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A Deep Dive Into Virtual Presentations

Head of Product at Gloww

• Published on November 1, 2023

Virtual presentations are becoming increasingly common. With more businesses now embracing remote work, they’re an unavoidable adaptation that is essential for onboarding , employee development , and more. However, it’s not as straightforward as transplanting in-person presentation scripts into the virtual world. If you want to host virtual presentations that strike the right note, you need to think carefully about readying your material for online audiences. 

What is a virtual presentation? How can you keep online audiences engaged? These are the questions you should be asking yourself if you want to make effective use of the virtual format. 

How Are Virtual Presentations Different From Regular Presentations?

While the ultimate goal of virtual presentations is the same as in-person presentations, there are a lot of differences between the two formats . For starters, there’s generally less performance involved. When delivering an in-person presentation, a lot of focus is placed on keeping an audience engaged . A good presenter needs to be comfortable with public speaking and a master when it comes to body language. 

When presenting online, there’s far less pressure when it comes to performance. This is despite the fact that a presenter may be broadcasting to dozens, if not hundreds of people. An effective virtual presentation is generally more informal and relaxed. 

However, there are some downsides to delivering a presentation online. One of the biggest issues that presenters face is that they’ll have to contend with more distractions than if they were presenting to an in-person audience. These same distractions are what can render a standard conference call a challenge, and presenters often have to work extra hard to maintain audience engagement. 

What’s more, while the usual presentation skills aren’t always necessary, different proficiencies come into play. Body language doesn’t read as well when presenting online, but a speaker will still need to project a message virtually. Tone of voice is crucial, and a speaker needs to consider pauses carefully. Additionally, it’s important to constantly engage the audience if you want to maintain their interest levels. Relying too heavily on slides or failing to interact with an audience is a surefire way of dooming a virtual presentation to failure. For some inspiration you can find our employee engagement calendar on our blog too.

Why Are Virtual Presentations Important?

If your business operates in the virtual space and your teams are working remotely, you need to be thinking seriously about virtual presentations . It’s simply not practical to bring remote teams together for in-person training and team-building exercises, especially if employees are dispersed across the globe. 

Virtual presentations can be used as a learning tool to develop your workforce and introduce them to new ideas and ways of working. Some businesses utilize digital training documents for this purpose, but there’s little scope for interactivity here. With virtual presentations, you’re giving yourself the chance to connect with remote teams . As well as being a powerful tool for communication and instilling a sense of company culture , a live virtual presentation provides you with the chance to gauge engagement and understanding levels. 

How Do You Create a Virtual Presentation?

Is this your first time staging a virtual presentation ? Adapting your in-person approach to the virtual world might seem like a good idea, but you won’t achieve good results this way. To make your next virtual presentation a success , we’ve put together some handy tips. 

Start with Your Content 

This is the most important thing to consider when readying your presentation material for an online audience . While the bare bones of your in-person presentations can be used, they’ll need to be refined for the virtual space. Are you delivering training content to an online audience? All the key information can be captured here, but make sure it’s accessible and not overbaked. Is your presentation more client-facing? Make sure you’re capturing key selling points and considering what can be shared in other formats. 

Think About Your Slides 

Cramming too many slides into your presentation is a guaranteed way of sending your audience to sleep. If you want to maintain high engagement levels, keep slides sparse . During an in-person presentation, it’s easy to read the room and elaborate on complex slides if you feel the need to. When presenting online, this isn’t always possible. If your presentation has to be slide-heavy, try and stick to a single slide for every minute of speech. Ensure the slides you are using are concise and capture key information. 

Focus On Your Audience 

When presenting to an audience, you need to constantly reaffirm the fact that the information you’re discussing is relevant to them. Reading body language and audience responses can be a little tricky when presenting online, but keeping the focus on participants is crucial if you want to achieve good results. Regular interaction is a good way of keeping presentation material focused on your audience. Make a point of underlining how what you’re talking about applies to them and how it can help them achieve their everyday goals. 

Even if the material you’re covering in a presentation is pretty dense, you need to remain lively and dynamic to capture audience attention. Avoid leaning on your slides too heavily and make sure you’re not bound to a script. A little deviation can work wonders for audience engagement. 

Involve Your Audience to Avoid the Ringelmann Effect 

The Ringelmann Effect is something you might encounter if you’re presenting to a large audience. The bigger an audience gets, the less likely it is that individual participants are going to engage. By constantly involving your audience, you can overcome this. If you need to bring a hypothetical scenario into play , put someone on the spot. This way, everyone’s kept on their toes and constantly braced to interact. 

Remove External Distractions

While there’s not much you can do to ensure participants aren’t dealing with their own distractions, you can eliminate distractions from your presenting environment . Make sure your schedule is completely cleared to avoid any unwanted phone calls or interruptions. Are you presenting from an office location? Let anyone who is sharing your space know you need complete quiet so you can concentrate on delivering the best virtual presentation possible. 

Be Enthusiastic 

Even if the content of your presentation is on the dry side, you need to be able to sell it to your audience . If you’re not animated and engaged with the material, you can’t expect your audience to show an interest. Familiarizing yourself with presentation content will go a long way in ensuring you can deliver a lively and passionate event for participants. 

Professional Surroundings and Backgrounds 

No matter how animated you are during a presentation, you’ll still need to keep things professional . A low-key background will not only eliminate distractions but set the right tone for learning and development. Here’s our list of best backgrounds .

Best Virtual Presentation Tips

Now you’ve created a compelling outline for your virtual presentation , you’ll need to work on your presentation skills and deliver a memorable event. Below are some handy tips to get you started. 

Proper Webcam and Lighting 

Production values count when it comes to virtual presentations. A standard laptop webcam probably isn’t going to cut it if you want to make the right impression. An external webcam is therefore a must. You’ll also want to play around with lighting to make your presentation as effective as possible. 

Check Your Internet Connection 

Technical issues are sometimes unavoidable. However, even the slightest lag can render a virtual presentation pointless. Check your internet connection ahead of time to ensure you’re not going to have to contend with this issue. 

Talk to the Camera

It’s tempting to check the reactions of your online audience, but this isn’t really practical if you’re delivering a presentation to a large number of people. Rather than work overtime in an attempt to make a personal connection, talk to the camera instead. This gives you the best chance of making a connection with everyone who’s watching.  

Use Body Language 

Body language is very important when presenting online. While you won’t be able to make eye contact with individual audience members and use the space around you, you can make use of hand gestures and facial expressions to strengthen your message. However, remember to keep things simple.  

Engage Your Audience Members 

If you’re planning a longer virtual presentation or covering a lot of key topics, you need to make sure your audience is engaged . Constantly reach out to participants to hammer out specifics with examples or use quick-fire quizzes to keep everyone engaged. You can even use one of the 49 icebreakers to spice things up .

Be Yourself 

Authenticity matters when presenting online. It’s particularly important if you’re an employer presenting to remote teams. Make sure the persona you’re projecting is true to the one you’ve already established. The more authentic you are, the more credible your message will seem. 

What is the Optimum Amount of Time You Can Keep People Engaged Online? 

Most people will struggle to remain engaged with a single topic beyond five minutes. Your presentation is going to be longer than this, so avoid dwelling on specific topics for too long. For best results, try and keep your overall presentation no within 45 minutes . 

How Often Should Your Audience Share Their Thoughts?

Reach out to participants once every five minutes or so. You can ask individual participants to reflect on topics you’ve just covered, or break things up with more interactive elements like quizzes and polls. 

How Many Presenters Should There Be in a Virtual Presentation? 

With shorter presentations, it makes sense to keep things simple with a single presenter. If you’re planning a longer event and want to keep things as dynamic as possible, consider using two or three speakers. 

Host Your Next Virtual Presentation with Gloww 

Ready to unlock the potential of virtual presentations? Whether you’re presenting to prospective clients or need to reach out to remote teams, virtual presentations are the way forward . However, you’ll need a reliable video conferencing solution to stage a successful virtual presentation. 

With Gloww, you have everything you need to deliver memorable presentations that strike the right note with audiences. You can adapt your existing presentation material for the virtual space or explore brand-new elements to bring interactivity to your sessions. Add existing slide decks to readymade templates, make things more interesting with polls and quizzes, or integrate multimedia assets to take your presentations to a whole new level. You can get started with Gloww today. If you want to learn about Gloww can help you fine-tune your virtual presentations, explore our pricing plans , and discover more about our premium features. Do you still have questions about Gloww? Get in touch with the team.

Want to learn more? Here’s everything you need to record your meeting , a template for your monthly business review meetings , virtual meeting etiquettte , and all about how video conferencing works .

Ben Aflalo heads Gloww's product team with over two decades of leadership experience. Passionate about leveraging innovative technology, he is committed to building products for the greater good.

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas A Guide to Mastering Virtual Presentations

A Guide to Mastering Virtual Presentations

Virtual presentations are becoming a standard. With over 30+ billion presentations being created every day, traditional in-person presentations, which used to be the commonality, are more and more being adapted to a more frequent online presentation scenario. 

Through the recent pandemic, the video conferencing platform, Zoom, had a participant increase of 2900% with a daily meeting participant figure of 350 million people in December 2020 alone. Yet, either triggered by the lack of human interaction or technological barriers, the truth is that online presentations can still and easily feel daunting.

That doesn’t need to be the case, however! With online presentation templates for a solid base and specific tactics to keep remote audiences engaged, presenters can easily connect with people in a virtual setting for great presentation success. 

This guide to virtual presentations provides a definition of virtual presentations, common examples, and instructions on how to best present online. 

What’s a virtual presentation?

A virtual presentation is an event whereby a presenter or a group of people face an audience online to go over virtual material of common interest. In the best of scenarios, a great rendition of an online presentation is clear, meeting a specific purpose that is of its audience’s interest. 

Examples of virtual presentations

At SlideModel, each of our PowerPoint templates sets a valuable example of the kind of virtual presentation that works best for very particular settings. These go over topics in business, strategy, marketing, and SWOT Analysis templates , to name a few. There are also different themes to these on diverse virtual presentation templates; the latest to suit numerous needs. 

As further examples of great online presentations, here’s a Notion at Work webinar titled Manage Your Contacts and Sales Funnel. It’s highly recommended by webinar software company LiveWebinar. This presentation’s style and setup might be of special interest to business presenters as it follows regular industry standards. 

How virtual presentations happen

Virtual presentations most commonly take place via web and/or video conferencing platforms . Though numerous tools exist to allow a presenter to meet an audience exclusively online, the most famous for this purpose are currently Zoom, as we described above, as much as Google Meet, and Skype. Other virtual presentations can take advantage of video presentations , where the presenter records the presentation, save it as a video, and then stream it to the target audience using a video presentation platform.

In general, these platforms include a screen-sharing ability to let presenters display online presentation decks . And they’ve become a great go-to resource with an augmented work-from-home (WFH) model worldwide. 

Presentation types

Internal virtual presentations (between colleagues).

We give these kinds of presentations to people within our organization. Whether it’s for the same department or team as ours or another stakeholder within our company, college, or any sort of official body with which we interact, internal presentations serve people whose interests and needs we can access first-hand via a common ground. 

Events (conferences, discussion panels, TED talks)

More public than the first item, virtual presentations can also be part of large events, whether these are public or private. Take all sorts of online conferences or talks into account. We can go online to meet worldwide communities of diverse sorts and be invited to speak at a discussion panel or conference, for example, making our presence visible to multiple computer users or over a single live broadcast on a large screen in an auditorium, for instance. 

Sales presentations with prospects

At times, pitches need to happen on-screen with potential prospects who give us a certain allotted timeframe in their schedules for us to touch base on our product or offer. Virtual sales pitch is another method to use.

Training/educational presentations

Other virtual presentations can be delivered for training purposes. Those can happen for internal and even external teams or as part of an educational program at different institutions. When we’re seeking to build talent up with new skills, our presentations require a lot of clarity with specific instructions, workflows, examples, charts, videos, and as many interactive or information-specific tools as possible. 

But how do we present online events like the above? 

How to Prepare for Virtual Presentations

Here are a few tips on how to best prepare for virtual presentations. We’ve made sure to include these steps as being well-prepared for an online meeting can significantly improve your road to success.

As usual, do your research before putting a single slide together. Reading up on what you will talk about to an audience can set an enormous difference between the knowledge you bring to a presentation and that of anyone else in the same room with you. Chances are that people listening to you as a presenter are very invested in your topic. As such, they can come from diverse backgrounds, and truly have a natural interest in what you have to say. Be valuable to your audience with high-quality content. For that, seek what interests them, how they respond to similar material, and the best ways in which you can engage them. 

Putting material together

Then, work at designing great PowerPoint slides . Keep a balance between design and content, tailoring what you present with your branding or voice in competitive, slick design that also clearly exposes your expertise. 

Consider your audience’s attention spans here. For that, spread content throughout several slides, if possible. Instead of packing each slide full of text or images, fill them with catchy titles, relevant sub-titles, meaningful text, and attention-grabbing visuals. Doing so will add dynamism and generate a more frequent visual change viewers are bound to appreciate. 

Add the above visual flow especially if your audience will need to spend a long time on-screen to follow you. Quicker online presentations can, on the contrary, afford concise and to-the-point material over the shortest amount of slides you can muster.  

