Entrepreneur’s Notebook—Desire to Videoconference Means Brushing Up Skills

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It is obvious that after the events of Sept. 11, more businesses will consider conducting meetings by videoconferencing rather than flying their executives to distant locations.

What may not be so obvious is that doing business by videoconferencing may require new skills that some businesspeople may not naturally possess.

Given enough time to make a presentation, most executives can communicate what they do and how they do it. But what happens when they are forced to communicate a lot of information in a short period of time, such as during a videoconference meeting? Do they know how to go about preparing for a presentation where every minute counts, when their company’s reputation and credibility are on the line?

When considering using videoconferencing, company decision-makers need to ask themselves: Do our executives possess the necessary organization and presentation skills to deliver an effective videoconference presentation? If videoconferencing is billed by the hour, and time is money, then businesses need to keep a watchful eye on their presentations, making sure they are succinct as well as communicative.

Businesspeople must design their presentations so they deliver clear, concise and comprehensive information. The following 10 tips will help make videoconference meetings and presentations more efficient and effective.

1. Research several providers of videoconferencing services. Compare prices, accommodations, and technical know-how. Do they provide coaching services in advance of your scheduled video conference? Investigate the possibility and likely additional cost of bringing videoconferencing equipment and technicians into your own office or conference room. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using one facility over another?

2. Scout the location in advance. Visit different videoconferencing facilities to get a feel for the locations and to judge whether your presenters will feel comfortable in their space.

3. Communicate by e-mail with people at the other meeting locations. This communication should occur long before the actual videoconference is scheduled to take place. Determine the purpose and goals of the meeting. What precisely are you trying to achieve? Coordinate a convenient meeting time for participants at the different locations. Very often you’re working in different time zones. You want to avoid scheduling meetings when the participants at one meeting location normally would take a meal break. Meaningful e-mails and phone calls between participants in different locations can set the tone and provide a smoother videoconference session.

4. Make a list of the participants in the meeting. Does everyone on the list really need to be at the meeting? Designate a leader or “conductor” (as in orchestra) for each location.

5. Ask for feedback. Allow all participants to have a stake in the meeting by seeking their input. What topics should be covered? What presentations need to be made? Conduct a brainstorming session. Try to differentiate between what would be nice to include as opposed to what is vital to include.

6. Prepare a detailed, written agenda. Then, obtain agreement from all parties on that agenda. Distribute the agenda to all participants at all locations.

7. Take the time to design. Have each participant spend time designing his or her presentation with a beginning, middle, and end. What is the essence or main message each participant wants to communicate? Coach your presenters to get to the point as quickly as possible. The clock will be ticking once the videoconferencing session begins. Make it easy for all the participants to follow along. What handout materials (statistics, charts, graphs, projections, quotas, etc.) can be prepared in advance and distributed to participants at all locations?

8. Keep each individual’s presentation short and simple. This is not the occasion for a complicated, multimedia presentation. The set-up time is probably too great. The last thing you need is an equipment glitch. Simple, clear, “readable” visuals on an overhead projector may be more effective than all the “bells and whistles” of a PowerPoint presentation.

9. Rehearse ahead of time. Have the leader arrange the order and flow of the individual presentations. The leader should practice making smooth transitions between the different parts and presenters. Each presenter needs to be clear, concise, and organized. This is not the time or place for someone to “wing-it” and end up delivering a rambling monologue. Each participant also needs to prepare a list of questions he or she anticipates being asked. Answers to these questions need to be developed in advance so that no one is taken by surprise.

10. Evaluate the results. Determine before the meeting what the results of a successful videoconferencing session will look like. After the meeting is concluded and you’re back at your office, debrief the participants to learn which presentations went well and what individual presenters could do to improve the next time.

Videoconferencing brings obvious benefits to companies, and can save significant time, money and effort. However, videoconferencing also brings challenges to individuals who may need to polish their organization and presentation skills. Smart companies will get the most value from their videoconferencing meetings if they take the time to design their presentations before they deliver them.

Len Lipton, Ph.D., is a presentation skills consultant. He also teaches “Public Speaking for Designers and Architects” at UCLA Extension. He can be reached at [email protected].

Entrepreneur’s Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2, The Annenberg Incubator Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California. Contact James Klein at (213) 743-1759 with feedback and topic suggestions.

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