Communicate better on ZOOM. Keep eye contact with an on-screen teleprompter.

Avoid the distraction of looking away at your notes with with an on-screen teleprompter.

Online viewers are easily distracted as you look away to refer to your notes. Deliver more persuasive appeals by never looking away from them. Simply upload your script into a teleprompter that projects your script in a browser window over your ZOOM (or WebEx, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams) presentation. Adjust the speed to presentation style and you can even pause the scrolling script to answer questions from the audience.

This post covers the following topics:

BigStage Teleprompter Features

1. Save your script

Save your Teleprompter scripts to the Teleprompter app and on your devices so you can reuse them again later. 

2. Pick what to emphasize and when to pause

Highlight and change the color for different words in your speech so that you and anyone else using the script will know where to pause for dramatic effect, and which words or phrases to emphasize.

3. Share your scripts

Share your script with others. Ideal when you want many people to be able to present your talking points such as for community organizing. Simply share your script as a link or QR code with others and when they open it they get a free teleprompter pre-loaded with your script.

4. Co-present

Use the same script from multiple devices. Ideal when you are co-presenting with others and need to transition smoothly from one presenter to another.

5. Help others

Discreetly send answers to tough audience questions and time check reminders to other co-presenters directly in their teleprompter. They see the message without having to look away from the screen.

6. Use it on your phone

The teleprompter is now available as a free app for both iPhones and Androids. Great when you have to use it on the go or when you don't have internet access.

7. Speed and font control

You can adjust the speed at which your script scrolls on the screen even more precisely. You can also make more adjustments to the size of the font to make it the best size for you.

8. Choose your language

The teleprompter can handle scripts in any language. You can also choose which language the on-screen settings are in English, Spanish, Chinese or Tagalog.

9. Find your script fast

Easily find the script of you're searching for by typing in a keyword and sorting the scripts by date.

10. Customize your presentation

Customize the script of an existing talk you've prepared by changing some parts, and re-saving it as a new script.

Watch Our Zoom Teleprompter Tips Video

How teleprompters work

Run your ZOOM (or WebEx, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams) session as normal and follow these steps:
- Launch the BigStage Teleprompter
- Enter the text that you'll be presenting
- Include line breaks where you will be pausing
- Adjust the size of the teleprompter window on the screen
- Adjust the font size, color and style.
- Set the scroll rate to control how fast the words scroll by
- Pause the scrolling to answer questions from the audience

How to not look like you are reading a teleprompter

Positioning the teleprompter on your screen is a very important part of this process. The key to a smooth teleprompter read is to create distance from the speaker and the teleprompter.  This minimizes eye movement and makes it look much more natural.

Position and size the Teleprompter window as close to your webcam as possible. Put your Zoom window towards the bottom of the screen, and your Teleprompter window towards the top and middle of your screen to minimize eye movements.

Common use cases

• - Online fundraisers
• - Virtual town halls
• - Briefings for volunteers
• - Media interviews
• - Political campaigns
• - Religious sermons
• - Legal briefings

Teleprompter for Online Event Organizers

Teleprompter for Teachers and Online Learning

Big Stage Teleprompter

BigStage is a DemLabs LLC app that lets you customize your ZOOM, YouTube Live, Facebook Love and Twitch presentations for online fundraisers, organizing and training courses. You can add a panel with Action Buttons above your video stream. This panel has buttons which you would like to take such as donate, volunteer, register to vote etc. Each button directs the user to a website that you define. All the presenter has to do it encourage their viewers to click on a button while they continue to watch the presentation. Check out our other tips to improve your Zoom presentations.

The BigStage Teleprompter lets you communicate better with more eye contact. It can be used with online presentation apps like ZOOM, WebEx, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Both BigStage Online and the Teleprompter apps are currently free for groups working on voter empowerment, civil rights and social justice.

How to Read Speaker Notes while Presenting PowerPoint in Virtual Meeting

The BigStage Teleprompter's PowerPoint Utility automatically extracts the speaker notes from your PowerPoint slides and formats them in the teleprompter. The speaker notes are then ready for any user to read while presenting a PowerPoint to a virtual audience.

The BigStage Teleprompter also lets users share, edit, and update scripts in real time. Users can also alert live speakers through the teleprompter with the BigStage Teleprompter's alert button.

Do you use powerpoint to present during your virtual meetings? If so are you in search for a better way to read the speaker notes under each slide? Well the BigStage teleprompter has the solution.

