Episode #197: Tech, Technique and Truth When Presenting

“Don’t waste a good crisis” is the sort of advice you don’t really wish to receive. Who wants a crisis at any time? The pandemic however has certainly created economic and social turmoil. It has also created instant experts, charlatans, wannabees and plenty of dodgy advice. I have been watching webinars on how to present online by people so incompetent it is breathtaking. I admire their pluck, front, chutzpah to have a go, but am less convinced of their questionable sense of civic duty, to help out during a crisis. When things get tough, I like the competent to get going, not just the tough.

Individuals with no track record of ever delivering anything online are now self inducted experts on the “how to” bits. This extends from the equipment salespeople all the way up to the various Chamber captains of industry. The tech is the most fun because it is the simplest. Just get the gadgetry, the whizbang and away you go. Live streaming is great as long as you are great when “live”. That would automatically cancel out most people. Being able to string two words together, with no editing fallback, means you are up on the high wire with no safety net. You need to be an expert in your field, lucid, confident, articulate and practiced. That wipes out most “self proclaimed experts of online presenting” right there.

A high tech rendition of you umming and ahhing is no help. The audience will soon lose focus and in this Age of Distraction will quickly move on to more interesting things. The camera technology is so good today, it is mind boggling. A great close up, crystal clear of you struggling is fantastic for production values, but no so great for persuading anyone of what you are saying. If the live video is later worked on, those ums and ahs can be edited out, but depending on your frequency of usage, that may mean a lot of transitions in the final video.

The real bug bear with the tech is the fact that most people are not in a studio, surrounded by tech heaven. Fundamentally, we don’t want to travel to the studio. We are bundled up at home, at the mercy of the lens in our laptop and the dubious lighting in our room. At the beginning, everyone thought we would all be back to normal – “the boys will be home for Christmas” before the slaughter started type of Phony War. So, don’t worry about the sound or the lighting, but here we are, with no end in sight. So, we do need to get a little excited about upping the ante on our tech and technique.

Buy the light you need for when you are on camera. Get the lens up to eye level so you are not shooting up your nostrils. Look at the lens rather than the faces on the screen. Wear a headset with mic, so you have access to the clearest sound. If you find you need a separate mic then get one. This global isolation ward we find ourselves in is destined to continue for some time longer. Accept that none of the platforms are reliable, so have an emergency crew on hand, ready to rescue people swept overboard from the webinar into sound loss hell.

Lift your energy by 40% at least, to compensate for the draining effect of the camera. Be much more animated than normal. Move your head angle, so it is not always simply one dimensional, straight on to the camera. If you want to know what I mean, just watch the professional broadcasters on television. They have realised a static head position is dull and leads to people switching their attention to all of the other multitasking goodies they have at their fingertips.

The good thing with these platforms is that you can record yourself for review. Here is a pro hint – do that before the broadcast, not just reviewing the carnage, after the fact. You can experiment with angles, heights, lighting, fake greenscreen backdrops, content and delivery. See how you will look on the small screen. You will also have time without pressure, to learn how to share your screen, get your slide deck up and control what the audience can see. Get your first impression nailed. Your online buddies may be a mess, but you don’t have to join them in that regard. It might be a bit disarming to learn how boring you are on playback. Better to adjust to that truth before the curtain goes up and then make the necessary adjustments beforehand.