I was recently offered the opportunity to judge for KC3, a wonderful event put together by Tandberg and CILC. Students enter a contest to share content via videoconference about their community or culture. 

I could have sat all day reviewing student examples, and could not be more excited to see students creating content to share via videoconference. 

But I also began to realize the importance of quality conferencing techniques and how much they can completely obliterate awesome content put together by students. 

So some suggestions for those out there that are creating content for Videoconferencing: 

1. Audio and video are all you have to completely place persons on the other-side in the same environment as you. Every background sound, side whisper or every bit of body language sets a tone or experience for the conference. Consider what kind of non-verbal message your are sharing based on your environment or setting. 

2. Clearly stating or showing goals for the meeting time is critical, even if your audience already knows the purpose of meeting, it never hurts to review the goals/ purpose and overview of what you want to do during the meeting time.  This can also set the tone for the conference. Is it casual or more professional. 

3. Introduce yourself and the others involved. If it is a large group, let the other-side see the main speaker of the group. I cannot tell you how unnerving it is to have a disembodied speaker. 

4. If you are going to be using media, be sure to check with your audience before you begin or before you even meet with your audience whether it is clear for viewing or easy to hear. And please, please, please do not handle the mic when showing a piece of media, or allow for other conversations in the room when playing media. Often mics can pick up even the faintest whisper or giggle. 

5. Probably the most important piece of advice I can give, though, beyond building a comfortable and welcoming environment, is to interact with your audience to engage them with the content. Ask them their experience with the topic before you begin, encourage them to consider why the topic might have importance to them. Everything and anything is interesting, we just need to help others connect to the concept based on their own experiences. We can watch tv any time, but we do not always get to interact with our tv. ;) 

Have other ideas, share them in the comments below. And nice work, KC3 students. Keep it up. Sharing in our cultures and communities is critical to our humanity.