From a recent webinar, Bryan L. asked, “Should the presenter deliver the audio standing up to help resonance rather than sitting?”

Bryan, I stand up.  I love the energy, and truth be told, if you were in my office you’d see me waving my arms and walking around.

Here are a few things to think about:

How much contact do you need with your web conferencing system via the computer?

I purposefully have simple slides with one idea each, so I don’t use, for instance, annotation tools except in rare circumstances (e.g., demonstrating them).

I also am platform-agnostic.  My company is purely in the education business and we don’t sell web/audio/video conferencing or services, so I’ve adapted to be prepared for whatever conferencing platform my client is providing.  This doesn’t mean I don’t tackle platform-specific tactics when I’m working with a client privately, but in a public webinar like the one you attended I plan content to be applicable to the most people in the audience, regardless of what conferencing solution they’re using.  Takeaway:  I don’t spend as much time using/demonstrating “hand-up” or other features that they may or may not have.

It also depends on the type of session you’re delivering.  A broader lead-generation webinar often doesn’t require the same hands-on types of exercises you might use in a training session where you’re teaching managers a new software application.

What’s your office setup?

Me, I walk away from the computer, come back, push the next slide button (frequently!), and then when I do need to do something hands-on, I sit down.  Then I’ll stand up again.  While I don’t have a raised surface in my office now, when I was at Microsoft I had one section of my cube desk raised so I could stand at it…it was the best setup I’ve had.  If you can do this, it might be the best of both worlds

Finally, if you do sit down, what’s your posture? A few tips:

Sit up straight. It’s basic, but it’s important to letting your lungs/diaphragm/voice do the best they can do.

Put your feet flat on the floor – apart. Don’t cross your legs…it contributes to a constricting “closed” posture and generally tightens you up.

Breathe. As I often quip, we can’t change the voices we were born with, but we can change how well we use what we were born with.  See this post for more on this and a few other pre-conference tips.

Want optimum energy?  Stand up when you present at webinars.

Odd, but true…it’s the third annual survey of usage of web conferencing in Australia and New Zealand.

Like other surveys of 1080 Group’s, this is a ‘share and learn’ opportunity.

Please take about four minutes to share, and you will get pre-release access to the resulting paper and recommendations.

Thanks!

It’s one thing to get someone to your webinar…and it’s another to keep them there, engaged enough to “get” your key messages.  After all, if they’re only there from the neck down, you’ve lost part of the battle.

Speakers:

Roger Courville, 1080 Group
Jackie Fast, Direct Marketing Association

Attend this live, interactive Webinar to learn:

• How to host a rehearsal optimised for busy professionals
• What to uniquely promote to improve registration rates
• Three simple ways to turn presenters into stars
• What you MUST have to get audience members on the edge of their seats

For many of us who live around technology it’s sometimes easy to forget that not everybody has “all the goodies.”  It wasn’t that long ago when a prospective customer mentioned to me that she still had people dialing in on rotary phones.

So this recent question from Mandy R. in Australia is yet another good reminder: 

“What do you recommend for slow internet connections & low technology delegates?”

Mandy,

Rule number one is always, “know your audience.”  Congratulations, you passed the test!

There are two key questions you should explore.  One, what technology/ies should you look for?  Two, what do you do once you’re “in the room”? (Or, if the technology has already been chosen for you, you’re going to focus on the second.)

Technology choices

I don’t recommend specific technologies in a broad, sweeping way.  That doesn’t mean I won’t help a client do an deep-dive needs analysis, develop and RFP, and shorten their search list, but there are too many factors that go into a relationship for me to say “this is best” or “this isn’t.”  For instance, to many, a great account relationship or billing terms or something else is a driver in making a choice that goes beyond technology.

Bandwidth is certainly still a challenge for many.  BIG recommendation:  I’d plan for the person in the audience with the worst connectivity.  It’s the safe shot.  Mary, you didn’t mention whether you have internal or external audiences (e.g., employee training or prospect/customer webinars), but I’d remember that “less, working” is much better than “more, but doesn’t always work.”  Remember, too, that how well the internet works itself is a variable – and one you have no way of predicting (I’ll spare you the gory details, but trust me).

Things to consider:  What is the bandwidth for a connection?  Does it adapt to the connection speed of the participant?  Does bandwidth/throughput change if the size of the audience changes?  How does use of audio (voice over IP) or video affect it?  Is there an option to have participants dial in on a telephone bridge if they’re experiencing difficulty?

Usability choices

“Low technology delegates” are common, and it’s easy to forget to look at things through their eyes.  Seriously, a poll is OBVIOUS to you, but is it to them?  I still present at webinars where, when a poll is presented to the audience, some attendees type their answer into the questions panel.

Things to consider:  This is a huge, huge subject.  My recommendation is to, as best you can, put yourself in the shoes of your invitee and literally walk through the experience click by click by click.  What do they see in an invitation?  On the registration page?  Is it obvious how to join? How to install a plug-in/add-on if necessary?  Where to find the volume control or “hand up” button?

