What is a webinar?
You have probably taken part in a webinar, as there is a multitude of them being organised daily on different topics. It is a strong marketing tool which gains ground all over the world, thank to the feature of accessibility it allows. The seminars have got into the virtual world, turning into interactive learning tools which overcome the geographical barriers, bringing together people who have mutual interests.
More than that, their success rate motivates the companies to appeal more often to these eLearning methods. But its success starts with its organisation. Before implementing it, in order for it to achieve its objectives, you should know that there are a few steps to be followed.
A marketing tool? An interactive learning method?
A proven fact is that, at present, the video format masters the virtual world. At least 50% of the online traffic is assured by the video content. It has become essential to appeal to a video as a marketing tool and the webinar concept has become an accessible solution for professional development. More than this, straight communication with the participants ease the attendance of the course and consolidates the message.
The seminars have shown this thing, and the webinars have become a good solution which involves a straight contact, offering even more facilities and reducing the costs. Webinars hosting becomes the gate of communication between the trainer and the trainee, irrespective of the geographical distance and allowing a bigger number of participants.
Another advantage would be the fact that the webinars have interactive, audio and video elements, which allow trainees to follow the presentation more easily. Interactive learning is what we should aim at if we want to deliver information that actually sticks with the learners on the long run.
If this sounds appealing to you, you might think of using this method for transmitting information. But, before implementing it, in order for it to achieve its objectives, you should know that there are a few steps to be followed.
Webinar development steps
1. Establish the objectives and necessities
Catching and maintaining the attention of the audience is a real challenge for every trainer. Of course, this implies a series of other goals to check, such as interactive learning, engaging content That?s why, when it comes to realising the presentation and the discourse you need to trace the main objectives of the webinar, in order to make sure that it’s an interactive learning form and to take into account the following aspects:
- Who?s the public?
- What?s the subject?
- How much time do you need to discuss the theme?
According to the analysis, the attention of the public can be lost after 2-3 hours and that?s why this time interval should be a landmark for the presentation.
2. Set the speakers panel
If there are more speakers involved, their management is really important. When there?s only one speaker, the situation is easily organised, but when there are more speakers there are a lot of factors to be taken into account and they influence the entire presentation.
This might be a difficult task for your and your team, but it is important that the schedule of the webinar contains all the details from the establishment of the subject to the order in which the speakers talk to the time in which each of them is allowed to speak.
3. Choose an online platform that fits your needs
Choose a platform which integrates into the same place all of the instruments which are necessary for organising a webinar, from a logistic point of view, and make sure that you have all the equipment which is necessary to transmit it.
An important factor in organising an interactive learning process in the form of a webinar is the audio and video quality. In order to obtain a good transmission, the organisation of a webinar includes the allocation of some professional technical resources and instruments (video camera, lights, sound, etc) and also a technical team who must control and maintain the script.