Preparing your script

You may have all the know-how in the world on a given topic, company, subject of study, a product, or whatever is getting you to a virtual presentation need. Yet, an outline of ideas, a sequence of thoughts, and the most important areas of your presentation are all valuable tools to ensure success as you present. 

Write your thoughts out. Think of the sentences you’re verbalizing, how you’re phrasing your communications, and the order in which these will be presented. Slides don’t make up for your verbal communication. That vocal area needs preparation, too. 

Write an outline, jot down pointers, and even prepare an essay, if you must. However you feel most comfortable, a script in any form is necessary for a clear rendition of your ideas in front of an audience, whether that happens virtually or in person. 

While you’re at it, include attention-grabbers as you prepare what you’ll say. These can be as easy as saying: “Look over to our graph at the bottom right”, for example, inviting people to actually connect to what you’re presenting. These tricks are especially needed during a virtual presentation given the potential audiences have to be distracted via so many other means that are available on their computer, tablet, or cellphone. 

Practicing in front of an audience

Quite succinctly, peer feedback can do wonders for your virtual presentations. Gather whoever will connect with you to get their valuable insight on what’s coming through from your efforts. 

Sit back without judgment to listen to what business partners, friends, and even family have to say about your work.

Recording a demo

Tied to above, record that session. You can use it as your demo. 

Pushing you to be fully ready for a practice run will ensure you have thought about everything that matters for your final presentation. It will also add a level of security that can give you a more successful edge in the end. 

This practice might sound tedious, but it can also help your team, for example, if you bring people on board to your demo before you launch a product, face a client, present before a different department, face your teacher, and so much more!

Checking your online tools

Because online presentations essentially depend on technological tools, much more so than in any other kind of presentation setting, take the time to check everything works before you get started. 

Check your invitation links, log in to your meeting platform, open up relevant files, click on the presentation sharing icon, and make sure you’ve got all the privileges you need to perform any action you intend on making. Test your audio, try your mic and speakers, and hit the record button as a trial…do it all!

A demo, practice, and even setting 30 minutes ahead of your presentation can be golden for you to troubleshoot any unexpected technological failures. Go through your required steps one by one to make sure everything works!

Presenters are muted quite commonly and cannot get their volume to function, their cameras have stopped working, or they simply can’t share their screen. While no one will generally count that against anyone if the delays aren’t meaningful, this kind of setback can easily signal a lack of preparation. Because many issues can get in the way of a successful and timely virtual meeting, prepare for those challenges ahead of time. 

Concentration

Once your checklist up to here is done, remember to take some time for yourself. Seek your focus. However you concentrate best, find that mental spot where you can truly be attuned to your thoughts and the way you speak. Release any heavy emotions, such as anger, fear, anxiety, or stress. And seek to be balanced within your own self. Even three deep breaths can do the trick if time is pressing, but never forget to start presenting until you’re at your best concentration level. 

Putting yourself out there

Then go for it! Hit that record or live button, let people in your waiting room into your meeting area, say hi to anyone present, or let people know if you’re expecting anyone or waiting for someone for a few minutes. Become the host and take over as a leader, which is ultimately what presentations are about; for a specific period, all attention will be on you. Take your space, put yourself out there, and do your best. 

Establishing conversation

Virtual presentations don’t end when you’re done presenting your slides. Whenever possible, open up the space for the audience to give you feedback, ask questions, and engage in conversation with you. You can include a question and answer (Q&A) session or display frequently asked questions as a means of addressing commonly unclear areas. Also, leave room to address whatever comments come up via chat. 

By the way, just as a pointer to get your next presentation rolling, set the stage at the beginning of your online presentation in terms of when and how you’d like your audience to ask questions. Will everyone be able to stop you as you’re presenting to clear any items that come up? Or would you rather leave all questions for last? 

Commonly, addressing questions via chat or at the end of the session keeps your attendees’ focus under better control. Remember you’re directing people’s attention every time you present. This works just like a maestro would command an orchestra. Make the best of your expertise and knowledge to wow your audience with a unique presentation that gets people talking. 

Conclusions

Virtual meetings aren’t going anywhere. If anything, the use of online tools to group on a given topic is more and more common. As work-from-home leniency becomes widespread after COVID-19, especially, we can heavily rely on virtual presentations being here to stay. 

Consider using templates to help your slide quality. Templates are a great base for design as much as content. With industry or topic-specific material, templates are a great guide that can also accelerate how you create and share content in a high-paced environment. 

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Business PowerPoint Templates, Business Presentations, Communication Skills, Presentation Skills, Presentations, Verbal Communication, Virtual Presentations Filed under Presentation Ideas

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10 Tips For Giving Effective Virtual Presentations

What to know before you go live.

September 26, 2016

Presenting online? Try these suggestions to improve your results. | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

As audiences go global and you need to reach more people through technology (including webinars, conference calls and teleconference), you must consider the challenges to connecting with a virtual audience. Here I pinpoint 10 valuable best practices to ensure you communicate successfully.

1. Be Brief

Audiences begin to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter. If you have more than 10 minutes of content, use interactive activities to keep your audience engaged (for example, take a poll, give quizzes, or ask audience members for their opinions via chat).

2. Be Simple

Keep slides simple — avoid too many words, graphics and animation features. Less is definitely more!

Light yourself well | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

3. Be a TV Personality

Look straight into your camera, not the screen. Wear clothing that is neutral in color (no plaids or stripes). Light yourself well and from above. Be mindful of what appears behind you in the background. Invest in a good microphone.

4. Be Standing

Even though your audience cannot see you, stand when you present. This allows you to stay focused and use good presentation delivery skills such as belly breathing, vocal variety, and pausing.

5. Be Prepared

Practice delivering your presentation with your technology in advance of your talk. Make sure all of the features of the technology work. Record your practice using the recording feature of your tool. Watch and listen to learn what works and what you can improve.

6. Be Assisted

Have someone available to deal with technical issues and to field email/text questions. Also, if you have multiple remote audience members in one location, be sure to pick one of them to be your “eyes and ears.” Ask them to queue up questions and facilitate discussion on your behalf.

7. Be Specific

Ask pointed questions to avoid too many people answering at once. For example, rather than ask, “Are there any questions?” try “Who has a question about the solution I provided?” Set a ground rule that people state their names prior to speaking.

Imagine your audience | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

8. Be Synchronized

Transitions are critical. You must connect what you just said to what is coming next when you move from point to point. Transitions between topics and slides are good opportunities to get people reengaged to your talk.

9. Be Connected

Imagine your audience even though you can’t see them. You can place pictures of audience members behind your camera so you can look at people as you present.

10. Be Early

Encourage your audience to access your call or webinar in advance of the start time so you can iron out any technical issues in advance and get them familiar with the technology.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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April 04, 2016 A Big Data Approach to Public Speaking Key takeaways from analyzing 100,000 presentations.

November 19, 2014 Matt Abrahams: The Power of the Paraphrase An expert on public speaking shows how paraphrasing can help you navigate tricky communication situations.

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Virtual Presentations

Whether you are giving a research talk, lecturing, or giving a workshop, virtual presentations present a new set of challenges, from interacting with an audience that you can’t always see to managing teleconferencing technology. You can keep your audience oriented by presenting a talk with a clear structure . Make sure to practice in this new environment and prepare your technological set-up . Finally, create a plan for engaging your audience .

If you haven’t yet, check out our Slide Presentation article.

Criteria for Success

A successful virtual presentation…

• Has a clear purpose that is tailored to the type of audience.
• Sets expectations at the beginning of the presentation about what you will talk about and what kind of feedback you want from your audience.
• Only includes visual and verbal information that supports the major point of each slide and the overall objective of the presentation.
• Is extremely well-rehearsed, as the energy of your presentation will come from how you deliver key points.
• Uses the available technology to engage the audience.

Identify Your Purpose

How you design and deliver any presentation, virtual or in person, depends on the goal you want your presentation to achieve. However, in a virtual environment with more distractions and less audience feedback, identifying the purpose of your presentation is even more important. This goal will help you decide what you need to emphasize and what you can drop to make sure your message rises above the digital noise.

For this article, we divide presentations into three general categories:

• Purpose: Share work that you have accomplished with a wider audience. You want others to be informed about the progress on and benefits of your research without necessarily teaching them how to perform the work themselves.
• Purpose: Help your audience learn and practice skills or tools that they can apply outside of the workshop, but don’t expect mastery. They can further explore the content later.
• Purpose: Teach students new skills; help them master the material.

Below, we share both general strategies and specific recommendations for the three categories, to help you tailor your talk for success no matter how far away you are.

Analyze your audience

To make sure your presentation is effective, you need to know not only what you want your audience to take away, but also who they are and how they will perceive your work. For any talk, it’s important to remember that your audience can vary widely in their expertise and goals , but virtual presentations create additional challenges for the audience’s experience.

If you keep these audience challenges in mind, you will be able to choose design and delivery strategies that will help your message shine through.

Design your slides to support the overall message of your presentation

Design principles are similar to those for an in-person presentation , but since the audience may be distracted, it’s more important than ever to have a structured, clear, and focused presentation.

In these figures, we illustrate best practices for slide design:

• Clear presentation structure, declared at the beginning in an overview slide.
• Consistent visual format among slides.
• Simple text and figures.
• Each slide introduces one new point, which is stated by the slide title.

Practice is even more important for virtual presentations

In-person presentations allow you to use non-verbal communication to gauge audience understanding, help emphasize key points, and convey energy. In virtual presentations, you and the audience are deprived of these physical cues, and the success of your presentation is often dependent on the quality of your voiceover and your mastery of virtual tools. Therefore, it is critical to practice, practice, practice — with friends, lab mates, family, and, of course, Comm Lab Fellows.

Technological set-up can greatly improve the audience experience

Even if you nail the oral delivery of your presentation, to have a successful presentation, you must mitigate distractions introduced by your technological set-up. A bad internet connection, unmuted audience member, or low-quality audio can make it difficult for the audience to stay focused. The below tips will help you give your audience the IMAX experience (or as close as you can get with virtual meeting platforms):

Make a plan for engaging the audience

If the audience knows where your presentation is going and what their role will be, they are more likely to stick around for the ride. Be upfront with your audience about what you will talk about, what kind of feedback you are seeking, and when you would like to receive that feedback. Engage your audience throughout the presentation, whether that be walking through problems step-by-step or telling a cohesive story to talk about your research.

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Virtual presentation framework: Your guide to presenting online

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Michael Lee March 01, 2021

By now, virtual presentations are a staple in the way many organizations conduct business. But just because most people are used to presenting online doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. The best virtual presentations require more than just appearing on screen or sharing content. To really connect with your audience, you need to follow the virtual presentation framework : Establish credibility, build trust, and appeal to your audience’s emotions.

This presentation framework serves as an online presentation guide to help you make sense of the most common elements of successful online interactions. As you get more comfortable with all the elements, you’ll be able to use the presentation framework as a digital toolbox of sorts, calling on the right skills at the right time.

It’s important to note that these segments are not mutually exclusive, but should work together. After all, you can be credible without earning trust, and you can be informative without eliciting any emotion. The best online presenters and speakers will apply the presentation framework as a whole to both their content and delivery. Read on for a more detailed look at each segment in the virtual presentation framework. 

Presentation framework: Establish credibility 

Credibility is a measure of how qualified you are (or at least, how qualified you seem) to speak on your topic. Basically, do you look like you know what you’re doing? On virtual presentations, you’ll need to consider:

How you set up your space

It may seem like a minor detail next to everything else you have to do for your presentation, but your home studio setup can greatly impact audience perceptions. If your face is dimly lit or your audience can’t hear you, it’ll make your entire presentation feel less professional. 

Position your light source in front of you (whether it’s a window or a lamp). Also, test out different microphones to find the one with the best audio quality. You’ll also want to avoid distracting your audience with busy backgrounds. Though, don’t be afraid to show more personality than a blank white wall! Even small, inexpensive adjustments can make a big difference. 

Get more tips from Jessica Chen , the founder, and CEO of Soulcast Media and an Emmy Award-winning journalist:

How you present yourself 

Any online presentation guide will tell you that to deliver an engaging presentation, you’ll need to practice. While one of the benefits of virtual presentations is the ability to include presenter notes , you also don’t want to look like you’re reading the entire time. Practice speaking with confidence, paying particular attention to your pacing and volume. Also, try cutting out filler words like “um” and “like.” Lorraine Lee , the Managing Editor here at Prezi, shares how standing while you present and projecting your voice can help:

How well do you know your material?

It can sometimes be painfully obvious when someone speaks on a topic they don’t actually know much about. If you’re giving a virtual presentation, it means you’ve had the time to prepare and pick your topic. Make sure you’re speaking to your subject matter expertise, whether it’s for a keynote, webinar, sales pitch, or just an internal presentation. 

Richard Mulholland , a global speaker and founder of presentation agency Missing Link , highlights the benefits of finding your “area of authority” and then focusing the vast majority of your attention on that subject: 

Presentation framework: Build trust

While trust may seem very similar to credibility, there’s a key difference. Credibility determines if your audience finds you qualified to speak about your topic. However, trust determines whether they’ll actually believe what you say. To build trust with your audience on virtual presentations, you should: 

Appear on the screen 

Body language and facial cues are crucial in conveying meaning, which is why it’s necessary to appear on-screen if you want your audience to trust what you’re saying. This also applies to screen sharing. If your camera’s on, but nobody can see you, then you’re going to lose out on opportunities to connect with your audience. 

