first time remote speaker?
Tags: remote, speaker, live
Published: 2020-04-18 10:01:06

Corona has moved our entire life online. Same is with confs and meetups. Hope the below points help someone.

These are running notes from 4 different conf/talk/meetup I attended. I am a [Youtuber](youtube.com/tanaypratap) myself so, I have put some tips from my experience.

1. **Private chats** are good. People can talk to each other. Otherwise they might move out of the conf.
1. Make speakers co-host. Elevate permissions.
1. Have speaker's name, twitter handle, and talk title on each slide. People join in between and **need context**.
1. You can do a Zoom meeting with few folks and then stream the entire thing on Youtube. This way you limit the people who can ask questions by interrupting the meeting but at the same time increase the reach of your talk. 
    - another benefit of this is that it doesn't need any sign up or install.
    - folks are worried about **security and privacy** concerns.

1. One person needs to **moderate the Youtube chat** in that case. Take questions from there and also remove spammers.
1. It is a good idea to take best practices from conferences. Which means that attendees **ask their questions at end** on audio, chat is fine. 
    - what happens is that folks unknowingly switch ON/OFF their mic and the speaker gets disturbed
1. **Visibility** is extremely important. \#speakertips
     - use bigger fonts on the slides. 
     - live streaming degrades quality. 
     - use colors of high contrast. know about the color wheel.
     - use high resolution photos, otherwise it looks pixelated when streamed

1. Checklist:
     - don't use a bluetooth mic
     - use a mic if possible to avoid echo
     - if you don't have a mic, don't close the room, **mitigate echo**
     - be in line-of-sight of your wifi router. live streaming needs **bandwidth**

1. Use live slides. put link in chat or slide. 
      - See how live streamers take some screen to show static data. 
      - This way people can see your slides in a separate window as well. 
      - Helps in note taking too if they want you to go back. 
 
1. Use shortened links everywhere. It's easier to read. Easier to note down.
      - QR code is another good option

1. Use some storytelling and humor to your advantage. People are listening to it alone at home. Attention span runs short. \#speakertips

1. If you're a **first time speaker**, it could be tempting to write everything in the notes and read from there. But then your voice will sound robotic. So, avoid that. _Aaas_ and _ummms_ make you human and relatable. /#personaltip

1. If you are planning to share your screen/live code. Test it before starting the talk. Sometimes you just share the slide/window and not the desktop. Prepare a **check list for the talk**.

1. Biggest issue with zoom/skype is that these tools are for group meetings. Therefore it's hard to mute everyone. Someone will switch ON the mic and you'll get a lot of noise. Thus, Youtube Live helps but then takes away the audio interactivity. 
    - my tip: If you have a talk **with more than 20 folks, go for Youtube Live**.

1. Recently attended FreeCodeCamp Live conf. They had a paid entry to chatrooms. Good idea if you want to **monetise the conf**.

1. The FCC conf had full screen video of speakers. The ReactJS Meetup has only slides. 
    - a balance would be better. Have a **small video on the side**. Again, see some Twitch LiveStreams to get inspiration.

1. Having a private chat room shared before is good. What if your zoom is not running? or you get into any technical difficulty before starting your talk. Happened with [mentorship-karona](bit.ly/mentorship-karona) session.
    - YT live link prepared before hand would give you a chat room ON. Which is pretty good as you can add moderators there as well. 
     - can do a telegram group. It will also serve as a place to hangout for interested people later.

1. Closing notes: Share a tip on how you're coping up with the lockdown. Add that **personal touch**. Maybe share a photo of your home setup. :)

1. Adding this just because I like prime numbers. The world needs more people to create content so that those who are stuck at home and can't do much to fight have at least something productive and positive to tune in to. More power to you my friend! 

If you like this, and you don't know me, _consider following me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tanaypratap)_. I am dangerously active on social media btw. :)