Practice, Practice, Practice

There's a long-running debate about the source of the answer to the question: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

There's even a debate about the actual answer: "Practice." or "Practice, practice, practice."?

Regardless of the origin or the actual wording, the sentiment is completely correct.

You owe it to your audience to practice your presentation before you deliver it. Now that we're in 'mostly remote' mode - which means that your presentation is now akin to a live TV broadcast - you also need to rehearse actually delivering it.

You're not standing 50 feet away behind a podium. In addition to every shot being a closeup as long as you're on the screen, live streaming tends to be more complicated than standing on stage, speaking into a microphone, and clicking through Powerpoint slides on your laptop.

If you've having trouble, you have to rely on your own troubleshooting skills or remote tech support. There is no tech person wandering the halls.

For formal meetings, such as AGMs, and presentations or speeches, we recommend several rehearsals, a combination of quick runs through the script, and what in real-world terms is esseantially a full dress rehearsal.

There are other techniques we use to make a show run smoothly, but nothing beats practice and rehearsals. Problems can be spotted and fixed, presenters and officials such as board chairs and senior management can boost their comfort levels, and the end product justifies the effort.

You can tell pretty quickly which live streams put the work in up front and which ones didnt.