With work-from-home becoming a norm for most industries, virtual meetings and webinars have become commonplace for knowledge-sharing. Do you also want to conduct or moderate a webinar but need to polish your skills? We give you five important points to know before your next one.

Owing to the pandemic, the virtual way of working, networking and conferencing have become the new normal. Medical professionals too have made the most of their time off-clinics or hospitals by either conducting or attending webinars and video conferences on varied subjects. However, if some presenters made presenting or speaking online appear easy, let us tell you it is not!

While webinars are convenient to conduct from the comfort of your homes, not everyone may be well-versed with video-calling software and other equipment. Making your webinar presentation engaging and interactive becomes more important as you do not want the audience to be distracted by the on-goings in their environment. And may God help you if your presentation becomes a source of entertainment for others, courtesy of your goof-ups or distractions in your background!

So how to really ensure your webinar goes smoothly and that your home environment doesn’t colour your image as a professional? How to make your webinar a success and as perfect as it can be?

We have a list of hygiene measures and pro tips for you to consider before you host or moderate your next webinar. Following these points will not only help you have better control over the presentation but also ensure optimum attention and participation from the audience.

Learn virtual communication skills

Virtual communication can be a lot more challenging as eye contact may not be consistent and hand gestures get restricted. Eye contact is important as it impacts attention span and can create a sense of trust while you speak. Making eye contact virtually is actually quite simple and yet, most of us do not know the trick. Looking at the camera instead of your screen makes the audience feel you are looking at them and this also helps them focus better during the webinar.

Expert tips: Learn to not keep your tone of speech monotonous as it happens while you handle the presentation, read from your notes, and try to maintain eye contact. A little voice modulation can also add to the audience’s interest levels.

Time your presentation

We all know the feeling when we sense that a presentation is going to be very long. So it is important to keep fewer slides and only pointers and data on them. Yes, it can be difficult for the presenter to remember all information that needs to be shared with each point, so we suggest keeping notes with cues.

1. You can create a document with important data and information that can be sent to everyone after the presentation.
2. To make it easier for you, we suggest you script it to an extent and rehearse delivering the presentation. Time it, record it and go through it to see how can you make it better to keep it brief and interesting.

Expert tip: Sometimes when you need to speak in between slides, the audience may still be focusing on the slide that is on the screen. We recommend adding a blank, black slide, so the audiences will have only your voice to pay attention to. Some prefer using white slides, however, that can be mistaken as a technical glitch.

Set up your home office

Working from home is not easy for everyone, what with the familial distractions, too much ambient sound, not having an office kind of set-up, etc. So here are some things you can do to make the environment near-perfect for your webinar hours.

1. We highly recommend investing in noise-cancelling headphones, a tripod if you must use your phone, and a curtain in a neutral shade if you can’t have a closed space.
2. Adjust your desk and laptop in a way that the source of lighting is in front of you and adjacent to or far behind the camera, making your face and background appear adequately bright.
3. Keep your backdrop clean and least distracting; definitely switch off or cover any source of light in your background.
4. As for sound-proofing, keep your doors and windows shut and request your family members to not make any loud sounds for a certain amount of time.

Expert tip: You can also use the virtual background feature available on many video-calling software, but make sure the background is not too fancy to take away the viewers’ attention. Most important of all is your Internet connectivity; a weak network can mar all your efforts in putting up a good presentation, so keep a back-up for your regular source of internet connection.

Dress up well

Home environments can make us too comfortable to care about our clothes. However, for a webinar or a presentation, even if you have minimal visibility, ensure you are seen in decent clothes. Also, do not take for granted your bottom wear – you may never know when you may need to get off your chair while you are still on-camera. Treat the time of the webinar or any event online like any other time in the clinic and dress up in formals. You may choose to ditch that tie for a regular formal shirt and trouser or that saree for a good-looking salwar-kameez; dress formally but appear comfortable.

Expert tip: It is important to also not appear a different person at home or over-do anything – be it picking a fancy shirt which you may not wear regularly or wearing attractive jewellery just because you can. Avoid doing anything that becomes a topic of discussion.

Familiarise yourself with the video-calling software

Technology can be difficult to understand and you need not feel shy or embarrassed about it. So if you are not well-versed with the video-calling software or any other gadget that you may have to use alongside your phone or laptop, seek help from anyone who knows better.

Learn what you can do with different features of the application you are expected to use and most importantly, when and how to turn them on and off.

If you are a presenter for a webinar, you may have to toggle between screens, be looking at the camera and explaining the slides, all at once. So rehearse the process before the actual event to make it seamless at your end.

A smooth presentation also keeps your confidence intact, however, it is ok to falter somewhere. Should that happen, feel free to seek help during the live session but make sure the person helping is around and well-dressed and is able to solve the issue quickly without garnering attention.

If you have to moderate a webinar, you may want to learn to check out live comments and questions that may be coming your way. Using a notepad to list questions, suggestions and compliments from the audience is recommended. If questions are meant for a particular slide, ensure you have noted the slide number.

Expert tip: If you must convey something to the presenter discretely, use the messaging feature on the video-calling software so he or she is alerted in time. No matter your role in the webinar, use your sense of humour to cover up any goof-ups that may happen despite all precautions.

Hope you like the recommendations we have shared; we are sure they will help you elevate your webinar presentation and speeches.