands.

Standing still and straight as a board throughout the duration of your presentation will seem pretty off-putting to your audience.

Even if you don’t necessarily feel confident, you want to create the illusion of confidence, and moving around the stage and using your hands to emphasize your words is a great way to fake it until you make it.

21 Summarize.

Taking time throughout your presentation to summarize what you’ve said so far is a great way to help your audience fully understand the material and remember it for the future.

Create a summary slide after every main point and/or at the end of your presentation to conclude.

You can use a slide like the example below to share your summary or key takeaways for each section.

22 Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

While you don’t want to sound like you’ve just memorized your lines and are badly reading off a script, you do want to be completely comfortable with your material and the way you want to deliver your message.

And you get to that point by continuously rehearsing, re-reading your note cards and scrolling through your presentation slides to ensure you know what to say when and more.

You want your presentation to be a success , and you do that by being fully prepared and rehearsing plenty.

23 Don’t go over time.

Not only is rehearsing good for knowing your material, but it can also help make sure you don’t start rambling and lose track of time.

If you’re worried about going over on your time, there are apps that can help notify you of how much time you have left and help guide you through your presentation.

When you’re presenting at an event with lots of speakers, you want to make sure you’re being respectful to both the attendees and the presenters by not commandeering the show. Stick to your allotted time, and make sure you’re staying under each time you rehearse.

24 Embed your presentation.

After you’ve designed and given your presentation, what next? It’s over?

You’ve invested all of this time into creating an awesome piece of content, and you should continue to use it to your advantage. There are ways to still reach a broader audience after you’ve given your speech.

When you create a presentation in Visme, you can publish it online and easily embed it on your website.

This way, you can create a webpage or a blog surrounding your recent presentation and let people who weren’t able to see you present live still learn about your content.

Visme provides an embed code that makes it easy to share presentations online and seamlessly include all of your transitions, animations and interactivity.

Check out this example of an embedded Visme presentation below.

While there are many different ways to embed a presentation on a website, Visme’s embed is one of the most seamless and visually appealing, with no ugly outlines and slide changer messing with the design on your page. It’s also responsive and able to adapt to different screens.

25 Create a public link.

Visme also allows you to publish your presentation online so that you can get a public link to share with your audience. You can grab that link and share your content on social media, in email newsletters or even as a link in your email signature.

Plus, if you publish a presentation—or any design you create with Visme—publicly, you have access to analytics so you can view how each of your creations perform with your audience.

You’ll be able to look at how many total views your presentation received, how many people viewed the complete presentation and more.

26 Upload to SlideShare.

SlideShare is an online platform owned by LinkedIn that allows users to upload presentations.

The platform has millions of presentations, as well as powerful search features and categories, which makes it a great way to get your content found.

Create an account with SlideShare and link it to your LinkedIn account so you can easily share your presentation with your connections.

27 Regularly update and adapt.

Even if your presentation was created on an evergreen topic, information is always changing or being discovered. To keep your presentation relevant, make sure you regularly update and adapt your content to be current and accurate.

You can also include an area in the footer of your first or last slide with the creation date alongside the last date of update so your audience knows it’s being revisited often with updated information.

28 Turn it into a webinar.

Visme allows users to record audio directly in the app to add another dimension to a presentation, or even to turn it into a webinar .

Converting your presentation into a webinar can give you a way to connect with your audience on another level, and you can even have people sign up on your website to view it as a way to gather email addresses.

29 Turn it into a lead magnet.

While your webinar can also be considered a lead magnet, we’re covering something slightly different here. You don’t even have to worry about recording audio over your slides or making any changes.

Instead, you can require people to enter an email address directly in Visme before being able to view your content and generate new leads through there without setting up any other processes.

All you have to do is click Share in the top bar of your presentation maker, go to Advanced Settings, click the Social/Engagement tab and toggle Requires registration to On.

This will require your viewers to input their name and email address before they’re able to access the content. You can go into your Visme dashboard to download your form results and import them into your email software or CRM.

Get started with these presentation tips.

Ready to create a presentation that will wow your audience? Take all of these tips and use them to create a beautiful and memorable slideshow.

Try out one of our premade presentation templates and sign up for a free Visme account to create, present and promote your next presentation.

Did you find these presentation tips helpful? We'd love to know. Let us know your questions, thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below.

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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8 Ways to Deliver a Great Presentation (Even If You’re Super Anxious About It)

• Joel Schwartzberg

Know your point, always.

Feeling anxious about a presentation? It’s likely about a fear of public humiliation rather than of public speaking.

• Shift the spotlight from yourself to what you have to say.
• Reject the voice in your head trying to destroy your confidence.
• Knowing what matters – and what doesn’t – will help you succeed.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

I recently worked closely with a 24-year-old client — let’s call him Martin — who was tapped to deliver a five-minute presentation at his company’s annual town hall meeting. Martin had never given a public speech in his professional life, but his accomplishments impressed his supervisors, and they wanted Martin to share his success with the rest of the organization.

• JS Joel Schwartzberg oversees executive communications for a major national nonprofit, is a professional presentation coach, and is the author of Get to the Point! Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter and The Language of Leadership: How to Engage and Inspire Your Team . You can find him on LinkedIn and X. TheJoelTruth

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10 Tips for Giving Great Online Presentations

Don't make rookie mistakes with your online presentation. here are basic steps to ensure it's efficient and entertaining..

