Top 10 tips for running a Webinar

cc: http://lanielane.net/page/6/

Having run quite a few webinars / Virtual Classrooms over the last few months, I thought it was time to share a few tips on delivering / presenting a session:

1. Prepare ahead: Have your slides ready, and a storyboard of what you are going to ‘show’ and discuss, and do a trail run with a colleague.

2. Send out joining instructions at least a day prior to the event. This gives attendees a chance to check their settings work with the application you are using. 

3. Prepare a holding slide – giving instructions / a map of the room – for attendees to read whilst waiting for the session to begin. 

4. Always begin on time. Ask attendees to turn up at least 5 mins prior to the start of the session, in order to allow for delays logging on, etc. 

5. Rope in a colleague to act as facilitator – to help answer any questions in the chat area. This allows you to continue your ‘broadcast’ without interruption. I let attendees know they can ask questions via chat, and that if they want me to stop speaking and answer them directly, then they can use the ‘raise hand’ tool to get my attn. 

CC (modified) Attributed to J D Hancock 

6. Think about your voice and delivery: Try to keep the delivery upbeat (think radio show host, sans cheese!). This will help retain attention. Relax, and try to inject some humour and personality a little, to avoid the ‘drone syndrome’ (hope that’s not an actual syndrome as I just made that up!) 

7. Split the content up a little: I like to have 3 or 4 sections, in which I show my screen (app share) and then a few slides to recap, finishing with a mini quiz/poll (which again, helps hold attention). 

8. Log in on a separate computer/laptop as an attendee/learner: this allows you to see the ‘learner view’, and will alert you to any issues with app sharing, slides, etc. 

9. Bite-size works best. Try to be informative and clear, but succinct. Ideally 1hr- 1.5hrs seems to be ample, in my humble opinion, for synchronous (live) virtual classroom sessions. 

10. And finally…enjoy the session: it will show in your voice and will help people feel more at ease.

Webinars / Virtual Classroom sessions are a fantastic way to deliver training - in an accessible way.  In my experience so far, people appear to feel more at ease asking questions via text chat, than in a face to face environment (though this has yet to be scientifically qualified, of course!)

Leiza