Presenting on a video call: what changes, what doesn’t

A presentation on a video call isn’t just an in-person talk on camera. In a room, the audience is looking at you. On a call, people are looking at a screen, often a small one, with their messages open right next to it. What you have to say stays the same; how you get it across changes.

What doesn’t change

The prep work is the same: one sentence for people to remember, three parts, one idea per slide. A presentation that’s confusing in a room is even more confusing remotely, because nobody dares to interrupt and ask where you are.

Your slides will look small

In a room, a slide is six feet wide. On a call, it fills a laptop window, sometimes a phone, and video compression eats away the details.

• Make the text bigger. What was barely readable on a projector can’t be read at all. Go bigger than you would in a room.
• Avoid thin lines and light grays. They disappear in compression.
• Give up on dense tables. Show the row that matters, and send the table afterward.

The rules for slides you can read from the back row apply here, only more strictly.

You have to win back attention more often

Remotely, nothing holds people’s gaze: no one sitting next to them, no presenter walking toward them. A slide that stays on screen for three minutes is an invitation to check email.

Two habits help a lot.

Change what’s on screen more often. Break a busy slide into three simple ones that you click through in quick succession. The speaking time is the same, but the screen moves, and the eye comes back.

Get people talking every five to seven minutes. A direct question, a quick round where everyone weighs in, a show of hands. Announce it at the start: “I’ll ask you a question at the end of each section.” People who know they’ll be called on listen differently.

Share a window, not your whole screen

Sharing your entire screen shows your notifications, your tabs and the names of your folders. Share only the presentation window.

That choice solves a second problem: where to put your notes. If the presentation runs full screen, there’s no room left for them. With a shared window, you keep the other half of your screen, or a second monitor, for your notes and the next slide.

In Pimeli, that’s the “Dans une fenêtre” (In a window) option, under the arrow on the “Présenter” (Present) button: the presentation doesn’t go full screen, you share its tab, and presenter view opens alongside it with the next slide, your notes and the timer.

Tip Do a test run the day before with a colleague, in the video tool you’ll actually be using. Just ask them what they see: it’s the only way to know what’s really being shared.

Sound first, picture second

People forgive a so-so picture. They don’t forgive crackly audio: after two minutes, they stop listening.

• A headset with a mic, even a basic one, beats your computer’s built-in microphone.
• Close the door and the window, and turn off notification sounds.
• Put the camera at eye level, with a light source in front of you rather than behind you.
• Look into the lens when you get to the key points. It feels unnatural, but it’s what makes each person feel you’re talking to them.

Plan for something to go wrong

On a video call, a technical failure isn’t a fluke; it’s only a matter of time. Three precautions turn it into a non-event.

1. A plan B for your slides. A PDF at hand, or a link to the presentation that you can paste into the chat if screen sharing won’t start. Everyone can then follow along on their own while you talk.
2. A co-pilot. Someone who keeps an eye on the chat, tells you if your audio cuts out and passes along questions.
3. Five minutes early. Log on before everyone else, start sharing, check your sound. The first five minutes of a meeting should never be spent on that.

Keep it shorter

Twenty minutes on a video call feel like thirty in a room. If you have the choice, cut it down: drop an idea, not the speaking time per idea.

And for anything that doesn’t call for discussion (a training session, a tutorial, an update), ask yourself whether the meeting is necessary at all. A presentation everyone watches on their own time, sent as a link, frees up an hour in ten people’s calendars and leaves video calls for what they do well: discussion.