Vanessa Van Edwards , a keynote speaker and Lead Investigator at Science of People , explains that hands act as “trust indicators.” That’s why you should use tools like Prezi Video to bring your content on-screen with you, so that you can show your content while still using hand gestures to keep your audience engaged . Watch Vanessa’s video to learn more and to see these principles in action: 

Back up your claims

With enough practice, you can say anything with confidence, but empty promises and hyperbole will only erode your audience’s trust. Make sure you use trusted sources while researching, and present facts and data as necessary. 

For example, see how Brian Xu , a Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn , uses data to analyze the economic impacts of COVID-19: 

Respect your audience

Don’t forget that while you’re the one presenting, your audience is also investing their time and attention into your content. Make sure your content is tailored and relevant, and be mindful of sticking to your allotted time. 

You may also want to consider employing a more conversational approach to your virtual presentation. In a remote sales pitch , for instance, you don’t have to go through all of your content from start to finish. Instead, find out what your buyers are most interested in and only focus on those topics.

Presentation framework: Appeal to emotions 

Even if your content is well-researched and expertly presented, it ultimately won’t matter if your audience can’t remember any of it. Part of what makes content impactful and memorable is having it resonate on an emotional level. Be sure to include these elements in your virtual presentations: 

Displaying a wall of text on the screen is only going to result in glazed eyes. Use visual communication to help your message resonate with your audience — whenever possible, replace text with images, videos, and charts. 

In this webinar with Tiffani Bova , the Global Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce , she uses both photos and designed graphics, and clever placement of her visuals, to support her message. When illustrating the divide between sellers and buyers, she puts photos on either side of her screen. This creates a more visceral and memorable message than a bullet point:

Interactivity

Because you’re working with limited screen real estate on virtual presentations, you’ll need to work harder to keep your audience invested and engaged. That means you should avoid becoming a static talking head or hiding behind your screen share. Take advantage of Prezi Video to add some interactivity to your presentation. With Prezi Video, you can point at graphics you want to focus on or emphasize your message with gestures. 

Plus, there are currently a wealth of tools that can help you better connect with your audience. Take advantage of the chat, poll, and Q&A functions on your video conferencing tools, or use third-party apps like Slido to create impactful conversations . 

Storytelling

Stories are still one of the best ways to connect with your audience. They can take complex ideas and recontextualize them in a way that feels relevant and evokes emotions. And, our brains are already wired for stories (which is why they make up two-thirds of our daily conversations). 

Try starting your virtual presentation with a story or anecdote to capture your audience’s attention quickly. Elena Valentine , the CEO, and co-founder of workplace media company Skill Scout Films , explains how stories and anecdotes can make you seem more human instead of just “the expert,” and why that works in your favor:

Using the virtual presentation framework

This virtual presentation framework is by no means comprehensive. However, it can serve as a useful guide to online presentations. As you start putting content together for your next presentation, refer to the framework to pinpoint areas that you’re still missing and start incorporating them. You can also get even more advice and insights from our Virtual Presentation Innovators .

If you’re speaking at an upcoming virtual conference or event , drop us a line at [email protected] for a chance to work together on a virtual presentation that your audience won’t forget.

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How To Create An Effective Virtual Presentation

Virtual presentations aren’t groundbreaking. In fact, they’ve been around for a while. However, with the way 2020 unfolded, and the undeniable shift to remote work, virtual presentations are having a moment. Virtual presentations are far more popular (dare we say it: they’re the new norm) than they were three years ago. But what is a virtual presentation? 

Virtual presentations are presentations that are given, or received, remotely and from behind a computer screen. Hence: virtual. Virtual presentations allow you to present to more people at the same time without the limitations of capacity in an auditorium, scheduling conflicts, and travel. They’re simply more accessible, and convenient. However, on the same coin, some may argue that virtual presentations are less effective because they lack that face-to-face connection that many humans crave. Either way, they’re here to stay. 

Before we get into the nitty gritty of virtual presentations, it’s important to understand where they came from and why they’re beneficial to businesses. 

The rise of virtual presentations

The work presentation has evolved since the days of carvings on cave walls. In the Don Draper days of 1960s Manhattan, the concept of a "presentation" was very different than it is today. At that time, presentations consisted of a series of hand-rendered drawings (or storyboards) that were first glued to a piece of foam core and then proudly displayed on metal easels for the audience’s viewing pleasure (or frustration, if they happened to be nearsighted). Or, in less sexy industries, paper memos were typed up on typewriters and distributed for people to read during meetings — usually accompanied verbally by an equally lackluster presenter.

Today, it’s a totally different world.

We went from storyboards, to clunky projector slides, to death by PowerPoint. Looking back, none of those were totally great options if you didn’t have the design skills to back your presentation, but they all got the job done. Since then, presentation software has stepped up to the plate and changed the presentation game (and rightfully so). Now the best presentation software works in the cloud, so it’s much more efficient to create and collaborate alongside colleagues or peers. Naturally, it’s easier to share presentations, too. 

With presentation software more readily available, anyone without 5+ years of experience in digital design can create something wow-worthy. And with presentation software evolving and adopting the most up-to-date technologies, it’s easier than ever to present to anyone, anytime, from anywhere. Insert: virtual presentations. Sure, virtual presentations have been around for years, but they didn’t see their inadvertent rise to fame until the 2020 pandemic forced companies to rethink their work culture. For the last 18 months, virtual presentations have been the norm. In fact, one could go so far as to say they saved businesses and company culture in the face of COVID-19. Without the ability to present remotely, at any given time, businesses worldwide would have suffered from the lack of both client-facing and internal communications. 

Virtual presentation tips

Now that we know a little more about virtual presentations, and their rise to fame, let’s talk about how to actually give one. Here are five simple tips for a winning virtual presentation. 

Get the proper virtual presentation software

The first step in setting yourself up for success is equipping yourself with the right tools. When preparing a virtual presentation, you want to make sure that you have a great presentation software to carry you through. 

Beautiful.ai makes it easy to present virtually , without compromising the impact of your message. We allow you to create something brilliant in half the time it would take to build a presentation in outdated software, like PowerPoint. With less time fidgeting with text boxes and graphs in your virtual presentation, you can focus on the things that really matter like engaging your remote audience and telling your story. And with everything right there in the cloud, it’s easy to edit and present on a whim— you’re always working on, or presenting, the most updated version of the deck. 

Minimize distractions

Distractions come in all shapes and sizes. It can be the 7 open tabs on your web browser, or the lawn mower in the background of your colleagues' video. Whatever it is, it’s important to keep distractions to a minimum when giving a virtual presentation. If you’re presenting, make sure your space is clean and decluttered, and don’t be afraid to ask your audience to mute while they tune in. 

Engage the audience through photos, animations, and audio

When you can’t be there live to redirect your audiences’ attention back to your screen, you have to rely on other assets to rein in their focus. Visual storytelling is a great solution to combating potential work-from-home apathy. Things like photos, videos, dynamic animations and audio all help to keep the audience engaged and interested in what you’re presenting. 

To take it a step further, adding recorded audio to each slide allows you to narrate what’s on the screen when you can’t be there in person. It helps you tell the audience exactly what you want them to know so that there’s little room for misinterpretation. 

Practice makes perfect

Of course, even with an air-tight pitch, your virtual presentation can still get derailed by things outside of your control. It’s important to be proactive and practice your presentation so that you are familiar with the software and technology beforehand. While you can’t control everyone’s WiFi connection, you can make sure that everything is running smoothly on your end prior to going live. Plus, practice makes perfect— at the very least get familiar with your deck and the flow of your story. 

Send a follow up

The beauty of virtual presentations is that it gives you the opportunity to follow up quickly and frequently. You may choose to open up your email inbox for questions, concerns, or feedback following the presentation to save time. Similarly, you’ll likely want to follow up with the final call-to-action so that the audience isn’t confused on what you’re asking them to do. But most importantly, you should definitely, without-a-doubt, follow up with the presentation deck.

Beautiful.ai’s shareable link capabilities makes it easy to follow up with a link to your presentation after the meeting. And because everything is saved to the cloud, you know that you’re sending the most up-to-date version, all the time. By sending a follow up, you’re encouraging your peers, clients, or colleagues to revisit the presentation on their own time whether they were there for the virtual presentation or not. It acts as a tangible takeaway, and might be the difference between them remembering what you presented and forgetting your pitch as soon as they leave the meeting. 

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.

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The Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom

An irreverent and shockingly-actionable companion for anyone who wants to communicate to invisible audiences through a laptop screen.

I read a lot of “ultimate guides to X.” Most are not ultimate. Most aren’t even very readable. This is different. Oli Gardner has put together an extraordinary resource for both newcomers and experienced speakers. If you apply the tactics in this guide, I promise you’ll be among the best presenters online (or off) at your next engagement.

— Rand Fishkin. Co-founder & CEO, SparkToro.

What’s in the guide?

17 Chapters

29,584 words

84 Screenshots

Roughly speaking—and by that I mean super specific—the Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom contains six thematic parts, seventeen chapters, 29,584 words, eighty four precision-crafted interface screenshots to show you how to do cool things, high-production instructional videos full of fun, insights, marvellous techniques to marvel at, and did I mention that it’s twenty nine thousand, five hundred and eighty four words long?

Wait. If I add this paragraph to the number it’s actually 29,656. So, roughly speaking, it’s awesome.

This guide is actually free . I’m not asking for an email address. Helping you be a better presenter is my goal.

My only ask is that you consider sharing it with others, if you like the guide.

A few highlights from the guide

18 Zoom Features

Cool Zoom Features You Should Know About

Learn how to use the lesser-known features of Zoom for a more dynamic presentation.

7 Bad Techniques

Things to Avoid Doing in a Virtual Presentation

Learn the most common mistake in a virtual presentation and how to avoid making them.

13 Good Techniques

Definitely Do These Things When Presenting

With a few simple techniques you can drastically improve your chances of pulling off a successful virtual presentation on Zoom. And no, I don’t expect you to build an actual stage like I did, but you can at least put a plant in the background.

Your Talk’s Purpose

Create Experience Moments

A key trait of successful speakers is that they understand their personal brand. They know what they represent, how they want to be perceived, and what success looks for them. This leads directly into how we should be designing our talk experiences.

Presentation Structure, Story, & Flow

Learn how to craft a story arc by reducing your big idea to it’s simplest form and chunking it into structured elements.

40 Slide Design Tips

Slide Design Tips for Virtual Presentations

Take a deep dive into the art of presentation design in this incredibly actionable chapter that will elevate your skills overnight. And yes, there are forty tips in this chapter alone.

Real People

Virtual Audience Engagement

They may be invisible, but they’re still there, and they’re still real people who want to have a good time. Learn techniques for audience participation and five simple tricks to help maintain eye contact while presenting virtually.

Audio & Video

Create Professional Recordings of Your Talks

Learn the six elements of a great presentation recording. Plus techniques, tools, and lists of equipment you need to record professional high-resolution videos of your talks. It also covers editing in post-production, and how to add closed captions for enhanced accessibility.

6 Whoopsies

What to Do When Things Go Wrong

There are many things that can go wrong in a virtual presentation, most of them technical in nature. This chapter covers six serious issues, and offers creative solutions to turn a catastrophic and embarrassing moment, into a calm, collected, professional delivery.

5 Advanced Tips

Advanced & Creative Virtual Presentation Tips

Proxy hosts, shortlinks, customized meeting rooms, landing pages, and clickers, oh my. Enhance your expertise with these technical tips, and the best virtual speaking strategy of all—standing up.

23 Settings

Zoom Settings to Turn On or Off for a Successful Presentation

Zoom has a grand total of 301 settings—I counted them with my finger and brain—which can make it really hard to find a critical feature when it’s crunch time. This chapter breaks down the essentials and is your game-day checklist for success.

Intro Introduction to Virtual Presentations on Zoom

Chapter 1 18 Cool Zoom Features You Should Know About

Chapter 2 12 Things You Should Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 3 8 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 4 Defining Your Presentation’s Purpose

Chapter 5 How to Define Your Talk’s Structure, Story, & Flow

Chapter 6 41 Slide Design Tips for Virtual Presentations

Chapter 7 6 Ways to Make Eye Contact With an Invisible Audience

Chapter 8 How to do Audience Participation in a Virtual Presentation

Chapter 9 How to Share Content during a Zoom Presentation

Chapter 10 How to Create a Stunning Video and Audio Recording

Chapter 11 Using Post-Production to Add Value to Your Zoom Recording

Chapter 12 How to Use Your Phone as a Beautiful Webcam

Chapter 13 What to Do When Things go Wrong in Your Presentation

Chapter 14 How to Ground Yourself and Get Ready to Present

Chapter 15 Advanced & Creative Zoom Presentation Techniques

Chapter 16 The Difference Between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars

Chapter 17 23 Zoom Settings to Enable or Disable for a Smooth Presentation

The ULTIMATE guide to virtual presentations

• Written by: Hannah Harper
• Categories: Presentation technology , Industry insights
• Comments: 4

For many organizations, the days of giving face-to-face presentations for every meeting are over. Though face-to-face meetings are still a powerful communications tool, conference organizers, marketing teams, and B2B sales people can attest that virtual presentations are here to stay. However, attempting to simply give the same presentation online as you would offline is likely to result in a disappointing presentation that neither engages nor impresses your audience.

