How do you rate your virtual speaking skills? And, if it’s not as highly as you’d like, what should you do to up your ability to truly engage audiences when they’re not in the same room as you?

Virtual or hybrid (a combination of live and virtual content) events and meetings are becoming ever more common. And they’re a hot topic in the world of speaking.

At most every ‘professional speakers’ event’ I’ve attended in recent times, there’s a piece of advice that has been shared again and again by expert panels when discussing trends in speaking – and it’s this:

“Speakers – you need to up ability to speak well at virtual events”.

Of course, they’re right. But, for many that’s easier said than done. Here’s why.

While advances in live streaming technologies and virtual interaction tools make it easier, quicker, and cheaper for event organisers to beam speakers into meetings/ conferences or directly to audiences (whereby they don’t have to go anywhere to access content)…

…The truth is, there are very good reasons why few speakers excel at winning audiences over remotely – including the elephant in the room: it’s always going to be tough to connect emotionally with an audience if you can’t see each other ‘eye to eye’.

So, what does it take for a speaker to engage an audience at a virtual event?

That’s the topic for today’s expert interview when I had a chance to speak with speaker, author, founder of Planet Planit, and specialist in hybrid events and virtual conferences, Paul Cook at a recent Professional Speaking Association event.

Speakers – How to Wow Your Audiences at Virtual Events

Listen in as we discuss:

• Why demand for virtual speaking is rising fast
• How hybrid/virtual events fundamentally alter audience experiences
• What you need to know about keeping your messages intact if your audience isn’t in the same room as you
• New skills you needs to have and hone to win hearts and minds, virtually
• On how you look and sound and why it matters
• The truth about how your content is less secure
• Why it pays to have others help you with techie stuff (even if you understand it all)
• How to deliver a quality experience – from a board room or a bed room
• Top no-nos – common virtual talk pitfalls you need to avoid
• Tricks of the trade when speaking to camera
• The biggest lesson you should learn from virtual event pros
• And more

Your Turn

What are your experiences to date with remote presenting – via webinars, tele-seminars, podcasting, live streaming, or other routes – and what are your observations about what works well and what doesn’t?

And if you haven’t yet spoken to audiences remotely via audio and/or video, but feel you should add this to your skill set in the near future – what are your greatest fears?

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Interview Transcript

Eamonn O’Brien: Welcome to the Reluctant Speakers Club, Expert Series. Coming up today, how to win over audiences when they’re not in the same room as you. We are talking about hybrid or virtual events.We have an outstanding guest in our chair today. He’s giggling here a little bit, but we have Paul Cook from the Professional Speaking Association. Of course, Paul, you are the speaker and author and founder of Planet Planit. But you’re also the man when it comes to hybrid and virtual conferences. Tell us about what’s happening when it comes to virtual speaking today. What’s happening?

Paul: It’s growing. That’s the first thing. It’s absolutely growing

Eamonn: Why?

Paul: Because of a number of factors. Companies are looking to bring speakers in. They’re looking to bring them into their events. But not necessarily pay for them to have their flights, pay for their accommodation.

Eamonn: Sure.

Paul: They want them to come in and deliver. And be as engaging as if they were on site in physical location. But they maybe don’t want to ship them halfway around a globe.

Eamonn: Exactly that. Clearly the technology makes that all possible. But how is that affecting, if you like, what the audience is getting out of the experience? And also how the speaker manages, if you like, to share or convey value? That’s a major league issue. Both, actually.

Paul: It is. In the way that a speaker, with an audience sitting in front of them, has to be able to engage and interact. The same techniques have to apply when you have, as a speaker, a second set of delegates you can’t actually see. Cuz they’re not physically in a room with you.

Eamonn: You don’t have the eye contact.

Paul: You don’t. So you have to think about what you’re doing in terms of the speaking that you’re doing. Because you can’t say, “Okay, you guys, you network together, in a room.” That’s easy. But if you’re asking for people to network online, maybe that’s a bit more difficult. So you really have to think, as a speaker, about what it is that your message is. And how is your interactivity? So it might be obvious because people are in front of you. How might that translate for a set of delegates?

