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.

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.

©J&L Risk Management Inc Copyright Notice