Tag Archives: telepresence
5 Video Conferencing Mistakes Not to Make
People judge books by their covers. Fast Company offered a few good tips for cleaning up your cover in its light-hearted Webcam Glam piece. While avoiding nose hair and backlighting are great tips, here are a few more you might want to consider.
Make It Up
Whether you’re using the external camera Fast Company suggests or a high-quality internal one, image quality can be uncomfortably good. (Can you image Nixon/Kennedy in HD?) A little makeup magic will make a world of difference in what your audience sees and perceives.
Don’t Make It Up
You’ve planned your message, right? Winging it leads to likes, ums, ahs, as I was sayings and other fillers that detract from your message. Don’t make it up as you go. Make a plan, walk through it beforehand, and your audience will see a credible presenter.
Wardrobe
You’ve taken the advice on stripes, colors and prints. You know whether suits or shirt sleeves are appropriate for your audience. Your attire is camera-ready. Before the show goes on, check the little details. If you have the choice of glasses or contacts, choose contacts; avoid glare and let your audience see you, not your frames. There’s nothing wrong with jewelry, unless it’s the wrong jewelry. Swing-y and sparkly pieces can create annoying reflections; dangly can be audibly jangly and disruptive. Err on the side of modesty and, when in doubt, remove it.
Reading Is Fundamental
But it’s fundamentally wrong in the case of a video conference. And don’t kid yourself – the audience can tell. You’re an expert on the topic and you’re using the medium to humanize the message; don’t undercut that effort by reading from a script. Talking points are fine, run-throughs are recommended; put them together and you’ll appear confident but not scripted.
Sit. Stay. Good Presenter.
Okay, nobody is asking you to sit with a biscuit on your nose for the duration, but consider your movements carefully. The first time I watched myself back on camera my head swiveled like I was at Wimbledon, my eyes flicked around the room like an auctioneer’s, my hands never stopped moving and I felt seasick. The camera amplifies action, so use smaller gestures less frequently (another place a run-through comes in handy!) than you would in real life and your audience will follow your message, not your movements.
Committed a video conferencing faux pas? Have another pet peeve? Tell us about it.
The Hotel Telepresence Race Begins – Starwood Announcement
Is there a new technology race starting in the hotel industry? Three weeks after the Marriott, Cisco, and AT&T telepresence announcement comes this announcement by Starwood, Cisco, and Tata. Is this a case of an industry still suffering from reduced business travel and reduced conference bookings finding a new strategy? Telepresence is not going to make up the shortfall however; such a strategy could become a differentiator in attracting new business. It will be interesting to see how the hotel chains position telepresence and how they will package it with traditional products. Offering telepresence press events (see sample below) to conference organizers could be a starting point.
Thoughts?
“GoThere” to be Virtual?
Marriott Hotels with the support of AT&T and Cisco are launching a new service called GoThere Virtual Meetings (www.gotherevirtualmeetings.com). It was the name that first caugh my attention –”Go There”? Why would anyone name a “Virtual Meeting” service “Go There”? Already intrigued, I watched the video (see below) and realized that not only is the name appropriate, I often use the same words to describe the difference between web conferencing and video conferencing. When trying to communicate the difference I typically say “you need to go to the video conference location”. As demonstrated in this video, you “GO” to the Marriott Hotel to participate in the TelePresence session. If you are lucky enough (meaning you have money) to have TelePresence at your company, you still need to leave your desk and go to the video conference room. Where as, web conferencing is about attending from “where you are”. As web conferencing providers, including AT&T Connect, add mobile phone support you attend a web conference from “anywhere”.
FYI: I did find this video a good example of Cisco TelePresence.
Read the Marriott announcement here: http://bit.ly/95dSg4