One quick side note:  every week I see webinar producers using tools that are wrong for the job.  More specifically, they use a conferencing platform designed for meetings to deliver a broader webinar presentation or training session.  The problem is that the little differences in how those are configured make a big difference in usability.  Recommendation:  don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish.  Get the right tools for the job…especially if you need to help our your “low technology delegates.”

Mandy, it’s a long blog post, but it’s a short answer to an important subject.  Thanks for a good question.  Knowing how to ask the right question is half the battle, and I think you’re going to do well.

There are SO many forms of social media it’s tough to count and categorize them all, but Twitter is particularly powerful for connecting with prospects and customers.  This webinar will be diving into what we’ve learned about the intersection of social media with webinars.

Attend this live webinar to learn:

• The optimum way to generate leads with Twitter – and 3 critical mistakes to avoid
• How to create Webinar headlines that go viral
• What to do to create buzz and conversation during your Webinar
• And more…

Just this weekend I got an unsolicited email from a fan:

“I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for that fabulous webinar.  It made my first webinar extremely successful.  I traveled to several schools that attended my first webinar and was greeted by staff members who told me they didn’t look forward to my 90 minute webinar because they had attended several boring ones during the course of the school year but were excited to meet me in person to tell me how engaging mine was.  I have only you to thank.  I took the advice you gave us on that webinar, watched the “rerun” more than once and then started planning mine.  Thanks so much for your expertise, for your blog and for your book.  I look forward to reading your next one!”

I trust that this says more than I could have said about myself.  I’d be remiss if you didn’t take your own webinars to the next level.

Join me?

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:
• Leverage the differences between virtual and in-person presentations
• Adapt your presentation for webinar delivery
• Apply the 3 foundational elements of visual thinking
• Create a presentation that engages your virtual audience
• Deliver a memorable experience for your attendees that leaves them wanting more from you

As an added bonus, the first 50 registrants receive Roger’s virtual presenter checklist

One of the things you’ll never hear come out of the mouth of me or my team is that webinars should replace all face-to-face training.  That’s stupid.

BUT…if you’re not executing part of your training program in live webinars, you’re likely missing out.

Attend this live webinar to learn:
•    How to apply instructional design to the unique characteristics of live online training
•    How to “make eye contact” in a virtual training environment
•    3 ways you can immediately engage multitasking learners
•    4 common Webinar mistakes and how to avoid them

If you’ve heard me speak, you’ve probably heard me say that I think every form of communicating has its valid and rightful place in the mix – and that in-person sessions are still valid.

I’ll be in Australia in October deliver three-hour masterclasses that are both face-to-face AND participants are invited to bring their laptops to have a hands-on session – using conferencing – while in the F2F session!  THIS is going to be fun.

Learn more here.

Another good question from a recent webinar:  Arpad P. asked

What if your content is experiential..how can you get that across?

Arpad, I think it depends on “experiential.”

The medium affects how the communication happens, right?  It affects how we communicate to our audience and vice versa.  And frankly, some experiences don’t translate well into webinars.

The most obvious failure would be any form of tactile manipulation.  You can’t take a motor apart and put it back together online.

But you might be able to teach some of the concepts about taking it apart and reassembling it.

You could break the audience up into smaller discussion groups, give them each a problem, and ask them to come back to share their ideas.

Here are (briefly) the five steps I recommend:

1.  Get clear on your goal/outcomes

2.  Think through the communications and behaviors you’d normally walk your audience through and evaluate your tradeoffs

3.  Design an initial map/design of those communications and behaviors to the web conferencing solution tools/options you have (or are considering sourcing)

4.  Develop your content (storyboards, graphics, et al)

5.  Implement and evaluate

Note that depending on the scope of your project or presentation, evaluation might be as simple as an end-of-event survey or as complex as an organizational return-on-investment analysis.

Finally, one thought on “evaluating your tradeoffs.”  It’s most common for people to instantly get what they “lose” relative to presenting in person, but there are also many gains that go beyond just saving a plane ticket.  It’s not a ‘right or wrong,’ but because nothing is ever perfect, you’re always weight cost-benefit.  Just don’t sell yourself short by not fully evaluating all your tradeoffs.

In a recent webinar (web seminar!) I spoke at, Nicole S. asked,

“Do you differ a webinar from an online presentation?”

Fair question, Nicole.

The bad news is that often words get muddy in terms of how they’re used day to day by people.  Here’s how I’d make the distinction:

A webinar – web seminar – is one of those really muddy words that people have used to mean anything audio/video on the web, live or on-demand.

To me, the key here is “seminar,” which is historically an academic setting.  It’s educational.  Not to be too anal, but the word “educate” comes from the Latin meaning “to draw out.”  Any educator or trainer will tell you that you’ll be more effective in a live setting when you seek to interact and guide the learning process.  In other words, you don’t just talk AT people, you talk WITH them.

An online presentation arguably is just that.  Slideshare and related sites have become popular repositories for on demand versions, and every day people make presentations (online and off) for reasons other than educational (i.e., sales presentations, product demonstrations, etc.).

By my definition, an audio/video recording then might be an online presentation, but a webinar/web seminar would be a live activity.