Throughout this article we’re going to look at some practical ways your teams can make an impact in an online era. If you want even more detail, we’ve compiled this, and more, in a report you can download for free:

Click here to download the report

What makes online presenting different?

How to eliminate distraction, how to create compelling content, how to run an effective sales meeting online, how to run a successful online conference, how to run hybrid presentations.

These days web conferencing platforms are widely available, affordable, and really pretty good. But what effort is involved in making your in-person content online-ready? Sadly, we’re not talking about a lift and shift here, and to understand how content needs to change, we need to understand the differences between in-person and online presentations.

All of this means that both the presenter and the slides must work much harder if they’re to keep audiences engaged, and that means the content you have for your face-to-face audiences has to change if it’s to be effective in an online setting.

In a sense all presentations can be thought of as the struggle of compelling content against distraction. Take a presentation online and it’s both harder to make the content compelling – because the presenter and slides aren’t in the room but just showing on a small screen –  and  harder to avoid distraction – because the audience are much freer to go off and do other things. So all we need to do is eliminate distraction and make our content compelling!

Your audience is in high demand: there are people wanting urgent responses to emails, friends trying to decide where to go for pizza that evening, the dog chewing the blinds – again. That means you, as a presenter, need to be on your a-game if you’re going to capture and hold the attention of your audience for the duration of your online session. For that you need a great set-up so you can present confidently without fear of interruption, but also so that your audience doesn’t have to work too hard to hear you or see you, and so that they can’t get distracted by trying to figure out what laundry you have hanging up behind you.

Best practices for an online set-up

We all remember the viral clip of Professor Robert Kelly being interrupted by his delightful children . Whether you’re presenting from a home office or from the office, ensuring you have the right set-up to host and attend meetings is a must. It’s not just about locking the door and throwing a smart jumper over your pyjamas, your online meeting set-up needs a little more thought. Here are some of the main things you should consider:

What meeting platform is right for you?

There are lots of online meeting platforms out there. Different platforms suit different organisations, but if you’re in a hurry to find the right one for you, we have  a handy comparison table on page 6 of our report  that you can use to review your options. It’s worth noting that Microsoft Teams is making a big push to help with slower connections (although it may not be a problem in a corporate office setting) by allowing you to share a PowerPoint file directly from OneDrive or SharePoint. That reduces the bandwidth requirements compared to full screensharing, which makes things much clearer and smoother for your audience.

The other side to running successful online sessions is to create compelling content. Even if the presenter is doing all they can to engage their audience, it still won’t be enough if their slides are a bit boring and plain. This means your slides need to be designed well and be animated.

How to design compelling slides

When it comes to design as a starting point, it’s easy enough to work out what we shouldn’t do: dull text-heavy slides that stay on screen for minutes at a time with nothing moving or changing. All you need is a monotonous voice in the background, and you’ve got a first-class remedy for insomnia. But, when you open PowerPoint and see the ‘click to add text’ prompt tempting you into a deep mire of PowerPoint hell, it can be really difficult to know what to do instead.

We have a wealth of presentation inspiration for everyone, from the entry levellers dipping their toes into PowerPoint, to those with real design know-how looking to get the golden ratio involved.

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How to animate compelling slides

Presentation slides should always be visual, otherwise you just have a presenter giving a speech with a rubbish backdrop. But even if you have beautiful slides, if they aren’t dynamic, don’t have movement then you’re still asking your presenter (remember, the tiny person in the small window in the corner of a screen) to carry the energy of your session alone. If something is changing frequently on screen, audiences are likely to keep paying attention. Leave things static for too long and they’ll drift off. We think every 20 seconds is about the right frequency for something to change on screen, certainly no more than 30 seconds. These changes could be a major build, or a new slide. It seems like a lot of animation, but it really doesn’t feel like it for the audience. If animation seems scary, or worse cheesy, try to put those preconceptions aside. Animation doesn’t need to be a mystery and your audiences will be endlessly grateful that you put in the time to figure it out. We’ve got some great tips and hacks you can learn in a matter of minutes that will transform your static slides into dynamic content with just a few clicks!

Presentation animation resources

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Webcam etiquette

With online meetings it’s worth adding a note about webcam etiquette. Throughout this paper, we’re assuming you’ll use webcam, but we can be a bit more nuanced than that.

• Use video, but not where this distracts from your slides.
• Use your webcam for introductions, for conversation, and to answer questions, but think about turning your camera off when presenting slides.
• If you have access to a greenscreen or can videocast yourself presenting in front of your slides, consider that as an option – but please practice first!
• In a much smaller meeting – like a sales meeting – turning on your webcam creates a social pressure for the audience to do the same, so as a courtesy make it clear that you are planning a video meeting when setting up the call.
• On some online platforms you can set a picture as a background image – so you could set a static slide as your background. But hacking this function to display your slide show is high risk because of the set-up and rehearsal needed to make it as slick as possible. It  can  work well, however, if you use the background to bring up a key visual or stat during a Q&A session.
• More recently Zoom has added the ability to incorporate a PowerPoint deck as your background, so you can superimpose yourself on the slides. It’s great, but remember, you don’t want to cover up key content, so you’ll probably need to design slides to specifically leave space for your video. Also, the slides are static with no animation, but you can split content over several slides to achieve ‘build’ effects.
• Microsoft Teams has the same idea, but takes it a step further to incorporate animated PowerPoint presentations as your video background, along with different layouts you can choose from.

Presentation skills for online meetings

Online presenters need to avoid monotony. We used to think that for some presenters the best way to do that was to work hard to develop and refine a natural-sounding script. If you aren’t using video while you present slides, then there’s no risk of being seen reading. But very few people can deliver even the best script in a convincingly natural way. So, our advice is to:

• Speak from notes, not a full script
• Practice beforehand
• Don’t read verbatim

To break up monotony further, consider playing around with the way you structure your content, and the format you use to present it.

• Break up your material every five to eight minutes, so that attention levels don’t sag too much. A non-stop 30-minute presentation might make sense face-to-face, but it’s not going to work online.
• Intersperse chunks of material with clean breaks in the content, use a change of speaker, or even an interview format – introducing content in response to pre-planned questions – to keep your audience engaged.
• If you’re selling to a small group, show a few minutes of content at a time, and select this content in response to questions and the direction of the conversation. Create a visual conversation.

Even with the best presentations, virtual events aren’t the same as their in-person equivalents: sales meetings can, however, come much closer. Online sales meetings can still feel quite intimate, people can jump in when they have a question or comment and, if you’re using webcams, you’ll probably be able to see the other people too.

But you still have to modify your approach…

The problem:  in a sales meeting, your prospects are visible on webcam; because they’re observed it makes them less likely to be distracted, but that level of focus required much more energy. If you overwhelm them with too much information at once, they’re going to tune out and disengage from the content, no matter how visual it is.

The solution:  Split your whole presentation into 3-4-slide sections and present based on what topics the prospect is most interested in, or where you see you can add most value. This keeps the pace and the energy of the meeting high, and you’re communicating to the prospect that you’re first and foremost concerned with their needs.

You can create a ‘visual conversation’ by presenting sections of slides then exiting the presentation and finding the next relevant section. Or you could create a menu slide and use hyperlinks so you can easily navigate around your presentation without having to exit show mode to find the slides you want.

If you want the low-down on how hyperlinks work, then  check out this video tutorial .

Compared to sales meetings, events are much harder to move online without some people feeling they are missing out. This is partly because conferences aren’t just about the presentations and talks. People attend events for swag, networking, and the chance to learn from other delegates.

You also no longer have everyone’s undivided attention. Calendars fill back up again. Out-of-office messages get switched off. So what do you do? Here are three practical ways make your online sessions as effective as possible:

• Schedule small discussion groups around certain topics, with cameras on so that delegates can still network and socialise.
• Shorten your sessions. Give your audience breaks from their screen, and condense the content you have into shorter, more impactful sessions.
• Make the most of your platform’s interactive features to make your session more engaging. You might want to do a quick orientation at the beginning of your session – point out what interactivity options there are and where to find them.

How to deliver hybrid presentations

Hybrid events aren’t new, but audience expectations have changed. Typically, people dialling in were somewhat ignored, but what was tolerated then won’t be tolerated now! The way to create compelling content is the same as when you’re presenting remotely: meaningful visuals, animation to impart meaning and keep things moving, interactions to help with pacing. It’s your set-up that needs some serious thought.

That said, how can you improve the hybrid presentation experience?

Make sure your audience can hear and be heard: Sound for hybrid presentations can be tricky because usually room conference phones are not great and having multiple mics open in the room at once can cause feedback. A Bluetooth mic can work well but only if you can manage muting and unmuting the room conference phone and your own mic when your audience want to ask questions. Don’t just assume that people joining remotely can hear – run a soundcheck beforehand.

Make sure your audience can see and be seen : Not only should your audience be able to see you, they should also be able to see other audience members and be seen themselves. With a single display room, use the display to show slides and (in a small view) the online audience. You might need to extend the presenter’s screen. If possible, use a webcam to make those in the room visible to those who aren’t. If you’re using two cameras one should show the presenter and the other show people in the room. Microsoft Teams is really trying to push this, with new views and layouts that allow remote audience members to be on the screen next to the main slides.

Leave the meeting chat on and use it : It’s important that your audience can ask questions and provide feedback. Have someone monitor the chat, field questions for the presenter, respond etc. Only encourage people in the room to join in if it doesn’t distract the presenter.

Consider having multiple presenters : Having one presenter in the room and one remote can ensure you’re not ignoring online audience members. The remote presenter can monitor the chat, respond to some points, advocate for the remote audience and present some of their own content to make it clear that remote participants are equal.

We’ve covered a lot in there, but to summarise, here are some key takeaways to remember:

• Don’t just take what you would do face-to-face and try to do the exact same thing online. It makes a huge difference to attention levels and energy levels not being in the room with the presenter.
• Slides presented online need to be visual, and they need to change onscreen frequently. We think every 20 seconds to keep things compelling.
• Use natural breaks in content, or speaker changes, or interactivity, to keep sections short. This makes it easier for the audience to stay engaged.
• Use video, but not necessarily while you are sharing slides. If you will want your audience to use video too, do them the courtesy of letting them know in advance.
• If you move an event online, consider condensing some sessions, introduce breaks, and insert sessions specifically to make up for the lack of networking opportunities.
• Think seriously about your set-up and make sure all audience members can see and be seen and hear and be heard.

Hannah Harper

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Hi Hannah, The article references a comparison table of different online platforms for online meetings but I can’t see it, or a link to it.

Please could you point me towards the table?

Many thanks.

Hi Deanna – you can see the table on page six of this report – https://www.brightcarbon.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Moving-Presentations-Online-3-13.pdf .

I suspect it’s going out of date by the hour, but it gives a good starting point at least.

The text in that graphic of what to consider is too small to read (ironic?) on my 13″ laptop. Is there a larger version you can add that users can click on? Thanks. Connie

Hi Connie – thanks for reading, and for the feedback. That image is now clickable, taking you to a full size version.

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How To Ace Your Virtual Presentation: Our Top 10 Tips

Table of contents, what is a virtual presentation.

A virtual presentation is a demonstration, lecture, informational session or speech meant to inform, persuade, motivate, build goodwill , or present a new concept through a digital medium such as a web video conferencing software where the host, presenter and attendees are convening remotely.

Virtual presentations have gained popularity over the last decade due to the advancement of video web conferencing software such as Zoom and Google Meets as well as the convenience virtual presentations have afforded us. Virtual presentations have also helped break down challenges experienced in different fields of work and study.

How Are Virtual Presentations Different From Regular Presentations?

On the surface, it might seem that the only difference between a virtual, online presentation and an in-person presentation is the method in which it is delivered.

In reality, however, the two require different approaches to keep viewers engaged in the presentation. Here are two major differences between virtual and regular, in-person presentations you should consider when deciding if your next meeting should be held online or in-person:

Audience Members – Is The Audience Engaged?

Participants viewing a virtual presentation are far more easily distracted than a typical meeting participant would be when viewing the content in the same room as the presenter. With in-office presentations, participants are typically in the conference room, which is a controlled environment with fewer distractions competing for attention, making it easier to pay attention to what the speaker is saying.

Self-surveillance is also less prominent in a virtual meeting rather than in a physical meeting. When you’re in a room with other individuals, you subconsciously start to self-regulate your behaviour thinking others are watching you. For example, you will not find yourself looking at your phone and you will maintain eye contact with the speaker.

With virtual presentations, on the other hand, the attendee has the ability to turn off their video and microphone allowing them to easily switch their attention to other distractions like their phone or carry on side conversation without anyone else ever knowing.

Scalability & Flexibility

Unlike an in-person presentation where the host, presenter and attendees are physically present at a singular location in the real world, virtual presentations allow for greater scalability which is not bound by the physical environment they are held in.

An in-person meeting would have you bound to the limitations of the room or venue space and the flexibility of other people to attend the presentation at a singular location. On the other hand, a virtual presentation allows you to present to more people at the same time, aided by group video conferencing services, which allows for hundreds of participants per meeting. With a virtual presentation, you are not restricted to the physical capacity of a venue space or the challenge of traveling distances for people.

Either virtual or in person you need a visual presentation that captures the attention of your audience before you tell your story.

