The level of success and the efficacy of message penetration will largely depend on how comfortable and familiar you are with your own material. Practice makes perfect. Go through your online presentation multiple times to make sure you are clear on every issue you bring up, and be ready for any questions you may be asked. You will quickly lose the confidence and attention of your audience if you seem unfamiliar, or unsure about the material your are presenting.
While you may be confidence and well-versed in using the Microsoft PowerPoint application, all bets are off when you are presenting online through a web conferencing provider. Most web conference companies convert your PowerPoint presentation into a format compatible with their technology. The interface for presenting is usually a bit, if not very different than navigating through the original PowerPoint presentation. Practicing with your online presentation through your web conferencing service provider is a necessity. Make sure you are familiar with how to upload the presentation, navigate through your slides (both forward, backward, and skipping ahead or forward to a specific slide), and how to use the video and audio systems so that you can make adjustments as necessary. Make sure you have a phone number to contact your web conferencing company immediately if you run into any problems, or have any questions prior to your event.
Practicing can only help so much. Even the most well-practiced and prepared presentation can go awry. Having a contingency plan, particularly if you are presenting to important clients or partners can be useful when presenting online. If your web conferencing service fails during your presentation and you are unable to get your service provider to rectify the problem, you may want to have the phone numbers and email addresses of your audience so that you can then email them the PowerPoint presentation, and get them on an audio-only conference call to continue the presentation and let them move through the slides themselves.
