Webinar Wire

Using Presenter Video

Posted by Ken Molay January 5 2009 11:58 AM EDT

2 comments

Welcome back from the holiday break! It's time to continue our series of responses to Webinar FAQs with a tricky one: "Should you use video of the speaker?"

Quite a few web conferencing software vendors promote their ability to show video feeds. It's marketing catnip and many companies get very turned on by the idea.

Showing video of the speaker adds psychological connection between the audience and the presenter. It's more personable, and it gives people something to look at when a static PowerPoint slide begins to lose interest (something that usually happens after 15 seconds or so). Humans are very good at reading facial expressions and subtle nonverbal cues, which a good speaker can use to facilitate communication.

I like adding "talking head" video in small team collaborative meetings... For instance, a departmental status meeting, a brainstorming session, or a round table. Presenter video can also be helpful in training and education, where the instructor can create a greater sense of cohesion and empathy with the students by appearing on camera.

Where it doesn't work so well is in formal "one-to-many" presentations, such as marketing and lead generation webinars. Presenters are often working from notes (or even complete scripts) and they have to keep looking away from the camera to check their papers. This creates a perception of nervousness, shiftiness, or insecurity as the eyes dart towards and away from the audience.

Being on camera also forces you into a much more rigid physical structure. You need to worry about staying in frame and in focus, not slouching, and not waving your hands around. If you are like me and typically "talk with your hands" it's a terrible limitation!

Most business presenters are ill equipped to show themselves off to best advantage on the computer. They rely on a commercial webcam set up in their office. There is no control over sound, lighting, background, or framing. You get poor exposure, poor color, flaring and glare off shiny skin, moire artifacts off poorly chosen clothing, distractions in the background, and fuzzy picture quality. Not the way you want to present yourself or your company to the world.

If you really want to do a video-enabled public webinar, I advise getting yourself into a studio-type setup. This is an environment where you control the lighting, background, sound pickup (with a lavalier microphone... not a big clunky headset!), and you have a camera operator adjusting to your movements.

When produced professionally, speaker video can be a tremendous asset. But most people giving casual webinars don't want to invest in the cost or time needed to do it right. If the choice is between a jury-rigged office setup or not appearing on camera, my choice always goes to the latter.