The Brutal Reality of Remote Presenting
Your audience is one Alt+Tab away from their email, one notification away from their phone, and one boring slide away from tuning out entirely. Remote presenting is fundamentally harder than in-person presenting because you have lost your physical presence as an engagement tool.
The 5-Minute Rule for Remote Engagement
Every five minutes, the audience must do something interactive. Practical applications include:
- Asking a direct question and calling on someone by name.
- Running a quick poll in the Zoom chat.
- Asking everyone to type their biggest challenge in the chat.
- Pausing for 30 seconds of Q&A before the next section.
Slide Design for Small Screens
On a laptop screen, most standard PowerPoint slides are nearly unreadable. Follow these rules for remote delivery:
- Minimum font size: 28pt for body text, 40pt for headlines.
- Maximum 5 bullet points per slide, ideally 3.
- High contrast only: dark background with white text or white background with very dark text.
- No detailed tables or small charts — they become blurry at low resolution.
Our AI slide maker automatically optimises layouts for digital readability with bold typography and high-contrast colour combinations.
Technical Preparation Checklist
- Test screen sharing before the meeting.
- Turn off all desktop notifications.
- Use a wired internet connection where possible.
- Position your camera at eye level, not below your chin.
- Look at the camera lens when speaking, not at faces on your screen.