I watched several excellent presenters today at The Presentation Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. As an audience member, I was struck by something that I would not have given much thought to in the “good old days” of my product marketing life when I attended conferences all the time.
I have become completely spoiled by the absence of sight line problems in webinars. No matter how big my virtual audience may be, I know that every attendee has the best seat in the house. And that they are able to see every element of my slide at all times.
That is a luxury I longed for while sitting in the hotel conference rooms here. I found myself craning to see around the head of the person sitting in front of me. If the presenter stood in one place for any significant amount of time, I found myself straining to see what he or she was blocking on the slide. And when something important was placed at the bottom of a slide, I felt frustrated that it was blocked by all the audience members sitting in the rows farther forward.
Enjoy the privilege of using your entire slide space in a webinar. What you design is what the audience sees. How novel!