Here's One We Did For SalesForce

When the most dynamic CRM sales tool in the industry reaches out for help, we couldn’t resist joining forces. We worked with their team to develop a concept that aligned with their branding and allowed their “Sales Force” to share their value proposition with potential customers in an engaging way.

Why Are Virtual Presentations Important?

Virtual presentations are important because they help break down barriers when it comes to bridging time zones, connecting remote regions and keeping one another safe as we have recently seen with COVID-19.

Remote teams working in space or up north in remote regions are able to share their research and findings far more quickly and easily by being able to connect with other researchers around the world and discuss in real-time. Although it may seem like this could have been done with phone calls, fax machines or even videos, virtual presentations allow for a consolidated, streamlined process that allows for spur-of-the-moment conversations with multiple people in a live presentation format.

As globalization continues to impact our everyday lives, virtual presentations are another way we are connecting with one another around the world. With remote work on the rise , learning about virtual presentations and the nuances that come with them is an important skill to know as more companies, government agencies and cultures adopt virtual presentations and communication.

How Do You Create A Virtual Presentation?

With any other project you decide to take on, to make it excellent, knowing where to start and setting up a good foundation is key to its success. The same applies to virtual presentations. If you don’t have a solid plan in place or create a solid foundation on which to build your presentation upon, your presentation won’t be as successful as it could be.

We’ve put together our top four virtual presentation tips to bring your virtual presentation to life.

1) Start with your content

First, you need to start with your content and understand what message you want to share with your audience. You need to fully understand the topic and content at hand so you’re confident in your delivery.

Start by asking yourself some questions.

• What are the key takeaways you want everyone to leave with?
• What is the purpose of sharing this content?
• Is this content relevant?
• What questions might the audience have and do I know the answer to those questions

It might help to create a story around your topic with a beginning, middle and end to help guide you and your audience through the content.

2) Think about your slides

You want your slides to be engaging. Without engaging slides, you’ll lose the interest of your audience. Remember to keep slides colorful. Use an image or a graphic to help tell the story of the slide. Don’t go overboard though. Keep it simple and follow a 1:1 ratio. One image per slide.

3) Focus on your audience

Throughout your career, you’ll be presenting material to different audiences. Not every audience is the same. For younger audiences, you’ll want to use more visuals and use more vocal energy to keep the audience’s attention. For an older demographic, you might want to keep things more succinct, to the point and talk at a slower pace. It’s one thing to know the content and create a great presentation but it’s useless if you’re not sympathetic to how your audience gathers information.

4) Be dynamic

Keep the attention of your audience by being dynamic and not static. If you’re able to present with a webcam, then do so. Take advantage of as many tools and features as the video web conferencing software you decide to use will allow. For example, some software allows you to have the audience interact with your screen and slides. Depending on the content you’re delivering, you can even have the attendees break out into smaller groups. This will keep the presentation lively, unique and encourage audience participation. Ultimately, you want to keep it fun.

Get inspired with slide ideas from our portfolio

Our Top 10 Best Virtual Presentation Tips

Before you deliver your next virtual presentation , be sure to review these ten tips to help you prepare.

1) Proper Webcam & Lighting

First, check your webcam and lighting. Before you present, turn on your webcam and make sure you’re visible. Even if you think you have sufficient lighting, it’s always best to double-check as some webcams aren’t calibrated correctly. If you’re using a ring light, it may appear like a harsh, blue light is being used. Use this time to also check your microphone and audio source. You’ll be able to check the sound quality and ensure the audio pick-up levels are correct.

2) Familiarize Yourself With The Technology

If you’re not used to presenting virtually or you’re using new software, try practicing your delivery with the technology you’ll be using. If you run into any technical issues, you’ll be able to resolve them beforehand.

3) Check Internet Connection

This is absolutely critical . A virtual meeting or presentation is only possible with an internet connection. If you don’t have a proper internet connection, you won’t have a presentation. It’s also a good idea to practice presenting with all the technology you’ll be using as more software usage requires more internet bandwidth. If you plan on presenting with your webcam on, test your internet connection with your webcam on so you have an accurate measurement.

4) Talk To The Camera

When you’re delivering your message, make sure you keep eye contact with the camera . This will allow the audience who is watching your presentation to feel more connected and engaged. If you’re simply reading from a screen, it makes the presentation feel inauthentic, unpolished and it makes it seem like you’re not confident in the content you’re presenting.

5) Present As You Would In-Person

If you have the ability to stand up while presenting, you should . Standing is beneficial because it allows your airways to be fully open. While you’re sitting, your core is typically tight and you might find yourself hunched over. This will restrict your diaphragm from moving to its fullest potential. If you stand, you’ll have a much clearer voice when speaking.

6) Use Body Language

Keep your presentation dynamic. Your body is a communication tool. Use hand motions to emphasize key points. Use facial expressions to deliver emotion . The combination of body language with your words will help connect the audience to your message on a much deeper level.

7) Engage Your Audience Members

Keep your audience engaged and allow them to participate. Some ways you can keep your audience engaged is by using polling software to ask the audience questions. You can host a Q&A at the end of your meeting , or you can have them play games like Kahoot! to win prizes.

8) Have A Moderator

Having a moderator helps you stay focused. A moderator can help monitor the chat and gauge audience engagement. If you’re conducting a Q&A session, depending on the software you use, a moderator can help filter questions that might be inappropriate. They will screen questions before they are made public to the rest of your audience.

9) Use Evaluation Tools & Learn

This is a tip not many presenters take advantage of that will help you stand out amongst the rest and will make your next presentation even better. At the end of your presentation, consider sending out a poll. Ask for feedback from your audience to see how well you did . You might want to ask their opinion on the visuals, see what information they retained or see how you presented as a whole. If done correctly, for your next virtual presentation, you’ll know if you need to slow down if you’re a fast talker or if you need to add more visuals.

10) Be Yourself

The most important tip of them all is to be yourself . When you’re yourself, you’ll have fun. Presenting and everything will appear natural.

Are You In Need Of A Custom Presentation? We Can Help

Now it’s about you! Are you in need of a fresh, engaging presentation that captures your audiences attention? Whether you need a clean up, a re-design or a completely custom build we have you covered. You can find our presentation packages and pricing options here . Want to speak to a geek, click the button below.

Author:  Ryan

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More From Forbes

Best practices for virtual presentations: 15 expert tips that work for everyone.

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In today’s COVID-19 world, virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm. While many presentation skills and best practices apply to both in-person and virtual presentations, expert virtual presenters understand the importance of adjusting their approach to match the medium. With in-person presentations, you more or less have a captive audience — you still need be engaging, but your audience is kind of stuck with you for the duration. But with virtual presentations, your audience has a greater opportunity to stray. You now have to compete for their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds against diminished attention spans, increased home and work life distractions, and conflicting priorities. 

Here are 15 expert tips to set you up for success in your next virtual presentation:

1.     Get the Lighting Right:  As a presenter, it is essential that people can see you well. Make sure you have good front light—meaning the light shines brightly on your face. If your back is to a window, close the shades. While natural light is often the best choice, if your home office doesn’t have natural light and you do a lot of virtual presentations, consider purchasing supplemental lighting to enhance your image.

2.     Choose the Right Background:  Try to use a background that enhances your professional image and is aligned with your message. Avoid a cluttered background or anything that can be distracting. Learn whether your presentation platform enables you to use virtual backgrounds (like Zoom) or whether you can blur your background (like Microsoft Teams). Your background can either add to your professional presence or detract from it.

3.     Know the Technology:  Nothing kills a presentation faster than a presenter who fumbles with the technology. This is a performance, so make sure you know how to make it work. A dry run is essential so that you’re comfortable with the platform features. It’s best to have a co-host (or producer or moderator) assist you with the technology so that you can focus on your presentation. Make sure you practice with the same technical set up (computer and internet connection) that you will use when you deliver the presentation.

4.     Play to the Camera:  When you are the one speaking, look directly into your computer’s camera , not on the screen or at the other participants. This takes some practice, but it makes the viewer feel as if you are looking right at them. Some presenters turn off their self-view so that they aren’t distracted by their own image. Put the camera at eye level . Try not to have your camera too far above or below you. If it’s too low, then you run the risk of creating a double chin. A camera too high makes it difficult to maintain eye contact, as you may find your gaze dropping as you speak. If you are part of a panel or a team of presenters, make sure you are aware of when your camera is on. If you are not speaking but your camera is on, make sure you look like you are paying attention! Powerful presenters understand the importance of making eye contact with their audience, so this means you have to simulate the same effect virtually.

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5.     Get Close (But Not Too Close).  You want the camera to frame your face, neck, and shoulders. People are drawn to faces, so you don’t want to lose that connection by being too far away, but you also don’t want your face to take over the whole screen like a dismembered head because, well, that looks weird. Practice your positioning and distance.

6.     Stand Up:  If possible, use a standing desk or position your laptop so you can stand at eye level with your computer. Standing up provides a higher energy level and forces us to put our body in a more presentation-like mode. If you have to sit, lean forward as you would if you were presenting at a real meeting or as if you were a TV news anchor. Avoid slouching away from the camera, as that sends a signal that you are disconnected from the audience.

7.     Be Animated:  Just like in a live presentation, you want to present with a little energy and animation. Too slow or too monotone in your voice makes it easy for folks to disengage and tune out. Keeping people engaged virtually requires you to actually be engaging.

8.     Pace Yourself:  Without real-time visual audience feedback cues, getting the pacing right can be difficult. Even though you want to infuse some animation and energy into your presentation don’t pump up the speed too much. If you tend to be a fast talker in real life, practice slowing down just a bit. If you’re a slow talker, you may want to speed up just a bit.

9.     Do A Sound Check:  If your sound is garbled, people will tune out. While people may forgive less than perfect video, if they can’t clearly hear you, they will leave. Practice with someone on the other end of the presentation platform. Make sure your sound emits clearly. Sometimes headphones or external microphones work better than the computer audio, sometimes not. Every platform is different, so make sure your sound quality is excellent every time. And again, you should practice with the same technical configurations and location that you will use for your presentation.

10.  Plug into Your Modem:  If possible, plug your computer directly into your modem using an Ethernet cable. This will give you the strongest signal and most stable internet connection. The last thing you want to happen during your presentation is to have a weak or unstable internet signal.

11.  Incorporate Redundant Systems.  If using slides, make sure someone else (another webinar co-host or producer) also has a copy of the slides just in case your internet goes wonky and you have to present by calling in. If you are using slides, make them visually appealing. Use high-quality graphics and limit the amount of text on each slide. It’s your job as presenter to deliver the content. The slides are meant to enhance your spoken words, not replace them.

12.  Engage Your Participants. Just as if you were doing an in-person presentation, craft your presentation to engage the audience. Incorporate chats, polls, raised hand features, etc. Try not to speak for more than ten minutes without some sort of audience engagement. Use the participant list to interact with your participants by name. Have people chat or raise a hand if they want to speak. Keep track of the order of people and then call on them to invite them to turn on their mics or cameras. 

13.  Let Someone Else Check the Chats.  Don’t get sidetracked by the chats during your presentation. You’ll be shocked at how distracting it is to your train of thought if you attempt to read the chats while speaking. Instead, have your co-host or producer monitor the chats. If you ask people to chat you answers or comments to a question you’ve posed, then pause your talking and engage directly with the chats by acknowledging them, reading them out loud, and commenting on them. 

14.  Evaluate and Enhance:  If possible, record the session and take the time to play back and look for areas that worked well and areas that you might want to improve upon. Great presenters, whether virtual or in person, understand the value of continually honing their craft. Be sure to acknowledge your strengths as well as your areas of improvement.

15.  Be Yourself and Have Fun:  Again, just like in face-to-face presentations, audiences connect to authenticity, so be yourself! Let your personality show through. Have fun. If you look like you’re enjoying the presentation so will others. Research shows that happy people retain information better than bored or disinterested people, so model the energy that you want to create. The audience takes its cue from you.

Remember, whether you are presenting in-person or virtually, all presentations are performances. And all performances are in service to your audience. Their time is valuable, so honor that time by delivering the best presentation you can. No matter what kind of presentation you are giving, you must find ways to create authentic audience connection, engagement, and value.

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7 Steps to Record a Successful Virtual Presentation

By Jeff Cobb .  Last Updated on August 3, 2023

If you are someone who speaks or aspires to speak at professional and industry conferences or similar events, then it is almost certain you will need to record a virtual presentation at some point. 

To do that you could, of course, just fire up Zoom and record yourself narrating a slide deck, possibly with your tiny self-visible in a video box off to the side. 

You could. (Yawn.) 

Or you could put in a little effort and create something event planners and attendees are much more likely to find engaging – and that will result in your attendees actually learning something.  (What we’re all about here at Learning Revolution.)

In this post, I’ll go through the steps I follow. I can’t claim to have mastered them, but I do know they are rooted in learning science, and they result in presentations that are much more engaging and impactful than what you usually get at virtual conferences and other virtual events.

We’ll get to the details momentarily, but first let’s consider why it matters

Virtual Events Are Here to Stay

Given that it looks like everything may return to “normal” soon, you may be asking “Why should I care about how to record a virtual event presentation?”

Clearly, we saw a huge surge in traditional events moving online with the emergence of COVID-19 and it’s tempting to think that as the pandemic recedes, all those events will simply go back to their usual face-to-face settings. Some will, of course, but a lot won’t.

