Interactive Virtual Presentations: The Art of Engaging

During the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of the world locked in their houses, virtual presentations became the most common way of public speaking. Those dark times are over now, but our routines have changed forever, and many of us are still asked to give virtual presentations.

These presentations come with their own challenges, one of them being audience engagement, which seems to be harder than when we’re all in the same room. How do you keep your audience interested and engaged in what you’re saying when you’re just an image and voice on their screen?

Interactive Polls and Q&A

The best way to keep an audience engaged is to give them something to do related to your presentation — in other words, keep them busy. You have many tools at your service to do so. These tools will allow your audience to vote and ask questions in an interactive way, which is more likely to keep them interested than a traditional presentation would.

Many tools now make this easy and practical. Two examples of this kind of technology are the Mentimeter and Slido tools.

Breakout Rooms

One advantage of in-person speeches and presentations is the possibility for your audience to gather after or during their short breaks to discuss what they just heard.

This is naturally more difficult to do in a virtual environment, but not impossible.

In many virtual environments used for these kinds of presentations, you can set up different rooms. Use those features to create one (or more, if you want to) virtual breakout room — a place where people can meet in smaller groups and discuss the ideas presented.

You can manage these rooms as you please, helping your audience to feel more connected to your topic. Keeping the conversations flowing is a great way to promote their engagement and interest.

Visual Aids and Multimedia

These are not new. Videos, slides, and other multimedia work very well in person and online, too. They help keep interest and break monotony.

However, you probably have even more options, and you should explore the tremendous amount of possibilities the web offers. Do your research with enough time to choose. Every time you’re watching an online presentation, and you see something that makes you feel interested and engaged… try to find out what tool the speaker was using (perhaps you could even use this interest as an opener to talk to the speaker and networking).

Depending on the topic (or product, for example), you can do live demonstrations to make your presentations more dynamic. Your creativity is the only limit.

We live in an era when the possibilities seem endless, but you should also be very careful with that. Never forget what their purpose is, what’s their role, and what’s yours. Don’t let the visual aids and multimedia replace you. People are the soul of a good presentation, not tools.

Audiences can’t be passive

In the fast-paced modern world, people are less and less used to being passive spectators of any kind. You must make things interesting, or they will zone out of your presentation and play on their phones.

Always stay one step ahead of their boredom. Interact with your audience in as many ways as you can, and don’t be afraid to use any new tool that modern technology offers. Make the difference in your next virtual presentation!

Cátia Isabel Silva

Cátia is a psychologist who is passionate about helping children develop and train social skills.