In order to vitally engage distance audiences,
presenters/communicators need to work harder to captivate audience members and
distance participants than in most on-site presentations and meetings. Presenters in
videoconferences, videostreaming, and webcasting need to understand that visual and
non-verbal aspects become more significant with cameras. They need to concern
themselves more with visual issues and body language. Further, they have to expend more
energy to communicate personal commitment to the distance participants or audience
members. Participants in audio, teleconferences need to realize that they need to work
harder to listen, describe, and make their points. However, the rewards for exerting
effort in distance communication can be great. Sometimes, when distance communicators are
able to convey personal interest in other participants, there can be more open, honest,
and productive exchanges at a distance than on-site. (See communication research to
this effect.) Here are some guidelines for effective, interactive videoconferencing,
videostreaming, webcasting, and teleconferencing.
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Videoconferencing,
Videostreaming, Webcasting:
- All presenters and participants should learn to use the equipment and practice
with
others. Don't depend totally on facilitators.
- Research your audience.
- Establish rapport with distance participants or audience members.
(1) Learn names at the distance site.
(2) Learn something about them personally.
(3) Refer to them by name and according to their interests.
(4) When involved in a multiple-site conference, speakers at each site should identify
themselves and their sites before speaking.
(5) After speaking, presenters should pause to allow for responses
from other sites.
- Provide and follow an agenda and schedule for each presentation.
- Realize that videoconferencing, videostreaming, webcasting are visual media.
(1) "A picture is worth a thousand words."
(2) Realize that you, as the presenter, are a visual aid.
(3) Wear bright colors without busy patterns. Avoid white, as it can cause a glare.
If you wear a white shirt or blouse, wear a dark jacket
over it.
(4) Wear simple hairstyles.
(5) Female presenters should wear a little make-up.
(6) Female presenters should not wear dangling earrings or a lot of jewelry.
- Keep your presentation visually interesting.
(1) Realize that the room in which you are presenting is a "set."
(2) Make sure that the background behind you is not busy.
(3) Blue is a good color for a background. Avoid a white background, as it can
cause a glare, can appear washed-out, and/or can be hard to
see at distance sites.
(ISU: 2001)
(4) Because the emphasis in any work involving cameras is on the visual elements,
presenters should use interesting, varied, well-designed
visual aids and backgrounds.
(5) Effective distance videoconferencing, videostreaming, and webcasting, use
engaging
audio-visual aids, such as the following: slides,
photographs, video clips, live
streaming, music, sound effects, and voice-overs, which
reinforce and align with the
purpose of the presentation, the audience demographics, and
the time limit.
(6) Limit the use
of text on Power Point slides and the Home page.
Use
links to connect to supplemental textual documents.
(7) On visual aids try to use a a
font size of 30 or more for text readability at distance
sites. (ISU: 2001)
(8) Less is usually best. Keep your
visual aids readable and audible.
(9) Don't be a "talking head."
(10) Zoom in for close-ups of speakers.
Try to change camera positions periodically
for visual variety.
- Use body language that is confident and engaging.
(1) Look into the camera, speaking directly to the distance audience/s.
(2) Gesture deliberately and naturally with hands at about waist height.
(3) Do not step back from the podium or console.
(4) Smile.
(5) Practice in front of a mirror.
(6) Effective communicators convey by their facial expressions and body language
that they are intensely involved in and committed to what
they are presenting.
(7) Although distance presenters must be careful with the amount and speed of
movement in videoconferencing, videostreaming, or
webcasting, they still must
appear energetic and intensely committed to what they are
presenting in order to
engage distance audiences.
- In videoconferencing, videosteaming, and/or webcasting try to look pleasant and
expressive.
(1) You can lean in a little toward the audience to convey sincerity.
(2) You should appear visually interesting, warm, others-centered, and connected to the
audience.
(3) Try to use slight angles. Using a straight-on, full-front position makes you look
heavier and is less pleasing than using angles, at least
from time to time.
(4) For interactive distance teaching and communication, you need to look at the camera
and your audience. This gives the appearance of confidence,
interest in the audience.
(5) For performances, looking above the camera, as did Jacqueline Kennedy, can give
you a regal, above-it-all look. Looking below the camera,
as did Princess Diana, can
give you an innocent look. For distance performances of
private, lyric scenes or of
dramatic scenes with others, you should look slightly away
from camera but not so
much that your face cannot be clearly seen (Howard, 2001).
Before you present or perform in distance contexts (videoconferencing,
webcasts,
videosteaming etc.), check out the lighting and the background.
(1) Make sure that the lighting is pleasing on your skin.
(2) Amber is generally a good color, yellow is not.
