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The fine folks at iLinc asked if I would contribute a guest submission to the iLinc Blog and suggested a post about “10 Things Not To Do In Your Next Online Meeting.” I was amused by their choice, as a magazine editor recently asked for my help with almost the same topic. There must be a lot of people doing things wrong when holding web conferences!

Since I’m not supported by David Letterman’s writing staff I don’t know if I can come up with a true Top Ten list, but here are some examples of problem areas I often see in my Webinar Success client engagements.

1. Don’t wing it. It doesn’t matter if you are holding a team meeting, a formal instructional class, or a public webinar. Know what you are going to say and have some notes available to help you remember your key points.
2. Don’t run over time. Respect the busy schedules of your meeting participants. Proper planning, event management, and advanced practice can help you stay on the clock.
3. Don’t forget your audience. Keep your presentation conversational and bring your audience into the discussion. This can be as simple as mentioning participants by first name as you present information or using phrasings such as “you can” instead of “one can” or “our customers can.
4. Don’t treat your audience as lab rats. Interactive polls can be useful in fostering a sense of community and participation. But not if you ask your audience to fill out surveys that only benefit you and your tracking needs. If a participant is asked to contribute, you should be able to tell them why doing so benefits them and their self-interests.
5. Don’t overlook the importance of your voice. Your voice is the lifeline that builds and maintains a sense of connection with your virtual attendees. If you stop talking, they get nervous. If you speak too softly, they get annoyed. If you use an unvarying monotone, they fall asleep. Speaking on a web seminar is something like being a radio talk show host. It takes a different style than normal conversation.
6. Don’t ask for verbal consensus. One of the silliest phrases I hear from speakers (and I hear it almost weekly) is “Can everyone hear me?” If they can’t hear you, the question is meaningless. If they can, do you want everyone trying to talk over each other on the telephone line to tell you so? If you need to get group consensus, use your web conferencing features to get poll results or audience feedback.I’m sorry, but this is just too darned negative to continue in the same vein! I feel like the evil headmaster in a Dickens novel. Let’s shake it up and talk about what you can do on a positive note to make your meetings work better.
7. Tell your audience what is happening during pauses. This is particularly important during live software demonstrations. If something is taking a while to respond, you can fill the gap by describing what will happen next. Or just tell your listeners that there is a brief pause while the system refreshes. If you are holding a team meeting with people in a conference room and others online, talk your remote audience through little in-room discussions or note gathering so they feel like they are a part of the process.
8. Slow down your demo actions. When showing off live interactions on the computer in an application sharing mode, tell the audience when you are about to click something. Tell them where to look for a change in a value or a display based on your action. Stop for a moment when displaying a dropdown menu before making your selection. This lets the audience continually resynchronize, both technically with their computer display updates and mentally with their focus on what you are doing.
9. Have a disaster plan in place. Print a hardcopy of your slides and have an event moderator or assistant on the conference ready to take over if your computer develops problems. Your assistant should be on a separate network if possible, so they can push the slides for you even if your entire office network drops. If giving a live demo, you may want to have an alternate computer logged in to the conference with the demo up and running as a backup to use if your primary computer or application freezes up.
10. Force yourself to think like your attendees. From the title of your session, to your content materials, to your polls and surveys, to your presentation style itself, it is important to consciously shift your viewpoint from “What do I want to say?” to “What do they want to hear?” Appeal to your audience’s interests, their level of knowledge, their responsibilities, and their opportunities for gain. A wonderful message is useless if nobody hears it.

Well, what do you know? I was able to come up with a Top Ten list after all. I hope these brief snippets will stimulate your thinking on the subject and help you to search out areas where you might be able to improve your own online meetings. You’ll be rewarded with more engaged audiences and better response to your subject matter. May your next web conference be your best ever. — Ken Molay

Posted under Industry Buzz, Web Conferencing