Unlike attendees at a corporate meeting, the remote attendees to your virtual meeting are not a captive audience. Your job is to get them to focus on a small screen for a length of time. But you must keep in mind that not only are people not accustomed to watching a computer like they watch a TV, often the quality of what is broadcast via computer is slow and low, making it difficult to focus. If a virtual meeting is not engaging, a viewer’s attention is more likely to wane when the phone rings. How then can you get their attention and keep it?

1. Keep it short. Streaming media lends itself to a direct and uncomplicated delivery style. The ideal range for streaming video content is between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Longer items should be split into smaller units. For example, choose 5 items of 2 minutes each rather than a long 10-minute segment.

2. Keep it active. Show action whenever possible. Go behind the scenes, show field trials, on-site customer reactions or profiles of key staff at work.

3. Keep it real . Streaming media is a very credible medium. Some have called it 'Reality PC'. Use it to your advantage by streaming reality, such as the executive’s keynote address or the scientist in the lab.

4. Keep it engaging. Crisp design, contrasting colors and lack of clutter will make a Webcast easier to view. Give viewers material to read, like speakers' bios, white papers, and links to related Web sites.

5. Keep it interactive. Virtual meetings can actually be more interactive than an on-site meeting of 1,000 attendees. Take advantage of this opportunity by conducting Q&A, polling, or just asking what they think.