Reflections from presenting at a virtual conference

Last spring, I wrote a paper that looked at the impact of the Linotype on newspapers in rural South Carolina in the early 1900s. The Linotype brought the industrial revolution to the news industry and changed the newspaper industry radically over a couple of decades. I was proud of how the paper turned out and started to edit and revise, and prepare for the next step.

For those of you are aren’t familiar with the academic world, the next step is either presenting the paper at a conference or submitting it to a journal or publication. I submitted my paper in December to the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium and found out in February that it had been accepted. This year’s event was scheduled to be in Memphis and I was looking forward to checking out the city. I booked my flight and my hotel and started to research restaurants in Memphis.

Of course, plans changed.

Two weeks before the conference, the team at the University of Memphis announced that because of the spread of Coronavirus, they were going to conduct the conference online.

Last weekend, the Southeast Colloquium did indeed happen virtually, via Zoom. It’s really amazing how the team at Memphis was able to pivot from a physical gathering to a virtual one in just two weeks. I know that there were some bumps for some of the sessions, but the ones I attended all went perfectly.

I was happy with how my presentation turned out. I had 12 minutes and stayed under my allotted time. After I was done, I was thinking that it might be helpful to reflect on a few of the things that are different when presenting virtually.

Practice in the app. The night before the conference, I tested out presenting with Zoom. I set up at my desk upstairs and presented to my wife and son downstairs. I was able to try sharing my screen and get the feel of what it was like to present in Zoom. The first time through didn’t go well. It took a couple of times through to get comfortable. Spend the time to become familiar with the presenting software.
No audience feedback. I’m used to moving around when I present and trying to engage the audience, but when the audience mics are muted and their video is turned off, there is no audience feedback. It feels wrong. I couldn’t tell if the attendees were connecting with my presentation, or patiently waiting for it to end. My presentation was a little dry so I added a joke in the middle of the presentation and… no one laughed… or at least I couldn’t hear anyone laugh because everyone’s mic were muted.
Close everything you don’t need. If you are like me, you typically have a dozen apps open on your computer and a bunch of windows. My recommendation is that you close everything except your presentation and Zoom. When you go to share your screen, all of your open windows get presented as an option to share and it’s really easy to get flustered. You don’t want to start your presentation feeling rattled, do you? Plus, it eliminates the possibility that your email app will chime loudly at the most awkward time.
It was better than I thought. I was really nervous about this presentation — more nervous than I should have been — but I’ve never done a virtual presentation like this before. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it went. (I haven’t seen the recording and I may change my mind after I see it.) And people understand if things don’t go perfectly. We’re all learning together.

The next step for my paper involves revisions and probably another conference, AEJMC’s national convention in San Francisco in August. I’m hoping that everything is back to normal by then — I love San Fran — but if things are not back to normal, and if the conference is converted to an online event, I’ll be ready.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, researcher, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create.