(3) Check the background to see that it is a pleasing color for you and that it is not
busy
or distracting.
In videoconferencing, and webcasting, there is a time-lag in delivery of audiovisual
elements, when they are digitized over a videoconference network or the internet.
(1) Adjust speech and movement for the time lag between sites.
(2) Speak and move a little more slowly and deliberately than normal.
(3) Check with the distance audience as to whether or not they understand you.
(4) Enunciate carefully and emphasize your consonants for good diction.
(5) Open your mouth and actively use articulators ( lips, teeth, and tongue) as you speak.
(6) Project your voice forward.
(7) Use vocal variety.
(8) Stay within camera and microphone ranges.
(9) Practice with a tape-recorder.
In videoconferencing and webcasting try to involve the audience in discussions.
(1) Ask questions of distance audience members.
(2) Give immediate feedback to their responses.
(3) In giving a response to participant’s question, refer to the question in your
answer.
(4) Try to focus the discussions on the content for the day, avoiding social,
argumentative, or unproductive dialogue.
(5) Look directly at your audience by maintaining eye contact with the camera.
(6) If you are involved with multiple sites, use the mute buttons to prevent hearing
sites other than the ones who are speaking.
(7) Do not speak or interrupt until other speakers have completed their
thoughts.
(8) Avoid extraneous noise near unmuted microphones such as coughing,
tapping
pencils/pens, shuffling papers, side conversations etc.
- Plan interactive, project-based activities for your distance audience.
- In using stories for videoconferencing, videostreaming, or webcasting, in which
a wide range of audience members are reached, tell stories that have cultural and
universal relevance. The individual characters in the stories can be specific and
identifiable, but universal meaning should transcend the particular lives.
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Audioconferencing:
- Research your audience, distance participants.
- Establish rapport with distance participants or audience members.
(1) Learn names at the distance site.
(2) Learn something about them personally.
(3) Refer to them by name and according to their interests.
(4) When involved in a multiple-site conference, speakers at each site should
identify
themselves and their sites before speaking. With
multiple sites or speakers, it is
best to have a facilitator and to follow his or her lead.
Wait until you are invited to
speak. If you speak before being invited, introduce
yourself to the facilitator and
wait until he or she asks you to speak. If you want to
respond to another speaker,
it is best to address the facilitator first. (Shadow
Coaching: 2001)
(5) After speaking, presenters should pause to allow for responses from other sites.
- Provide and follow an agenda and schedule for the teleconference.
- Rather than speaking into speakerphones, cell phones, or
cordless phones, the clarity
is better if you speak into a handset and mute when you are listening. If you have a mute
button, use it when you are not speaking to prevent extraneous noise or hold the
teleconference in a quiet place. If you are using a two-line phone, turn off the ringer
for the second line, so that you won't be interrupted by a ringing noise. Hold the
mouthpiece or telephone headset away from your mouth and nose until you speak, so that
your breathing will not be heard when you are not speaking. (Shadow Coaching: 2001)
- Speak slowly and deliberately.
- Do not speak or interrupt until other speakers have completed their thoughts.
- Enunciate carefully and emphasize your consonants for good diction.
- Open your mouth and actively use articulators ( lips, teeth, and tongue) as
you speak.
- Project your voice forward.
- Use vocal variety.
- Avoid extraneous noise near the teleconferenc equipment such as coughing,
tapping pencils/pens, shuffling papers, side conversations etc.
- Restate what distance participants have said.
- Use more literal, descriptive, precise language than you would in on-site
communication to compensate for loss of visual information.
- Ask questions of distance participants.
- Give immediate feedback to their responses.
- In giving a response to participant’s question, refer to the question in
your answer.
- Try to focus the discussions on the content for the day, avoiding social,
argumentative, or unproductive dialogue.
- You may have to be graciously assertive to get your point across, when another
is
dominating the conversation.
- However, try to stay others-centered. Try to convey genuine interest in the
other
participants.
Websites on the WWW provide free, virtual conference rooms.
(1) You can register at a site like EasyConference.com, http://www.easyconference.com,
so that you can have a conference call with up to 29
colleagues.
(2) Each individual participating in teleconference the normal long distance or local rate
to call the service.
(3) Once you register, you receive your a personal conference number, which is good
for
any conference call in the U.S.
(4) It costs nothing to sign up.
(5) Once you register, you can start using your number immediately.
(6) Once you create a new room by dialing "1" on your phone and record a
welcome
message for your group, you are all ready to
use the service.
(7) By pressing "8" on your phone, you can determine how many people are
to use the
conference room.
(Speaker Services Newsletter,
Aug. 2001, http://speakerservices.com)
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