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Webinar Technology Tips

In January 2008 I finished the first series of Win Without Pitching webinars. It was a bit of an experiment for me and all-in-all I’m happy about the results and eager to apply what I’ve learned in the next series, scheduled for May and June.

Earlier this month at the ReCourses New Business Summit in Nashville I did a break-out session on  using speaking and seminars to demonstrate thought leadership and generate leads. In that session I was surprised at how many people were using or considering webinars. Many asked about my experience with the technical aspects of the medium, so I thought I would post them here.

Software

Options abound. Webex was the first, but many, many others have followed, and all have their strengths and weaknesses. I settled on Adobe Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze). It’s got one huge advantage over everything else in that it is Flash-based and therefore requires no software downloads for participants. It has some shortcomings in a back-end that is at times not very intuitive, and some of the documentation is left over from the Breeze days but from participants’ perspective it is the easiest to use.

Most webinars I’ve participated in as a viewer have had some level of technical difficulty experienced by viewers. Not with Adobe Acrobat Connect. It is the easiest for your customers to use, and therefore for me the hands-down choice. I have been told (but not experienced for myself) that running Connect (as a host or presenter) on the early versions of Leopard  can be problematic. I ran meetings on a Windows machine and a Mac (Tiger) machine with no problems.

Connect offers various licenses depending on your use, including a pay-per-use one.

Audio

Adobe Connect uses VOIP or it ties together nicely with a third-party conference calling solution, Premiere Global. I’ve used both and prefer the third party solution. Why? In my first webinar I lost my Internet connection (I live in the middle of nowhere and am prone to losing my connection from time to time), so while the visual portion of the event was down for 10 minutes, I could forge ahead with non-VOIP audio. The VOIP worked great for me when I used it, but I’m glad to have the security of an old-fashioned phone line.

Uploading Files

With Connect you can share files such as a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation by uploading it ahead of time (it uses Flash Paper to convert your file to Flash), or you can simply share your desktop or application live. The drawback to uploading is large files (video, hi res images) take a long time to upload and convert, but once uploaded they handle seamlessly. Resist the temptation to just share your desktop or an application, especially if you are using live video – it will slow your machine down and make the otherwise pretty good video quality look jerky.

Tech vs. Talent

It’s difficult to wear more than one hat. If you’re presenting in the web broadcast it’s better to have someone else handling the technology. I handled both myself and learned some valuable lessons. It’s fine if you are well rehearsed and not dealing with too many visual variables, but once you are on camera you’ll need to have someone else manning the controls.

Presenting to Nobody

Be warned, the first time you present via the web you will be discombobulated from the lack of feedback. You know your audience is out there, but you cannot see them or hear them (you should have their phones muted). You don’t know if people are laughing or smiling when they are supposed to, or even if they can hear you. It’s presenting in a void. After the first time it’s not an issue, but it takes the first one to get used to it. I was warned ahead of time but it was still weird. 

Q&A

I mentioned above that you should have phones muted while presenting. (You have this option through any third party conference calling solution, and can also control this when using the built in VOIP.) Muting the participants ensures the heavy breathers and speaker phone users won’t interrupt your flow. If you want to add a Q&A session at the end of the presentation you can unmute all phones, but I recommend you use the presenter chat option built into Connect and most other products. People can post their questions to you directly via text, and then you can invite the questioner to press *6 to unmute his phone and elaborate if necessary.

Recording

Most software solutions allow for the recording of the event. After recording you will be provided with a URL that you can distribute to others to watch the event on their own time.