Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.
This time it is Tamas Hevizi, Global Head of Private Equity at Automation Anywhere. Prior to that he was in SAP's Private Equity group, and before that led its Value Engineering consulting group. He writes about his passion - turning analog settings like meetings, presentations, design sessions into digital format with participants spread around the world. As we all get "Zoom bombed" we can all learn from his passion.
I recently conducted a video interview with Vinnie as part of my Digital Value Creation series. I was in Philadelphia; he was in Tampa. Here is the end result:
Hope you agree it looks professional, but it reflects technology and technique I have honed over a decade. It all started fifteen years ago, when I took over a team that was completely decentralized, all over the world. I missed all the face to face things I was used to doing, which was sitting down with a team, grabbing a whiteboard, being able to coordinate work, plan out things. I was used to managing teams that were in the same office.
So, my goal became to be able to be as effective as I was when I was one-on-one with a team.
How could I effectively replicate the analog world in a digital world? It's not as simple as just applying technology. If you think about it, most of us do a ton of meetings. In an analog world, you go into a room and you block an hour. You're like, fine, we'll stick through it. However, nobody is trained to run digital meetings effectively. Nobody teaches anybody to do Zoom sessions. Therefore, we all experience pretty brutal Zoom meetings where people spend 20 minutes just talking about their dogs and the weather outside. No wonder, so many of us feel more exhausted these days.
I explained to Vinnie in this 8 minute recording the process I went through (sorry, it is a casual conversation, but you should get a good idea) to re-imagine presentations, brain storming and many other previous in person activities. An added benefit - I was much more efficient over the course of a workday.
My home "TV studio" has grown over the decade. Here are some elements. Fair warning - most items in the graph have become difficult to buy as the supply chain for electronics has been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, you can start with "good enough" options and keep upgrading. My studio did not come together in a week - it has taken me years of experimentation and substitution. Like I am using Skype, not Zoom. Primarily because Skype allows me to record separate videos and audio channels (multitrack) for better post-production editing. I could go into all kinds of geek-talk to tell you why.
The key components of the setup are:
VIDEO
- Main camera (Nikon Z6) that records in addition to a Skype/Zoom session so my side of the video is top quality
- Web Camera (Logitech C920S HD Pro) so even Skype/Zoom sessions had better face to face quality over my laptop camera
SOUND
- I use an external microphone for video conferencing to approach face to face conversation quality. Laptop microphones produce terrible voice quality
- HypeMic is my web conference mike of choice. Superb voice quality
- For video recording, I also record my side with a studio microphone (Stellar X2) and an audio recorder (Zoom H4n). Again studio quality sound
SOFTWARE
- My primary software for video production is Final Cut Pro (Mac)
- I sometime use pro podcasting software for remote interview recording (Squadcast) if I need studio quality sound on both side
Beyond the technology, I have also invested in training. I enrolled in a course with Cornell called The Executive Presence course. It is taught by the theater program and, of course, delivered online.
You record 15 video sessions. The faculty reviews them. In addition, your fellow students critique them. You could have dozens of students, in parallel, comment on your recordings. You get a lot of feedback about how you think you're presenting versus how you're actually presenting. You learn where your voice is, and how you're gesturing because if you don't have a physical experience, and you and I are not in the same room, some of that gets lost. Our ability to persuade or listen declines when you're not using gestures. You're staring at the screen. Maybe you're looking down versus up. All these small things take away from the experience of either being a good listener or being a good communicator.
I don't think anybody is born with a digital presence. I think people assume they can do it just by turning on the video. It doesn't work that way.
The other thing I have worked on is messaging. Most corporate communication gets so over-engineered that it loses its human touch. Messaging has to come across authentic, straightforward, pointed and short. I aim mostly for 5-minute-long videos.
Many businesses struggle with finding a voice that's not typical corporate-speak. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, for example, has an effective style whether he’s live or he's on video. It's really hard for companies to find key executives and have that persona show up the same effective way whether they're in person or whether on video and other means.
We have all seen commercials in last couple of months use terms like "In these difficult times." Everybody was basically using that same two, three phrases in every commercial. It was all engineered and it was not personal. The good news is we can learn from our kids. I have a 16-year-old. She told me once "Daddy, nobody would ever watch your videos. It's boring." That's sort of the point. She is watching YouTube creators as the benchmark. This generation will expect executives to be as engaging as the creators they have grown up watching.
I'm not saying we should all appeal to Gen-Z, but I think the messages that resonate with the millennial and the Gen-Z generation are usually authentic. They are not over-engineered.
I keep improving all the time. None of us was born for TV. But there are so many resources available today to become much more effective at digital communication. The technology, the training and the tone keep getting better, and I will keep evolving my passion to keep analog experiences comparable to their digital twins.
Well, may be not all experiences. You notice the cup of coffee in the graph above. I am not sure the analog experience of that taste, aroma and texture will ever turn digital!
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