Navigating virtual meetings and presentations has been tricky during the pandemic. Companies have had to switch to online meetings for just about everything, which doesn’t always feel as professional as in-person meetings.

This is especially true when you’re giving a presentation either to your own team or to a client. The way that shared content and video appear on screen can reduce the impact you would normally have.

For example, when you’re presenting in front of a group in person, you’re visible and can make sweeping gestures or maintain eye contact to strengthen the overall presentation. But if your image is in a small box next to everyone else’s while you’re screen sharing, the engagement impact can wane.

That’s just one of the many hurdles that companies have had to navigate when choosing the best cloud software tool to use for things like online meetings and webinars. 

Microsoft Features Are Leading the Pack

Microsoft Teams has been a popular video meeting tool, along with applications like Zoom. Teams gained over 100 million active users between April 2020 and April 2021. 

With the new slew of features that Microsoft recently rolled out, it’s as if the software company was a fly on the wall in the most challenging video meetings. Many of the enhancements directly target those giving virtual presentations and are designed to improve the look, feel, engagement, and professionalism.

Give Killer Video Presentations With These New Teams Features

Presenter Mode – Stay Front & Center

The lack of control over how you appear on the screen when sharing a presentation is frustrating to many who are trying to maintain that professional look and feel over a video conference.

Presenter mode helps the presenter stay front and center. It doesn’t put their video feed in a gallery with everyone else’s, but rather keeps it prominent in relation to the presentation they’re sharing.

Presenters can choose from three different styles:

Side-by-Side Mode

Keep your video feed and presentation vertically aligned side-by-side on the screen.

Reporter Mode

The presenter takes the main stage, with the shared content smaller, above their shoulder. You’ll notice this view also masks out your video background.

Standout Mode

This mode keeps your presentation large on the screen and layers your video feed smaller over the bottom corner. This view also masks out the video background.

Note: All Teams images are from Microsoft. 

Webinar Registration – Stop Wasting Money on 2 Video Apps

Up until now, there’s been a need for many companies to subscribe to two different video meeting tools. One is designed for everyday virtual meetings and the other specifically for giving webinars and registering attendees. Unfortunately, the two worlds are rarely mixed in the same app.

That’s no longer the case because Teams just added webinar registration capabilities to Teams. You can now designate a scheduled meeting as a webinar and create a webinar registration page, personalizing it with a header image and questions.

The system will automatically send attendees the Teams meeting link with their confirmation and provide attendee reporting.

PowerPoint Live – Give Attendees More Interactivity

Have you ever been watching someone give a PowerPoint presentation in a video call and wished you could go back a slide? But you didn’t want to come off mute and interrupt the meeting?

That’s going to be a problem of the past if using PowerPoint Live. This feature used in Teams has benefits for both the attendees and the presenter. These include:

• Attendees can privately access slides and pages back and forth as they like, without disrupting the presentation.

• Presenters can view their PowerPoint slide notes without the attendees being able to see them. 

Live Reactions – Keep Everyone Engaged & Participating

Giving a presentation online can feel like you’re on an island by yourself. There’s dead silence as you’re going through your slides because everyone is on mute. If you try to invite some interaction – “How did everyone like that?” – you end up with awkward delays and then everyone talking at once.

Live Reactions in Teams can give you the best of both worlds. It allows participants to use emojis to react to moments of your presentation. Presenters can ask how everyone likes a particular point and get instant, but quiet, feedback. As people see emojis floating up on the screen it reminds everyone that they’re not alone and creates a more engaging experience.

Dynamic View – Automatic and Personalized Viewing

If you have a lot of people in a meeting and you’re each sharing content at some point, then Dynamic View can help keep the screen view optimized for everyone by automatically arranging the elements as needed.

Dynamic View will both personalize a screen layout and auto-adjust as people turn on or off video, share content, or begin to speak. This helps everyone focus more on the meeting and less on having to adjust their view.

Get Optimized With All of MS Teams Best Features! 

GEEK911 can help your San Jose / Silicon Valley business set up Teams to enable more efficient conversations, better file security, and stunning online presentations. 

Contact us today to schedule a consultation! Call 1-866-433-5411 or reach us online.