With more businesses now investing in so-called “satellite offices”, making sure that all elements of your company are pulling in the same direction has never been more important.
According to officebroker.com, London firms in particular are taking advantage of cheaper rents elsewhere in the country to open smaller sites in locations all over the country to not only extend their client reach, but also their ability to attract the best talent from all over the country.
Many are taking advantage of services like free conference calls to regularly keep in touch with these satellites to not only make sure that everything is running smoothly, but also to ensure that they remain – to continue the interstellar analogy – in “orbit”, or are continuing to operate in the same way as the head office intends.
With this in mind, multi-office presentations to address the company as one entity are becoming increasingly common to emphasise the importance of everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. But what are the best ways to get your message across?
Unite the Team
A key piece of advice when it comes to designing a company-wide presentation is to make sure that it is engaging to all sectors that you will be broadcasting it to.
If your company is spread across several different brands or departments, try to acknowledge them early on so that they don’t automatically switch off on the assumption that the presentation is nothing to do with them and that their presence is merely required as a formality.
When you do need to go into more detail about a specific area of your business that may not be as relevant to some as it is to others, taking advantage of cloud technology is a good approach to make sure that those on the periphery of the topic don’t become disinterested. For example, you can direct those who do require more information specific to their field to areas of the cloud that contain the information they need so that they can read into it further after the presentation is over.
Keep it as Short as Possible
The last thing anyone wants is to have to sit through a long presentation where, if it is coming from a different location to their own, they might not have the opportunity to interject with questions or interact with the speaker.
With this in mind, the cloud can again be used to store extra important information that workers can be directed to read up on once the meeting is over. This allows you to keep detail to a minimum and focus on simple bullet points to get the basic message across.
Similarly, key phrases and predictable, easy-to-follow bullet points are also useful when it comes to condensing the relevant details.
Get your Message Across Effectively
Sometimes, the easiest way to communicate effectively is to show your audience exactly what you mean yourself. Screen-sharing technology facilitates this brilliantly, giving everyone across the company a first-person insight into what you are trying to express or demonstrate in real-time.
When relying on slides, remember to include as little text as possible to avoid make them look cluttered and unattractive. Also, avoid using fancy fonts. Times New Roman, Verdana or Arial are generally the best ones to go with, while in terms of font size, anything between 24pt and 30pt is generally acceptable so that it’s large enough for people at the rear of the room to see clearly without it being too large that you can’t actually get enough information on each slide.