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When I was on my first teaching practice, I planned interesting, exciting activities for the class. However, when I was actually in front of the children, I abandoned the plans in favour of safe activities I knew would keep them ‘busy’. The lessons were fine, the children learned but it …

In this first ever episode of The Webinar Show I talk to Mike Agron from Web Attract about his approach to Webinars. He kindly shares a huge amount of detail about his Webinar methodology including explaining what he calls the ‘Webinar Life Cycle’ which is split up into 5 ‘Acts’. …

Recently, I saw some new trial e-learning materials by a company. They were fine but I couldn’t help thinking – what’s the audience and purpose of these? They were essentially a cut-down version of one of the main products sold by the company. I suppose the intention was to use them …

If you use a webcam for your Webinars, it can add a great personal touch as your audience can see the presenter, host or even in some cases, other participants. It’s as close as you can get to a face-to-face meeting, especially with today’s cheap HD cameras and Webinar software …

This tip is from Cliff Ravenscraft of podcastanswerman.com who got it from a public speaking course he attended. I always try to follow this general approach when I plan Webinar Quick Tips. A lack of structure in presentations usually makes them less successful than they could be. The presenter can …

I was hosting a Webinar some time ago in which the audience were all from countries where English is not the first language. All attendees spoke excellent English, however. For the digital ice-breaker, I used the traditional world map. I asked the participants to add their pointer to indicate where …

When I started using Webinar software back in 2001, I taught children who were isolated at home because of medical needs and we always recorded the sessions so that the children who were unable to attend could watch the recording later and catch up on what they had missed. It …

In an attempt to drive adoption, many people – particularly managers – have been given the wrong idea about Webinars and web conferencing technology. Of course, web based meetings are ‘greener’ than face-to-face ones and can reach audiences it would not be possible to reach any other way. There are …

If you are using Webinars, then I’m sure you want to make a personal connection with your audience – otherwise why not just send a video or a pdf out to your mailing list? However, how can you make this personal connection most effectively when you are using a webcam …

It may come as a shock to you, as it did to me, but you might not be the only person in your organisation who can host Webinars. That’s clearly a joke but just because you do host most or all of the Webinars for your organisation doesn’t mean that …

What do you think is the most important aspect of a Webinar? Getting attendees to join? A spectacular video? An inspiring, big name presenter? Considering the audience? Defining the purpose? Preparing fully? Using your great hosting skills? Actually, all those are useless if the audience can’t hear what’s going on. …

‘Word of mouth’ has never been more important than now – in the age of Social Media. However much we spend on promoting our webinars, a simple recommendation from an influential person on social media is definitely worth more. We can spend hours being social, being careful not to be …

I don’t know about you, but when I see invitations to Webinars with a duration of 2 hours, it makes me shudder. I think it’s important to put yourself in the position of the audience. Just think what it’s like to sit for 2 hours holding a phone to your …

If you have ever been a teacher like me, you’ll know the importance of setting ground rules. Without them, children in a class don’t know what the boundaries are, misunderstand expectations and experience a lack of structure so things can get out of control quickly. When I first taught children using …

Every time we run a session,  face-to-face or online, we need to know how it’s gone so we can improve. In Webinars, it’s all about learning from feedback how to improve our use of tools or hosting techniques to better serve our audience and the purpose of the session. I spoke …

I’m not really a marketing professional (I’m an educationalist and an E-learning specialist) but I know what stimulates my interest when I see it. So I’m always very interested in seeing promotional webpages, status updates, tweets or advertisements for Webinars. I’ve seen a variety of approaches being used. Some are very …

I’m a visual learner. Recently, I wanted to learn how to solder so I could plumb my satellite TV signal up to my bedroom from the digibox downstairs. So I searched for YouTube videos on basic soldering. When I was young, I used to watch the UK weekly pop programme, …

Aim to keep things simple but check and check again to make sure you’ve got what you need to actually run the Webinar! Here’s another time I almost created a disaster! I was set to broadcast from a live event with the minimum possible set up. It was just going to …

It’s obvious but the more complicated your Webinar set up, the more things there are to go wrong. It’s a bit like the difference between conducting a huge, amateur symphony orchestra and beating time for someone playing twinkle twinkle little star on a recorder. Conducting music is similar to hosting …

Have you ever put time aside really to explore your Webinar software? You might be amazed what you can find. Some Webinar systems have very complicated websites where  sessions are scheduled and set up. It can be easy to stick to the basic tools for fear of breaking anything, particularly if …