Do Online Presentations Right

I’ve done several presentations in my time. They tend to be text heavy, as I want the presentation to have value long after I’ve delivered it.

In the last several years, there’s been a trend in the Internet community to give presentations where primarily supportive imagery is displayed on the slide, while the presenter talks through the points he/she wishes to communicate. This is great for during the presentation. However, after the event, when a presentation is posted for all to view online, there’s only frustration when the viewer cannot obtain the “message.” Just read the comments of frustration from many of the presentations from SXSW.

So how can these visually impactful presentations live on, providing benefits to thousands after the event? One word: Audio.

An audio track for the presentation provides context to visually powerful, yet message/context lacking slides. It gives lasting value to an online presentation that’s posted online for the public. Some of the better presentations, webinars or screenscasts that use audio are from Paul Boag and Jared Spool.

Creating an audio track for your presentation is straightforward, especially if you use online presentation services like SlideShare. Check out their Slidecast instructions.

Creating an audio track for your online presentations is not only easy to create, it adds value to your presentation for years to come.