The Webinar Blog

ReadyTalk Users Get An Extension

Last month I wrote about how PGi is migrating all ReadyTalk customers to GlobalMeet. There must have been some pushback from the user community, because I just received a new email stating that "based upon key feedback from our valued customers," ReadyTalk accounts will be able to continue using the platform through the end of 2020.

Interestingly, after a question I posed in that last post, they seem to have provided some additional clarity regarding access to existing ReadyTalk recordings.

"ReadyTalk recordings and reports created on the ReadyTalk platform will remain active and available in your ReadyTalk Conference Center until end of year."

They also included instructions on how to download recordings, so customers should get this process started. You don't want to be spending New Year's Eve in a panic as you attempt to save and store dozens or hundreds of old recordings before they disappear at the stroke of midnight!

Technorati Tags: ReadyTalk,PGi,webinar,web seminar,webcasting,webcast,web conferencing,web conference,web collaboration,online collaboration

Are Your Webinars Changing With The Times?

Behavioral trends have been much on my mind lately. Especially in the ways that they affect the webcast/webinar industry. I believe it's possible that we are witnessing a fundamental shift in what people want from online presentations.

Let's approach it tangentially. Instead of looking at webinars, let's look at other forms of communication. Infographics are the new white paper. Emailing has been replaced by text messaging (more slowly in business than in personal life). Text messages went from full words to abbreviations, then to emojis. YouTube videos got shortened to TikTok snippets. Personal blogs and Facebook text posts have been largely displaced by Instagram pictures. The President of the United States conducts official business primarily by 280-character Twitter posts.

Now, obviously, in none of these cases has the long form disappeared completely. The President still gives a full State of the Union speech in front of Congress. Companies still issue white papers. Employees trade emails. But as an overall trend, people are expressing more and more of a preference for content that is concise, compact, and "consumable at a glance." Many podcast players even have time shifters to speed up playback.

This trend gets reinforced as the workforce naturally replenishes itself with younger members who have grown up expecting the short forms of communication in all areas of their lives. What happens when they find their business careers filled with invitations to listen to hour-long monologues from presenters?

If they sign up at all, they quickly find that the first five minutes are unnecessary filler repeating the session title and topic (which they already know), explanations of how to type questions (which is obvious), and speaker introductions (which are either uninteresting or already provided on the registration landing page). Then they listen to someone speaking at them for 45 minutes, followed by 10 minutes dedicated to long answers to three questions from people they don't know and which may not apply to them.

The response from webinar technology vendors has by-and-large been exhortations to use product features. "Introduce polls to engage and interact with your attendees!" … "Appear on webcam so they can see your face!" The problem is that these fail to address the underlying shift in preferences for how information is consumed.

Forward-thinking companies should be looking for opportunities to shorten their information delivery. How can you separate content into easily digestible "nuggets of information?" Can you craft a series of very short presentations and create a subscription and notification service similar to podcast and Instagram models? Can you emphasize content that is available on demand, with easy indexing markers that let viewers jump to a point of interest?

The fancier aspects of subscription, notification, and indexing may require new feature offerings from webinar technology vendors. It's certainly nothing that can't be done right now, but is still rarely offered. But there are other things you can do today, with no reliance on technology:

• Shorten your 60-minute offerings to 45 minutes. Then try to get them down to 30 minutes.
  
  
• Reduce "fluff" at the beginning and end of your presentations. Concentrate on the information that needs to be communicated, not on the mechanics or housekeeping.
  
  
• Take extra time to edit your recordings. Eliminate pauses, interactive elements, and anything that increases a listener's time requirements without providing a corresponding increase in value.
  
  
• Use the "flipped learning" approach to distribute factual information ahead of time (such as summaries of new laws, regulations, features, etc). Then concentrate the online aspect of your webinars purely on interactive Q&A and deeper explanations of things your audience asks about.
  
  

I want to be clear that there is still a place for long-form, presentation-oriented webinars and webcasts in the business world. There always will be. But they are not needed in as many contexts as they currently get used. Can you better satisfy your audiences (and your presenters!) by reducing time requirements where practical? You may find quite a business benefit by looking for opportunities to do so.

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,webcasting,webcast,web presentation,online presentation,web conference,web conferencing,web event

There Are Only 3 Types Of Presentations

Before you start crafting the first word of your speech, before you start designing the first slide of your visuals, you should be taking the time to explicitly think about what you want to achieve.

