Management and Leadership

Honing Your Virtual Presentation Skills

• Traditional Classroom: ½-day
• Virtual Instructor-led: One 3-hour session; Two 90-minute sessions

Very few skill sets are as valuable in business as the ability to create and deliver a powerful presentation. While presenting in person and virtually do have elements in common, there are certainly skills that are unique to the virtual environment. In this highly interactive course, you will explore the unique challenges and opportunities inherent in presenting virtually. You’ll learn best practices on: how to “show up” virtually with credibility, how to structure for interactivity, how to exploit the features (and avoid the pitfalls) of the virtual platform you’ll be delivering on, and how to engage and propel your audience forward on a journey to a destination that you define. The goal of this course is to enhance your ability to design and deliver engaging virtual presentations that move your audience to action.

Target Audience

This course will benefit anyone who wants to enhance their ability to deliver a compelling message with credibility and impact.

Learning Objectives

• Discuss concrete ways to enhance your virtual presence and credibility.
• Explain key findings from neuroscience regarding how our brains respond to stories.
• Create a goal statement for a presentation or business story to focus and sharpen its impact.
• Perform audience analysis to design a relevant and powerful call to action.
• Identify design and delivery techniques that drive engagement with a virtual audience.
• Describe ways to optimize visual, verbal, and paraverbal elements when presenting virtually.

Course Outline

Opening Activity

• Kickoff Question: How Is Delivering a Virtual Presentation Different from Facilitating a Hybrid or Virtual Meeting?

Getting – and Keeping – Attention

• Engagement and Delivery Mode
• Tools to Keep Your Audience Engaged

The Five Deadly Sins of Presenting Virtually

• Developing Your Virtual Presence
• Virtual Presence and Credibility

Storytelling in the Business World

• Why We Crave Stories
• Why Storytelling Is Important in the Business World

Organizing and Structuring Your Presentation

• Write a Goal Statement
• Analyze Your Audience
• Identify Three Main Points
• Create Supports
• Structure Your Presentation – Open, Body, Close
• Group Breakout Activity: Share Your Presentation Goal and Main Points

Supporting and Reinforcing Your Message

• Using Visual Aids

Enhancing Your Delivery

• Optimizing Verbal/Paraverbal Elements
• Questioning to Engage Listeners
• The Power of the Pause

MDV2050e Course Code