You're in charge of a big project that requires the support of lots of people. It would be easy to engage and inspire them if they were all in your office, but as often happens today, they're spread out around the country. So instead of connecting with each person individually, you decide to set up an online presentation so everyone can hear the same details at the same time in a collaborative manner.

You'll want to make this an effective, efficient process and get it right the first time, so here are some key presentation tips that will help your information effectively.

1.  Start with the right tool.  You could ask for everyone to jump on a conference call and email them a PDF, but then you don't really know who's there or if they're on the right page. Collaborative software such as Go-To-Meeting or join.me allows you to monitor who's online and makes sure that everyone is communicating about the same slide.

2.  Help everyone be on time.  Nothing is more irritating than sitting online waiting for a meeting to start because one or two people didn't show up. Some online tools have calendaring features that can help make sure everyone gets there on time and knows the topic. If people do show up late, go ahead and get started so you don't inconvenience the others. Late people can use the software to watch a recording later.

3.  Keep your slides simple.  Slides with lots of text are confusing and hard to read. Worse, people won't remember much of what's on them. Use your slides as brief reminders of the topic. Use a simple headline and three or four bullet points to support the main takeaway. Later, your team can go back and review the presentation and the brief slides will act as simple reminders.

4.  Be clear and efficient.  Make sure the presentation is easy to understand and concise. Each slide should represent about three or four minutes of material, and any more than 15 to 18 slides can be overwhelming. If you have more material, consider splitting the presentation. Practice before you deliver your talk to make sure the order makes sense and that you can deliver it with good articulation and at a pace everyone can understand. The record feature on collaborative software is a great tool for reviewing your presentation skills.

5.  Make the presentation entertaining.  Just because the presentation has lots of factual information doesn't mean it has to be dry and dull. You can add a lot of flair without making your talk unprofessional. Use stories and humor to make it fun. Not only are people more likely to listen closely, they'll remember more of what you told them. Whatever you do, don't be boring!

6.  Use visual examples.  Words are fine but graphics are great. Find a few pictures that are truly worth 1,000 words. Don't overload the presentation with cutesy art unless it has a purpose truly relevant to what you need to communicate. Taking screen shots off the Web can be really useful when referencing online material. You can even do this in real time for time-sensitive material. If you plan to use video, just make sure it's short and to the point. Otherwise, just share the URL and let people watch on their own time.

7.  Encourage conversation.  The great part of collaborative software is that it allows people to communicate with the presenter and each other during the presentation through messaging, so the talk isn't interrupted. You should encourage your team to do this from the beginning. Watching the online activity will give you a sense of how engaged your listeners are and allow you to tailor your presentation along the way, if need be.

8.  Set action steps.  The time to start an action-step list is not during the presentation itself. Ready this list before the presentation. When you're done with the basic information, you can discuss the steps in an organized way and modify them after you get feedback from the team. Make sure everyone is clear on what they need to take away from the presentation.

9.  Leave time for questions.  If you set an hour for the presentation, at least 15 minutes should be used for questions and discussion. You can review any written questions that were left unanswered and allow for discussion amongst the team. Don't let the questions drone on or get redundant. Manage the session kindly, with purpose and authority.

10.  End on time.  People are busy and they have most likely scheduled other activities after this meeting. Show them respect by finishing at the designated time so they can move on. If they still have questions or want more information, tell them they can connect with you later. But let everyone else go. Give everyone the software link to review the presentation if needed. Then thank all for their time and get to work.

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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

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How to give an effective online presentation from home.

Published: April 21, 2023

Looking to improve your presentation skills for online meetings? Check out these tips on how to make yours effective and professional from home.

Online presentations are the norm now that more people are  working from home . For many, moving from in-person to online presentations may bring a new set of challenges to overcome.

Are you concerned you might fumble with new technology or appear unprepared when  presenting  in an unfamiliar digital arena? You’re not alone. These eight tips can help you deliver an effective online presentation like a pro.

1. Simplify Your Slides

Each web conference platform has its own unique way of displaying slides. Avoid technical hassles by designing simple, easy-to-read slides.

Place text in the center instead of at the edges of the slides because they may not display correctly on your audience’s screens. Also, consider creating high contrast slides – they are easier to read for your virtual audience.

Remember, online listeners may multitask or get distracted. To prevent them from missing your main points, arrive quickly at key messages. To do this, use a sentence headline for your slide titles that states the main point of your slide. You can then include the evidence for each of your key points in the body of the slide. It seems simple, but it can be an effective way of organizing information for an online presentation.

2. Prepare Beforehand

Technology keeps us connected, but its complexity creates additional avenues for potential disruption. One way to prepare before giving an online presentation is to look at technology through the lens of Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Focus on what you can control.

Check Your Internet Connection

Use the most reliable internet connection you can. Web conferencing providers generally consider a wired connection to be more optimal than wireless (Wi-Fi) connections. And Wi-Fi connections are considered better than cellular connections.

Have a Backup Computer

Have another laptop (or emergency tablet or phone) at the ready in case you encounter a problem.

Save Your Presentation

Download a PDF version of your presentation to pull up in case there's a technical mishap with your slides (You do this by selecting “Save As” or "Print" and choosing “PDF.”) When saving your presentation as a PDF, remember to delete your hidden slides first as they will not remain hidden when you display your PDF presentation.