Why? Having been forced to go virtual, many organizations have now realized that it has a lot of benefits. For example, with a virtual event, the average organization:

• Saves a lot of money on event costs
• Takes on a lot less risk (e.g., no food and beverage or hotel block commitments)
• Has the potential to reach many more people than with its face-to-face events

While many – maybe most – organizations will return to face-to-face with their flagship events, the idea of making these “hybrid” – i.e., with people participating both in-person and online – is currently all the rage in the events industry. And, that trend aside, many organizations will make the switch to virtual permanent for their smaller or second tier events and will likely add new virtual event offerings to their portfolio.

As part of this shift, many organizations have realized that there are significant benefits to getting most of the presentations for a virtual (or hybrid) event recorded in advance. Getting not only slides but entire presentations in advance offers a lot of peace of mind to stressed out event planners. Presentations can then be replayed at a scheduled time, often in combination with live chat. For speakers, this offers the benefit of actually engaging with attendees in the chat – often very hard to do when delivering content in real time.

Overall, the greater ease, convenience, and cost savings represented by virtual events – along with the pandemic having pushed them into the mainstream – means we are likely to see as many or more of them in the post-COVID world. So, there is a ton of virtual opportunity for speakers. 

But that brings us back to virtual presentations. 

Expectations Are on the Rise

As organizations have gotten used to hosting virtual events and attendees have gotten used to participating online, expectations have gone up. A lot. The average talking-over-PowerPoint presentation that has been the mainstay of Webinars for years just doesn’t cut anymore in most cases.

It’s not that these types of presentations can’t be good and useful. It’s just that most of them aren’t, and never have been. And now that attendees are being subjected to an even higher volume of them than usual, patience for them is dropping fast. 

In some cases, event planners and attendees are vocal in complaining about them. I see this a fair amount on association discussion boards that I frequent. More commonly, though, attendees simply tune out or (because their expectations have rarely been met in the past) simply don’t show up. 

Now, if you are a speaker, regardless of whether you get paid for it, you probably have goals like building a brand for yourself and your business and actually having a positive impact on the lives of the people you address.

So, a presentation that sucks just isn’t good for anyone. 

On to the “how-to.”

1. Plan It, Script It

When you present in a live face-to-face setting, you have a good bit of wiggle room. It’s pretty easy to speed up, slow down, or even drop entire sections of your content on the fly. With slides as a backdrop (or crutch) and a rough outline or notes, many speakers make it through these types of presentations with relatively little planning or practice. 

This is a much harder approach to pull off with a recorded virtual presentation. 

In the first place, there is almost always going to be some sort of time constraint for your talk. If the event planner tells you “25 minutes” for example, you may be able to come in a few minutes short or long, but any more than that and you may really screw up the timing for the event. 

So, ideally, you need to have a solid idea of how long your content will run before you press record. 

Second, because you will not be able to answer questions as you speak or adjust your content on the fly, it pays to really think through the most essential points you want to make and figure out how to make them in the most logical, concise, and compelling way. (Of course, good speakers should also do this with their live presentations, but let’s face, many don’t.)

Fortunately, there is a sure-fire way to address the issues I’ve just raised: write out your entire presentation . 

I can feel groans rumbling through my keyboard even as I write this, but really, there is no better way to make sure you have you content structured effectively and that you can deliver it in the time allotted. We know very well, after all, the number of words that correspond to a minute of speech. Using an online calculator like this one , you can easily determine how many words you need to write.

Now, it’s possible that with a general idea of the number of words you are aiming for you can manage to work off of just an outline and notes. Good for you if you can, but I’ve never found that to work well. I strongly prefer to script the whole presentation and either memorize it or read it ( with the help of a simple teleprompter like this one ).  Either way with enough practice runs so that I am able to do it naturally. 

As I write, I have four key aims in mind, which leads to my next point … 

2. Nail the Opening

First, I want to make sure the introduction pulls attendees in as much as possible. Again, this is a good practice for any presentation, but I think it is particularly important for recorded virtual presentations. Attendees can check out very quickly – whether figuratively or literally – if you aren’t able to engage them in a meaningful way right at the start.

So, “Hi, I’m Jeff. So nice to be here” isn’t a great start.

My stand-by for introductions is to share a story or anecdote with just me on screen – usually no slides, at least for the first minute or so. I think of this story as a sort of “landing page” or sales page for the entire presentation. Its purpose is to move attendees to “buy in” to watching and participating in the rest of the presentation. With that perspective in mind, it can be useful to borrow the classic AIDA approach used by marketers in deciding on and structuring your story:

A: Attention – Offer content at the very beginning that will grab attention. This may be a provocative statement, question, or quote; it may be an image; it may be the setting you choose to film yourself in or just something about how you present yourself on screen. Really, the possibilities are endless.

I: Interest – Grabbing attention purely for the sake of attention is pointless (and can be annoying). How can you build on the attention you receive to foster deeper interest? Usually, this will mean pivoting quickly to establish the relevance of your opening attention grabber to your audience. It means beginning to establish the “why” of your presentation for the audience you are addressing

D: Desire – Interest is a necessary step beyond attention, but for attendees to really engage with you and your material, they have to see the potential for value and applicability in their own lives. This is the classic “WIIFM,” or “What’s In It For Me” aspect of adult learning. While you don’t have to explicitly address the WIIFM aspect of your presentation in your opening, there should be a strong enough sense of it that attendees want to – better yet, feel compelled to – stick around to realize the value that your presentation promises. 

A: Action – A good sales page includes a clear “call to action,” and so should the opening to your presentation. Each of the three steps above lead to the action you want from your attendees: a commitment to watch and participate in the remainder of your presentation . You may ask for this commitment more or less overtly, depending on the nature of your opening, but it should be clear as you transition to the next part of your content that you want and expect your attendees to come along for the ride. This may literally include asking them to acknowledge – to themselves or in the chat area, if there is one – that they are committed to participating. 

While addressing each of the components of AIDA may seem challenging, there are few things that make a bigger difference in how a presentation is received than the opening. It sets the tone; it sets expectations; it establishes a sort of agreement with your attendees. A strong opening builds momentum that can carry attendees through even weaker parts (there are always some!) in the remainder of your presentation. 

A story, of course, is just one approach. Another one might be to present some sort of challenge or problem that is relevant to the topic and the audience. Present it and then build in some time in which you are silent and allow attendees to work on the problem before you present a solution. Or, present a thought-provoking question, a quote from a well-known thinker or practitioner, or a compelling image.  Any of these can be a door into gaining attention, exciting interest, developing desire, and asking for action.

One final point: While I’ve relied on a marketing inspired approach here, I’ll note that all of this jibes with what research in cognitive and behavioral science has taught us. Establishing and sustaining attention is critical to learning as is taking action. Helping these things happen is the essence of good teaching, and that’s exactly what a strong opening step you up for. 

Again, all of this is even truer with presentations that are both virtual and recorded. So, it is well worth devoting a significant amount of your thinking, planning, and writing for any virtual event presentation to nailing the opening.  

Here’s an example of an intro segment I did for a session on learner engagement for the California Society of Association Executives (CalSAE). I’ll leave it to you analyze how well I do – or don’t – practice what I preach in this one.

3. Cut and Chunk

As important as the beginning of your presentation is, the real substance of it is in the content that follows. That means you need to maintain attendees’ attention, focus it on your most important points, and do what you can to support longer-term retention and application of your material.

When you think about it, that’s a tall order. The 30 to 60 minutes an average presentation lasts isn’t much time for achieving any real impact, and yet, it is also a very long period of time to keep the average person’s attention – especially in a world of cell phones, social media, and other distractions.

So, how you put your content together is critical . Just riffing to your slides will rarely cut it these days – especially if you want your attendees to actually learn something and retain what they learn.

First, get crystal clear about your objectives

Your starting point for achieving that is to get ultra -clear in your own mind about the objectives of your presentation. The objectives represent the strategy for the course and should drive decisions about content—what stays, what goes; what approaches are most useful, etc. In short, your objectives determine what it is most important for your learner to pay attention to in the course.

To clarify your objectives, ask, “How should attendees behave (differently) as a result of participating in my presentation?” Even if you see your presentation as primarily informational, be clear about what the learner should be able to do with the information. How will she apply it in the real world?

Keep in mind that only so much information can be absorbed and only so much change can be prompted by a single presentation. Most presentations suffer from a lack of clarity about objectives, too many objectives, or both. Exactly what will amount to too many objectives will depend on a range of variables – from the complexity of the topic to the background of the learners – but as general rule, it’s best to aim for achieving no more than two, possibly three objectives in a one-hour session.

Then, on to cutting and chunking

Once you have your objectives clear, focused, and reduced to a realistic number, you can move on to cutting and chunking.

As a presenter, you no doubt hope that your attendees will remember everything you share with them, but you also no doubt recognize that human beings have limited capacity for memory. More technically, we can only hold so much information in our working memory, the type of memory involved with storing, focusing attention on, and manipulating information for a relatively short period of time, time measured in seconds. Learning is a process of bringing information into working memory and then moving it into long-term memory—which, as far as we know, does not have any limitations.

The amount of working memory resources used for a task or in a situation is referred to as cognitive load, and, as a presenter, you want to do what you can to keep cognitive load at as manageable a level as possible for your attendees. This effort often starts with resisting the temptation to share everything you know about a subject and being disciplined about cutting content that is not truly relevant or germane for achieving your targeted learning outcomes.

To cut, go back to objectives: What is it truly necessary for the learner to know to achieve the desired outcomes? What is extraneous or perhaps “nice to know”?

Literally, list these out. It can help to know that “nice to know” information doesn’t have to totally ignored. You can still make this available in a number of ways—through resource pages, downloadables, and other types of “bonus” content. But get it out of the main flow of the content that is truly targeted to achieving the objectives.

Next, chunking longer content into shorter segments and allowing for brief pauses before continuing on from one segment to the next will also help to keep cognitive load at manageable level. Shorter segments—typically meaning no more than 10 minutes—are more in line with what our limited working memory can process and pauses allow time for that processing to happen.

At the highest level, your chunks of content should serve to focus attention on related concepts and information. These would typically be the larger sections of your presentation. In the presentation on learner engagement, I referenced in the video clip earlier, for example,

I chunked the content down into the following top-level segments:

• Defining Learner Engagement
• Requirements for Engagement
• Signals and Support of Engagement
• Accountability for Engagement

Within those major segments, I further chunked the content down into topics that I felt were most essential to those larger concepts. For example, in “Signals and Support of Engagement,” I addressed:

• Promote and Convert
• Design, Develop, & Deliver
• Retain & Reactivate

Finally, I chunked the content down further to each individual slide or snippet of video, being careful to try focus on one essential point within each and to try to ensure that I stayed within the limits of working memory in each.  

As you might guess, while there is science behind all that effort, there is also more than a bit of art and guesswork to it. I won’t claim to have gotten exactly right – in fact, in retrospect, I’m sure I didn’t. Few presenters do, but practice with chunking over time can dramatically improve your capabilities.

4. Mix media wisely

As you are cutting, chunking, and sequencing your content you, of course, have options regarding the types of media you can use—text, images, audio, and videos, just to name some of the most common examples. Varying the types of media, you use is almost always a good practice. It can help keep a presentation interesting, maintain attention, and ultimately, help your attendees learn and remember what you present.

But again, there are research-based rules that apply to doing it right. You need to be careful to use media in a way that does not increase—and ideally decreases—cognitive load.

In the context of a recorded virtual presentation, the three types of media you are most likely to use are text, audio, and images, so I’m just going to focus on those in providing some guidance. (I know – the whole presentation is a video, but that make video as ort of “meta” medium in this case, rather than something you use as an element of instruction.)

First, research indicates that including images to illustrate key points in your presentation can be an effective way to support learning. And sometimes, it’s the best way. If, for example, someone doesn’t know what a dragon fruit looks like and the goal is to for them to be able to buy one at the market, would it be more efficient to describe the fruit’s leathery slightly leafy pink exterior and its white flesh pitted with black seeds or show a picture?

The picture is more efficient in this case. And you should also consider when using an illustration, a photo, or a graph rather than a verbal description might reduce extraneous cognitive load when making a point.

But using multimedia effectively isn’t as simple as sprinkling a few photos or graphics throughout your slides – and you definitely don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too much media. There are research-based rules that should be followed. Based primarily on the work of Richard Mayer and Ruth Clark, here are four that are particularly important and useful for the average online presentation:

First, use only graphics images, text, and narration that clearly support learning goals. Images that are merely decorative or text that is tangential or supplemental, for example, will only increase cognitive load and make it harder for learners to absorb your key points.

Second, as you are narrating your presentation, avoid using both graphics and text at the same time. While there are exceptions, it generally increases the learner’s cognitive load to have to process both text and audio while also viewing a graphic.

Third, where appropriate, make use of arrows, highlighting, and other signals to draw attention to important information. This practice helps to focus the learner’s attention while also reducing the need for extraneous text.

Fourth, present in a conversational way. It can be easy, especially if you are presenting on a complex topic, to slip into jargon or academic, formal-sounding language. But research suggests that a more relaxed, informal approach can positively impact learning.

