11 Tips for a powerful virtual presentation

One of our interns presented her work last week via Zoom., and she did a fantastic job with her project and virtual presentation. However, I observed some “non-verbal” communication slips that could be tweaked to massively enhance the overall virtual presentation experience.

Given virtual meetings are most likely going to remain in every company’s common practice well beyond COVID19, and after 10 years of giving presentations and interviews (both on and off camera), I want to give you a few practical tips to massively improve your virtual presentation persona and boost your future career prospects in a virtual job interview.

1. Set your computer or laptop camera angle to eye-level. If you don’t have a tripod or separate webcam, use a shoe box or a stack of books to elevate the position of your laptop camera. For a while, I had my laptop sitting on a stool on my desk whenever I have a virtual meeting (seriously!).
2. Position yourself so that you are facing the light source like a window or lamp (preferably soft and not harsh or too bright light as it tends to cause glare).
3. Be mindful of your background (best facing a wall to be less distracting for the audience).
4. Look straight into your camera rather than somewhere else so that the person or people on the other side feel/s like you’re talking directly to them. Direct eye contact is critical during presentations and any interactions as it demonstrates confidence, respect, and honesty.
5. Practice your speech in front of the mirror or family or friends (if possible) to to receive feedback on your own presentation behaviour and common habits and try to address them before the day of presentation.
6. Don’t look down too often. Pay attention to your audience as they do to you.  
7. Use different tones when presenting where appropriate. This keeps the audience interested and pay close attention to what you’re saying.
8. Do interact with your audience with questions, polls, occasional humour, animation, or cool images to break the monotony. Your audience will enjoy and appreciate you for it.
9. Sit up straight on your chair or even better, if you’re comfortable, stand. @Nik Cree conducts his meetings standing up. Not only is it better for your back, it gives you more control of “the space”. Better yet, invest in a stand-up desk.
10. Relax by making your space feel comfortable. Be confident. You’re the subject matter expert while you’re presenting. Own “the space”.
11. And most importantly. Remember to smile and have fun :-).

We love our interns. They’re hard working and always eager to learn. This is why at Clueo Clinical, we genuinely believe in the power of internships to equip the next generation for impact. It is embedded in our E2C framework. Not only are the graduates gaining valuable practical experience, we build our internal capacity to be thoughtful leaders.

If you are an organisation that could provide internships to our graduates in the following areas, we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch with us via info@clueoclinical.com.

• Clinical research associate
• Study or research coordinator
• Study start-up specialist
• Medical writing
• Contract specialist

Want to do an internship with Clueo Clinical? Jump on our website to register your interest.

Author

Dr. Thu (Sue) Nguyen, PhD

Sue is the founder and managing director of Clueo Clinical Pty Ltd. She has over 14 years of combined experience in clinical and pre-clinical research and development, training and management. She is passionate about patient-centric science, clinical research, education, and helping others find their career passion and succeed in life. She is an avid learner, an authentic networker and wants to empower the next generation to reach their fullest potential in Australia and around the world.

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