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Have you ever presented an online meeting or event that had multiple presenters? If yes, then I reckon that you must have heard lines such as

‘Can you see my screen’

‘Can I start sharing now’

‘Are my slides visible’

Having multiple presenters in virtual presentations is indeed tricky. There can be a lot of confusion, the tech can fail you, handovers from one person speaker to another can involve friction, and so on. In this read, know the tips for running virtual presentations without a glitch. These tips will help you overcome the challenges and will help you manage multiple presenters during your next online meeting or event.

Create one master deck

If there are multiple presenters, they don’t necessarily need their own separate presentation slides. Switching between multiple presentations every now and then only makes things more complicated on the technical end. Instead, create one single master presentation deck that you share with the speakers before the virtual meeting. They will then add their set of slides to the master deck. This way you will get everyone’s presentation slides in one place. Way simpler, isn’t it? Another benefit of having a master deck is that you will be able to have track of how many slides your presenters have to present in the virtual meeting or event. This will put you in control of the entire presentation deck and in control of the timing and other factors.

Decide who is going to move through the slides

When you have the master deck in place, decide on one person who will share the screen and move through everyone’s slide. If your web conferencing tool has a remote-control feature, then that’s even better. This way, the speaker who is presenting the virtual presentation will be able to take control of the shared screen and move the presentation slides on time.

Invite a meeting moderator

Having a meeting moderator is a win for any virtual meeting or event. They greet the audience, set the beginning, and make sure everything is in place- keeping the audience hooked. A moderator steers the whole presentation. They keep an eye on the sequence of the speakers of the presentation by keeping a check on who is to speak, which context they will be talking about, and more. Moderators also act as a person between the audience and the speaker and help in initiating a discussion during the Q&A session.

Switch speakers every 5-7 minutes

With having multiple speakers during the virtual presentation, you can create a dynamic with your presentation that will set you apart and deliver your messaging in a well-defined manner. While presenting it is recommended that you switch the speakers as often as every 5-7 minutes. Listening to one person for a long time can become mundane and can even get tedious for your audience. If you switch speakers in the delivery of the presentation, the audience will be more engaged and their focus will not get deviated.

Have every speaker take part in the Q&A

While having a Q&A session at the end of your virtual meeting or event, have every speaker/presenter address the questions of the audience. This is the part for all the presenters as well as the moderator to shine. A great moderator will give every speaker a chance to address the queries of the audience. He will distribute the time between each speaker to answer the questions equally among the presenters. If out of all the speakers, only two people are answering questions, then it won’t lead to a great conversation.

Set up a communication channel

Agree and set up a communication channel wherein you as a meeting owner, your speakers and moderator are going to communicate during the live meeting. This will help you, speakers, and moderators to stay in sync with each other in case anything unexpected happens or you need to discuss any important pointer before the meeting. It can be a WhatsApp group, Slack channel, Messenger group chat, or any other communication channel that works best for the team.  Make sure everybody has access to it when you go live and the notifications are turned on for the chat. An additional tip, add your tech person into the group so that if there are any technical errors during the presentation, they can handle the situation and help out.

Have a dry run

Have a dry run before the final presentation. During the presentation, there are so many things that can go wrong. To avoid them and smooth all the hiccups, it is important to have a practice round. Bring together all the speakers, presenters, and moderators and run through the entire presentation. Check the presentation slides, sound, practice handovers, and align the presenters with the person who is the macro manager of the entire presentation deck. A dry run will give a chance to correct all the minor mistakes and will definitely save the team from meeting disasters.

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