Close Your Tabs

Close any unnecessary applications to ensure they don’t interfere with your web conferencing software. Also, shut off any other background activities requiring substantial memory or bandwidth, such as downloading or uploading large files or instant file synchronizations. Even an inactive browser can eat up your computer's memory, so consider exiting out before your online presentation. 

Practice Using the Web Conference Platform

Get familiar with the platform you're using in advance. Practice muting and unmuting your microphone. If you're the host, practice muting and unmuting one or all other participants. Follow the instructions in the help center of your video conferencing app so that you don’t fumble during the event.

Arrive Early

Online presentations to potential customers, investors, or even executive leaders are usually scheduled at given dates and times, and can be sent through your web conferencing software. Arrive to the meeting a few minutes early to make sure your connection works and the web conferencing software is working, especially if you are the host of the meeting. You can also test the screen-share function as part of the program to ensure it's in good working order for your online presentation. 

3. Eliminate Distractions

Eliminate any visual clutter behind you. Clutter includes plants, boxes, piles of books, food, toys, laundry, and pets. An ideal background is a plain wall to eliminate distractions and look professional.

Remember, online listeners may multitask or get distracted. To prevent them from missing your main points, arrive quickly at key messages.

If you can’t tidy up your space, you can create a sophisticated virtual background. Canva offers free virtual backgrounds, and you can upload these designs to any video conferencing system that allows customized backgrounds. Not sure how to do this? Providers such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Webex, to name a few, give you step-by-step instructions.

4. Dress the Part

It may be tempting to wear your usual work-from-home attire like your PJs or your favorite hoodie, but providing an effective presentation requires that you dress the part. Wear your regular workplace casual clothes. When picking out an outfit, avoid distracting patterns or multi-colored shirts, as well as shiny fabrics such as satin or silk, as they may shimmer when you move your body on camera. Solid colors are best – you want people to focus on your message, not your clothes.

5. Use the Right Lighting

If the lighting in your room isn’t optimal, set up a desk lamp behind your laptop, centered right over the camera to light up your face. For this to work well, minimize the lighting from other parts of the room by lowering the shades to prevent light from coming from the side or the back.

Avoid sitting with a bright window behind you as it will make you appear dark and foreboding. Switch positions to sit with the bright window in front of you.

6. Present in a Quiet Space

Ideally, an online presentation should occur in a quiet room. However,  working from home with a partner or kids  can make it less of an ideal setting for controlling background noise. You can mitigate this challenge by investing in a good headset with a built-in microphone that cancels or neutralizes outside sounds and turning off your phone and any noisy computer notifications.

7. Make Eye Contact

One of the best ways to provide an effective presentation is to make eye contact with your audience. Raise your laptop so your camera is at eye level. You can do this quickly by placing a box or a stack of books underneath your laptop. Practice speaking to the camera, not the screen. You can also angle the laptop screen to be centered in the frame, and your head is not cut off.

You may also need to move back a little. If you sit too close to your laptop, your face may look blown up. That’s often not the most flattering angle. Either sit with your back resting comfortably on your chair or push the laptop back. Ideally, it would help if you sat at an arm’s length from the screen. Sit up straight, smile. Make an effort to look good in your online presentation. It will show.

8. Keep Your Audience Engaged

An audience’s attention can flag, especially during a long online presentation. One way to judge your listeners’ attention level is through the attention tracking feature that is available in some web conferencing applications. Attention tracking features are indicators next to each attendee’s name on your attendee pane that show you if the person has an app other than the web conference at the forefront of their screen.

An effective presentation is all about being prepared. Simplify your presentation slides so they’re easy to follow, test out all your tech, and have backups for any unexpected mishaps. It’s also helpful to provide your online presentation in a quiet space and limit the distractions around you. Don’t forget to make eye contact and keep your audience engaged. Whether in the office or at home, following these simple tips will help you provide a flawless online presentation that informs and engages your audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what should you know before giving an online presentation.

Simplify the slides of your online presentation.  Think about what the priority points are that you want to get across. Too much information on presentation slides can be overwhelming and distracting for viewers. Keep it simple by using less text and more visuals.

Save your presentation.  Send it to yourself or a friend before the presentation to have a backup in case of technical difficulties.

Practice using the web conference platform.  Get familiar with the platform you will be using, which will help you avoid any technical issues and make you more comfortable during the presentation.

2. How do you start an online presentation?

When starting an online presentation, engaging your audience from the beginning is essential. You can ask questions, tell a story, or provide an overview of what you'll be discussing. Additionally, ensure your introduction is clear and concise so your audience knows what to expect.

3. What are the skills required for online presentations?

The most important presentation skill required for an online presentation is being able to engage with your audience and hold their attention throughout.

A version of this article was originally published on April 16, 2020.

Photo: Getty Images

Trending Content

How to Give a Great Presentation

If you get a room of people together and ask them what their biggest fears are, someone is bound to answer with these two terrifying words: public speaking.

By: Emily Dexter & Jake Hreha

If you get a room of people together and ask them what their biggest fears are, someone is bound to answer with these two terrifying words: public speaking. For many of us, standing at the front of a room – or sitting alone in front of a Zoom screen – can be nerve-wracking. That’s okay. Whether it comes naturally to you or not, you have what it takes to give a great presentation!

Great speakers know the importance and value they bring to a presentation. Great presenters can take a boring topic and make it interesting with well practiced public speaking skills. Most presentations lose the audience because the speaker was not able to capture their attention not because the material was boring. Through practice and preparation your communication skills can develop. You can become a better presenter who can make complex ideas easy to understand.

