Public speaking tips for webinars?

August 11, 2020 4:26 AM

Like nearly everyone, I am anxious about public speaking. Somehow I thought that a webinar format would be better, since you can't see the audience, but it's way, way worse. Since this is apparently The Way We Live Now, any suggestions or ideas for improvement?

I experience this with both livestreamed webinars and the pre-recorded type, although livestream is definitely worse. Event size varies from 100 to about 500. Format (non-negotiable) is powerpoint slides with single floating head speaker. Extensive practice ahead of time; I know the material cold so it's not about fumbling with the content, it's the actual delivery format.

I have also done the "conversation" style webinar where it's just you and one or two other panelists, and I don't experience really any anxiety there; it felt just like a regular conversation and was probably better than it would have been sitting at a dais in front of a live in-person audience. So it's definitely the format that's tripping me up.

I think the problem is that unlike an in-person talk, where you can usually find that one audience member who is really rooting for you and give your talk for them, on a webinar, you are just looking back at your own face. So it feels bizarrely solipsistic. You would think that giving a talk to yourself is easier, but it's not! I try to just ignore my video, but it's hard when it's the only thing moving on screen.

Giving these kind of talks is such a big part of my career trajectory, so I would really like to find a way around this. If you give remote talks, how do you do them well? If you've attended these kinds of talks, how did the speaker keep it engaging?

posted by basalganglia to Education (16 answers total)

Is there any way to hide yourself, from yourself? The few webinars I've done have not included video of me, but I am easily distracted and annoyed by anything moving on a screen I'm trying to focus on, so I can imagine how that would be unpleasant. If you can't turn off your view of yourself, can you paste a big sticky note over your image? I do this with annoying ads that move at the side of web pages.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:21 AM on August 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

I haven't delivered any talks for many years, but I sometimes have to listen to them.

One thing I find speakers do a lot is (a) talk too fast, and (b) repeat stuff in several different ways and kind of 'stumble around' what they're trying to say, probably because (a) means they'd otherwise whiz through the presentation in much less time than they planned to. Hopefully your extensive practice (plus a clear script) will help you avoid that. But I know it's harder to keep your delivery on track without a visible audience, which is why I mention that.

Would it be possible to video a friend just sitting and quietly listening to you deliver the talk, and then play that video on a phone or other device next to the camera? A still picture might do just as well - just something to talk at instead of your own face.
posted by pipeski at 5:28 AM on August 11, 2020

Looking for a bit of clarification on the format, when you say "powerpoint slides with single floating head speaker" where is the video of you positioned (top left, bottom right, etc.)? The format is non-negotiable but is there any flexibility on the layout? Most video-conferencing software gives you some flexibility on the positioning of the speaker.

There definitely is a bit of an art to "faking" the engagement of a webinar. This has to do with the fact that the audience feels a connection when you're making "eye contact", but you only make "eye contact" by looking into your camera which then means you're not looking at your slides.

Another question I have is whether you're using a built-in webcam or an external one. Depending on the answer, there may be some tweaking you can do.
posted by jeremias at 5:41 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Can you put a small photo of "one supportive audience member" next to your camera then try to speak "to" them? It's awful this whole business, good luck!
posted by london explorer girl at 5:53 AM on August 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

The webinars were I feel most engaged as an audience member are those where the comment box is very active during the talk.
It also helps if there are a few audience polls (sometimes using online insta-polls or a word cloud site).
Is there a colleague who might be able to help monitor such things? That might also help you as a target to talk to.
posted by calgirl at 6:56 AM on August 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Or, if a photo or video doesn’t do the trick, do you have an actual person in your house who could sit behind the camera and be the person you talk to?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:10 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've done a ton of webinars in the last few months, and I think that there are a few things to think about:

1) Can you suggest a moderator to stay with their video unmuted? This can help a lot, if they stay engaged and responsive. It can be also useful for them to ask questions that surface in the chat, etc. (FWIW, on Zoom this person's video will show in the live version, but not on the recording, if that's a concern.)

2) What platform are you in? In zoom, you can mute yourself if you find that distracting. Personally I don't, but I need to position it so that when I look at myself, I'm not looking past the camera.

3) It will honestly get easier with practice. Can you get feedback from a few attendees who are friends? It has helped me get more calm, when, over time, I've gotten feedback from others that it's gone well. (If these are public and you'd like me to hop on one and give you feedback, I'm happy to.)

4) Fight feeling rushed! In real life, you don't feel flustered in a second of technical difficulty or distraction, because you can see that people are taking a sip of their coffee, or checking their phones, or whatever. That's true at home too, you just can't see it.
One example of this, is that I've gotten much more comfortable letting there be downtime as people "come into the room" at the beginning of the webinar. I let them know the ground rules/structure, and then say we're waiting a minute or two, then in a minute I repeat it.
Similarly, if you're talking and also need to check questions in Q&A in chat, just say so. "Thanks all. I'm going to take a second and check the questions in chat."

Good luck!
posted by mercredi at 7:22 AM on August 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

One more thought - re:getting practice. Is there a different audience that you could do webinars for that might be a way to get comfortable. Like if you're giving a grad student level talk, could you contact undergrad, community college, or high school teachers/professors in the same discipline to see if you could give a guest lecture?

I'm working in an education adjacent field right now, and I can promise you people are looking for content and activities, so I'm sure that you'd get some yes's on this!
posted by mercredi at 7:24 AM on August 11, 2020

Final thought, I think, though have not tested, that I could run Facetime and Zoom at the same time. You'd want to do a practice runthrough of that, but you could have a friend or colleague in a facetime window near your camera to make eye contact with.
posted by mercredi at 7:28 AM on August 11, 2020

I do a lot of webinars and I guess I treat them all like a conversation - I hide my video and pretend I’m just chatting about my topic with someone who asked for details. Most people in my field are more professional and organized, but I get tons of compliments on my relaxed and comfortable presentation style. I don’t just wing it- I practice a lot (out loud) and make sure I know the content.