There are two sides to that coin, of course. The first is what YOU want to get out of it. This is usually simplistic and obvious:

• I want to get a good grade in class
• I want to attract new customers
• I want people to donate to our non-profit
• I want people to vote for my candidate
• I want people to stop using plastic straws
• I want to become more famous so I can charge higher prices
• I want existing customers to buy more and recommend us

Once you are clear on your ultimate, easily-stated measure of success, you move on to the trickier piece… figuring out how to achieve it with your presentation.

If you look over the examples I jotted down in that bulleted list, you will see that they can be divided into three high-level categories:

• INFLUENCE
• EDUCATE
• ENTERTAIN

That's it. Everything else is a subset.

In the business world, it is quite rare to find education or entertainment as a primary goal for a presentation. School teachers have education as a primary goal. Standup comedians have entertainment as a primary goal. But in 99% of business presentations, the ultimate goal is influence. You want to guide your audience into taking an action that ultimately benefits your business.

This is where so many presentations fall short. The presenter focuses on the education or entertainment aspects and hopes that the influence part will take care of itself.

Consider product training webinars. "Our goal is to better educate our customers about how to use the product more effectively." Hmmm… Doubtful. Your goal is probably to reduce the number of support calls you have to field. Or to encourage greater use so customers will buy more licenses. Or to increase customer retention by making sure they know how to apply the product and understand its competitive differentiators from other offerings that might tempt them.

Of course you are going to USE education as your means to accomplishing the goal. But the education is only important in its role as a facilitator of your primary objective. Which changes WHAT you choose to include in your education and HOW you choose to frame it.

If you are trying to reduce a common type of support call that uses up employee time, you'll highlight training in that area and emphasize how this helps make the listener more self-sufficient. If you are trying to improve customer retention, you pick some areas where you can say "Did you know our product can help you by doing this? It's something you won't find in other products."

The same thing applies to product demos in sales or marketing situations. Your goal in a product demo is not actual training… It's influencing the prospect's perception of your product. Yet sales engineers and product specialists lose track of this objective all the time. They treat the presentation as an education task and go through step-by-step procedural training in their demo: "First you enter your email and your password, which must be 8 characters or more." Instead of linear step-based training demos, work on highlighting the minimum number of features that will positively influence the prospect's appreciation of the product's capabilities and value.

Entertainment as a goal is promoted too frequently by web conferencing software vendors. "You need to be on camera!" "You need to include lots of polls!" It is also a trap that novice slide designers often fall into. "I'll make this text fly in. I'll make this image wiggle and pulse. That'll be entertaining!"

Entertainment as a means to accomplishing business goals typically needs a different definition than the common one. Instead of "providing amusement or enjoyment" in its own right, entertainment can be seen more as a matter of helping people feel that their time is not being wasted and that the presentation is worth paying attention to. The mere presence of a presenter's video feed or an interactive poll is not sufficient. The supplementary materials need to actually support and enhance interest in the presentation. A voice-only monologue can be plenty entertaining, and a poorly-framed, poorly-lit headshot of a nervous presenter on webcam can be useless (or detrimental) to an otherwise good presentation.

A good presentation accomplishes the presenter's goal effectively by zeroing in on the primary objective and matching the structure and delivery style accordingly. A great presentation combines aspects of all three categories to mutually support the objective in a way that brings maximum value to both the presenter and the audience.

Technorati Tags: presentation technique,presentation tips,presenting tips,speaking tips,speaker training,webinar,web seminar,webcasting,webcast,web conferencing,web conference

What I Learned By Presenting To School Kids

I just gave in-room presentations to two classes of high school sophomores. For my readers in other countries, that refers to secondary school students with an average age probably around 15 or so.

I worked very hard to craft a presentation that would grab them and be applicable to their interests, with a quick empathy-building exercise and audience participation. I practiced, refined, and re-practiced my opening until I had it polished, concise, and smooth. I was pumped up and eager to get in there to demonstrate and discuss the aspects of an engaging start to a talk.

My brilliant opening segment… died.

I looked out at a sea of disinterested, bored faces. It took me a couple of minutes to ramp up their engagement AFTER my great opening bit. Everything went fine after that, and I left with a sense that the students had enjoyed the presentation and had learned from it. The second class period was canceled because of weather concerns and I rescheduled to come back and address the second set of students.

That gave me time to think. Why didn't my opening work? Was there something I could fix in that first 90 seconds of talking? I went back over the things I used as ways to connect with the students and get them to care. The first 10 seconds were fine… I created a sense of shared experience in talking about that feeling of "Oh no! I have to give a presentation!"