Remember, good presenters are human too and use presentation skills that are available to you. Here are four tips for your next presentation:

1. Preparation is everything.

Yes, you do need to rehearse your presentation ahead of time if you want to be at your best. Talk through your presentation aloud, maybe in front of a mirror or a trusted friend. This can help you cut back on using filler words when you feel nervous. You can also do a video recording of your presentation to help you see what the audience will experience. Also, gather any materials you’ll need for the big day. This practice helps you make sure your core message and key points are clear. Public speaking isn't as scary when you've rehearsed your message.

2. Use strong visual aids.

The purpose of visual aids is right there in the name: you want visuals that  aid  your presentation. Feel free to use images, charts, maps, and whatever other graphics will add value to your presentation. Just don’t add too much text to your slides; if your audience is busy reading big chunks of text on the screen, they won’t pay as much attention to the words you’re saying. If you do plan on adding text use short phrases or bullet points. World class presenters use visual aids to add to the presentation not take away from it.

For some extra flair, you can browse templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides on  SlidesCarnival  and  Slidesgo . Presentation software can be a great aid for a better presentation.

3. Keep your audience engaged.

Effective visuals will help keep your audience interested in your presentation. Here are more ways to boost engagement:

• Check your body language. Do you look confident and approachable?
• Make an emotional connection with the audience. Stories can include humor, triumph, or solemn tones to build that connection.
• Let your audience know what point you’re at in your presentation.
• Make sure the audience knows when the Q&A session starts and what to expect from this time.
• Consider providing your contact information, so people can connect with you later.

4. Make them glad they came.

You want your audience to leave feeling like they gained something from the time they spent with you – whether that’s knowledge, insight, inspiration, etc. A great step toward this goal is to state a clear objective for your presentation at the beginning of your time together, and a clear call to action at the end. A great presenter knows the importance of leading the audience through a presentation. Doing this will help attendees to answer two key questions:

• What is the purpose of this presentation?
• And what should audience members know or do after it’s over?

Bonus: How to Apply these Tips to a Zoom Presentation

Here are some ways you can apply these same four tips for a great virtual presentation:

In addition to rehearsing your presentation, make sure to test your lighting and audio before the Zoom meeting begins. You’ll also want to be familiar with Zoom’s controls. This  free cheat sheet from Lea Pica  includes some tips for mastering Zoom’s settings and keyboard shortcuts.

Make your slides even simpler than you normally would, so you don’t distract or overwhelm your audience. Also, have a clutter-free background behind you on screen.

You’ve probably been stuck in a Zoom meeting that seems to drag on forever, one you can’t wait to get out of. Here are ways to avoid that awful feeling:

• Just like in person, body language matters! Smile and talk with your hands. Maybe try standing up so you have more room to move around.
• Make eye contact. If this is a struggle for you, try putting something interesting near your computer’s camera, to attract your attention.
• Slow down! It’s easy to rush through your presentation over Zoom.
• Use Zoom’s chat feature, polls, and reactions. Consider assigning a colleague to keep an eye on the chat for you.

Whether in-person or online, you want your presentation to offer value to attendees. Be warm and welcoming, and think about what kind of presentation will be most helpful for your audience.

Finally, remember – you’ve got this!

For more tips and advice for your school or work career, check out the rest of the  IWU - National & Global blog.

Emily Dexter

Copywriting and marketing assistant, iwu-national and global, emily dexter is currently a senior at indiana wesleyan university, where she majors in english and writing. she is passionate about all things literary, and in her free time enjoys reading good books, attempting new art projects, and exploring the natural world., seo copywriter, iwu.

Jake Hreha is a graduate of Ball State University, where he majored in advertising with a concentration in media presentation and design. He is passionate about design, and in his free time he enjoys cycling, traveling, and reading.

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What Is Public Speaking? Why Is It Important? (Definition + Tips)

What is public speaking? In this article, you'll learn what speaking in public is about and the importance of public speaking in business.

If you’ve been asked to give a public speech, you may wonder: what is public speaking and why is public speaking important? Those questions are quite logical if you’ve never thought much about public speaking before.

Public speaking is important in business, education, and the public arena. There are many benefits to speaking in public, whether you’re an individual or a business.

In this article, we’ll define public speaking for you. We’ll discuss the importance of public speaking in general. We’ll also cover the importance of public speaking in business. Plus, we’ll share some resources to help you become a better public speaker. This includes some public speaking examples.

Also, if you want to pursue speaking in public yourself, download our free eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It’ll help you master the complete presentation process.

What Is Public Speaking & Why It’s Important (Quickstart Video)

If you’re reading this, you’re probably asking the question “ what is public speaking “? You may even be faced with the prospect of creating a public speech yourself.

Or maybe you just want to know “ why is public speaking important “? Whatever your situation, we’ve got you covered with this short video that gives a public speaking definition and provides you with some tips to make a better public speech.

To learn even more about public speaking and why it’s important, study the written tutorial below.

A Public Speaking Definition

So what exactly is public speaking? Basically, it’s a presentation that’s given live before an audience. Public speeches can cover a wide variety of different topics. The goal of the speech may be to educate, entertain, or influence the listeners. Often, visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow are used to supplement the speech. This makes it more interesting to the listeners.

