Addressing a large crowd from stage can be both a daunting and thrilling experience, as hundreds of delegates in front of you follow your every word, Mike Walter writes.
You feel the atmosphere of the room and get a clear and immediate sense of whether, or not, your words resonate well with the faces sat staring back from the first few rows.
Their unspoken feedback can set the tone for the next few minutes of an event, helping you to speed up or slow down your patter, or even change tack entirely.
Staring down the lens of your computer’s webcam – on the other hand – takes a different approach. As a holding screen welcoming participants closes and you see your own face looking back, this is your cue (you hope) that now is the time to smile and start speaking.
But is anyone even there? And if so, are they listening intently or looking the other way?
Since the start of the pandemic we have all had to become adept at the virtual nature of communications, with physical conferences still more of a novelty. Event chairs such as myself have also, therefore, had to adapt to the new normal.
Once my introductory words are over – with seemingly only myself for company – it is time to welcome the first member of a panel. When their webcam springs into life, it feels such a relief to hear and see another person on screen, smiling back and introducing themselves.
As each individual is welcomed in turn to our virtual seminar, the slight unease I had at the start that it was merely myself talking into an empty room eases. People really are here, and seem happy to take part.
In recent months I have hosted two excellent online events for Construction News: a webinar on the subject of apprenticeships and a roundtable covering equality, diversity and inclusion.
The other week I also chaired the second half of a seminar on active travel, organised by the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum.
In the main all three sessions ran very smoothly, with delegates able to raise their (virtual) hands to pose questions in real time for me to read out.
But on the odd occasion when the audio freezes or a connection is lost entirely, it is worth having a few choice anecdotes up your sleeve in order to fill time.
Getting four or five faces on screen together for a panel discussion after each of them has offered their opening remarks works well in a virtual sense too; and probably has the edge on how a physical event would handle a group chat.
Before the pandemic speakers would tend to be sat shoulder to shoulder on a stage, and the chair would have to continually dart their eyes up and down the row to keep note of the reaction of each person to see who best to go to next.
But when all of the participants are looking straight at you on screen, a nod of agreement or shake of the head can be picked up much more easily.
It is also a lot easier (and more polite) for the chair to keep a track of time when sat behind a screen, rather than having to check a watch on their wrist. But when it comes to reading an opening script from a separate laptop positioned to one side: proceed with caution!
Looking ahead, then to the side, and back again to the main screen can rather give the impression you are following a tennis match.Whereas an autocue function installed on the screen you are presenting to allows the chair to look ahead for the duration.
With working patterns and networking probably changed forever, many of us will have to get used to taking part in more virtual, rather than physical, conferences. They certainly have a useful role to play for time pushed professionals who can more easily dip in and out of a session if they are at home and choose to wear casual clothes if they so wish.
But without hundreds of people with you in a building, however, the coffee breaks aren’t nearly as fun.
Mike Walter is a journalist, editor and conference host with Barrett Byrd Associates, publisher of Transport Infrastructure News.
Published on Transport Infrastructure News, 16 June 2022