Info for Speakers

Virtual and In-Person Guidelines: You will have approximately 45 minutes for your presentation, with an extra 10-15 minutes for Q&A

Key Info for In-Person Speaker Series Events

MEETING SCHEDULE

Il Cenacolo meets via Zoom on Thursdays from mid-September through July. (Exceptions are for the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, and the last two weeks of December.)

All Thursday speaker presentations are available virtually on Zoom with the link active at 12:45 pm Pacific time and the presentation beginning promptly at 1 pm.

Il Cenacolo luncheons are from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm on the first and third Thursdays of the month at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club (SFIAC). The luncheons are followed by the weekly presentation at 1:00 pm. The speaker may attend the luncheon and speak from the SFIAC or may speak from a remote location.

Schedule

Thursdays, September 15 to July 31
12 noon: Seating for lunch
(First and third Thursdays only)
1:00 pm: Speaker Presentation / Audience Questions
(Every Thursday–Simulcast via Zoom)
2:00 pm: Adjourn

Venue for luncheon meetings

San Francisco Italian Athletic Club
1630 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133 / (415) 781-0165
MAP TO SFIAC

ATTENDANCE

Typically twenty to forty members and their guests.

PROJECTION EQUIPMENT

The San Francisco Italian Athletic Club has an Epson 4K-LED projector.

The Speaker provides the laptop (PC or Mac can be accommodated). Please tell your Speaker Chair what type of computer you will be using.

Note: SFIAC’s projector has a double-ended HDMI
cable to connect to your laptop. If your laptop has an HDMI port, no adapters are needed. If you will be using a Mac (no more than 10 years old), SFIAC has available multiple versions of Lightening-to-HDMI adapters. If you do not have an HDMI port on your computer, and you do not have a Mac, please bring your own HDMI adapter.

PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

The Monthly Speaker Chair contacts the speaker to prepare an announcement for the Club bulletin that includes:

the title of the talk
information about the speaker
a brief description of the talk

DRESS

Most attendees wear business attire.

GUESTS

Speakers may bring one person as our guest to an in-person meeting, and multiple guests for a zoom meeting.

Please note: please feel free to announce the fact
of your presenting at our Club and even link to our website, but please do not send out our Zoom link to your followers. Unfortunately we do not have the staff or technology in place to manage a large influx of attendees, so we cannot support more than a handful of your guests on Zoom at this time.

HONORARIUM

The Club picks up the tab for parking and lunch, however, we do not offer an honorarium at this time.

Key Info for Presenting at Our Virtual Events

For the actual event we will host the call on our own Zoom account. If needed we will turn over screen-share to you for your presentation.

Notes for New Presenters

Prior to the event, we recommend you set up a free Zoom account so you can practice working with the interface. Do a mock presentation for practice. If you plan to share your screen and share video or slides, this will allow you to practice for a smooth presentation. Following are some general tips. Zoom also has a great getting started guide.

Even if you are not new to Zoom presentations, it is required that you set up walk-through with our Zoom coordinator on the Monday or Tuesday before your speaking date.

Contact: [email protected]

LOOKING YOUR BEST

Make sure you are in a well-lit area.
If needed use a stand, or stack of books to bring the camera to eye-level; thus you can ‘look’ directly at your audience during your presentation.
Do use a desktop or laptop computer that is stationary, rather than a hand-held device.
Select ‘Settings’ in the Zoom app and consider using a virtual background, or ‘Touch up my Appearance’ under ‘Video.’

SOUNDING YOUR BEST

As long as you have a decent internet connection, you will get the best quality audio experience by selecting ‘use my computer’ for audio. Here are a few tips:

First, make sure you are in a quiet area.
Use a pair of ear buds that work with your computer along with your computer microphone.
If you can’t be in a quiet area, consider a headset with microphone.
Use the dial-in number only for times when you don’t have easy access to a computer or a very poor internet connection.

TALKING DIRECTLY TO YOUR AUDIENCE

Look directly at your camera while speaking. This way your audience will feel more of a connection with you. One trick is to position the ‘active speaker’ window on your screen directly under the camera. This will make it more natural for your gaze to be directly into the camera.

PRESENT LIKE A PRO

There is a lot that goes into a presentation and it can be overwhelming when you first start. You will need to present your material, manage your participants, and monitor chat for questions and comments from your participants.

When you use full screen options for presenting or sharing videos this can be even more of a challenge. This is why we recommend a practice session if you are new to doing virtual presentation. After one or two run-throughs of your presentation using the on-screen tools you will find a way that works best for you. Following are a few of the tools you will want to understand and be able to comfortably manage during your presentation.

Display remote participants right below the laptop camera, allowing for ‘eye contact’ with your participants.
When you set up ‘sharing’ select the application window for the content you want to share instead of sharing your entire desktop.
You can also open multiple applications (browser, Word, etc) and choose ‘New Share’ to switch between the content (applications) without your screen layout changing.
During your presentation mute all your remote participants so you are not disturbed by their barking dogs or cell phones ringing.
Ask them to use chat for questions so you can monitor feedback throughout the session.
Your Zoom controls remain visible at all times on the bottom of your screen.

NEED HELP?

Sign up for a weekly live training from Zoom. And don’t stress. We are a fun group. Plus, with a little practice, you will be presenting like a pro in no time.