2. How to use the technology and Zoom

You need four things to successfully conduct a business presentation with Zoom:

1.  The PDF file of ENERGETIX’s business presentation

2.  A webcam and a headset (not absolutely necessary, but professional)

3.  A Zoom pro account with the most important settings

4.  The skills required to create and hold meetings

3. A Zoom pro account with the most important settings

Zoom is currently regarded as the best and most stable video-conferencing software.
Create a user account at www.zoom.us under ‘Sign up, it’s free’.

Follow the instructions provided by Zoom. You’ll be creating a so-called standard account. The performances provided with standard accounts are, however, very limited because meetings are then limited to only 40 minutes for meetings with more than two participants.

You can access your profile by clicking the “My account” button in the top right corner on the zoom page.

There’s one more important setting that needs to be made:

Under Account management > Account settings > Phone:

A US number is stored as the default here but this would be very expensive for participants who dial in using a phone rather than computer audio. They’d be using a number in the USA to dial in here. That’s why you should set the countries in which your potential participants are based here.

4. Skills for creating and holding meetings

Lots of things basically explain themselves here and we’re not going to set out everything step by step – we only want to point out the most important aspects.

You’ll also find help on Zoom’s page or find the answers to most of your questions on the internet should you need more help here. Relevant forums and YouTube videos are often helpful in this regard.

You should keep the following points in mind when creating meetings:

• The meeting name should be unique: e.g. ‘ENERGETIX business presentation on…’.
• Enter the date and time.
• Check the ‘Registration required’ box: the invited persons will then be able to register in advance using their email addresses; they’ll be sent an email with the access details. That’s how you can keep track of who has registered for your business presentation.
• Select the host and the participants using the ‘Video’ item, you can turn on your camera during the presentation and your participants should decide for themselves whether they want to share their video image.
• Select ‘Both’ under ‘Audio’. It’s a good idea at this point to check again that the correct countries have been set for dialing in.
• Check the ‘Mute participants when joining’ box in the ‘Meeting options’.
• Enter a ‘Supporter’ as an alternative host if necessary. You’ll find out more about this later.

A new ‘Zoom meeting’ window will open as soon as you start your meeting.

The control panel at the bottom of the screen will allow you to share your screen, to unmute your mutes and those of your participants, share your webcam image and a number of other settings. We’ll be going into these in more detail in a moment.

Here are a few information about the individual control elements:

You can deactivate or activate your own mute by clicking the microphone. Clicking the arrow next to it allows you to edit and test your audio settings.

Clicking the camera allows you to activate or deactivate your webcam. Clicking the arrow next to it allows you to select your camera and make additional settings.

Clicking security allows you to make important settings. You should only allow participants to join the chat.

Clicking ‘Participants’ allows you to mute or unmute all or individual participants. You can also invite them to share their camera image.

Clicking ‘New share’ allows you to share your screen or a document for viewing. Share the PDF file of the business presentation in full-screen mode to present the business presentation. Switch to the video window to show a video. Please note here that the points at the bottom of the ‘Share’ window need to be checked:

Click the pause icon to stop sharing when you want to switch between two windows, the picture for the participant will then remain on the last shared image.

Please remember that the participant will not see what you are doing, for example, in the buttons when you’re sharing a window. They will, however, see black boxes for the buttons. So it’s best to drag them to a lower corner of the screen and, for example, close the ‘Participants’ field if you do not need it.

You can also share your screen. But that would only be useful if you’re using two screens as the participant would be able to see everything you’re doing on the screen that’s being shared.

There are a few more functions under ‘More’.
This is where it’s possible to open the chat window and you can set whether you want to record the presentation and so on.

Now take a look at the following pages to see what your Zoom business presentation could look like.