I presented at TeachMeet Nashville via Skype. I couldn’t share my webcam and your screen, so I decided to present without slides. No PowerPoint. No Keynote. No Prezi. No Google Presentation. I simply shared my webcam so that my audience could see me. Here’s why…
A presentation is about you presenting to them. I was presenting from Los Angeles to a room full of educators in Nashville (that’s in Tennessee). Listening to a presenter that is 2000 miles away is difficult enough. Never showing your face is worse. I would imagine it would be like visiting the wizard in Emerald City–you hear someone talking, it looks neat, but there isn’t a connection.
The goal is to keep the focus on you, not your visuals, when you present. Don’t turn off all the lights so they can see the screen better. It’s called a talk, not a watch. If lights are off, they can’t see you, and you (not PowerPoint) are the one giving the talk. Again, the goal is to communicate, not stare at a projector.
As educators, we know it’s about making a connection, yet we become deer staring at headlights, er, screens. If you wouldn’t talk to your students sitting in the corner of the classroom with all the light off, then you shouldn’t do it at a conference.
This speaks to the larger issue of really bad slideware. Somehow, bullet point-ridden slideshows have become not only commonplace, but an expectation. I suppose the good news is that any talk (lecture, presentation, whatever) that involves minimal text and maximum engagement is a home run.
Even though I second guessed the choice to present without slideware, the feedback I received was that the audience 2000 miles away felt engaged. And I, as the presenter, felt more of a connection with the audience. I look forward to the day when this experience becomes the rule, and not the exception. In the future, I will create a Google presentation, and run the slideshow on my iPad while I present. The audience can follow along on their devices, while the projector displays my webcam video. It will be the best of both worlds.