The next 10 seconds were okay, demonstrating direct applicability of the talk to their interests by referencing the specific presentation assignment their teacher had given them.

It was the next minute where I saw the eyes go blank. I had worked on giving them a reason to care about the tips I would deliver by expressing how the kids would go on to do presentations throughout their schooling, career, and life. My tips would keep giving value long after this year.

I hadn't understood my audience's key drivers and priorities. That opening would have worked for adult audiences. We want to maximize the value of our time investment, recognizing the usefulness of reusing and re-applying concepts in a variety of situations.

But 15-year-olds in school have a very different perspective. There IS no time investment to maximize… they have to be in class no matter what. Attending the talk wasn't a choice they had made.

They may intellectually appreciate that they'll be having a variety of experiences later in life. But they can't connect to that idea emotionally. They haven't experienced those situations of college, career, and life presentations. It's all theoretical.

And then I realized that all day, every day, in class after class, they hear the same thing. "Learn this because it's going to be good for you and it's something you should know."

Adult after adult stands there and pummels them with information. It's overwhelming, leading to a perfectly natural and reasonable attempt to prioritize and focus their attention with the question every teacher hates to hear: "Is this going to be on the test?" Students are honestly puzzled when they get a negative reaction and some platitude about how they should be learning for the sake of learning. Knowing whether something is going to be on the test is the ultimate arbiter of what gets to take top of mind position among all the knowledge being flung in their direction.

As soon as I understood the mindset of my audience, I understood how to fix my opening. I didn't need new slides. All I needed to do was to reframe the "why you should care" setup in my opening.

"I know what you're thinking… Is this going to be on the test? Forget it. You don't have to memorize anything for a test. Instead, I'm going to just give you the whole freakin' answer key! If you listen up, I'm going to tell you EXACTLY how to get a good grade on your presentation assignment coming up."

I kid you not… I had to pause as the room erupted in cheers and 'woop woop' noises. I was astonished. There they were, fully engaged, enthused, and leaning forward to listen.

The rest of the talk went as well as in the first class, but that initial boost in enthusiasm continued to pay dividends to me as a speaker. The students in the second class were quite simply happier about taking part in the exercise. They smiled more and at the end they asked me if I had YouTube or TikTok videos of my presentations. They said, "You should go viral!" I got a big hand as I left the room.

LESSON? Spend extra time thinking about the point of view and the priority drivers of your audience members. They may not be coming at your topic from the same set of experiences, prior knowledge, or value-determinants that you use. What can you say in your first two minutes of talking that establishes a reason FOR THEM to pay attention and get involved in the subject? Make it clear. Make it explicit. Make yourself an indispensable agent in satisfying their needs. You'll love the results.

Technorati Tags: presentation tips,speaking tips,presentation skills,presenter training,speaker training

The Mirror Trick For Practicing A Presentation

I was putting together an educational presentation last week designed to help students with their communication skills. In my search for slide images to back up my concepts, I happened upon the following image:

This was on someone's Pinterest page, with no source attribution. I did a Google reverse image search and couldn't find any other instances, so I can't properly reference the creator.

I instantly appreciated the concept for presenters. Imagine you have a live presentation to a local audience coming up. You have gathered your facts, structured your speech, and built your notes. Now you want to work on your delivery style and memorization so you can confidently and smoothly address your audience.

Buy a dry erase marker (Expo is the biggest name. Here's a cheap knock-off with an included eraser on Amazon.) MAKE SURE IT IS LABELED DRY ERASE!!!

Write your keywords and brief facts on the mirror with the marker. Now you can keep your reminders right in front of you while you practice your delivery, watching your body language, facial expressions, and movement. Once you feel comfortable with a section, start erasing your reminders. Practice that piece again. Are you remembering everything you wanted to say? Erase everything and try it one more time. Now you can move on to another section of your talk, writing new prompts on your "teleprompter."

Once you feel comfortable with each section of your talk, you can practice the whole thing, writing brief "section headers" on the mirror to remind you of the overall order and main content pieces.

Forgetting some of your facts? Write them up there and try again. Practicing in this manner builds "muscle memory" for getting used to looking forward at your audience instead of cheating glances downward to look at written notes or having to read your facts off your slides. You'll feel much more comfortable and assured when you get out in front of the room.

Just promise me you won't get mixed up and buy a permanent marker by mistake.

