On the 25^th of April I had the opportunity to speak at Global Azure #Virtual Event. I was one of the 248 international speakers and one of the 18 Greek that took part in this huge online event.

This was the fifth year in the row that Global Azure takes place. Every year all communities around the world come together the same day and there are local country events that take place as part of the Global one. The event is dedicated to Microsoft Azure Technologies and whatever can be combined with them.

This year and because of the Coronavirus the event was virtual. A three day even 23-25^th of April with speakers from all around the world in many languages.

Talking to a virtual audience

The experience was truly unique and I truly felt good taking part of it. Most of the speakers felt awkward talking in front of a screen and not facing their attendees, but I didn’t feel like that. You see my experience as a radio producer where I need to talk for two hours without being able to see my audience in the eye made it much easier for me.

I know the tips of what to do or not to do in such situations. There are many things that you must avoid, one of them is that you must NEVER stop talking. Even if you are waiting for something to complete and takes some time, you don’t stay silent till it finishes. There you continue talking by giving information that fill that gap. Information relevant with what you are showing. The other thing is that you need to joke and make fun of yourself. Small details that make it easier for the viewers to keep up.

It is very difficult for someone to keep watching an online presentation for 45 minutes online and the speaker goes on a boring pace. This is wrong with live audience, imagine how it is on a virtual event.

If you are using a camera and your viewers can see you while you present, use that in your advantage. Act like you are in a live audience and use your hands, change the volume of your voice and make faces on camera so they can see you and hear you present like you were live.

My presentation was about Azure Bastion and how you can work within the browser. I analyzed it from the security point of view. You can watch it on the following video in Greek.

As I said, I was part of Global Azure Greece and the Greek community and Greek was the second language in number of speakers after the English language. I managed to have around 160 people watching my whole presentation whom I deeply thank from the bottom of my heart.

I received lots of messages thanking me for the presentation. Especially from people who weren’t accustomed to Microsoft Azure and my presentation helped them understand lots of this cloud platform’s capabilities.

I can’t wait for the next one.