We know public speaking is not easy. There are a lot of things to be taken into consideration and we have been trying every year to improve the support we offer to our speakers in this endeavour, so that they have the best possible experience and the least stress.

Both online and offline setups have their own advantages and disadvantages and the challenges are somehow different. In an offline scenario, the volunteers and the technical staff at the venue are taking care of the setup which includes things like technical check-ups, lights and general room arrangement. When moving to the online, some of these responsibilities pass on to you, the speaker. Though we cannot tackle them for you, we came up with a list of things to keep in mind, before and during your session, that will help you and your participants have an awesome experience.

Before your session starts:

• Restart your computer and check the presentation.

• Check your Internet connection (if possible have a back-up connection e.g. hotspot from your phone).

• Remove any distractions from your background, as well as closing any messaging or other auto-started apps.

• Adjust your lighting and camera placement.

• Check that the camera and the microphone are working properly.

• Avoid heavy animations or videos in your slides deck as the streaming service might not offer the intended experience for the audience.

• Join the BigMarker session at least 10 minutes before your talk is scheduled and make sure you joined the session as a speaker.

• Launch the presentation and share your screen.

• Get some water near you as you’re going to speak for some time and your throat might start feeling dry.

• Last, but not least…take a deep breath in and enjoy the ride.

During the session remember to slow down because the pacing of voice reception is different online than in person. Audio and image might be out of sync and allowing for pauses between your sentences will help everyone hear you clearly. In this sense, adding a sticky note on your monitor might help.

Even though we cannot help with some of the parts of the setup, for every session, the RTC team will be available and ready to offer any support you might need.

Good luck!