I have been to plenty of conferences and seminars over the years. Some speakers are naturally good at what they do, capturing an audience’s attention and interest with an engaging presentation, slide deck and videos, whilst being able to “work the room” with their tone, eye contact and body language.
Some contributors are not “professional presenters” or they’ve been handed the gig at the last minute. Sometimes that’s a big challenge for the individual in question but it can turn out OK, because the content will be compelling or the speaker will make a connection through the audience by being genuine – nerves and all. Or both.
When putting together a webinar or webcast, it’s a harder task to help forge the connection between the contributors and the audience. They’re not in the room together. The content might be a little technical or otherwise a bit dry. Viewers’ connections might be wobbly, or they’re watching on a smartphone.
With online events, this really matters. However good your contributors are.
My advice is to bring out the personalities whenever you can.
In other words, look for moments where you can show the human side of your presenter and contributors. As themselves, not just facilitators for the slide deck or interviews.
Take this road safety webcast we recently produced, where the closing was pre-recorded. I was pleased to be able to leave in a nice little unscripted exchange between the presenter and the horse they were riding on:
A minor addition of course (and presenting whilst riding a horse is boss-level multitasking in itself) but as the closing words of the whole hour, it helps leave the remote audience with a reminder of the natural, human side of the presenter. That’s then associated with the content they’ve delivered.
It says a lot for your brand and what you’re trying to get across, when the people you put in front of a camera can be themselves – and it says a lot more when the production team can bring out a little bit of that personality when streaming them to your audience.
If you’re looking to build your business and brand through webinars or webcasts, let’s have a chat.