Five Incredibly Useful Lessons From 200 Virtual Keynote Speeches

As the world turned weird in 2020 (and then got progressively weirder), I supported my friends and customers by pivoting to virtual keynote speeches. I’ve given more than 200 online speeches since the pandemic started so I guess I’m a veteran now!

I’ve learned some important lessons — especially from my mistakes — and I thought I’d pass them on to you since I’ve never written about this before.

Although live conferences are coming back, virtual keynote speeches are still an important part of the mix for associations and businesses that want to provide a variety of educational experiences and access to global speakers.

Five lessons for you today:

1. The technology matters … to a point

Like most of my fellow speakers, moving to virtual keynote speeches meant upgrading my technology. I bought new professional lighting, a better camera, and a back-up power supply among other devices. I already had a good microphone. All of these were essential purchases.

I did not invest in the whole broadcast studio scene like some people, and I think this was a good decision. At first, I had studio FOMO, but honestly, the little graphic tricks and different camera angles did not make a material…