How to make virtual events more engaging

Tips from five years of Zoom public speaking

When I first started doing virtual speeches during the pandemic, I assumed it was a temporary thing (well, unless the world ended, but you know…). However, even now, almost five years after everything shut down, I am still doing a mix of in-person and virtual events. I did a virtual talk just a few days before writing this!

That’s because there are some real benefits to virtual events, even without any pandemic restrictions. For starters, teams are just more distributed than before. It’s great when everyone can gather, and they should. But this is only going to happen a few times a year for many organizations, which means that virtual events allow for more frequent professional development. They also just fit better into people’s schedules.

Of course there are real challenges with virtual events too, which I’ve thought about a lot since I started doing these regularly.