In June, I got to see Josh Bernoff, co-author of Groundswell, speak at the National Instruments campus in Austin. There was a concurrent webinar being conducted with a speaker phone at the front to connect the remote audience. There was an open spot directly in front of where Josh would speak and I quickly grabbed it up. I had a front row view as the chaos ensured. Here is what happened.
First, Josh is great. He did a masterful job of staying focused despite many distractions. There were so many things that went wrong I stopped counting yet Josh still pulled it off. IF this is how most meeting go around the world, it is no wonder everyone has such a low opinion of distance meetings!
Got a late start–what else is new. The webinar host got cut off about 25 minutes into the call and everyone online was immediately disconnected. We were serenaded with “the host has hung up, this call is being terminated, good bye.” Who knows what the participants experienced. The in-room host had to go to the front of the room, redial into the webinar and rest it all. Then the online host had to explain (made it short – smart!). As people joined the webinar, we could hear one loud beep after another – the good news is that “name announcement” was turned off! Tremendous noise in the background coming from the webinar host including one or more impromptu speed dialing!
And yet, Josh remained professional and focused as he kept the presentation moving along. Bravo Josh, bravo!
Here is the bottom line: remove any and every form of distraction (from the audience’s perspective, not yours!) from your presentation.
For “all things” Groundswell, go to their blog. Very useful!
Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Author – 21 Ways to Screw Up a Teleclass
ConferenceCallTraining.com
Tags: conference call, distance communication, groundswell, josh bernoff, presentation skills, technical difficulty, teleclass, teleconference, training, webinar