L&M Blog

There are a myriad of components that go into managing a successful Peer-to-Peer program in support of your brand. Technology, compliance and content remain vital components to ensure a program’s success.  This article will explore how your approved speakers must be trained to skillfully engage with the material and the audience in a virtual environment.

Speakers are an extension of your team. They are contracted to provide a service to your company by delivering an effective and engaging presentation which elicits participation and interest from the audience. But like any other member of the team, they require effective skills training on all of the scenarios they may face.  Right now, we are experiencing a seismic shift in the skill set required to execute Peer-to-Peer programs properly.

Hello?  Can You Hear Me?

Like many of us in the age of COVID, speakers have been forced to interact with audiences using technology and virtual platforms that are new and largely unknown to them.  While speakers have vast experience in front of a live audience using a laptop, slides, a screen, laser pointer and a podium, now they are using a small screen and a webcam in a remote location.

A live audience allowed for important interaction with the speaker through discussion, questions, body language and other visual cues. These days…we stare at a green light glowing over a faceless webcam while we fiddle with “sharing our screen,” or seeing people in a “waiting room,” or acknowledging a chat box question or hand raise. 🙋‍♀️✋

Be prepared…

In a future post in this series, you will learn about the various virtual program formats to consider.  But in the meantime, how do we get our speakers ready for all of these new scenarios? Speakers need to be coached. They need to practice in real time in the environment. Rehearsals are critical to ensure that speakers are comfortable and confident with the buttons to be pushed and the formats they’ll face.  Additionally, speaker skills and training need to evolve to deal with sound, camera, lighting, posture and voice to make the speakers the best they can be on screen.   

Speaker training in the COVID and post-COVID age must evolve to provide robust training on how to be the most effective Virtual Program Speaker they can be.

L&M Healthcare can be your partner for highly effective speaker training, which readies your speakers for the new age of Virtual.

Thanks for reading!

Adam Margolis
CEO, L&M Healthcare Communications