I feel exactly that way. Plus MUCH more fun to do a morning keynote talk in London when you're actually IN London than sitting at your dining table at 3am in CA 😄 But your point about audience is key. I love to see, connect, interact with audience 1/
Have heard some people advise a speaker to "look over heads of audience" to avoid being nervous. That would terrify me. Much more comfortable & more engaging to look into their faces - it becomes a conversation. And as speaker, you learn something 2/2
In the very first year of the pandemic at the @innersource.bsky.social we let speakers record their talk, play it back at the conference and invite speakers and attendees to join in a shared slack channel to discuss live. The discussions there were awesome.
Another format I liked was panels and fishbowl sessions where others would switch camera on if they wanted to participate in the moderated conversation.