In 2020, billions made a quick pivot to remote work – many without the resources needed to take on that challenge. But now, remote work is here to stay, and we must continue to empower remote work and deliver 10x better experiences than in-person interactions. The people who are remote deserve the same experience as the people who are in the room with you. When you are presenting in a room, it’s easy to prioritize the audience in front of you and forget about the viewers off site.
98% of recent survey respondents said they expect at least 1 remote employee in every meeting.
To effectively communicate and collaborate in a virtual or hybrid workplace, you need tools purpose-built for that environment — falling back to a pre-pandemic approach simply won’t cut it. For example, to maximize engagement you need virtual backgrounds to come into the foreground for a fully immersive experience; so you’re sharing info the way we’ve grown accustomed to seeing it with TV and other media platforms. Additionally, focusing on conversational presenting allows you to adapt your presentation to the flow of the discussion for a more relevant and engaging experience versus slide by slide.
And let’s face it, after making it through more than a year of remote work/school/teaching, anything that can make video meetings less boring, and make our presentations stand out is a win.
You might remember from WebexOne that we are adding a feature for the desktop Webex app and the Webex Desk Pro device called Immersive Share. Taking inspiration from the weather women and men we see in the news, this feature allows you to blend your shared content with your video, and ensures your audience can still see you without having to take their eye off content you are presenting.
But what if you want to augment your video, background or content even more This is where our Webex App Hub ecosystem partnerships with innovative apps come in. mmhmm has burst onto the scene and has made a major imprint in this immersive, engaging presentation world and we have teamed up with them to add a number of incredible capabilities to your next Webex meeting. Watch a conversation between Jeetu Patel and Phil Libin, Co-founder and CEO of mmhmm.
According to an mmhmm survey, 86% of Americans feel as confident or more confident presenting virtually vs. in-person. Consider encouraging employees to present virtually more often to get the most confident performances from everyone. And when you’re in a meeting, don’t be boring. 40% of Americans they surveyed are spending between 1-6 hours on video calls per week, with 20% spending over six hours on video. Most of that time is spent observing. When you’re the one on camera, make your presentations engaging and fun.
Let’s say you want to add a video effect on top of your video feed that others see in Webex. mmhmm offers a host of cool and fun effects to choose from straight from their app. Power users will discover a number of granular options to fine tune these effects for the most impact and cycle through them in an easy way.
Call attention to your content for meeting attendees or event audience by leveraging a broad variety of pointers in real time within your presentation. Not only can you choose from a subset of unique colors but mmhmm has added a magnifier to their pointer set so you can get close-ups on whatever you want your audience to inspect. (Pro tip: Don’t put the magnifier over your mouth and grin. It’s kinda freaky looking.)
And not only can you get animated virtual backgrounds to use in your next Webex meeting, but the mmhmm team also makes it easy to search for the best GIFs to add to your presentations and video calls either as a slide or background. They have teamed up with GIPHY (just like we have in the Webex app) to give you a new way to express yourself in meetings and other conversations. My favorite is the disappearing Homer Simpson.
mmhmm takes the notion of picture-in-picture presenting from the realm of professional live-studio production; simplifies it and wraps it into a nice easy to use package to allow you to present like you were on TV. Now, everyone can find mmhmm on the Webex App Hub and make the most out of their next Webex meeting or event. We can’t wait to see your immersive presentations in action 🤗
Learn more
What’s new in Webex: June 2021
About The Author