Step 1 (:15 ): So here I have my powerpoint open that i'm going to use as an example and I have the BigStage teleprompter open

Step 2 (0:23): When you get to the BigStage teleprompter you're going to click on this powerpoint utility

Step 3 (0:28): There it'll ask you to drag and drop your presentation which I have right here and once I drag and drop it the BigStage teleprompter will do all the work.

Step 4 (0:36): Once it's finished you press extract notes and as you can see your notes are formatted here for a teleprompter

Step 5 (0:43): So then you copy go back to the first BigStage teleprompter tab clear the notes and paste the copy from the other tab here So as you can see here on one side of my screen I have the BigStage teleprompter open with my speaker notes formatted for the teleprompter and on the other side of my screen I have my powerpoint presentation that will be facing the public.

Keep Your Team in Formation with the Same Talking Points

Keep your team of canvassers and supporters on the same talking points. Or as Beyonce says 'let's get in formation'.

"Use a “drumbeat” approach to communication: a steady stream of large and small actions and stories, over time, that help reinforce a consistent idea or theme. Drumbeats work so well is because we are all incredibly busy and great at filtering out information. That means the odds that any one message will break through are pretty low. Build up enough pieces of communication in different avenues over time, and the chances improve for getting your target audience to say, “Aha! Something is going on there." - Peterson Rudgers Group

How can a campaign keep its volunteers, canvassers and supporters on the same script in a fast changing environment? How can they get the latest talking points immediately? Present them confidently? Why does it matter?

• Upload your talking points into the BigStage Teleprompter.
• Create different scripts for different issues and audiences.
• Update the talking points at any time.
• Share your talking points freely as a link or with a QR Code.
• Scanning the code launches a free teleprompter with your script on it.
• The teleprompter can be used on a phone or laptop.
• The teleprompter runs its own browser window beside Zoom so it isn't seen by the audience.
• Canvassers can practice the talking points ahead of time on the teleprompter.

Tips on presenting at a School Board meeting

Messaging structure

Lead with shared values, not problems.
- Effective values language includes: children’s freedom to learn, be themselves and pursue their dreams.
- Honesty, integrity and learning are also effective anchoring values.
- Explicitly name or signal that we share these values across differences in race and class, “no matter what we look like or where we are from.” 

Introduce the problem second.
- Use active language to make it clear that certain people created the problem — and, therefore, people have the power to fix it.
- Describe the reasons bad actors attempt to distract, fuel fear and divide us across race, gender and origin. 

Close with a positive vision for the future and how working together gets us there.
- Provide specific, tangible actions people can take, such as attending school board meetings, voting in elections, and contacting officials.
- Reference coming or joining together as part of the action.
- Include previous examples of successfully joining together and achieving a goal. 

Add Action Button to Video Recordings

How do you combine a powerful video with an appeal and a call to action? Add the Action Button to video recordings! The call to action might be practice giving her speech with a teleprompter, register to vote or make a phone call. That's where the FREE Action Button comes in. Find the Action Button in the example below with the following link ActionButton.live/StandUpAgainstHate.

GIFs make it dynamic

GIFs grab your attention and wildly popular on social media. Into Action provides hundreds of free GIFs that align well with messages for social justice and voting rights. Mothers of Hope combined a GIF from Into Action to the Action Button QR Code to let their supporters share the GIF as usual, but adds a link to Mallory's video and a call to action. The combined GIF was uploaded to GIPHY for others to find too. Notice how these GIFs are the most eye-catching part of this blog.

Practice your delivery. How to get the transcript of a YouTube Video.

Politics Girl is a great speaker. Most people aren't as good but we can learn and practice. Start with a script that you relate to, such as her message. You can see the transcript of a YouTube video by clicking on the three dots at the bottom. YouTube even highlights the words being spoken and the time.

Copy and paste the transcript into the free BigStage Teleprompter app. Highlight the words you want to emphasize and add spaces where you will pause. Adjust the scroll speed to what's right for you. Practice the delivery and check how long it took you with the timer at the bottom. Edit the script to fit the time you have.

The BigStage Teleprompter runs in a browser so you don't have to instal any software. It runs on phones, tablets and laptops. The premium version ($5/month) lets you save and share your script with other people so they can also deliver the same message. You can even co-present with them at the same time from the same script.

The script can be shared freely with others using a link like this https://bigstageteleprompter.online/content/EOqhH3zBHm You can even change the script at any time and all the people you've shared it with, automatically get the new version. Learn more here.

Highlight the phrases that you want to emphasize while presenting

Take a look at the 'Thanks' that Jason Selvig from the Good Liars gave to Wayne LaPierre at the NRA Convention for all his 'Thoughts and Prayers' to gun shooting victims. That video has already had closed to 10 million views on Twitter!

