Can anyone recommend a web conferencing company that could set up a one-off webcast for us? We are a training company (not IT training, hence our lack of IT know-how!) and want to run a 1.5 hour webinar for up to 100 people.
I gather from talking to large organisations like Webex that this is very small fry.
We don't need anything fancy, just sight of our 3 faces talking plus displaying a powerpoint presentation plus audio.
All ideas gratefully received!
Kate Scott
3 Responses
Start with Your Interactivity Requirements
Hi Kate!
Having run training webinars in soft skills subjects for three years now, I’m sorry to hear that a certain web-conferencing vendor feels your webinar is “small fry”.
100 people is a large audience and with a 1.5 hour session, you’ll need to work hard to keep their attention.
Before looking to which company you should use to “power” your session, do consider the design of your session. You don’t say what the subject of your session is, but you should try to find ways to create a number of participant interactions during the session, otherwise it will be hard work for both you, your fellow presenters and the audience, as attention spans in virtual events are very short, not helped by the lack of face-to-face contact.
You need frequent interactions to help take the pulse of the audience. Are they understanding the content…or (worse case, with all those other distractions around them) are they still there?
The interactions will also help to consolidate the messages and build understanding.
Most of the major web-conferencing packages offer a range of features that can be used to create interactive exercises. But not all do, or if they do, some aren’t as user-friendly as others.
One last comment, don’t necessarily feel that you have to be seen via the video link throughout the entire session. In practice, making an appearance at the start and end may be all that’s required. Sometimes being on-screen for the entire time gives the webinar a “broadcast” feel, when you really want the audience to concentrate on what you’re presenting, e.g. the key words on the screen.
Tim
Webinar’s
Hi.I am sure there are many companies who provide services and I don’t want to be seen as advertising the company I work for but BT offer BT Event Calls which use a mixture of audio and LiveMeeting (like Webex). Details are at http://www.bt.com. A call to them will provide the details at 0800 61 62 62
select option 2. I use this facility often for internal training.
Gather place
I agree with Tim, make sure your presentation will be engaging in an online setting before thinking about which web sharing application to use.
As for the application, Gather Place is the best and easiest to use web sharing I’ve seen. Cheap too, just search for them on the world’s favourite search engine.
Good Luck
Craig