Eamonn: So the interaction may need to be especially different. Let’s get down to brass tacks. So if you look at the biggest challenges you come across when people are trying to bridge that gap, what are they?

Paul: The biggest challenge is for the speaker to basically have that interactivity. And to understand there is that second audience out there. Those things. So it really does mean that you have to go through and work out exactly what is going to be said. And allowing sufficient time for people to do things outside of the room you’re in. So you can still do activities, nothing wrong in that at all. But you just have to be aware. And also you have to be aware there is a camera. Or there is a webcam or something you need to be addressing. Cuz if I look at yoU, that’s great. I can see you lining up in front of me.

Eamonn: I can see whether you’re nodding up and down.

Paul: Absolutely. But I’ve got none of that feedback as a virtual speaker. So I have to be really good at delivering through the camera. Because I want to appeal directly to you, the online delegate.

Eamonn: What does that mean when it comes to the key skills you need to add an extra bit of polish or oomph to? Or indeed to alter?

Paul: It means you really need to understand what you are going to be looking like to the online delegates. So what does that mean in terms of stage? Does it mean you can move? We had one event where we linked a conference to another conference. We gave key instructions to our speaker that he couldn’t actually move from his spot. Because if he did, he would’ve been out of camera shot. So you can’t move. Some speakers wouldn’t be able to move around a stage in a way they might be used to. And also they can’t just dip into the audience. Some people like to do that as well. They like to get off the stage. Go into the audience.

Eamonn: Get down and personal.

Paul: So unless you’ve got a camera that is tracking, then streaming, that doesn’t work. But I think also one of the key skills is to understand your intellectual property is going outside of the room. And some speakers don’t always get that.

Eamonn: Ooh! Now let’s stop there because this is a really big one. You’re exactly right. So obviously a speaker is in front of an audience and commonly you’re going to say, “Well, if you want to get further information from me, I’d be delighted to send it to you.” But you’re controlling if you like what’s happening. And in this circumstance, you’re not. So what does that mean from a speaker’s perspective?

Paul: It means a speaker needs to know their material could be, certainly if it’s a public event as well, be shown amongst any number of different people they have no control over. So the worst thing you can do as a speaker, you can never say anything bad about any companies because you could end up in court.

Eamonn: That wouldn’t be a good plan anyway.

Paul: You also shouldn’t use any real local examples unless you frame them in such a way that people globally can understand what’s going on. So if you reference a local road, or a local mayor or something like that, it probably means nothing to anybody outside of that local area.

Eamonn: You have to be more evergreen with your way of thinking.

Paul: The global mindset has to go on. And certainly in simple terms like good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It has no relevance. Time has no relevance because it’s different across the globe.

Eamonn: So you’ve got that element. And the other thing is there are technical competencies now that people as speakers might need to be able to grapple with. What are the most important of those in your experience?

Paul: The most important, as for any event, is you understand a speaker. That people can see you and they can hear you. And the people sitting up there in their own individual home offices, they have to know if the mute button is on on a microphone. If the camera is enabled. All those kind of things. But I would suggest it’s best, if you are going to do this seriously, to have some technical set up. Get the right people in so they can twiddle with all of the little dials. And you can focus on the speaking.

Eamonn: Because this is very difficult for anybody. And this is one of the issues in general to be a multitasker. Because if you are connecting with an audience online, you can’t also be operating all of the buttons with the same level of aplomb as somebody who might be helping you for instance.

Paul: You might know exactly what you need to happen. But you don’t know necessarily how to do the work. So it’s really important you’ve got the right people around you. And if you are a speaker that is also taking interaction then that’s great. But people will fire their questions across the internet. So do you want to be juggling those as well? Maybe you’re really versatile, as being a speaker, to be able to do that. But I suggest actually have a online host close to you.

