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I’d like to share my top tip for engaging your audience virtually.
The other day I gave a virtual speech (about the mindsets needed to get through big challenges) for a senior leadership event in Europe. The other 3 external speakers were very impressive people (military leaders and so on) – so much more impressive than me!
But I was afterwards told by the organiser that my session was especially well-received because I had simply engaged the audience more (the other speakers felt more like lectures, they said).
A good rule of thumb that virtual speaking expert Joshua Davies taught me in my early virtual days, is vital. It is:
At least once every 5 minutes, make sure you ask the audience to DO SOMETHING!!
It could be:
– A quick poll
– A chatbox question (engage with their answers – “Good point, Rob” etc)
– A breakout room to discuss a question
– Asking everyone to go to gallery view and then hold up a piece of paper with an answer on it
If people are engaged, they will learn more and enjoy more!
Final tips:
– Start your talk with engagements that are non-threatening -e.g an easy poll (see my example below), and then gradually build to more challenging things
– Also engage by varying your media (images, videos, etc)
– Make sure you practice your engagements (with a colleague on another computer) before the real thing.
