More and more people are turning to virtual presentations as a way to save on travel and reach a wide audience. I’m particularly happy with Sametime Unyte, the system we use at work. Here are a few quick tips on making the most of it:

• Save time and avoid errors by giving attendees a URL that automatically fills in your conference ID. Example: If your conference ID is 0000000, give them the URL https://www.webdialogs.com/join/?schedid=0000000 .
• Instead of sharing your desktop in order to give a presentation, click on Publish, Manage Files, and then upload your presentation. This displays faster than desktop sharing does.
• Enable chat by right-clicking on All Participants, choosing Manage Rights, and checking both checkboxes. Say hi and encourage people to use the chat to ask questions and discuss ideas.
• Webcams make remote presentations more engaging. Get one, plug it in, and click on Start Video. Works best on IE on Windows. I don’t remember if it works on Firefox on Windows, and I haven’t gotten it to work on Linux.
• When doing both an in-person and a virtual presentation, ask someone else to monitor the chat room for questions and interesting ideas. That way, you’re not distracted by the effort of keeping up. If the presentation is entirely virtual, you may be able to monitor the chat yourself. If so, you can weave responses into your speech instead of interrupting your speech in order to type.
• Record the meeting using the Record button, providing it with your teleconference information. You will get a video file that synchronizes the slides and audio.
• If you have audience members who can’t dial into your teleconference, you can use Audiocast to broadcast the audio through the computer
• Call people’s attention to the Raise Hand feature and use it for quick polls, if you don’t have the time to set up a more structured poll.

What are your tips for webinar tools?