Webinars
A webinar is a web-based: seminar, conference, presentation or meeting. It is one way to reduce your costs when your staff and volunteers are scattered all around the city, the countryside or perhaps the world by having a meeting with them, sharing documents, images, programs, slides etc while allowing feedback, all in real time.
Webinar is also referred to as an online conference, web meeting, net meeting, virtual meeting and many other similar names. Webinar is the most commonly accepted and used name for this type of service.
A Webinar can be expensive to operate and is designed for presentations, resource sharing and interaction. If your organisation requires less formality such as an online staff meeting or perhaps a one on one meeting with someone who is not local to your organisation, a Skype conference is a genuine alternative using either the Video, audio or text options.
As with any new technology your organisation should evaluate wether it aligns with your organisations strategic direction and more importantly wether it would be culturally and ethically appropriate to use such technology within your organisation.
Consideration should also be given to the length of time and the size of your intended webinar audience. Wedinars are suitable for conferences of up to 2 hours in length and an audience that the facilitator can manage in an online environment. Some facilitatirs are more experienced than others in the new era of online facilitation.
Uses for a webinar
A webinar is an alternative to any physical meeting your organisation conducts that involves people from outside of your physical location. Some uses are project planning meetings, software training, strategic planning or as a way to introduce a new team member to everyone.
Benefits
Travel and accommodation costs can be reduced if there is a need to bring together a team of people from around the country. Your organisations carbon foot print is also reduced. People do not have to spend their time travelling and if you have a team of volunteers they can participate from their home or other convenient place with Internet access thus reducing any burdens for them to travel. It also creates an opportunity for those who may have not been able to travel to be able to participate.
The software for participants to download is minimal as is the required broadband and the whole webinar can be recorded for later reference.
What you can do in a Webinar
A Webinar allows much of the same functionality as a physical meeting. The following are some of the more popular features:
- Live video
- Live audio
- Desktops can be shared
- Present Slides
- Polls
- Private conversations
- Electronic White Board
- Share programs
As with any physical meeting there should be a facilitor as with any online meeting. Because a person can facilitate a physical meeting does not automatically mean they also have the ability to facilitate an online meeting. It is recommend if your organisation is new to online meetings that you practice in an informal sense prior to any formal webinars.
A list of tips for conducting a webinar are available at Tech Soup: www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/training/page11265.cfm
Below is a brief summary of them:
- Ensure you have a facilitator and speakers.
- Send the audience an Agenda in advance.
- Appoint a person to deal with any technical issues that my occur.
- Set up early and test all of the technical equipment
- Ensure all of your audience are in attendance.
- Get feedback from your audience after the webinar so you ascertain if improvements are needed for the next time.
Webinar Software
Adobe Connect: http://tryit.adobe.com/us/connectpro/webconference/?sdid=CUFXT
Glance: www.glance.net/
GoToMeeting: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/?Portal=www.gotomeeting.com
DimDim: www.dimdim.com/
ReadyTalk: www.yugma.com/
If your webinar is being recorded you can upload it to YouTube for free storage and depending on the topis of your webinar for extra publicity.