Although virtual meetings are convenient, let's face it: From an audience's perspective, they usually come down to talking heads in relatively static environments. What if, as a facilitator, you could increase audience engagement by interacting in real time with your digital content?
PersonifyLive, a video-conferencing tool, allows users to do that. It overlays real-time video of a speaker onto online demos or desktop applications such as PowerPoint, which allows facilitators to naturally interact with their content on screen. PersonifyLive can be integrated easily with common web-conferencing platforms such as WebEx and GoToMeeting.
Speakers can record themselves over any content they choose; with a click they can extract themselves from, or place themselves in, their actual setting. The tool uses gesture technology and the Personify Remote app (in which users use their smartphones as a remote control) to enable presenters to physically interact with their content. There also is the option of prerecording the presentation to use again.
PersonifyLive can be a useful tool for trainers. It can help them deliver more engaging online training, as well as improve their presentation skills. Users have the opportunity to examine and adjust nonverbal characteristics of which they may not have been aware.
By actually placing themselves in the content, presenters instantly increase audience interest. Physical gestures direct the audience's attention where the presenter wants, and his facial expressions and other body language reinforce his message.