Tips for Presentations of a (Second)Lifetime

Written by

Nancy Duarte

Presenting via a webinar is tough to do.  Presenting in a virtual world as an avatar will surely have nuances that are new for me.

Tuesday, January 27, I’ll be on an island getaway. I’m not talking about Hawaii. I’ll be giving a lecture on Microsoft Users Group Island in Second Life. I had to have someone else make my avatar because I was too tempted to dramatically alter my less flattering features.

It’ll be easy to incorporate most of the tips needed for a remote presenter, but I’ve added a few that are specific to Second Life just in case you find your avatar presenting an island any time soon. These tips are brought to you by Gary Barber.

Tips for Second Life Presentations:

1. Don’t assume people will get the slides downloading on to the presentation screen as fast as you are.
2. Don’t assume that they have their configuration such that the pictures render with the same amount of detail.
3. Don’t present with a standard Real Life MS-PowerPoint presentation layout. The screen can be small and fuzzy at best. Avoid text altogether if you can.
4. Don’t assume everyone has audio in Second Life. Or that if they do they know how to configure it. If audio is essential for the presentation then make that clear in any invite you issue.
5. Don’t have computers with separate microphones and speakers setup in the same room as you will get double, triple or even four times the echo of the talk. Even headsets can’t overcome this problem.
6. Test the speaker’s audio setup before the presentation.
7. Make sure the seating is very close together in almost a tiered traditional speaking pit of amphitheater arrangement, or even like a large cube with the speaker at one end. You will be surprised the number of avatars you can get in small space.
8. Be prepared to have a lot of avatars present (40-50) and remind people of techniques in decrease any lag time in Second Like.
9. Position your avatar or camera so you can see the screen and the audience.

Upcoming Events:

January 20: NAWBO–San Jose | Capital Club | 6:30 PST

January 27: SecondLife–Virtual World | 12 PST

March 11: FWE&E–Menlo Park | Location TBD

March 17, 18 or 19th: presentation//reboot | Santa Clara | Tech Mart | 8:30 to 5pm

March 31: Web 2.0 Conference–San Francisco | Moscone West | 9 a.m. “Pimp my Slide”

Ongoing: January 21 through April 29: slide:ology Workshop | 9 to 4:30pm Duarte Design