The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings:  Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions.  The bad news is that when there are 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.

Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:

Shanon A. writes:  “When creating a presentation is less really more? Just notes and more verbal talking with your audience?”

I’m quite sure there isn’t a perfect way to create a presentation just like there’s no formula for a perfect song.  It’s a communication medium, and I’ll be the first to grant that it’s got to work for you.

The opportunity in a web-based meeting or presentation is to add another modality – sight – to the communication.  This can be done synchronously along with what used to only be a conference call, and that can be powerful.

That said, I hate blanket statements like ‘always’ and ‘never.’  Seth Godin, for instance never uses ANY words in a presentation – it’s all images.

Different audiences and different presentation purposes often call for different approaches.  The question is “what do you need to communicate to whom and what is the best way for you to do that?”  And that very well might mean some times you have a conference call with a handout of notes.

To extend the song analogy, pick a genius whose work you like (Paul McCartney? Miles Davis? Richard Wagner?) and start learning from them and the sources they learn from.

(Great question, BTW!)

The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings:  Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions.  The bad news is that when there are 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.

Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:

Patti D. wrote, “Is it a good idea to repeat the emotional or benefits statements 3 times or more as I’ve been instructed to do for sales presentations?  Have you got a rule of thumb or comment on this?”

I think so.

Remember assumption #1:  design and deliver as if they’re multitasking.  Repetition may be necessary for your message to get through once.

Two, we learn through repetition.  How many people in your life remember something after you tell them one time?

Three, behaviorally there’s one difference online to take into consideration.  Unless it’s a very small audience, you don’t see them walk into the room – so you don’t know if they came in late and missed the first time you said it.

One thing that I do given the educational nature of my presentations:  I’ll repeat top-level points, while the next level of supporting detail I don’t – I put those in the handout.

To the extreme, however, sales presentations need to make a persuasive point, and I think your whole presentation – including repeating key points or benefit statements, is critical.

“If I make sure my audience only remembers (insert number here) things tomorrow, what are they going to be?”

The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings:  Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions.  The bad news is that when there are 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.

Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:

Nancy C. writes, “Do you happen to have the statistics about how often people would listen to the recording, instead of meeting min?  What I am trying to figure out is whether meeting min is less effective than ‘recording’…thanks.”

I know of no statistic like that, and I read everything I can about our emerging industry.  It’s never been part of one of the studies I’ve conducted.

Here’s what I do know:

One, I worked at four different companies who sold audio/web conferencing prior to founding 1080 Group (we don’t sell conferencing or event production services – we’re entirely educational).  The utilization rate for any recording was low…so low that it was conveniently not talked about.

Two,  I don’t know whether your team would rather have recordings or meeting minutes or not, but most people, if they do listen to a recording, will listen as they do other things.  This is sub-optimal for them catching everything that goes on.  I also believe most folks would prefer being able to quickly review notes than listen to a recording (I don’t need to listen to the discourse that led up to us deciding to give Philippe a certain task, I just need to know he’s got the action item).

That said, it very much depends on the nature of the meeting and whose affected.

In your shoes I’d poll your team.  It should be easy to figure out where to put your effort.

The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings:  Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions.  The bad news is that when there are 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.

Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:

Catherine L. writes, “Do you believe in mixing additional media such as videos and audios to keep the attendees focused as well?”

Catherine, first check out what I wrote to Scot and Mary Ellen about video.

As for “other media,” that’s a broad term.  At risk of sounding like a broken record (piece of vinyl with grooves that us older folks grew up listening to… LOL), using an audio clip or Flash or anything else can be a powerful tool.

But the web also changes things.  LIVE content over the web brings challenges you don’t have in the conference room.

I’ve used Flash in a presentation with a major web conferencing company only to have their internal people cringe in fear.  I was co-founder of Corvent (acquired by Intercall) and we produced thousands of webinars, many with video.  And many (not most) had latency or significant performance problems.

Your audience and use-case are important.  An internal meeting that has a problem is might be less mission-critical, and you can always email folks a link to the video afterwards.  A big marketing event, however, might look stupid for trying something that doesn’t work well.

Note that I’m not saying it doesn’t work.  And it’s getting better all the time.  BUT…I am saying there’s risk of which you should be aware.  Consider scaling the use of technology to a reasonable lower common denominator for mission-critical presentations.