There is an art to presenting remotely. It is very much NOT the same as presenting in person, and it is worth thinking about it ahead of time. These ideas will help.

First, shorten your presentation. Second, shorten it again.

It is hard to keep people’s attention during a remote presentation. The best option is to shorten your presentation as much as possible, and particularly, cut down the number of slides. You should aim to have just a few that make points—and then just keep it brief.

Build in at least 5 minutes of contingency time for people losing connectivity

It’s annoying, but it happens during remote meetings: people lose connectivity, and miss a bit, and you must go over it again. Build that time in, and make sure that there is still time for questions.

Make your presentation interactive

It is much easier for people to concentrate if you can make your presentation interactive. You can use tools to add short questionnaires to your session or pause and ask a question. It is also helpful to provide regular opportunities to ask questions, rather than waiting until the end.

Top tip! Give people plenty of time to reply

People often take longer to start to talk in remote meetings, because they want to be sure that they are not interrupting someone else.

It may therefore be helpful to allow longer pauses than you would normally expect before you start to speak. It is also worth checking explicitly at the end that nobody else has any questions.

Like any other attendee, get your technology set up in advance

Choose your location, make sure it’s quiet, and get your background set up. Have any slides open and ready to share and know how to do that ahead of time.

If you are going to be making a lot of remote presentations, it may be worth investing in a separate desk microphone, rather than relying on the one on your laptop or PC. The quality of the sound will be better. Using headphones can help as an interim solution.

Before you start, shut down any other windows on your computer

You may need to move between apps during your presentation. Make sure you don’t inadvertently show what you were browsing, or your latest (confidential) report by shutting down any windows that you won’t be using, before starting your presentation.

During the presentation, remember that you are on camera

Unlike a meeting, where you are likely to be at least a metre away from any other attendee—more in a big presentation—you are quite close to your camera. The camera will be focused on your face and head, and you need to look at it, NOT at your monitor, or your notes.

Your hands will be less visible than usual, but your facial expressions more so. You therefore need to think about your body language and other non-verbal communication, and make sure that it is as effective as possible.

Share your presentation afterwards

This is always important—but perhaps even more so with a remote meeting where people may have lost connectivity and not wished to say.