A quality public communication definition should explain how it’s different from an online presentation, which is why we’ll cover it here. Here’s a description of some of the differences:

• A public speaking presentation is different from an online presentation because an online presentation is available any time. A public speech is typically limited to a specific time or place.
• Online presentations often use slideshows or pre-recorded videos of a speaker. (This includes recordings of a live public speaking presentation).

Because speaking in public is done before a live audience, you need to consider some special factors. We’ll touch on those shortly.

Now that you’ve got an understanding of the meaning of public speaking, let’s take a quick look at the history of (and the importance of) public speaking.

A History of Public Speaking

What is the history of public speaking? And why is public speaking important?

There’s a good chance that there’s been public speech, in one form or another, as long as there’ve been people. But most public speaking experts involved with public speaking in business communication trace the origins of modern public speaking back to ancient Greece and Rome.

Of course, those societies didn’t have slideshows, but they did have a need for speaking in public. As a result, they developed public speaking methods that are still studied today.

The ancient Greeks used public speech primarily to praise or persuade others. At one point, all Greek citizens had the right to suggest or oppose laws during their assemblies. This resulted in a need for skilled public speakers. Speaking in public became a desirable skill and was taught. Public speaking in the time of the Greeks was called rhetoric. Later, when Rome came to power, speaking in public was used during the Roman senate sessions. The Romans adopted the public speaking rhetoric methods of the Greeks. In fact, most public speaking teachers of the time were Greek.

The Latin style of public speaking was popular in the U.S. and Europe until the mid-20th century . After World War II, a less formal and more conversational speaking style of speaking became popular. Also, electronic tools became available to enhance public presentations.

Towards the end of the 20th century, electronic tools migrated to the computer. They evolved into the computer software tools, like PowerPoint , that we know and use today.

Don’t be fooled, though. Even though today’s public speeches are less formal, they still need to be well organized. More on that later. Now, let’s take a look at the importance of public speaking.

The Importance of Public Speaking

If you ask most people, they’ll probably say they don’t like public speech. They may even admit to being afraid of it since fear of public speaking is very common. Or they may just be shy or introverted. For those reasons, many people avoid speaking in public if they can. If you’re one of those people who avoid speaking in public, you’re missing out.

You may be wondering, “What is public communication and how can it benefit me?” Over the years, public speaking in communication has played a major role in education, government, and business. Words have the power to inform, persuade, educate, and even entertain. And the spoken word can be even more powerful than the written word in the hands of the right speaker.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a student, you’ll benefit from improving your public speaking skills. Some benefits of speaking in public include:

• improves confidence
• better research skills
• stronger deductive skills
• ability to advocate for causes

Speaking in public is especially important for businesses to market their offers. This allows them to get their message in front of potential customers. Salespeople and executives are often expected to have good public speaking skills. To learn more about some of the benefits of speaking in public, review this article .

Next, let’s explore the methods you can use to become better at speaking in public.

How to Become Better at Public Speaking (5 Quick Tips)

Okay, so now you understand the benefits of public speaking. You might be a little more interested in the topic. Still, you might think it’s not for you. Maybe you gave a speech once and it didn’t go well. Maybe you’re afraid of speaking in public. Or maybe you think you don’t have a natural ability for giving speeches.

The truth is that speaking in public is a skill. And you can learn any skill. While some people may have more natural speaking ability than others, anyone can learn to be a better public speaker. It just takes some know-how and some effort.

To help you become better at giving public speeches, we’ll take a look at these five areas:

• writing the speech
• overcoming a fear of speaking
• practicing the speech
• preparing your presentation slide designs
• giving the speech

We’ll start with writing the speech.

1. Write an Effective Speech

The first thing you’ll want to do is work on writing a well-organized, engaging speech. Even a great speaking voice or a great deal of charisma isn’t enough if your material isn’t any good.

Specifically, it’s crucial to research your audience beforehand so that you can target your speech directly to them as much as possible. Become familiar with their wants and needs, as well as any problems you can solve for them. This will drive the actual topic that you actually select for your speech, as well as how you research it.

The more research you do, the easier writing your speech will be.

2. Overcome the Fear of Speaking

Fear of public speaking is very real and can hold you back if you let it. If you don’t feel confident when giving your speech, your listeners may pick up on that. This can make your presentation less effective.

Fortunately, there are some techniques to help manage the fear of speaking in public. They also help you become more confident.

First, let’s tackle fear of public speaking. If you’ve already written an effective speech, then you’ve already taken an important first step. The more familiar you are with your speech, the less worried you’ll be on presentation day.

Besides knowing your topic well, be sure to practice, practice, practice! And remember that if you do make any mistakes on presentation day, it’ll be less obvious to your audience than you think.

Next, let’s work on improving your confidence.

3. Practice the Speech

Even if you’re not afraid of speaking in public, practice helps you give a more effective speech. If you’re in a rush, you may be tempted to skip practicing your speech to save time. While skipping practice may seem like a good idea, it’s really not.

Practicing your speech improves your public presentation skills. It also increases your familiarity with the presentation. As a result, your speech will go smoothly. You can go over this handy checklist to help you practice your speech.

4. Prepare Your Presentation Slide Designs

Your slide design needs to be on point. You’ll want to make sure it looks professional and is easy to read. Luckily, you can find plenty of modern and professional presentation templates on Envato Elements.

You’ll also want to download The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations eBook now. Download it for FREE with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. Learn how to get your ideas formed into a powerful presentation that’ll move your audience.

Don’t forget to make good use of tools like PowerPoint , Google Slides , or Keynote . The right template for your slide deck can make a huge difference in your presentation.