Jason is brilliant and delivers his comments perfectly. How can others with less experience in public speaking present better? Make a bigger impact in a public setting? I'm not sure what Jason had on his phone, but there is a free app that you can use to practice your lines and scroll your script so you can present better. BigStage Teleprompter.

• Paste your script in the BigStage Teleprompter
• Highlight the phrases that you want to emphasize while presenting
• Adjust the font size and scroll speed
• Press SCROLL to start and PAUSE to stop the script
• Use the script on a phone, tablet or laptop
• Save your script and share your script with co-presenters

You can use the BigStage Teleprompter for free, but to save and share your script with others you need a premium account ($5/month). You can create any number of scripts with a premium account and share it with as many people as you like. Other people using a script that you create and shared with them do not need a premium account. Here is an abridged version of Jason's comments at the NRA convention.

Teleprompters help you present even better

Good presenters keep eye contact with their audience. That's hard to do when you have to keep looking down to refer to your notes. Teleprompters scroll your script so you can read it while looking straight at the camera - on your phone, laptop or with a cameraman. Teleprompters have evolved from big clunky pieces of gear to apps that can run on any device and very affordable. They're also easy to use:

• Edit the script in the teleprompter to highlight key words and phrases to emphasize.
• Adjust the font size and scroll speed so that you can read it comfortably.
• Pause the scrolling to answer a question from the audience.
• Save your script for later use or to adapt for other presentations.

Liz Cheney (R-WY), vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, damned her Republican colleagues at the first hearing on the January 6 insurrection." - Letters from an American

Teleprompters help make your presentations exceptional. You can focus on your delivery and maintain eye contact with your audience as the script scrolls. Here's an excerpt of her comments in a teleprompter and tips on how to use a teleprompter to present better.

Try this exercise

Try reading the same excerpts while looking at the camera on your laptop. See how hard it is to move your eyes back and forth from the camera to tht last sentence you read.

"Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. President Trump corruptly pressured state legislators and election officials to change election results. President’s close advisor Steve Bannon said “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

“On Jan. 6, 2021, the defendants directed, mobilized and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, breaching of the Capitol building, and assaults on law enforcement.”

“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president”, said Mike Pence

“And thanks to your bullshit, we are under siege... If Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution.  If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6th will repeat itself,” said Judge Jacob." - Liz Cheney (R-WY)

Verbal: Big Stage Teleprompter (free app)

Trying to get your message across as fast as possible? With impact? And easy to share? Use an animated story with a GIF or video that people can watch passively even on mute. Put your story that will be shared verbally into a free teleprompter that readers can use when presenting your message to others.

Rule of Law

AG Merrick Garland on the Rule of Law

Read AG Garlands remarks or watch him delivering the Oath of Allegiance. Highlights:

• I come from a family of immigrants who fled religious persecution early and sought refuge here in the United States.
• If not for America, my grandmother would have died in the Holocaust.
• Under the protection of our laws, she too, was able to live without fear of persecution.
• That protection is what distinguishes America from so many other countries. The Rule of Law – is the foundation of our system of government.
• The Rule of Law means that the law treats each of us alike there is not one rule for friends, another for foes; one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless; a rule for the rich, another for the poor; or different rules, depending upon one’s race or ethnicity or country of origin.
• It demands that we listen to each other, even when we disagree. Reject violence and threats of violence that endanger each other and endanger our democracy.
• We must not allow the fractures between us to fracture our democracy. We are all in this together. We are all Americans.
• My family story is what motivated me to choose a career in public service.
• I wanted to repay my country for taking my family in when they had nowhere else to go.
• I wanted to repay the debt my family owes this country for our very lives.

Words to remember

Garland's advice is important at a time when a partisan Supreme Court strips Americans of their freedoms and MAGA Republicans (formerly claiming to be the party of Law & Order) threaten violence and refuse to accept election results.

How do you make comments easier to share? When they won't all fit in a simple GIF or meme? Create a GIF with a scrolling script. Here is a simple way to do create a GIF like this one in minutes using free apps.

Create your own such GIF in ten minutes Record a screen capture of the Teleprompter as the script was scrolling with the free EZGIF app. Paste the GIF in a PowerPoint slide along with a photo. Record another GIF of the PowerPoint slide.

TakeAway: Use GIFs with a scrolling script to spread messages like the importance of the RULE OF LAW.

Takeaway: Don't look away! Use a Teleprompter for persuasive and personable online presentations.

Deepak
DemLabs

Image credit: Library of Congress on Unsplash