Giving a speech when there’s no one in the room

How to add energy to remote presentations

If you walk by an executive’s office and see photocopied heads arrayed on a wall, don’t assume she’s planning some sort of employee execution. She might have picked up on some advice from presentation expert Nancy Duarte, who’s come up with smart methods for talking to remote audiences and engaging them in what you’re saying.

Duarte, CEO of Mountain View, Calif.-based Duarte Design and author of slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, says talking to remote listeners requires a new set of speech-giving skills. Since webinars and teleconferences have grown in popularity (and will no doubt continue to do so as the weak economy takes its toll on corporate travel), it behooves your executive speaker to bone up on these skills.

“When you’re speaking, the number one thing people read into is body language, and you eliminate that when you’re speaking remotely,” says Duarte. Therefore, you need to figure out other ways to convey your enthusiasm for the topic at hand.