Technorati Tags: presentation tips,presentation technique,speaking tips,presenter training,speaker training

Featuring Feet At A Presentation Fete

Doug Neff of presentation specialist firm Duarte just wrote a short advice column providing Tips for Kids on How To Nail Presentations in the Classroom.

I salute Doug for his efforts. I think such advice is great and benefits future generations of people who will grow to be more effective and successful at incorporating effective presentation skills into their business and professional lives. I wrote a similar column a year ago, focusing on different aspects. I like Doug's layout a lot more than my dense text version!

This type of advice is much on my mind this week as I prepare to deliver presentation tips to high school students at a school near me. What struck me is that Doug and I have diametrically opposed advice on one small issue… What to do with your feet.

I'll bet if we met to talk it out, we would both agree that we are actually on the same page philosophically. But there is an inherent danger in trying to distill subtle presentation coaching down to quick "sound bite" pearls of wisdom.

To be specific, Doug wrote:

"For most of your presentation, keep your feet still, like you stepped on two big pieces of bubble gum and can’t move them. Then, when it’s time to change to a different topic or the ending of your presentation, you can walk to a new spot on the stage and stand still again."

Meanwhile, I'm busily telling the students that they should NOT stand rooted to the floor! What the heck?

My best guess is that Doug is trying to stave off a common behavior (particularly when novice speakers feel nervous). People can unconsciously shift their weight back and forth from foot to foot, creating a swaying motion to the entire body. It is far better to plant those feet and avoid inducing seasickness in your audience.

Whereas I wanted to help avoid a different type of common nervous behavior, which is to lock your body rigidly in an attempt to stop yourself from shaking. The feet stay rooted to the floor. Legs are straight, with knees locked in place. Hands are rigid at the side, or are thrust into pockets, or are clasped in front of the body. Everything is tightened up to keep yourself from trembling.

Of course this simply results in even greater uncontrollable shaking as muscles fight against the stiff and unmoving positions they have been placed in. As the muscles twitch, the speaker fights even harder to tighten them and place more strain on them. It can create a feedback loop that is horrific to behold (or experience).

So my advice for nervous speakers is the opposite of Doug's. I'd rather have the kids bend their knees and pace a little bit. Keep the arms swinging as you move towards one side of the room, talk to the people over there, using some hand gestures, then move across the stage and speak to the other side of the room. The movements hide little shakes and nervous trembling. The presenter can feel like they are "covering up" the worst of their jitters and the muscles don't get locked into a strained stress reaction.

As I said, I'll bet if we each had more time and space to write out everything, Doug and I would end up supporting each other. I don't want kids to look like they are hopped up on caffeine, and Doug doesn't want them to look like statues. As with everything else, a quick piece of absolute advice can't cover every situation or deal with which side of perfection a particular presenter tends to err on.

All I know is… This is the wrong approach for your next presentation:

 

Technorati Tags: Duarte,Doug Neff,presentation tips,presentation skills,presenting tips

I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing

Why do you have such a lack of respect for your audience's basic competency?

WHAT?? KEN, HOW DARE YOU MAKE SUCH AN ALLEGATION!

Come, let's do a quick and easy thought experiment…

• Think of a TV show that features a host sitting and presenting things to the viewer. Pick your favorite - The evening news. Ellen. Fox and Friends. The Daily Show. Good Morning America. Wendy Williams.
  
  
• Now think of a radio talk show. Pick your favorite - NPR. Rush Limbaugh. Howard Stern.
  
  
• And finally, think of a talk-based podcast. Pick your favorite - Malcolm Gladwell. Serial. This American Life. WTF.

 

Now tell me again why you feel you have to fill your presentation slides with text, data, background information, and basically all the things you are telling your audience through your vocalized speech.

"It's because my listeners NEED that information. How else will they understand and remember?"

Give your audience more credit. Sure, they appreciate an occasional "over the shoulder" graphic to add some spice and to provide a moment of clarity or emphasis on a particular detail. You'll see TV news shows put up a highlighted quote every now and then. But your listeners are fully able to listen, comprehend, and assimilate your key points without reading your entire script off the screen along with you.

As a matter of fact, they are much MORE able to take in the information you present vocally if they aren't trying to read at the same time. It's a proven, scientific fact.

So how 'bout showing your audience a little more respect next time? Trust their ability to listen.

 

Technorati Tags: presentation tips,presentation technique,presentation training,speaking tips,webinar,web seminar,webcasting,webcast