Millions of people around the world rely on Microsoft Teams to connect and communicate. Recently Microsoft released a new set of features designed to make video calls a little less boring during this post pandemic era. These new presenter modes allow you to customize how you appear when you’re presenting in Teams. Standout mode lets you float above content as a silhouette on top of a slide deck. Reporter mode lets you put your content behind your shoulder like a reporter. And the third option, Side-by-side, displays your webcam feed alongside content you’re presenting. Is this the solution for ending meeting boredom and engaging your customers? Just Like Watching TV All three modes are part of a bigger push from Microsoft to respond to feedback around making meetings more engaging during remote work. “The way I look at it now, is we need to make presentations more like TV shows.” Nicole Herskowitz, general manager of Microsoft Teams So, lets break this down. We want these meetings to be as engaging as watching TV? I really don’t know if I agree with that. TV is a very passive experience where there is no conversation. TV has no interaction and very little engagement. We need our meetings to be NOT like watching TV. The Challenges with Microsoft Teams Presentation Mode Microsoft Teams is a great communications platform that connects us together. But it is not designed for engaging presentations. There is an assumption that every user will just stick to a single PowerPoint deck and just talk. Just because they are appearing like a floating ghost besides their content doesn’t change the boredom factor. Sure, it might be interesting for a few minutes, but it quickly becomes more of the same. There is very little control Engaging meetings required many different ingredients: you must be able to elevate your presence, be non-linear in how you present and be visual throughout your presentation. Elevate Your Presence Reactiv SUITE takes presenter mode to the next level. Not only can you overlay your image, but you have complete control over it as well. You can control the size and location of your content and your image. Based on the direction of the conversation you can increase your prominence and reduce the size of content. Change the position and control how your audience interacts with you. Don’t Present but Have a Conversation If you just stick to a rigid agenda and just present, why even have the meeting? You could just record a video and share that with everyone. They can then ‘watch TV’. Meetings are about great conversations. And conversations cannot fit into a PowerPoint as you need to be non-linear. Pull up a video and show a customer testimonial, compare your competitor’s spec sheet and show how your product compares or bring live web dashboards into the conversation. Ink and Markup Visual feedback is an important part of the presentation. You must be customer centric and listen. Most importantly writing down questions, marking up content and highlighting important points is a critical element of building engagement. Underlining a key point can go a long way of reinforcing what you are saying. Crossing out something that the customer does not like shows that you are listening and agree. This is how you build consensus.
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