Powerpoint Presentation Considerations at Hybrid Events

Over the years I have heard speakers actually apologizing for their PowerPoint (PPT) presentations! This came as something of a shock to me initially, after all why would anyone present their content in a way that they were not happy or proud of? But, there are some speakers/coaches/facilitators that do just that. To be fair they probably don’t mean to present in such a way but it does happen.

At a recent event I was listening and looking at a presentation and all was going well until the dreaded graphs appeared as part of the PowerPoint. It was at this point that the speaker made an apology for the slide(s) and I rapidly lost interest in the presentation.  

There was something of significance on the slide but I couldn’t see it and the graphs were not explained so I found myself unable to follow the point of that slide. Was it essential to the presentation? I will never know. Did it affect my ability to follow the key point of the presentation? Unfortunately, my concentration was disturbed and I was no longer in the flow of the presentation.

I have been to live events, where to have seen the PowerPoint I would have needed a telescope!

If graphs are going to be used that is fine but I think the key point of the slide needs to be developed in such a way that it becomes obvious without the need for the audience member trying to figure out what all the miniature figures/statistics actually mean.

I think there is little point in saying that if you cannot see the figures don’t worry as they will be e mailed after the presentation. What’s the point? The speaker has the audience there and then and that is the time to make the presentation really work.

A bad PowerPoint has no place at any event and even more so when a hybrid event is being produced. Just think how quickly your online audience will turn off if they cannot understand the slides or even see them.

Be proud of your presentation and never apologise. If you think you have to apologise then that is a sign to re-think the point of the slide in your presentation. 

Remember also that you have an online audience to consider and you certainly will not see them leave the room but they will go if your presentation isn’t keeping their interest. 

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No Time to Waste for Your Hybrid Event Success

Keeping to time is essential when it comes to the making or breaking of hybrid events. After all you have on-site and on-line  participants to look after.

With an event that isn’t hybrid it could be argued that as you have just one audience in the same room it doesn’t matter as much if the timings slip. But I think that is just a way out of not making some brave decisions e.g. moving the CEO or speakers on if they start to over-run.

I have been at events where planners have waited and waited until more people finally turned up. How does that help anyone?  If some people are not there, just start the event with the people that have arrived. No excuses please.  It’s basically unfair to those people that made the effort and were on time. Plus you can guarantee that once you start late the rest of the programme will carry on late as well.

If you don’t start on time it sends a very clear message to the participants that you don’t care and I would suspect that would be the furthest thought from your mind.  

If you are late for a train it goes without you. The timetable doesn’t change because a number of people haven’t made it to the platform.

Speakers would never want to be seen as ‘time thieves’ and so if they start to exceed their agreed time slot then you will need to have a way of politely moving them on. A good emcee or host will be able to facilitate this for you.

The whole issue of time and punctuality becomes even more pronounced at hybrid events. The on-line participants may just be interested in one aspect of the programme and if your event is not on time then that wouldn’t be good.   

Run your event according to schedule and you can be sure that everyone (on-site and on-line participants) will be happy.  After all time is the one item that can never be replaced. 

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Sounding Brilliant

When it comes to speaking at any type of event (but especially hybrid events), one of the key factors for the benefit of the audience is sound. How does the speaker(s) sound? Can they be heard? Are the microphones working perfectly? How is the sound in general?

If the sound isn’t good then the audience will suffer, they will lose the essence of the message and either they will start working on their mobile device or they will probably just leave. And none of that is good for the event planner that has gone to the effort of producing a dazzling line up of speakers in the first place.

Testing the sound with speakers (humans not the kit) before they make their entrance is to my mind a non-negotiable activity. Concerts and productions will be going through numerous sound checks prior to the opening performance because sound is so crucial to their success. You may think that maybe it’s not as crucial for a conference but I would argue that, (especially over a long pint of beer) it is just as crucial to the success of an event.

Over the last few years I have spoken at a number of conferences and what has surprised me is the variety in care when it comes to sound. 