5. Give the Speech

You’ve written a good speech. You feel more confident about giving a speech in public, and you’ve practiced. You’re ready to actually give the speech. There are some tips and tricks you can use on the day of your speech to make it go more smoothly, though.

Remember, you’re giving a presentation before a live audience at a specific place and time. So, you’ve got some concerns about the speaking venue that those who give online presentations don’t have to worry about.

Some common concerns for public speakers include:

• Will the audience be able to hear me?
• Does the venue have the equipment I need?
• Are there enough seats for all my listeners?

Public Speaking Examples

Public speaking examples are great for learning or improving a new skill. That applies to speaking in public as well. If you get the chance to listen to some top-rated public speakers, you should do it. You can observe how other speakers go about giving their speech. In the process, you’ll improve your own speaking skills.

One great source of recorded public speeches is Ted Talks , which is a series of short presentations on a wide variety of topics. Ted Talks are known for attracting world-class and celebrity speakers. You can find my favorite Ted Talks in this article .

The Best Source for Simple PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Use)

Envato Elements is the perfect place to find modern PowerPoint templates . For a single monthly fee, access unlimited downloads of PowerPoint themes, photos, fonts, and other resources to use in your next presentation.

Elements gives you the best bang for your buck. And thanks to the unlimited downloads, you can try out a variety of slide designs as you build out your public speaking PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint templates from Envato Elements have plenty of features to help you create a stunning presentation, such as:

• bold text and title slides to capture audience attention
• rich image placeholders to show off photos and videos
• many infographic elements and charts to visualize data
• plenty of customization options to make the template your own

Thanks to these templates, you’ll be able to create a modern, standout presentation to go with your public speech.

5 Modern PowerPoint Templates From Envato Elements

1. minimalism clean powerpoint presentation.

Try this template if you’re looking for a clean and simple PowerPoint slide design. The template features a versatile layout. Use it for any type of presentation or topic. It includes 50+ unique slide designs, tons of customization options, and vector elements. The template was designed in widescreen format.

2. Kaspa PowerPoint Presentation

The Kaspa PowerPoint template has a modern and trendy design. It’s best suited for presentations that need a lot of photos to share information. The template can be customized completely. It comes with slide animations and transitions. The template also includes vector icons.

3. Guava PowerPoint

The Guava PowerPoint has a dramatic, yet elegant design. You’ll notice dark image overlays and elegant typography that makes your message stand out. The template comes with 50+ unique designs, image placeholders, and master slides. It was designed in widescreen resolution.

4. Dauna Minimalist PowerPoint

The Dauna template is another minimalist PowerPoint design. It works well for any type of business presentation. You’ll find 30 unique slides and two color variations. The template comes with image placeholders and plenty of customization options.

5. Pastelize Colorful Business PowerPoint Presentation

If you’re looking for a colorful and bold PowerPoint, the Pastelize template is the perfect choice. The template includes many slide designs, three color variations and color themes, and image placeholders.

Make Great Presentations ( Free PDF eBook Download )

We also have the perfect complement to this tutorial, which will walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully.

Download our new eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It’s available for free with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.

What Is Public Speaking? Now You Know! Time to Get Work on Your Next Speech

So what is public communication in terms of what it can do for you, your career, or your business?

In a nutshell, a world of potential! In this article, we defined public speaking and why it’s so important in your business. Hopefully, the public speaking meaning we explored will help dispel any fear you may have.

We discussed a thorough public communication definition so that you can be adequately prepared for your next speech. Besides the public speaking definition, you learned a bit about the history of public speaking and how it evolved to modern standards today.

We also shared some helpful tools to help you learn how to give a public speech and provided you with a source for good public speaking examples that you can learn from.

You should now be ready to grow as a public speaker. Be sure to check out the sleek PowerPoint templates on Envato Elements as you prepare for your next speech. You’ll find a ton of inspiration for your next presentation!

So go ahead. Write that public speech and give it. You’ll be glad you did!

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What To Know About Identity Theft

Learn what identity theft is, how to protect yourself against it, and how to know if someone stole your identity.

What Is Identity Theft?

How to protect yourself against identity theft, how to know if someone stole your identity, monitoring services, recovery services, and identity theft insurance.

Identity theft is when someone uses your personal or financial information without your permission.

They might steal your name and address, credit card, or bank account numbers, Social Security number, or medical insurance account numbers. And they could use them to

• buy things with your credit cards
• get new credit cards in your name
• open a phone, electricity, or gas account in your name
• steal your tax refund
• use your health insurance to get medical care
• pretend to be you if they are arrested

Taking steps to protect your personal information can help you avoid identity theft. Here’s what you can do to stay ahead of identity thieves.

Protect documents that have personal information

If you get statements with personal information in the mail, take your mail out of the mailbox as soon as you can.

Ask questions before giving out your Social Security number

Some organizations need your Social Security number to identify you. Those organizations include the IRS, your bank, and your employer. Organizations like these that do need your Social Security number won’t call, email, or text you to ask for it.

Other organizations that might ask you for your Social Security number might not really need it. Those organizations include a medical provider, a company, or your child’s school. Ask these questions before you give them your Social Security number:

• Why do you need it?
• How will you protect it?
• Can you use a different identifier?
• Can you use just the last four digits of my Social Security number?

Protect your information from scammers online and on your phone

If you’re logging in to an online account, use a strong password .