I’ve watched some Adobe Live videos and they all have the same kind of laid back style, but do a great job engaging with huge audiences. Here’s a good example video.

Good luck!
posted by galvanized unicorn at 8:14 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I find the experience of talking into a vacuum harrowing compared to in-person talks and look forward to other answers. It's somewhere in the weird valley between normal interaction and ACTING, but not actually either.

Asking one or two colleagues to join and show live video in order to talk to them has been helpful. If you're talking to the public or a class without TAs, that's hard. (That the platforms I know don't have an option to make a gallery only of people whose cameras are on is surprising.) If you're talking to peers, consider asking a friend to join and be the person you talk to. Dedicated lighting and not looking at yourself while speaking also help me. Best wishes.
posted by eotvos at 8:24 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah this has been challenging for me. I don't LOVE the format but I do love having work during this time. A few things helpful for me.

- keeping the chat window open and visible during my talk (available in most major platforms I've used unless people are using it wrong, which does happen) and saying I'm happy to take questions during the talk if they're on topic. I don't find having my attention slightly split is a downside and feeling like there is an audience there is HUGE.
- Trying to really view it as kind of a rambling discourse on the topic I am talking about and keeping the same number of asides and small jokes and things in the talk. I don't LOVE that sometimes I have been using these over and over (so they don't totally feel fresh to me) but they seem more fresh to the people attending
- Trying to make my same-old talk somehow new with each group I am speaking with, even if it's just a little. So like "Well this is how it is in Vermont but in WISCONSIN I hear you have...." this can also wake up the audience a little which is good
- I do hide my face most of the time and try to be looking at my slides. a post-it artfully placed on the screen can sometimes help (I gave one talk with an ASL interpreter which was SO COOL but the moving hands was distracting and this was my solution and it's been useful ever since)
- Also this is so dumb but I DRESS UP. Not like "Oh I get out of my pajamas" but I take some care in making sure my hair looks nice, I have matchy glasses, nice earrings and a necklace, all the things. Feeling professionally up for it makes me feel less dejected about not loving the format
posted by jessamyn at 8:51 AM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I find I am really nervous for the first five minutes and then start to calm down. To get me through that initial hump I try to do the following:

- have a script for the first five to ten minutes which are always awkward. This can be on general housekeeping and such. You can script the whole thing if you like - but give yourself the freedom to depart from it if you want
- remember to speak slowly, it will calm you down and make you easier to follow, I put a note on my monitor to remind myself to speak slowly
- if you can, get someone to introduce you, it breaks the ice and gives confidence
- decide how you want to moderate the webinar and how interactive you want it to be and seek support if you choose to let people chat while they are on mute or ask questions
- (this is a personal choice depending on what works for youI choose to leave the camera on, to check my facial expressions when I’m not talking. I’ve learned in lockdown my face is really mobile and every random thought Plays across it. Having the camera keeps me in check (remember to put on “receptive facial expression”) though it is exhausting!
- remember every webinar group is different - it’s not always a reflection of you or what you’re doing. Some days you just get a tough crowd
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 9:00 AM on August 11, 2020

Having a clear plan for introducing the session, waiting for latecomers, welcoming people, a Q&A session, and wrapping up and ending the talk help me feel more in control. In person there are so many little vocal and body cues that one uses to transition between phases but in a webinar it's so much harder and I suffered through enough of hearing myself go "Ok... well... I guess I'll start now...." to make it into something I actually plan for. I think the audience appreciates it as well if you are clear about the format, what to expect, and that you seem like you're on top of time-keeping and things like moderating mics. As an audience member the stress of watching someone ramble on as it ticks closer and closer to the hour and you have no idea when or whether they'll stop on time is real. So I tend to lay it out really clearly at the beginning.
posted by Balthamos at 9:06 AM on August 11, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for these suggestions! I like the idea of having a separate photo positioned behind my computer, so I can deliver the talk to that person instead of to myself.

Hide self-view is great! I don't know if it will work on Zoom Webinar (the usual platform for these things in my field) but it definitely made my 6 hr of regular Zoom calls today much more bearable.
posted by basalganglia at 3:46 PM on August 11, 2020

I really -- like, hard -- visualize a supportive person or small group that I'm talking to, and I think of looking directly into the camera as making eye contact with them. It helps when I think of them as professional subordinates or clients, people over whom I have authority and therefore to whom I need to make a particular effort to show respect and deference. At this time I mostly am doing work training this way but at the beginning of the pandemic I was doing mostly church- and spiritual-related stuff and I think that helped, because it made me very aware of being grounded and open and connected and of really willing into existence an energetic connection with my audience, even if I was recording something for later viewing. I really think of it as channeling my being through the camera. I've gotten good feedback from people I've trained this way, which may not mean all that much, but they're also seeming to ask good questions during the Q&A portions (and willing to interrupt me -- which I like! -- to ask questions while I'm teaching) so it seems like they're engaged and learning.

I only look at my own video out of the corner of my eye to make sure that my hand gestures are more or less staying in frame. I'm really concentrating on the camera the whole time. Much more so than I would be consciously thinking about eye contact if I were in-person. If you're connecting with the one camera, you are connecting with *every single one* of your audience members. Totally different than being in a room of 100 people and needing to direct your gaze around your audience. The only audience that matters is your camera.
posted by lapis at 10:18 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]