Everyone Needs a Co-Pilot (When Presenting Online)
Photo by Daniel Torobekov from Pexels
By Scott J. Allen & Maria Soriano Young
This week, we’re sharing a simple, but powerful idea.
Among the many lessons we have learned in the last year is the necessity to have a co-pilot when presenting online. Among other duties, this person monitors the chat function, watches for raised hands (e.g., questions or responses/ideas from participants), posts links, conducts the polls, keeps track of time, monitors for engagement, posts resources in the chat, and places people into breakout rooms. The inclusion of the co-pilot, and how useful it can be, was underscored by Larry Oskowski, National Sales Senior Director at GOJO Industries. In our interview with him for the content of our Captovation: Online Presentations by Design book, Oskowski told us, “We’ve assigned somebody in certain cases to watch for the questions as they’re coming up.” The co-pilot can also let the presenter know when slight hiccups have occurred (e.g., people cannot see your screen). Designating the role of co-pilot allows you to focus on delivering the presentation.
It’s critical to determine how you and your co-pilot will communicate during the presentation. Will they simply interrupt and provide you with an update? Will they text you? Private message you? Scott prefers texting because it allows him to quickly glance rather than click on the chat feature while speaking—and if he’s sharing his screen with participants, it’s not easy to see chat message notifications or raised hands within Zoom.
One word of warning: The concept of the co-pilot can also diminish your impact if verbal cues are repeated and overused. Scott recently received an unsolicited email from Ty McTigue, Director of Enterprise Solution Sales at Acuity Brands, who commented, “The amount of times I cringe when someone on a Teams/Zoom/Skype meeting says ‘next slide please’ is astronomical! They lose me right at that moment...it’s infuriating almost. Ask for control before you present.” While we certainly acknowledge that everyone is going to have a different opinion about norms and preferences, we include this sentiment to emphasize the importance of making these choices consciously; if you can have control of your slides, we advocate for that, and suggest that your co-pilot help with chat and Q & A.
In the end, we suggest that you identify a partner to help manage the many aspects of an online presentation. This simple, but critical decision can make a significant difference. Your co-pilot may be a colleague, the client, or another person well-versed in your content. By doing so, you can focus on what matters—your audience.
We explore this topic and others in our new book Captovation: Online Presentations by Design.