Mixed Face-to-Face and Remote Demos – 3 Good Practices

What should you do when find yourself in a demo where part of the audience is face-to-face with you in a conference room and a number of additional participants are connecting remotely (e.g., via WebEx or GoToMeeting)?  In addition to the ideas already published in my Remote Demos articles and blog tips, here are three more “best” practices to consider:

First, operate as if everyone is remote.  That way, you are using your mouse and various annotation tools to draw attention to elements of your software on both the projector screen in the face-to-face room and the remote participants’ screens as well.  Clearly, any physical pointing you do using your hands (or stick or laser pointers) can only be seen by those who are face-to-face. 

However, there is an additional twist:  you also need to be the “Active Conduit” of information, communicating what is going on in the face-to-face room out to those who are remote.  For example, if there is a side-bar conversation, you need to let the remote participants know and give them updates and the outcome, as appropriate, when that side conversation completes.  Similarly, if someone asks a question in the face-to-face room, you may need to repeat it for the remote participants. 

Along similar lines, you also need to continue to drive interactivity with your remote participants, using the annotation tools, asking questions of them, checking latency with them, etc., to keep them engaged.  There is a tendency for presenters to forget about those who are connecting remotely and simply focus on those who are face-to-face…!

[Send me an email at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com if you’d like copies of the articles I mentioned]