Presenting in a Hybrid Work Environment

Why virtual presentations are different

When you’re presenting in person, you have a certain amount of control over the audience’s attention. As the presenter, you can use your storytelling body language to accentuate your message, express vulnerability to earn the audience’s trust, and hold the attention of your audience as you communicate your ideas.

With a virtual presentation, however, you have less control over your audience. They may not catch all of your body language cues, and likewise, you may not catch all of theirs, or their facial expressions, to tell if they’re bored, confused, nodding off, or distracted. People might have their screens off, or they might look like they’re paying attention while they’re actually reading their email or scrolling through social media.

And now we have hybrid presentations

Things are even more complicated now with the hybrid model. If you’re presenting a deck to in-person participants as well as some dialing in remotely, your presentation needs to be inclusive of both.

So you need to approach hybrid presentations differently. If you only consider in-person audience members, you will inevitably overlook the need to address people who are attending virtually, making your presentation less likely to land with them. But if you anticipate and prepare for an audience made up of both in-person and virtual attendees — which is increasingly common nowadays — you will ensure your bases are covered. Here’s what that looks like in action.

Acknowledge both audiences

As you begin your presentation, take a moment to say hello to the people attending in person as well as those joining virtually. It’s natural to just jump in and say “Good morning! Let’s get started” or “Thank you to those of you who are able to join us in person.” Instead, greet each type of audience member — a simple “Thank you to those who are joining here in [city, state], as well as those joining us virtually” will go a long way toward making everyone feel included.

Don’t stop with your greeting. As you give your talk, make eye contact with the screen. If it helps, picture an actual person in the spot where the camera is. And then aim to speak to the camera about every four to six sentences so that folks attending remotely feel involved in the conversation.

Monitor your virtual audience throughout

It will help to keep your virtual audience engaged to have a producer or an assistant keep an eye on the virtual platform while you’re presenting to monitor the chat, answer questions, and address any technical difficulties — essentially keeping the virtual audience connected as you deliver your presentation.

Test your technology ahead of time

The last thing you want is a technology mishap while you’re giving your talk. While technical difficulties are easier to recover from in person — because your presentation should rely on your storytelling, not your deck — there’s not much you can do for your virtual audience if your laptop crashes or Wi-Fi drops.

To avoid unexpected hiccups, make sure you run through your presentation both online and in person with the technology you plan to use. Invite a few coworkers to hear your presentation, with some dialing in and others in the room with you. Be sure to have contingencies in place in case anything goes wrong so you’re able to quickly recover from any missteps.

Plan with your audience in mind

If you treat your virtual audience as you would any other audience, the hybrid environment is not that much different from any other presentation model. A great story and a compelling deck that doesn’t try to cram too much onto slides will hold everyone’s attention, whether they’re sitting in front of you or attending virtually. And as always, if you plan ahead and practice, practice, practice, you’ll be able to connect with every audience member on their terms.