Creative Webinars, Very Doable

Webinar overload? In the last month, I have been on three webinars and given two. Sitting in front of our computers with 1000 other things to do often leads to significant multi-tasking. It’s so easy to dis-engage from a webinar because we don’t see ourselves as active participants. A piece of feedback I received from one participant in one I gave last week is “this is the first webinar where I didn’t ‘zone out.’” So, what might have been different between the one I gave and the countless others this person has signed up for? Participation. How often do we log into a webinar to only be spoken to and shown static slides for an hour (or more)? If we are lucky, there is an open chat box where people can introduce themselves and if there are great people also on-line we can interact with the other participants (sometimes the BEST learning/collaboration takes place in that chat box!).

Every once in a while, a presenter uses a poll (maybe one or two) during the course of a webinar. My best webinar experiences have come when the software used allows for break-out rooms and participants are given time to tackle an issue together in small groups and then are brought back to the main conversation to share and process. So this is a technique I try to utilize each time the software allows for it. Consider – is there a way to capture information from the participants ahead of time that you can use in the conversation? For example, use a survey software for registration and ask additional questions of registrants related to your topic and use the data within the presentation.

This way, the webinar directly reflects the participants’ work and opinions. If there is a whiteboard where participants can mark-up a document or contribute to the creation of something, then use it. Showing movies, using audio clips, and embedding other multi-media tools all raises the quality of a webinar. Clearly, some of these techniques are reliant on the capabilities of the webinar software used, so be sure your organization has invested in the best they can. There isn’t a perfect formula, however, the more interactive you can make the webinar you are giving or hosting (just like any presentation), the better.