Workers Comp Zoom Presentation From Last Week – Lessons Learned 

My Workers Comp Zoom presentation for the Academy of Insurance last week taught me a few lessons that came from doing a remote presentation.  I had used Microsoft Meetings and Zoom for meetings which had always gone well, or at least I had thought they were satisfactory.  

As text underlines were used in the article, any outgoing links will be in crimson. 

Public Use License – Microsoft

You can check out the aftershow of the presentation here.  If you want more on Workers’ Comp info – Frank Pennachio is providing a presentation today on Hidden Concerns with Workers Comp Rates.  

Workers Comp Zoom Presentation Lessons 

Lesson 1 – Do not use your laptop’s microphone. 

The microphone did not accurately reflect that I had a very deep voice.  I have a Microsoft Lifestyle 3000 microphone that I should have used even if it is a rather old one.  I had used it before in presentations.  You can see a picture of the camera/microphone over on the right side.

I think a headset would have caused a distraction.  I went with the laptop’s microphone.   The laptop microphone performed well, but not to my satisfaction. 

Lesson 2- Check out your system again before the presentation starts

This lesson was covered in an article I wrote concerning a bad web presentation I attended late last year.  I should have listened to my own advice.   

Well, I did check out the Zoom platform a few days before to make sure my laptop’s microphone and speakers were working well. 

When Patrick (a good guy to work with) at the Academy ran me through a sound and video check 20 minutes before the starting time, my laptop had a fit.  Why?   I had installed eSet web security earlier in the week. 

I did not have eSet(c) prepared for doing a Workers Comp Zoom video presentation.   eSet provides a great web security solution – this time it was working too well.  Luckily,  I had a heavy tech background and did a workaround on the fly – whew! 

Lesson 3 – If you are going to plug directly into the wireless router, check to make sure you have a good cable – CAT5 or USB  

An hour before the presentation, I decided to be safe that I would plug directly into the router.  Check out my recommendations from last year for attending webinars. 

Once again, the laptop and the wireless router had a fit – nothing would work, so my laptop would turn back on the wireless connection that I was trying to avoid and eSet was also worrying about a direct connection. 

The answer was a simple bad cable that is now in the local recycling center.  

Lesson 4 – Remove or move away from distracting paintings or pictures in the background

When I was hooking up the CAT5 cable directly into the back of the wireless router, I moved very near to the router.  I ran a camera test to make sure everything was working well.   

I realized I had a very distracting painting behind me – think Picasso – that I had to quickly remove.  

Have we not all seen the Zoom presentation where the presenter decided that a painting would be a good background and then we end up paying more attention to the painting?  

Presentation Disaster Avoided 

The bottom line was the presentation went off without any problems and was a great experience.   If I had waited to minutes before testing everything the results might have turned out more negatively.