Traveling to a meeting from several miles away is something that can really eat into your schedule. You can never be too sure whether or not you’ll make it on time, and whether you’ll be focused enough to pay attention all the way through. Until a few years ago, students, workers and bosses who needed to attend seminars had to do so in person, but technology has changed all that and good new is that technologies for web-based seminars are improving with time and there are now better and efficient ways to conduct online seminars.
Thanks to the creation of video conferencing, people have been able to attend meetings, seminars, workshops and even talk to their friends remotely without having to leave their home and spend time on travel which could go elsewhere. One of the major uses for video conferencing technology is for so-called ‘webinars’, which are seminars that are hosted on the web.
Spreading ideas
For businesses who want to be seen as experts within their industry, universities, medical colleges and individuals hoping to impart advice on issues they specialise in, webinars are a useful and inexpensive way to get their ideas across. Planning a webinar is something that’s impossible to do without video conferencing technology, but if you have it, you can do it!
As suggested on this blog, integration of web conferencing technology can make arranging a webinar easy, but what else is needed for conducting a successful web seminar. You will need:
- A webcam
- A speedy internet connection that minimises delays
- A setting where there’s little or no background noise
- A microphone
- A large monitor so that you’re able to see who’s watching your webinar
Getting started with your webinar
Once you have all the necessary kit to start a webinar, you should take the following steps in order to host a successful one:
- Get people to help run it – someone to publicize it via social media and other sites, someone to set all the technology up and someone to present and speak about your chosen topic. You can also get your speakers or presenters to share it with their audience, chances are that their followers will register for it.
- Choose the format – it could be a lecture, an interview, a panel or even something interactive to get your audience talking and sharing with each other.
- Choose visuals – slides, pictures, and information on the webinar and subject matter. Engage your audience with great visual information to get their attention throughout the presentation.
- Draw up an agenda and stick to it as closely as possible. You can share the agenda with registered attendees.
- Do a dry run – this will make the webinar itself more comfortable. You need to be adequately prepared to make a better presentation of your webinar.
As soon as all this is sorted, you can feel confident in knowing you can arrange a webinar at any time with everything in place. As communications firm Powwownow commented:
“Webinars are extremely cost-effective in getting ideas across and connecting with customers. With video conferencing technology, they can be set up in next to no time.”
