Hosting a Successful Webinar (3 of 5): Optimal Experience

This is post 3 of 5 in this week’s series: Hosting a Successful Webinar

There is nothing worse that attending a webinar that is fraught with technical issues and annoyances. I will go into a few of the webinar technology options in a later post, but whatever platform you use, make sure you know how to use the system and have practiced enough to make your presentation exceptional.

This might go without saying, but make sure to set a clear agenda for the webinar. Make sure to have a short (2 minute) introduction, ideally about 30 minutes of content (most people can’t take more than that) and leave room for questions. We’ll cover this more in the Discussions and FAQs post, but it is good to break up the content with stops for questions. This can extend the content delivery from 30 minutes to 45 quickly, so make sure to have a moderator that can help consolidate questions and keep the presentation moving on track.

Here are a few check-list items to consider before your event starts:

• Do a dry-run with a few internal people (or neighbors/family) to double-check the process. This exercise will help you experience exactly what your attendees will go through and is a vital step.
• Make sure you can be heard clearly and that there aren’t any extraneous noises (a loud clock, a hum from a fan, a neighbor playing their music too loud).
• If you are co-sponsoring with another speaker, make sure they are involved in the dry run.
• Make sure anyone who is participating knows how to use the system!
• Double-check any slides or presentation materials to make sure they are spell-checked and flow nicely with your agenda.

What did I miss? Hit up the comments with any other suggestions you might have.

See previous posts in this series:

• Captivating Content
• Word-of-Mouth Magic