Setting the stage for your webinar or training
Whether you are running a training or a live webinar you can greatly increase your success with staging your needs from your audience up front. Many attendees feel frustrated when they do not know what is expected of them and how to use the interface. Make the instructions simple so the attendees can easily understand and follow. I always start with the topic and welcome them to the session. When I explain the instructions for how to ask questions in the session it is always a great idea to have a slide with visuals. The visuals must be up to date and mimic exactly what they will use. This way they can find it easily. When this is done correctly the attendees will not be dismayed by finding inconsistencies in your instruction and interface. They can concentrate on asking questions and this will give your presenters or trainers more questions to answer and lead to a meaningful discussion. If you need your learners to ask questions live on audio, give them instruction on how to do that at the start and even when you start your Q&A session throughout your training or webinars.
When you have a session where you want to get interaction throughout, make it point to get them interacting right out of the gate. This way. your attendees get used to interacting and they don’t become an attendee that will be lost in the crowd. Sometimes attendees are just shy and will not interact. By showing them, it is okay to interact at the start, they will feel more confident about working with you and asking questions. I have seen large webinars that have no questions at the start and then when the first person asks a question, the Q&A exploded with about 250 questions by the time we were done.
Worth a read: Communication Skills for Millennials and GenZ
The key to all this is to make the attendees feel comfortable. They should be comfortable being on the call and interacting with you. This is the key to a great experience for you and the learners. If you can set the mood at the start the attendees may forget they are on a live webinar or training and will treat it like a conversation and then you will get them to express questions that they really want to know the answers to.
For more information on all your webinar needs please contact us at: info@everythingwebinar.com