There are other rules – and many nuances – for using multimedia in the most effective to support learning. To the extent you want to go deeper into those, I’ve included a few supplemental resources at the end of this article. Just implementing the above suggestions, though, will go a long way toward ensuring you are making the most of the media you use in your presentations.

5. Space and repeat

If your goal is to help you attendees actually learn something – as opposed to purely entertaining or motivating them – then this point, in combination with the next one, is critical: you need to revisit key concepts and give attendees the chance to engage with them throughout your presentations .

You probably know from your own experience that being exposed to information only once rarely results in our remembering it. And a wealth of research supports the idea that repetition is essential for learning—but not just any repetition. The repetition must have two key qualities.

First, it needs to occur over time to be most effective. That is, there needs to be some space between the time when an attendee first engages with the material to be learned and each subsequent time. So, plan to revisit your most essential ideas and concepts at different points in time throughout your presentation. As I’ll discuss soon, it’s also a good idea to provide attendees with ways that they can revisit key ideas and concepts on their own at multiple times following your presentation. 

Second, repetition needs to involve some effort if you really want the repeated material stick. The attendee needs to re-engage with material cognitively and—in cases where the learning involves a skill or other observable behavior—physically.

I’ll come back to the importance of effort momentarily, but, for now, it’s essential to understand that repetition is a way to re-focus attention to the most salient material, the material that most supports the objectives of your presentation. For that reason, it’s critical to plan out the repetition and review of key concepts in different ways throughout the presentation.

Along these lines, it’s worth noting that one of the desirable outcomes of the cutting process I covered earlier is to ensure you preserve sufficient time for revisiting material—rather than simply introducing more and more new material. Winding back even further, that same thinking applies to objectives: given the need to repeat key material throughout your virtual presentation, there are really only so many objectives you can address.

6. Provide for Participation

Now, let’s return to that idea of repetition needing to be combined with effort on the part of the attendee. Even in on-demand, recorded presentations, participation from attendees is possible and desirable—but clear opportunities have to be called out and supported.

So, first …

Prompt and pause

As obvious as it may seem, an often-overlooked aspect of participation is that you usually must ask for it and then – here’s the kicker – actually build in sufficient time for it. That means including silence during live presentations (including replays with chat) or – more common in completely on-demand presentations – having attendees hit the pause button to allow time for whatever it is you ask them to do.

Here’s a brief example of me allowing for some silence in a virtual presentation. Note, too, that I use a tactic for commenting on chat even though this is a recorded presentation, and I can’t actually know in advance what will be said in the live chat that occurs during the presentation replay.

Not rocket science, obviously – just one of those things you have to plan for and execute. (Which goes back to the points above about scripting, objectives, etc.)

Yes, doing something like this can feel a bit awkward, but it can really help tremendously with learning and memory.  A fundamental problem with most presentations is that the learning evaporates once the learner exits the physical room or online session. To combat forgetting, we have to encourage and guide attendees to “practice” with the material and prompting and pausing creates the opportunity to do that.

I’ll note, too, that prompting and pausing are a way of focusing attention—signaling to attendees what is important and giving them an opportunity to engage and re-engage with that important material.

Of course, once you have focused or re-focused attention in this way, you have to provide the actual participation opportunity – which leads to my next point.

There are many ways to enable participation in a virtual participation – and most of them are not especially complicated. You don’t need fancy animations or elaborate games. Simple methods like reflection questions, contributions to chat, quizzes, challenge problems, or even assignments to be completed later can be quite effective.

Using a variety of methods throughout your presentation can help maintain learner interest. Just as importantly, if you give learners the opportunity to engage with the material in a variety of ways, you’ll be supporting different aspects of learning.

A simple “pop quiz” (i.e., pose a question and pause momentarily to let attendees think about the answer) might help to bolster memory for a key concept; a reflection question might provide a means of “elaboration”—challenging the attendee to think through how the concept applies to her own situation—to something she commonly does back at work, for example. A suggested assignment could then challenge her to apply one or more key concepts when she is actually back in her work context.

To go back to the earlier point about spacing and repeating, it’s highly effective to provide for repeated, but varied types of participation throughout your presentation. You might, for example, pose a problem or challenge as a way of introducing a key concept, and then return to the same concept later, offer a solution, and present a reflection question.

One key in mixing your methods in the most meaningful way is get your attendees to make an effort—to retrieve, to elaborate, to rehearse, to apply, to make their own connections between the material you share and their own contexts. A wealth of research suggests that this kind of effort is essential for making learning stick.

So, as you deliver the presentation, overtly tie your material back to the outcomes and positive change that attendees are seeking. But even more importantly, help attendees – through participation – make such connections for themselves. They’re better able than you are to make the “why” of any learning experience more meaningful and specific. You just need to encourage them and – through prompting and pausing – give them the cognitive space to do so.

7. Pave the Path Forward

I’ve now covered most of what happens during the time that attendees are actually present for your virtual presentation, but what about what comes after?

While rates of forgetting can vary widely from person to person, most of us will forget most of what we hear and see in a presentation within a matter of weeks, if not days or – sadly – hours. So, if you really want your attendees to retain and use what you present to them, your presentation is just one step in a longer journey to fully absorbing and mastering the material you cover.

To ensure that journey is ultimately successful, it’s important to help learners understand the need to revisit and continue to engage over time with the key concepts and ideas covered in your presentation. And it’s also important to provide them with or help them find opportunities for doing this.

So, to wrap up, let’s take a look at how you can help your attendees create a future in which the learning you’ve facilitated sticks and gets put into action.

Provide a map

First, taking the “journey” metaphor to heart, provide your learners with a map. Or, even better, co-create a map with them.

By “map,” I mean a concrete resource like a document or a web page where you suggest clear steps or actions learners may take over time, starting immediately, to ensure that they retain and apply what they have learned.

Depending on the nature of your virtual presentation, these could include anything from trying out a particular method or procedure in different situations. Or it might mean asking learners to make daily journal entries for a period of time to note down when they have applied one of your key concepts and the results they got.

That’s your part of the map.

But it’s also useful to ask attendees to add their own elements to the map – whether by creating their own supplemental resource or providing them with an editable version of whatever you provide. While you probably have a great deal of expertise or experience in whatever topic you are presenting, there’s no way you can know where each attendee is trying to go. The destination – the why, the goal – will vary some from attendee to attendee.

By asking learners to co-create the map – essentially, to identify what they will do differently in the future as a result of what was covered in your presentation – you offer them the ability to personalize the learning experience, to make it as relevant as possible in their specific contexts.

Provide resources

Along with the map, provide resources to support the learner along her journey, as she pursues the actions on the map. These might include things like reference and tip sheets, checklists, self-checks that learners should complete at established intervals, or links to additional materials – articles, books, videos – that help reinforce or expand upon the most essential elements of your virtual presentation.

Again, these can be put into a document or posted to web page.

Encourage accountability

Finally, for the map and resources to have an impact, they have to be used. 

So, encourage learners to make clear, measurable commitments to themselves – for example, by setting dates by which they will accomplish items on the map – and to find accountability partners—in their workplace or within professional networks or communities they’re part of to help hold them to applying what they learn.

As part of supporting accountability, you may even want document concrete ways in which a colleague and/or manager can best support accountability—one of the resources you provide may help support this. You might even create a brief guide for accountability partners—i.e., what do you want them to do, when, why?

It’s a Process

One of my mantra’s is that learning is a process, not an event. Just like a single virtual presentation will have only so much impact on your attendees, reading this article will only have so much impact on your presenting. Everything discussed here takes a lot of practice over time to do really well.

But, of course, every journey begins with a single step.

Just becoming conscious and intentional (or, if this is familiar ground, more conscious and more intentional) about what goes into more effective, engaging virtual event presentations is an essential step. Beyond that, continuing to review, practice, and improve at everything covered here over time will ensure that your virtual presentations stand out and deliver real impact.

One last note: while I’ve focused on improving virtual event presentations here, everything I have covered applies to creating content for online courses and, indeed, for most methods of sharing your expertise and helping others learn.

So, I encourage you to bookmark this page, share it with friends and colleagues who might benefit from the information offered here, and return to it periodically to reinforce your own learning.

Additional Reading

Here are some additional resources you may find helpful. (I plan to add to these over time – just one more reason it is useful to bookmark and share this page as a reference).

12 Brain Rules

John Medina’s Brain Rules is one of the main sources for the rule of thumb for chunking content into segments of no more than 10 minutes, As Medina writes:

Audiences check out after 10 minutes, but you can keep grabbing them back by telling narratives or creating events rich in emotion.

You can download all 12 brain rules at the link above.

Chunking Informational for Instructional Design

eLearning Coach Connie Malamed provides some good, concise tips on how to chunk content to ensure you support learning.

How to use Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia

To keep things simple and actionable, I touch on just a few key principles of multimedia above. If you want to go deeper, this article gives a good overview of twelve principles based on the research of educational psychologist Richard Mayer.

Spacing Learning Events Over Time: What the Research Says

This classic research round-up from Dr. Will Thalheimer makes clear how powerful “spacing” is.

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Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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8 Tips for virtual presentations

The pandemic has accelerated the implementation of telecommuting and online classes. Surely during this time you have had online meetings for which you would have liked to have tips to optimize time and resources.

Therefore, in this post we give you 8 essential tips for virtual presentations that will be a guaranteed success.

Choose a good place with good lighting and little noise

Know the technology and the format you are going to use, prepare all the data you need in one document, check your connection and battery, keep track of time, non-verbal communication.

The first thing to consider is the place where you will make your presentation. It is important that it is a quiet place. If you live with other people, let them know that you will be in a meeting to avoid interruptions. 

Also take into account outside noises. We advise you to close the window to minimize the volume of sirens, neighbors talking, dogs barking, etc. 

Some tools already offer the option of selecting a background image. In Slidesgo you have several proposals adapted to different themes, for example, the Landscapes: Zoom backgrounds or, if you are a teacher, we invite you to try Video Call Backgrounds for Teachers and Students . This way you don't have to worry if someone walks by or if you see the typical photos of the first communion.

To learn how to make an online presentation it is essential to know the technology we are going to use. Nowadays there are plenty of tools for virtual meetings. Most of them are really easy to use. But it is always a good idea to get familiar with them beforehand.

On the other hand, are you clear about the format you are going to use for your online presentation? Versatility, ease of use and compatibility with other files are some of the advantages of Google Slides and PowerPoint , which make them the perfect choice for your expositions.

To avoid having to search for and change documents during your exhibition, it is best to prepare all the data you are going to use in a single file. You will save time and have everything more organized.

If you are looking for resources for your presentation, Slidesgo has thousands of editable templates with everything you may need. From tables to charts, maps or timelines. And what about infographics? They are an excellent option to show information in an attractive way.

There are platforms that have an app version. If the one you use has it, download it to your mobile or tablet. If your computer fails, you will have an alternative ready to use quickly. 

Make sure you have enough battery power or keep your computer charging while you do your exhibition.

Connect 15 minutes before, check everything and confirm that you have enough coverage. An ethernet cable can improve the connection if your wifi network is not working properly.

A very useful resource to control time is to work with speaker notes, which allow you to add key ideas to guide you without your audience seeing them. If you have doubts about how to use this tool, you can check our tutorial How to add speaker notes in Google Slides or PowerPoint .

Ideally, meetings should last less than one hour. Beyond that time, it will be a challenge to keep your audience concentrated. Try to be concise and direct, and focus on the topic of the meeting.

If you need more time, it is a good idea to take a short break after the first hour. This way you can take the time to go to the restroom, have a coffee and come back with energy.

Even if you are behind the screen, remember to look at the camera to address your audience and help them stay focused on what you are telling them. To do this, we recommend using public speaking techniques that will captivate your public. If you want to know what they consist of, you can read our post on How to become a good speaker . 

If you want to learn how to make a dynamic virtual presentation, take a look at Slidesgo's interactive templates . You'll find thousands of editable templates that will help you engage your audience and capture their interest.

Try including questions; it always works well. It gets your listeners involved and engaged. From time to time you can also ask if they have any questions, if they hear and see everything well, etc.

Another option, if the topic of the presentation allows for a relaxed tone, is to make a joke or launch a riddle or challenge. A little competition among the attendees will activate them instantly!

Another advantage of interactive templates is that they make it easier to navigate between sections and make the explanation more entertaining.

As in physical meetings, in online meetings we must pay attention to our body language. Avoid making too many movements with your hands, touching your hair continuously or any other gesture that you tend to make repeatedly. This is something that comes with practice and that we cannot neglect.

Finally, and fundamentally, smile! When you have a good time it rubs off. So, despite the nerves and difficulties that may arise, do things naturally and enjoy yourself. 

For an original touch, you can end your presentation with an inspirational song or video. It will help to relax the atmosphere and close with a final flourish.

Now you know how to improve your online presentation thanks to these tips. At Slidesgo you have an endless number of Google Slides and PowerPoint templates for all topics. Choose the template that best suits your needs and surprise everyone with your skills!

Do you find this article useful?

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No matter if it's been ages since you last stepped into a classroom or just a long time ago―there’s probably a particular learning experience you often find yourself thinking about. Maybe it was a passionate teacher who kept the whole class engaged, or perhaps a classmate who lent you a hand with a tricky topic. Positive classroom experiences do leave a lasting mark on us, so it makes perfect sense that people leading a classroom aim to create the finest possible learning setting. In this article, we’ll share some tips to help you turn a regular classroom into a positive space.

