WEBVTT - Everyone has an aisle seat 

0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:14.840
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:20.040
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about how to give better virtual presentations.

0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.520
<v Speaker 1>The most important thing to remember is that when you

0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:28.720
<v Speaker 1>are presenting virtually, everyone has the equivalent of an aisle seat.

0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.240
<v Speaker 1>You have to work a little bit harder to keep

0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.720
<v Speaker 1>them sitting there. When the pandemic swept through the world

0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.800
<v Speaker 1>last year, almost all in person conferences, workshops and classes

0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.680
<v Speaker 1>were canceled. A year later, these are slowly resuming, but

0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.760
<v Speaker 1>many people are still delivering a lot of their content virtually,

0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.480
<v Speaker 1>and you know what, that is not a bad thing.

0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.240
<v Speaker 1>There are some real upsides to not trying to convene

0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.200
<v Speaker 1>many people in one place. You save money on travel,

0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.680
<v Speaker 1>you don't pump so much carbon into the atmosphere, people

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.480
<v Speaker 1>don't have to work out complicated childcare logistics, and people

0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.000
<v Speaker 1>who might not have been able to attend because of

0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:18.040
<v Speaker 1>family or health issues can participate as easily as the unencumbered.

0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.520
<v Speaker 1>For all these reasons, I suspect many conferences will continue

0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.440
<v Speaker 1>to have virtual components, and some conferences that began over

0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:32.640
<v Speaker 1>the past year will always be virtual. However, as many

0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.840
<v Speaker 1>teachers have found over the last year keeping people engaged

0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:42.160
<v Speaker 1>through virtual presentations is just harder when you are all

0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.720
<v Speaker 1>sitting in an auditorium together. It's not that easy to

0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.680
<v Speaker 1>stand up from an interior seat, cross over all of

0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.760
<v Speaker 1>your fellow attendees, and walk down the aisle to the

0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.560
<v Speaker 1>door while someone is presenting. You're probably also not going

0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.560
<v Speaker 1>to multitask by taking a phone caller a thing like that.

0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.120
<v Speaker 1>From an auditorium, you aren't staring at a pile of

0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.760
<v Speaker 1>laundry that needs to be put away. But in a

0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.920
<v Speaker 1>virtual context, it is easy to turn your camera off

0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.359
<v Speaker 1>and do something else. If you aren't engaged, you can

0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:20.720
<v Speaker 1>exit without anyone really noticing. The result is that with

0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:25.160
<v Speaker 1>virtual presentations, everyone has the equivalent of an aisle seat

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.720
<v Speaker 1>in the back. It is very easy to slip out,

0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.640
<v Speaker 1>So if you are presenting, you need to realize this,

0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.640
<v Speaker 1>and you need to build your presentation with this in mind.

0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:42.200
<v Speaker 1>One of the best options is to be shorter. My

0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.480
<v Speaker 1>standard speech format used to be giving forty to fifty

0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.640
<v Speaker 1>minute keynotes for in person events. Now almost all my

0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.960
<v Speaker 1>virtual speeches are thirty minutes or less. When people only

0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.520
<v Speaker 1>have to sit through a shorter quantity of time, they

0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.280
<v Speaker 1>are less likely to check out. It also help to

0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.640
<v Speaker 1>be more interactive. For my talks, we usually fill the

0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.360
<v Speaker 1>balance of the time with a structured fireside chat. The

0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.240
<v Speaker 1>organizer has some questions queued up ahead of time, and

0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.080
<v Speaker 1>we discuss these topics to gather. Turns out people like

0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.800
<v Speaker 1>to hear other voices, not just one voice talking for

0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.520
<v Speaker 1>a full hour. You can do polls or ask people

0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.120
<v Speaker 1>to answer questions, and having people do exercises or write

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.640
<v Speaker 1>specific things down can redirect someone who is about to

0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.640
<v Speaker 1>wander off to clean out the fridge without putting anyone

0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.080
<v Speaker 1>on the spot. And of course it helps to be

0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.400
<v Speaker 1>animated and to make sure your material is compelling. In general,

0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.560
<v Speaker 1>for speakers that means humor, or it means really good

0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.480
<v Speaker 1>dramatic storytelling. I've seen both work well, so just figure

0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.560
<v Speaker 1>out which best compliments your material. If you are presenting,

0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.040
<v Speaker 1>it helps to be able to see at least one

0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.840
<v Speaker 1>person on your screen who is listening to you, so

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.360
<v Speaker 1>I usually ask to have an organizer or someone else

0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.680
<v Speaker 1>keep their camera on for me. If you can see

0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.200
<v Speaker 1>that person nodding, this can help you emphasize the right things,

0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.880
<v Speaker 1>and if they seem distracted, well may be best to

0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.320
<v Speaker 1>move on to the next topic. They were probably not

0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.320
<v Speaker 1>the only one. When everyone's got an aisle seat, you

0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.600
<v Speaker 1>need to plan things more carefully. Of course, a lot

0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.200
<v Speaker 1>of in person conferences would have benefited from better planning too,

0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.200
<v Speaker 1>but since people couldn't leave as easily, some of that

0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.719
<v Speaker 1>has been more of an afterthought. The shift to virtual

0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.680
<v Speaker 1>learning is forcing us all to rethink many things, but

0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.120
<v Speaker 1>I generally think that that is a positive. We all

0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.680
<v Speaker 1>need to improve that our skills and remembering that everyone

0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.920
<v Speaker 1>has an aisle seat can raise the caliber of any presentation.

0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:00.719
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:10.120
<v Speaker 1>here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,

0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.440
<v Speaker 1>I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.120
<v Speaker 1>your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.560
<v Speaker 1>me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.599
<v Speaker 1>that's b E the number four then Breakfast p o D.

0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.280
<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.760
<v Speaker 1>podcast at i heeart media dot com That Before Breakfast

0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.520
<v Speaker 1>is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:43.760
<v Speaker 1>I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.040
<v Speaker 1>a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.040
<v Speaker 1>I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.160
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.