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Stephane Guiblin

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Making the most of web conferencing

By on October 22 2007

If you’re hosting a virtual meeting, you can’t stop your attendees surfing the web, instant messaging, or succumbing to a myriad of other distractions. But you can maximise your chances of keeping them engaged, explains Stephane Guiblin, product manager at online communications specialist Premiere Global Services.

1. Make an impact
If your presentation has nothing to make it stand out, your audience is unlikely to remember it. Surprise them.

2. Keep it short
People lose concentration quickly, especially when they are listening to someone who’s 100 miles away. A maximum of half an hour for the presentation and the same amount of time for a Q&A session is recommended.

3. Interact
Web conferencing makes interaction easy. Presenters can ask questions, send out quick polls, or even allow attendees to create and edit documents.

4. Entertain
For those who can pull it off, humour or pithy anecdotes have the double benefit of relaxing your listeners and holding their attention.

5. Show, don’t tell
Wherever possible, use imagery to get your points across, whether that’s photos, charts or even cartoons. Keep text to a minimum, though, because people will tend to read that instead of listening to you.

6. Share the limelight
Giving members of your audience parts of the presentation to deliver or respond to is a great way to keep everyone involved. It can also offer some valuable insights.

7. Use the web
Your audience is hooked up to the internet, so rather than trying to describe your latest web service using Powerpoint, take them directly to the web page and show it in action.

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