How to create a word cloud in Google Slides

There are many ways to improve your Google Slides presentation. From choosing the right font to finding the right template, good presentations keep an audience engaged and convey a message in a clear way.Knowing how to visualize data in a slideshow is one of those actions that have a huge impact on the success of a presentation. At the end of the day, plain data fails to motivate decisions as effectively as clear insights do. This is when powerful visual tools like word clouds step in. Let us tell you all about them. 

How to create a word cloud in PowerPoint

In the age of information, showing data has become as important as collecting it. Those who are able to turn big amounts of data into easy-to-understand ideas, are the ones pushing the game forward.At the end of the day, plain data fails to motivate decisions as much as clear insights do. That’s where powerful visual tools such as word clouds step in. We’re here to tell you all about them.

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What is climate change mitigation and why is it urgent?

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• Climate change mitigation involves actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
• Mitigation efforts include transitioning to renewable energy sources, enhancing energy efficiency, adopting regenerative agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and critical ecosystems.
• Effective mitigation requires a whole-of-society approach and structural transformations to reduce emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
• International cooperation, for example through the Paris Agreement, is crucial in guiding and achieving global and national mitigation goals.
• Mitigation efforts face challenges such as the world's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels, the increased demand for new mineral resources and the difficulties in revamping our food systems.
• These challenges also offer opportunities to improve resilience and contribute to sustainable development.

What is climate change mitigation?

Climate change mitigation refers to any action taken by governments, businesses or people to reduce or prevent greenhouse gases, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove them from the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun in our planet’s atmosphere, keeping it warm. 

Since the industrial era began, human activities have led to the release of dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, causing global warming and climate change. However, despite unequivocal research about the impact of our activities on the planet’s climate and growing awareness of the severe danger climate change poses to our societies, greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. If we can slow down the rise in greenhouse gases, we can slow down the pace of climate change and avoid its worst consequences.

Reducing greenhouse gases can be achieved by:

• Shifting away from fossil fuels : Fossil fuels are the biggest source of greenhouse gases, so transitioning to modern renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power, and advancing sustainable modes of transportation, is crucial.
• Improving energy efficiency : Using less energy overall – in buildings, industries, public and private spaces, energy generation and transmission, and transportation – helps reduce emissions. This can be achieved by using thermal comfort standards, better insulation and energy efficient appliances, and by improving building design, energy transmission systems and vehicles.
• Changing agricultural practices : Certain farming methods release high amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, which are potent greenhouse gases. Regenerative agricultural practices – including enhancing soil health, reducing livestock-related emissions, direct seeding techniques and using cover crops – support mitigation, improve resilience and decrease the cost burden on farmers.
• The sustainable management and conservation of forests : Forests act as carbon sinks , absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation are key for climate mitigation and generate multiple additional benefits such as biodiversity conservation and improved water cycles.
• Restoring and conserving critical ecosystems : In addition to forests, ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands, and grasslands, as well as coastal biomes such as mangrove forests, also contribute significantly to carbon sequestration, while supporting biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience.
• Creating a supportive environment : Investments, policies and regulations that encourage emission reductions, such as incentives, carbon pricing and limits on emissions from key sectors are crucial to driving climate change mitigation.

Photo: Stephane Bellerose/UNDP Mauritius

Photo: La Incre and Lizeth Jurado/PROAmazonia

What is the 1.5°C goal and why do we need to stick to it?

In 2015, 196 Parties to the UN Climate Convention in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement , a landmark international treaty, aimed at curbing global warming and addressing the effects of climate change. Its core ambition is to cap the rise in global average temperatures to well below 2°C above levels observed prior to the industrial era, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

The 1.5°C goal is extremely important, especially for vulnerable communities already experiencing severe climate change impacts. Limiting warming below 1.5°C will translate into less extreme weather events and sea level rise, less stress on food production and water access, less biodiversity and ecosystem loss, and a lower chance of irreversible climate consequences.

To limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C, it is imperative for the world to undertake significant mitigation action. This requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.

What are the policy instruments that countries can use to drive mitigation?

Everyone has a role to play in climate change mitigation, from individuals adopting sustainable habits and advocating for change to governments implementing regulations, providing incentives and facilitating investments. The private sector, particularly those businesses and companies responsible for causing high emissions, should take a leading role in innovating, funding and driving climate change mitigation solutions. 

International collaboration and technology transfer is also crucial given the global nature and size of the challenge. As the main platform for international cooperation on climate action, the Paris Agreement has set forth a series of responsibilities and policy tools for its signatories. One of the primary instruments for achieving the goals of the treaty is Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) . These are the national climate pledges that each Party is required to develop and update every five years. NDCs articulate how each country will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhance climate resilience.   While NDCs include short- to medium-term targets, long-term low emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) are policy tools under the Paris Agreement through which countries must show how they plan to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century. These strategies define a long-term vision that gives coherence and direction to shorter-term national climate targets.

Photo: Mucyo Serge/UNDP Rwanda

Photo: William Seal/UNDP Sudan

At the same time, the call for climate change mitigation has evolved into a call for reparative action, where high-income countries are urged to rectify past and ongoing contributions to the climate crisis. This approach reflects the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which advocates for climate justice, recognizing the unequal historical responsibility for the climate crisis, emphasizing that wealthier countries, having profited from high-emission activities, bear a greater obligation to lead in mitigating these impacts. This includes not only reducing their own emissions, but also supporting vulnerable countries in their transition to low-emission development pathways.

Another critical aspect is ensuring a just transition for workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry and its many connected industries. This process must prioritize social equity and create alternative employment opportunities as part of the shift towards renewable energy and more sustainable practices.

For emerging economies, innovation and advancements in technology have now demonstrated that robust economic growth can be achieved with clean, sustainable energy sources. By integrating renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal power into their growth strategies, these economies can reduce their emissions, enhance energy security and create new economic opportunities and jobs. This shift not only contributes to global mitigation efforts but also sets a precedent for sustainable development.

What are some of the challenges slowing down climate change mitigation efforts?

Mitigating climate change is fraught with complexities, including the global economy's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels and the accompanying challenge of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. This reliance – and the vested interests that have a stake in maintaining it – presents a significant barrier to transitioning to sustainable energy sources.

The shift towards decarbonization and renewable energy is driving increased demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals. Since new mining projects can take up to 15 years to yield output, mineral supply chains could become a bottleneck for decarbonization efforts. In addition, these minerals are predominantly found in a few, mostly low-income countries, which could heighten supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions.

Furthermore, due to the significant demand for these minerals and the urgency of the energy transition, the scaled-up investment in the sector has the potential to exacerbate environmental degradation, economic and governance risks, and social inequalities, affecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and workers. Addressing these concerns necessitates implementing social and environmental safeguards, embracing circular economy principles, and establishing and enforcing responsible policies and regulations .

Agriculture is currently the largest driver of deforestation worldwide. A transformation in our food systems to reverse the impact that agriculture has on forests and biodiversity is undoubtedly a complex challenge. But it is also an important opportunity. The latest IPCC report highlights that adaptation and mitigation options related to land, water and food offer the greatest potential in responding to the climate crisis. Shifting to regenerative agricultural practices will not only ensure a healthy, fair and stable food supply for the world’s population, but also help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Photo: UNDP India

Photo: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP Georgia

What are some examples of climate change mitigation?

In Mauritius , UNDP, with funding from the Green Climate Fund, has supported the government to install battery energy storage capacity that has enabled 50 MW of intermittent renewable energy to be connected to the grid, helping to avoid 81,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. 

In Indonesia , UNDP has been working with the government for over a decade to support sustainable palm oil production. In 2019, the country adopted a National Action Plan on Sustainable Palm Oil, which was collaboratively developed by government, industry and civil society representatives. The plan increased the adoption of practices to minimize the adverse social and environmental effects of palm oil production and to protect forests. Since 2015, 37 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided and 824,000 hectares of land with high conservation value have been protected.

In Moldova and Paraguay , UNDP has helped set up Green City Labs that are helping build more sustainable cities. This is achieved by implementing urban land use and mobility planning, prioritizing energy efficiency in residential buildings, introducing low-carbon public transport, implementing resource-efficient waste management, and switching to renewable energy sources. 

UNDP has supported the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia to implement results-based payments through the REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) framework. These include payments for environmental services and community forest management programmes that channel international climate finance resources to local actors on the ground, specifically forest communities and Indigenous Peoples. 

UNDP is also supporting small island developing states like the Comoros to invest in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. Through the Africa Minigrids Program , solar minigrids will be installed in two priority communities, Grand Comore and Moheli, providing energy access through distributed renewable energy solutions to those hardest to reach.

And in South Africa , a UNDP initative to boost energy efficiency awareness among the general population and improve labelling standards has taken over commercial shopping malls.

What is UNDP’s role in supporting climate change mitigation?

UNDP aims to assist countries with their climate change mitigation efforts, guiding them towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. This support is in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to affordable and clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and climate action (SDG13). Specifically, UNDP’s offer of support includes developing and improving legislation and policy, standards and regulations, capacity building, knowledge dissemination, and financial mobilization for countries to pilot and scale-up mitigation solutions such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency initiatives and sustainable land-use practices. 

With financial support from the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund, UNDP has an active portfolio of 94 climate change mitigation projects in 69 countries. These initiatives are not only aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also at contributing to sustainable and resilient development pathways.

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Spatial computing: Why the future of the internet is 3D

Will we see mass adoption of spatial computing in the next two years? Image:  Unsplash/stephan sorkin

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Sophia akram.

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• As a three-dimensional metaverse could replace the two-dimensional internet, why should we be both optimistic and cautious?
• Two experts of the new 3D digital world bring their perspectives to this week’s Radio Davos.
• Listen to the podcast here , on any podcast app via this link or YouTube.

“I give it about two years to get mass adoption but what Apple has done is laid the groundwork to get us all used to the fact that we will have digital content overlooking our visual field and our physical space.”

The release of Apple’s Vision Pro – a mixed-reality headset that combines augmented reality and virtual reality – has rekindled discussion around the metaverse. As Brittan Heller , lecturer on International Law, Technology and Human Rights at Stanford University notes above, it could renew interest in and spur more users of this type of “spatial computing.”

On this episode of Radio Davos, Heller speaks alongside fellow proponent of three-dimensional digital worlds Yonatan Raz-Fridman, chief executive officer of metaverse company Supersocial and host of the podcast “ Into the Metaverse .”

Here are some highlights.

The metaverse’s moment

Yonatan Raz-Fridman: My moment, that I realised the metaverse is a thing, actually happened at the beginning of COVID, when I also started my company Supersocial.

And what happened was I have seen the evolution of platforms in environments like Minecraft, Roblox for about a decade, and I've seen how they've evolved from being something that kids play in their free time, into something that becomes more of a next-generation social platform in 3D on the internet, which means that for the first time, we now have a generation of 12, 15, 18-year-olds who essentially grew up interacting on the internet, mostly as 3D avatars.

Brittan Heller: I give it about two years to get mass adoption, but what Apple has done is laid the groundwork to get us all used to the fact that we will have digital content overlooking our visual field and our physical space.

The comment that I hear from everyone who's bought one is that after they take it off, they start grabbing at their environment and making the gesture to click even though the computer interface is gone.

It's kind of akin to the way that before you got a smartphone, life was just different. And now it's hard to imagine navigating the world without one.

The impact of 3D

Yonatan Raz-Fridman: I believe that the metaverse provides an opportunity to reimagine the way people connect, communicate, shop and ultimately express themselves online.

And the reason why it's an opportunity to reimagine these things is because the metaverse, in my belief and based on so many conversations I've had with people, the consensus I've reached today, at least, is that the metaverse is some sort of a real-time, 3D-enabled internet.

What does that mean? That means that we are looking at an internet where people experience the internet, experience content, connection, communication, expression, shopping, entertainment, learning, work.

Brittan Heller: The impact of spatial computing on your body and your mind is very different than the impact of the flat screen traditional internet on your body and mind. And that's really the rub.

When you have an experience in virtual reality, the inventor of the first headset, his name is Tom Furness , he explains that it's written on the brain as if in permanent ink. That's from an interview that I did with him for Harvard Kennedy School about three years ago. And he explained that these experiences are processed through your hippocampus in the same way that you create memories.

Without AI or without the explosion of AI capabilities, there's not going to be a metaverse.

The future is AI

Yonatan Raz-Fridman: AI is not separate from the future of the internet. Of course, there's many, many, many uses for AI beyond talking about the metaverse ... anywhere, from drug discovery to making work more productive.

But in the context of the metaverse or the future of the internet, it is certainly my opinion that AI is a massive enabler of the metaverse. I would go to an extent of saying, without AI or without the explosion of AI capabilities, there's not going to be a metaverse. So they really go hand in hand, and AI is a massive enabler of what the internet could be when it shapes up to be a metaverse.

Brittan Heller: I think it's very reasonable to suggest that AI is going to be a huge part of how we compute in this new hardware. I've been calling the next iteration of the internet 'the embodied web'.

And when I say the embodied web, you pick up data from your body. It is used to calibrate the new hardware. And then information from that hardware comes back to you. So it's almost this reciprocal relationship.

And I can't see us doing that and still continuing to run AI on our laptops. It just makes no sense.

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