Add multi-factor authentication for accounts that offer it. Multi-factor authentication offers extra security by requiring two or more credentials to log in to your account. The additional credentials you need to log in to your account fall into two categories: something you have — like a passcode you get via text message or an authentication app, or something you are — like a scan of your fingerprint, your retina, or your face. Multi-factor authentication makes it harder for scammers to log in to your accounts if they do get your username and password.

Do not give your personal information to someone who calls, emails, or texts you. It could be a scammer trying to steal your information .

Watch  5 Ways To Help Protect Your Identity .

In addition to taking steps to protect your information, it pays to know how to tell if someone stole your identity . There are things you can do yourself to detect identity theft. There also are companies that sell credit and identity monitoring services.

What you can do to detect identity theft

Here’s what you can do to spot identity theft:

• Track what bills you owe and when they’re due. If you stop getting a bill, that could be a sign that someone changed your billing address.
• Review your bills.  Charges for things you didn’t buy could be a sign of identity theft. So could a new bill you didn’t expect.
• Check your bank account statement.  Withdrawals you didn’t make could be a sign of identity theft.
• Get and review your credit reports.  Accounts in your name that you don’t recognize could be a sign of identity theft. Here’s how you can get your free credit reports .

(View or share the  YouTube version of the video. )

If you discover that someone is misusing your personal information, visit IdentityTheft.gov to report and recover from identity theft.

Many companies sell identity theft protection services that may include credit monitoring, identity monitoring, identity recovery services, and identity theft insurance. These services also might be offered by your

• bank or credit union
• credit card provider
• employer’s benefits program
• insurance company

Credit monitoring services

Credit monitoring services scan activity that shows up on your credit reports. They might monitor activity at one, two, or all three of the major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Credit monitoring services will usually alert you when

• a company checks your credit history
• a new loan or credit card account appears on your credit reports
• a creditor or debt collector says your payment is late
• public records show that you filed for bankruptcy
• someone files a lawsuit against you
• your credit limit changes
• your personal information, like your name, address, or phone number, changes

Credit monitoring services will not alert you when

• someone withdraws money from your bank account
• someone uses your Social Security number to file a tax return and collect your refund

If you’re considering using a credit monitoring service, here are some questions you can ask them:

• How often do you check credit reports for changes?
• Which of the three credit bureaus do you monitor?
• Is there a limit to how often I can review my credit reports?
• Will I be charged each time I review my credit reports?
• Are other services included, like access to my credit score?

Identity monitoring services

Companies that offer identity monitoring services check databases that collect different types of information to see if they contain new or inaccurate information about you. Those could be a sign that someone is using your personal information. These services can detect uses of your personal information that won’t show up on your credit report.

Identity monitoring services may tell you when your information shows up in

• a change of address request
• court or arrest records
• orders for new utility, cable, or wireless services
• an application for a payday loan
• a request to cash a check
• on social media
• on websites that identity thieves use to trade stolen information

Most identity monitoring services will not alert you if someone uses your information to

• file a tax return and collect your refund
• get Medicare benefits
• get Medicaid benefits
• get welfare benefits
• claim Social Security benefits
• claim unemployment benefits

Identity recovery services

Companies that sell credit and identity monitoring services also may offer identity recovery services to help you fix any damage caused by identity theft. These services may be included or cost extra. Some of the services they offer may be things you can do on your own for little or no cost.

Identity recovery services typically give you access to counselors or case managers who will help you recover your identity. They may

• help you write letters to creditors and debt collectors
• place a freeze on your credit report to prevent an identity thief from opening new accounts in your name
• guide you through documents you have to review

Some services will represent you in dealing with creditors or other institutions if you formally grant them authority to act on your behalf.

Identity theft insurance

Companies that sell monitoring services also may offer identity theft insurance. These services may be included or cost extra.

Identity theft insurance may cover

• the cost of copying documents
• postage costs for sending documents
• costs for getting documents notarized
• wages you lost
• legal fees you paid

Identity theft insurance generally won’t reimburse you for money stolen or financial loss resulting from the theft. Most policies won’t pay if your loss is covered by your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. If you’re considering getting identity theft insurance, ask about the deductible and find out what’s covered and what isn’t.

Find out how to recognize the signs of medical identity theft , tax identity theft , and child identity theft .

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Introducing Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac

New Capabilities for Understanding and Creating Language

Image Playground Makes Communication and Self‑Expression Even More Fun

Genmoji Creation to Fit Any Moment

New Features in Photos Give Users More Control

Siri Enters a New Era

A New Standard for Privacy in AI

ChatGPT Gets Integrated Across Apple Platforms

Text of this article

June 10, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

Setting a new standard for privacy in AI, Apple Intelligence understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced Apple Intelligence , the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant. Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. It harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. With Private Cloud Compute, Apple sets a new standard for privacy in AI, with the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.

“We’re thrilled to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our unique approach combines generative AI with a user’s personal context to deliver truly helpful intelligence. And it can access that information in a completely private and secure way to help users do the things that matter most to them. This is AI as only Apple can deliver it, and we can’t wait for users to experience what it can do.”

Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to enhance their writing and communicate more effectively. With brand-new systemwide Writing Tools built into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing. With Rewrite, Apple Intelligence allows users to choose from different versions of what they have written, adjusting the tone to suit the audience and task at hand. From finessing a cover letter, to adding humor and creativity to a party invitation, Rewrite helps deliver the right words to meet the occasion. Proofread checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure while also suggesting edits — along with explanations of the edits — that users can review or quickly accept. With Summarize, users can select text and have it recapped in the form of a digestible paragraph, bulleted key points, a table, or a list.

