Enjoy this post from WebAttract’s Managing Principal & Executive Webinar Producer Mike Agron

Dos and Don’ts Affecting the Planning Around Logistics, Human Factors and Technology Dos

1. Before you go live, always plan to have at least 2 dry runs with the moderator and the other speakers. This is the opportunity to build the trust and understanding of what’s expected on webinar day.

2. During these meetings, discuss how much time each speaker will have, what they’ll cover and will tell the audience. Ask why will the audience care and what is the call to action? Even the most skilled panelists get so excited about their topic they forget to tell the audience what to do next!

3. Webinar audience love multiple voices and even if there is only 1 other speaker, adding a moderator to the mix helps to keep the audience engaged.

4. Determine if they will use a landline or VoIP, type of device, and where will they physically be on webinar day? If you know this in advance, and plan for it, you can avert a potential disaster on webinar day.

5. During each dry run, do a quick sound check on each speaker; make sure that their voice isn’t too loud or too soft. Most speakers are too soft, so encourage them to speak in their best broadcast voice.

6. On webinar day, a final sound check and pre-game warm up where all of the speakers and moderator “meet” is a must and needs to be on everyone’s calendar weeks in advance. Do this one hour in advance of the actual webinar start time. Better to have an extra 15-20 minutes to spare than getting everyone stressed out prior to showtime.

7. Always start on time and end on time. Your audience will appreciate you that you respect their time.

8. The moderator welcomes the audience, quickly gets off the first slide, sets the stage on what to expect, does a brief bit of housekeeping on how to ask a question, vote in a poll, reminds them a copy of the webinar is being recorded, and keeps the webinar panelists moving on track.

9. When the moderator sees live questions are coming in, they will tell the audience, and assures them they are in the cue for Q&A, or spontaneously tosses one out to the panel.

10. At the conclusion of the discussion and right before Q/A, the moderator wraps up with some next steps to help the audience get started, including how to get more information and thanks the speakers and of course the audience for their attention.

Some Don’ts…

1. Don’t try to wing it and not rehearse or practice. If a speaker rambles and ends up taking even a few minutes more, it will impact the other speakers, who might end up sounding rushed and the audience will sense that the panel sounds unprepared and will lose interest in the webinar.

2. Resist having the moderator try to manage more than 3 speakers, especially for a one hour webinar.

3. Discourage the speakers from reading their slides or they’ll sound scripted as that will also turn off an audience.

4. Manage a speaker who starts overtly selling by encouraging them during the dry runs to provide information based on their experiences and lessons learned, if they keep trying to sell, lovingly work to get them back on track by having them focus on their key messages.

5. Don’t use speakerphones, mobile phones, wireless devices or an open microphone and speakers on their PC or Mac. Speakerphones are not as warm and cause an additional barrier between the speaker and the audience making them sound distant and hard to hear, the other devices are to be avoided as all of them will risk bringing a great webinar to its knees with a myriad of audio problems from a tinny sound, dropped connection, to an uncontrollable echo.

6.If there is a technical glitch, such as losing of one of the speakers on air, (be calm as there should be a behind the scenes webinar producer who will manage this) a skilled the moderator will improvise and keep the webinar moving on, including going to another panelist while the problem is being fixed.

7. Don’t forget to have fun, this is a live show, the internet can throw some curves, but a well delivered webinar is about connection, not perfection.

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