There are some brilliant audio visual people that will help to ensure that the speaker is very comfortable and they answer all sorts of questions to make sure the speaker feels at ease before taking the stage. Then there are other audio visual people who actually leave the room at the very moment when they are needed. It happens. Thankfully not often but it does.

Before speaking I want to know, what kind of microphone will I be using? Is it a hand held or will it be attached to my clothing? Can I move around the stage or do I need to stand still because of the proximity of other microphones that may be on the stage? When I am involved in a panel discussion on stage should I be using the hand held mic or can I continue to use my attached mic?  My list is my own personal checklist so that I know the sound will be good.

I never want my sound to be choppy, I certainly don’t want to pierce the ear drums of my audience and that is why I ask (always) many questions of the audio visual people to make sure that I know how the sound is before I then get on with the task in hand of delivering some thought provoking content to the audience that have come to hear me.

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Cut Cut Cut the Clattering Coffee Cups

One of my pet hates is being at an event and really wanting to focus and learn from the speaker who is presenting but then being caught up in the medley of noise that comes from coffee cups or food being cleared away.

The noise is a distraction and puts pressure on the speaker and affects the participants in the room. Somehow the moving of coffee cups, saucers and spoons creates a life all of its own. 

Usually I wouldn’t notice as much but at an event to me the distracting sound becomes even more pronounced. I have no idea really why it is allowed to happen? The event planner can clearly state as many do that certain things can or cannot happen and most venues or caterers work accordingly so all should be well. But, sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

Only recently I was at a charity fundraising dinner; the coffee had been served, the key speaker was talking about her experiences of people and their moments of personal anguish, the audience were captivated as they were on the emotional journey and just as the speaker was reaching the pinnacle of her speech along came the people to clear away the coffee cups. The noise affected both the speaker and some of the audience and I was left wondering why it had been allowed to happen?

Imagine that you are reaching the breath-taking finale of your favourite film and in the background you hear some noise that distracts you. Well it would be annoying (to put it mildly) and on a film production you can be sure that the Director would have called CUT!! so why don’t event planners do the same? Yes the events are not films but they are still productions and should be treated with the same professionalism as any great film producer will bring to bear.

A clattering coffee cup certainly has no place at any event and even more so when a hybrid event is being produced. Just think how quickly your remote audience will turn off if all they can hear is the clinking together of cups and cutlery?

It is essential that the catering staff understand that there are only certain times when they can deliver the food and drinks to ensure that they don’t appear as extras in your event.

Attention to detail is key to producing professional events and if you believe that your event is about to be affected by the clatter of coffee cups you should shout "CUT" very loudly. 

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Five Quick Tips For Your Hybrid Event Planning

I really enjoy the challenges and opportunities that hybrid events bring. To me, a hybrid event is “bringing together a face to face and remote audience for a shared participatory experience in real time.” Here are a few quick tips that I hope will help you with your hybrid event planning.  

Tip 1 – Event Objectives

Is the hybrid event really the right format that is going to deliver according to your event objectives? Do not have a hybrid event just because you think it is the latest thing you have to do. It always has to be appropriate and not every event needs to be or should be a hybrid.

Tip 2 – Two Audiences

Never forget that you have more than one audience. There is absolutely nothing more annoying than to be the remote participant that has been forgotten.

Tip 3 – Planning The Programme

Programme planning is very important as you need to be able to visualize how the remote attendees will be able to participate and how you will let them know to return to the programme.  With a face to face audience it’s simple, at the end of the coffee break people return to the main room. But with remote attendees how will you ensure that they have come back and are ready to join you again?

Tip 4 – Exercises Do Not Always Translate

An exercise that can be easily carried out in a live environment may make for some challenges when trying it with remote participants.  Networking is a good example. It is easy for people to get to know each other in a two minute ice breaker style session in person but how will you do that with remote participants?