In Mail, staying on top of emails has never been easier. With Priority Messages, a new section at the top of the inbox shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day dinner invitation or boarding pass. Across a user’s inbox, instead of previewing the first few lines of each email, they can see summaries without needing to open a message. For long threads, users can view pertinent details with just a tap. Smart Reply provides suggestions for a quick response, and will identify questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.

Deep understanding of language also extends to Notifications. Priority Notifications appear at the top of the stack to surface what’s most important, and summaries help users scan long or stacked notifications to show key details right on the Lock Screen, such as when a group chat is particularly active. And to help users stay present in what they’re doing, Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus that surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention, like a text about an early pickup from daycare.

In the Notes and Phone apps, users can now record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points.

Apple Intelligence powers exciting image creation capabilities to help users communicate and express themselves in new ways. With Image Playground, users can create fun images in seconds, choosing from three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. Image Playground is easy to use and built right into apps including Messages. It’s also available in a dedicated app, perfect for experimenting with different concepts and styles. All images are created on device, giving users the freedom to experiment with as many images as they want.

With Image Playground, users can choose from a range of concepts from categories like themes, costumes, accessories, and places; type a description to define an image; choose someone from their personal photo library to include in their image; and pick their favorite style.

With the Image Playground experience in Messages, users can quickly create fun images for their friends, and even see personalized suggested concepts related to their conversations. For example, if a user is messaging a group about going hiking, they’ll see suggested concepts related to their friends, their destination, and their activity, making image creation even faster and more relevant.

In Notes, users can access Image Playground through the new Image Wand in the Apple Pencil tool palette, making notes more visually engaging. Rough sketches can be turned into delightful images, and users can even select empty space to create an image using context from the surrounding area. Image Playground is also available in apps like Keynote, Freeform, and Pages, as well as in third-party apps that adopt the new Image Playground API.

Taking emoji to an entirely new level, users can create an original Genmoji to express themselves. By simply typing a description, their Genmoji appears, along with additional options. Users can even create Genmoji of friends and family based on their photos. Just like emoji, Genmoji can be added inline to messages, or shared as a sticker or reaction in a Tapback.

Searching for photos and videos becomes even more convenient with Apple Intelligence. Natural language can be used to search for specific photos, such as “Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt,” or “Katie with stickers on her face.” Search in videos also becomes more powerful with the ability to find specific moments in clips so users can go right to the relevant segment. Additionally, the new Clean Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.

With Memories, users can create the story they want to see by simply typing a description. Using language and image understanding, Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos based on the description, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc. Users will even get song suggestions to match their memory from Apple Music. As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on device and are not shared with Apple or anyone else.

Powered by Apple Intelligence, Siri becomes more deeply integrated into the system experience. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri is more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. It can follow along if users stumble over words and maintain context from one request to the next. Additionally, users can type to Siri, and switch between text and voice to communicate with Siri in whatever way feels right for the moment. Siri also has a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when Siri is active.

Siri can now give users device support everywhere they go, and answer thousands of questions about how to do something on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Users can learn everything from how to schedule an email in the Mail app, to how to switch from Light to Dark Mode.

With onscreen awareness, Siri will be able to understand and take action with users’ content in more apps over time. For example, if a friend texts a user their new address in Messages, the receiver can say, “Add this address to his contact card.”

With Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. For example, a user could say, “Bring up that article about cicadas from my Reading List,” or “Send the photos from the barbecue on Saturday to Malia,” and Siri will take care of it.

Siri will be able to deliver intelligence that’s tailored to the user and their on-device information. For example, a user can say, “Play that podcast that Jamie recommended,” and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text or an email. Or they could ask, “When is Mom’s flight landing?” and Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.

To be truly helpful, Apple Intelligence relies on understanding deep personal context while also protecting user privacy. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing, and many of the models that power it run entirely on device. To run more complex requests that require more processing power, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence.

With Private Cloud Compute, Apple Intelligence can flex and scale its computational capacity and draw on larger, server-based models for more complex requests. These models run on servers powered by Apple silicon, providing a foundation that allows Apple to ensure that data is never retained or exposed.

Independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to verify privacy, and Private Cloud Compute cryptographically ensures that iPhone, iPad, and Mac do not talk to a server unless its software has been publicly logged for inspection. Apple Intelligence with Private Cloud Compute sets a new standard for privacy in AI, unlocking intelligence users can trust.

Apple is integrating ChatGPT access into experiences within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, allowing users to access its expertise — as well as its image- and document-understanding capabilities — without needing to jump between tools.

Siri can tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when helpful. Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly.

Additionally, ChatGPT will be available in Apple’s systemwide Writing Tools, which help users generate content for anything they are writing about. With Compose, users can also access ChatGPT image tools to generate images in a wide variety of styles to complement what they are writing.

Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account.

ChatGPT will come to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this year, powered by GPT-4o. Users can access it for free without creating an account, and ChatGPT subscribers can connect their accounts and access paid features right from these experiences.

Availability

Apple Intelligence is free for users, and will be available in beta as part of iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , and macOS Sequoia  this fall in U.S. English. Some features, software platforms, and additional languages will come over the course of the next year. Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to U.S. English. For more information, visit apple.com/apple-intelligence .

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