Last week I delivered a 3.5 hour training session to a group remotely using Zoom. I was in my office and they were all in a room at their location watching on a big screen. I tested a delivery method that revealed a lesson for those who deliver presentations in a hybrid meeting.
I started the session using the new Zoom layouts sharing option where my video is beside the slides I am sharing. I had resized the video window to be smaller in the top left with the slide taking up most of the display on the right. After I finished the agenda, I switched to just sharing my slides.
After the first break, the room moderator said that a number of people had requested that I go back to having my video beside the slides. They said the slides were large enough on the big screen and since they also had my slides in their handout, they found it more engaging with my video on the screen. I switched back for the rest of the session.
Here’s the lesson I learned and one that all hybrid meeting presenters should consider: Audiences connect better when they see you on the screen. In an all-virtual meeting they can see your video on their screen, but a hybrid meeting is different. They won’t see the little video panel because it is so small. If they have a Zoom room system it may only show the shared content.
If you are remote and presenting to a group in the meeting room, use the Zoom layout where you can put your video beside your shared content. This is much more engaging for the audience. They can see your facial expressions and connect better with what you are saying.
If you haven’t heard about this new Zoom feature or you haven’t tried it yet, here’s my video on how to use it.
If your organization uses Teams, it also offers this type of option called Presenter Modes. I have an article and video on the modes and an article and video on the options for changing the size of the video and the shared content.
Increase audience engagement when presenting remotely in a hybrid meeting by using these options to place your video beside your slides.
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.