Tip 5 - Focus Your Speakers

Many professional speakers will not have a problem in speaking at a hybrid event but they can still forget (albeit inadvertently) that there is an audience outside of the room. So it’s always worth prompting them to be on the safe side and do let them know which camera to address.  With those speakers that may not be used to being filmed you may need to help them so that they become comfortable before speaking. 

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The Skill of Balancing Remote Audience Engagement

There is definitely a skill involved when it comes to planning the programme for remote participants at a hybrid event. A hybrid event for me is “bringing together a face to face and remote audience for a shared participatory experience in real time.” Clearly there is also another skill involved in planning the programme for face to face participants. Creating a programme that combines both audiences to have that unique seamless participatory experience has to be the goal for any effective hybrid event.

In my experience what is happening at the moment for remote participants is a little like the idea of ‘feast and famine’ and there isn’t enough balance. For some of the events, the remote participant has quite clearly been forgotten (and that of course is tough for any remote attendee). The result really is that the attendee will simply switch off from the event and leave (virtually of course).

Here are some common (famine) issues that I have come across. There is the planner/speaker who hasn’t considered how an exercise will translate from physical attendees to remote attendees. For example, it’s quite easy to have a networking exercise amongst face to face attendees, but it needs more thought when planning the networking for the remote participants. 

Then there is the panel debate that forgets there is an on line audience and so only takes questions from the face to face attendees.  A third issue is when questions taken from the physical audience are not spoken into a microphone or repeated back into a microphone by the speaker.

On the counter to the famine we have some other (feast) issues. Whilst, remote participants do not want to feel excluded they do also need a break during the event as well. Some programmes have invited remote participants to be involved over a number of hours but is that realistic? Can you really ask someone to sit at their desk for hours?  If your programme is long then just plug in some breaks for the remote participants.

Sometimes there seems to be an idea that you have to keep pushing content at remote attendees to make sure they are fully engaged (whatever that means). This could translate to separate interviews with speakers, polls, chats and all sorts of other activities whilst the face to face attendee is enjoying his/her break.  All participants need time to reflect so allow time for that with your remote attendees.  

Ensuring the programme is effective for both face to face and remote attendees is truly a balancing act which has challenges. The good news is that in our events industry there is a lot of fast learning going on right now and seamless hybrid events will become the norm in the near future. 

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The Hybrid Event Question

The debate around whether a hybrid event (I define a hybrid event as “bringing together a face to face and remote audience for a shared participatory experience in real time”, will destroy the traditional face to face event still continues.  And it’s set to continue for some time I am sure.

Whilst this argument is valid to some degree I believe that it is getting in the way of expanding the event horizons from which everyone can benefit.

For a number of event planners the fear is that once their delegates know that they can attend either in person or remotely; then a number of their audience that used to attend the face to face event will decide to attend remotely. Any true event planner will assess their situation and decide from there whether a hybrid event will be the best way forward to achieve the ultimate objectives of the organisation.

Let’s look at an example of a two or three day event that requires people from across the globe to travel to one location. If we factor in a day either side of the event for people to travel and get ready for the event then we are effectively looking at a week away from their office.   Due to all sorts of reasons the number of people able to travel to this annual event has been decreasing over recent years and now the attendance is at 50% of what it was four years ago.

Depending on the objectives of the organisation there could be a call for a different way of making sure attendees are still involved and one of those ways would be to include elements of the event for remote participants.  

Now we are starting to look at using a hybrid event model.  Whilst this will have some challenges in terms of extra costs there are also extra benefits that can occur so the hybrid event shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.  The question of whether to hybrid or not should be on the table at the outset of the planning process.

Hybrid events are not going to be relevant in all event cases; there will always be the traditional face to face behind closed doors event and there will continue to be remote meetings on line but the blend that can come from a hybrid event is one that is here to stay.

Have a look at it and if it’s not going to work for you that is ok as well but at least get involved in considering the question of developing a hybrid event experience and enjoy the blend that comes from mixing your audiences together.

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