When it comes to presentation techniques, the list of books about the subject is endless. To be frank, I believe that presenting skills (just like any other skill) are somehow innate and these books can only help you refine something that’s already there. But this is not what I want to address here. The point is that most of these books focus on the relationship between the presenter and her audience as they interact in the same physical location. Recently I found myself in the situation whereby I had to give presentations to an audience that was located somewhere else and I could feel on my skin the difference between a face to face interaction and a virtual one. That said, I’ve come up with a short list of tips that might help you deliver a good telepresentation:

Get your stuff ready
The latest Web conferencing platforms allow you to share your screen with your audience and ensure they see what you are talking about. Nonetheless, it is important to have a plan B in case the screen sharing doesn’t work and you’ll have to rely only on audio. Get your slides printed and ready in front of you and don’t forget to email a PDF copy of them to your audience early on, so that you won’t have to do it whilst hosting your presentation.

Be on time
If being late is embarassing, being late at a telepresentation is double embarassing. If your audience is located in different time zones it is triple embarassing. Always be the first one to join the telepresentation you’re hosting.

Know your chickens
Whenever possible, get to know as much as you can about your audience: who are they? How can you get their attention?

Introduce yourself
Before you start, make sure your audience knows who you are and what topic you will be addressing. It is likely that they have just gotten out of a telepresentation and will get into another one after yours. Don’t give anything for granted.

Avoid misunderstandings
When you give a presentation in front of a real audience you can easily understand whether what you’re saying is boring people or making them feel uncomfortable. In a telepresentation you will have to figure it out in other ways. If you want to make a joke don’t rely on spoken words or on facial expressions (they might not see/understand its meaning) unless your audience knows you very well: instead, put something on your presentation slides that can easily be interpreted as a joke (a picture, a funny quote, a phrase… anything). The ability to make good jokes is a powerful weapon but – just like any other weapon – needs to be handled with care.

Keep it short and be original
If a 50 slides presentation with bullet points were a human being it would be a serial killer. Make it simple and quick, leave the hard stuff aside (or simplify it). More importantly: be original. I draw my own slides on the iPad – although I’m not a good drawer – and my audience is always curious to know what will the next slide be. Drawing your own slides will also help you memorize information and data because you’ll be able to display them in a familiar fashion.