This is the second part of a four-part series on how to deliver a successful webinar. The first post in this series gave tips for managing the online event planning phase. Now, this post will focus on the configuration phase, in which you ensure that your web and audio components are set up correctly. At this point, you will also want to initiate your content development process and determine how you will message around the event.
Virtual Environment
At this stage of the game, you will want to set up your webinar technology in a way that will produce the most successful event. Since the user experience is such an important part of hosting a webinar, it’s very important to ensure that all of your technical settings are correct. Depending on the technology you are using to power your webinars, some of the settings you will need to examine include:
- How far in advance of the event start time attendees will be allowed to join
- What the automated registration process should look like
- Who the leaders and assistants will be
- Whether the settings for your audio (e.g., audio bridge; internet audio; etc.) are configured correctly
Content
At this stage in the webinar process, you will want to start thinking about what content your presenters will be sharing with their virtual audience. Will they be using a PowerPoint presentation, navigating to websites, conducting polls and surveys, or some combination of all of these?
Webinar Messaging
You will also want to determine how your pre- and post-event emails will be distributed, as well as what the invitations and confirmations will look like. Don’t forget to include the login and audio information with any confirmation email you send!
Once you have configured your settings correctly and determined your content and messaging, you are well on your way to a successful webinar. The next step is execution, which we will cover in our next post on webinar best practices.
Posted under Audio Conferencing, Web Conferencing
This post was written by Christine Olivas on March 3, 2009