Eamonn: Have some help on that. You mentioned something interesting, because obviously if somebody is doing something from home or they’re doing something from an office situation, you may have difficulties in terms of interruptions to bandwidth and other things. So how do you make sure you get the same quality of sound? Or the best quality of sound maybe? Because maybe you can’t do the same. But for the best quality of sound, any thoughts on that?

Paul: This device that we’re using right now. We’ve checked the sound levels. We know what’s coming through. And you have to do exactly the same with your kit at home. If you’re at home or even in an office, you have to do the sound checks in the normal way you would for a live event. And then you can also stop it and play it back. You can make a little recording, play it through a device and see what it sounds like. So play it back through. You should try it out. Practice. Make sure that it actually works.

Eamonn: So don’t assume.

Paul: No. And also if you are doing virtual speaking for the first time and it’s an important client…or it’s any kind, doesn’t matter…get used to the way that you’re looking into a camera or looking through a camera. Makes a difference to the way that you are. You might be sitting down. You might have the web-cam in front of you. Or you may be standing up with a cameraman in front of you. So you have to get used to all of those things, because it’s now different. We’ve added complexity into your live situation. It is now a production.

Eamonn: That’s the right term or phrase. It is a production, and therefore it’s a different experience. And if there were two or three dreadful, awful, cataclysmic faux pas or problems or things that speakers do that you think, now listen, don’t go there, mister or missus, what would be on that list?

Paul: Saying, “Can you hear me?” You can’t do that. You cannot do that across the web. That would be outrageous. So you have to know before you go on. But knowing where the camera is and actually knowing what’s behind you. Because that’s just as important. So you have to know if something is sticking out of the top of your head and you haven’t realized. Or if somebody has gotten access.

Eamonn: Or somebody has an antenna.

Paul: I’ve seen this as well. I’ve seen somebody that’s got a showcase video and actually has somebody that comes into the back of the shot. Realizes they’re in shot, goes out again.

Eamonn: You’ve just been photo-bombed.

Paul: They’re one of the office people and they shouldn’t be there. But they are there. So you have to know what’s behind you. You have to be aware if you step out of the camera range, then you’re off shot. So if you are a speaker that’s used to moving around a lot, you have to know your perimeters. You can still move, but you have to understand what happens.

And if you are too quick, even if you got a tracking photographer, you might make your audience feel a bit seasick. It might be okay on a big stage. You might feel, I need to move around the whole stage. But check with the guys putting the production together. As to how that’s going to look for the online delegates.

Eamonn: If you lose eye contact with people, you’ve got a big problem. In any form of video.

Paul: Remember, know where your cameras are. Because if you are speaking on stage at a live event which is being web-streamed across to other people, that’s great. But you need to know where those cameras are. Because not all of the time do you want to be speaking just to the audience in front of you. You want to catch that camera. You want to be looking through it. Because if you are looking through it, you are connecting with the online delegates.

Eamonn: That’s been wonderful advice. Paul, thank you so much for doing this. One last question for you. If you were to think about all the things you’ve observed and things you’ve advised people on in terms of getting a better experience for people who get to see and to be involved in what you’re doing, what is the biggest lesson you would share with people from the cold place?

Paul: The biggest lesson, I am going to say it three times, is to test. You have to test. You have to see your things coming back. You have to know how you can improve that. If you go into a blended hybrid virtual event and you haven’t tested, you’re heading for trouble. Because you do not have the ability. It’s a production. So things change. Things are constantly moving as they would for a live event. But you are going out across the globe potentially. So you have to know how you look. How you sound before.

Eamonn: I really do appreciate that. And funny what we’re doing right now, podcasting or any form or interactive things where people aren’t in the room with you, it is a production.

Paul: If you have the production mindset. It’s not an event, it’s a production. And I always call myself now an event producer. It puts you in a different state of mind. And I think that’s the state of mind if you want to be a virtual speaker. That’s where you need to be heading.

Eamonn: Terrific advice, Paul. Thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for listening today. You have been listening to the Reluctant Speakers Club Expert Series. Until next time, happy sp