Content:

Start with Substance. Strip it Back. Say What Matters.

You can have slick slides and flawless delivery — but if your content is weak, your presentation won’t land.

Great presentations start with solid, audience-relevant content shaped into a clear, compelling story. But here’s the trap: the data dump. That’s when presenters overload their slides with facts, stats, and details — hoping more info equals more clarity. It doesn’t.

Too much data buries your message. It confuses, overwhelms, and disconnects your audience. Why does it happen? Often out of fear: “If I don’t show everything, they won’t get it.” But trust us — less really is more.

Simplicity isn’t dumbing it down. It’s smart. It’s deliberate. And yes, it takes more work. You’ll need to make tough calls about what to include and what to leave out. But when you focus on the core message — the essence — your audience will actually remember it

Delivery:

Delivering a presentation online, from your kitchen or spare bedroom is daunting enough without adding family, pets, partner or other distractions.

Location: Ensure you have a quiet place to present from and ideally lock the door as this guy found out! Set your laptop or webcam at eye level – no one wants to look up your nose! Use a tripod for the camera or for the ultimate solution consider a standing desk.  Standing will allow you to move around and use more body language.

Lighting: Ensure you have direct lighting on your face as we know that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Use a light that is not too harsh and ideally 3200Kelvin (warm white colour). Try to diffuse the light so that it does not create shadows. Failing a professional studio led light, a worksite light or any strong directional light will do well. If you have no access to any lighting then ensure any natural light is aimed towards your face.

Audio: Ensure you have a good microphone such as Blue Yeti or Rode Video Mic as there is nothing worse than not being able to hear a presenter correctly (video may be optional but sound is not!) Improve your voice projection, pitch, pace and prosody by using a free online voice coach app such as Orai. 

Video: Ideally use a HD (1080P) Webcam such as the LOGI C930. Whilst the camera in your laptop may suffice, a high definition image will make you appear sharper and more in focus.

Green Screen: Whilst this is not critical, a green screen, sheet, curtain or wall behind you will make a huge difference to your presence online. (Note that this screen needs to be well lit to be effective). You can buy green screen kits from places like this:  PB Tech and Amazon Once this feature is enabled in Zoom you can replace the green colour with videos and pictures. These images and videos can be saved from PowerPoint allowing you to present in front of your content much like a news reader. This will give you a point of difference in a sea of faces on a zoom call.

Looking at the camera: This is possibly one of the most amateur mistakes online presenters make, but is also one of the hardest to correct. Here are two ways you can combat it:

1. Find out where your camera is and look at it! : When presenting, pick one of your audience members faces and picture them in your mind. Then please please, look directly at the camera and present to them in your minds eye – DO NOT look back at the faces of your audience as this breaks your eye contact with them and can be very disconcerting to view. Consider the camera to be your audience.

2. Window your zoom call and place it under your camera: In the top right of most windows you can Minimise, Restore Down and Close.  We often use the first and last but the Restore Down will window your zoom window and you can then place it under your camera thus allowing you to look at the person who is talking on the call. This gives the effect of you looking directly at the camera. Nice !

 

Slides:

With increasing bandwidths it is now possible to present yourself as well as PowerPoint (Keynote, Slides or Prezi) side-by-side. When presenting slides, ensure your video window does not become small in the corner as you want the audience to see you and the slides together. Most web meeting software have an option to allow this.

Ban the bullets: Your presentation is for the benefit of the audience. But boring an audience with bullet point after bullet point is of little benefit to them. The best slides may have no text at all. Remember, the slides are meant to support the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous.  If you have a detailed handout for the audience to be passed out after your talk, you need not feel compelled to fill your PowerPoint® slides with a great deal of text. You may also consider sending this handout during the meeting as a file using the web meeting software or you could also consider using an Event app to communicate the agenda, speaker bios, handouts as well as keeping in touch with your audiences. Learn more about this here.

Limit animations and video: Use object builds and slide transitions judiciously. Object builds (animations), such as bullet points, should not be animated on every slide. Since your presentation will be broadcast over the web connection the simpler it is, the better. Video will most likely not play correctly and may freeze so we recommend hiding any slides with video and sharing any video via a web app if you have one.

Use high-quality icons and infographics including photographs. You can take your own high-quality photographs with your digital camera, purchase professional stock photography, or use the plethora of high-quality images available on line (be cautious of copyright issues, however). Never simply stretch a small, low-resolution photo to make it fit your layout – doing so will degrade the resolution even further, resulting an out-of-focus image which is a sign of the amateur. Avoid using PowerPoint® Clip Art or other cartoonish line art.

Use data to tell stories: Always ask yourself, “How much detail do I need?” Presenters are usually guilty of including too much data in their on-screen charts. There are several ways to display your data in graphic form. Educate yourself on the art of data visualisation by reading books such as ‘Data Story’ by Nancy Duarte. 

Audience engagement: Your online audience will love it if you engage them and this will also force memory retention of your subject. You could use something as simple as Kahoot to create an online quiz or you could use the voting methods available in Zoom or other online meeting software. Also consider other ways to create Audience Engagement such as Meeting Architecture.