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Successful Webinars: 5 Key Steps
by Richard Finstein

Producing online programs is a high profile, high-reward proposition...

As your association considers creating Web-based educational programming, keep in mind:
your identity and brand are not just online, they're on the line.

Why Webinars? Web seminars provide real-time, opportunities to interrelate with content experts. Associations provide a natural setting to bring together geographically dispersed stakeholders into a dynamic learning environment.

Successful Webinars take substantial planning and understanding of the interactive relationships involved. This five-step approach stresses communication with presenters and attendees before, during and after sessions:

1. Program Development.
2. Faculty.
3. Session Structure.
4. Technology Selection.
5. Webinar Logistics.

Once you confirm justification for moving forward and objectives, it's important to understand your association's in-house capabilities. Select an external partner that appropriately supplements your efforts.

The less experience you have with interactive media and online programming, and the less time you have to manage details, the more you should consider a full-service provider.

Ok. You have a team in place. It's now important to consider how to give your efforts an identity that extends from event promotion to e-registration, the event login screen, the meeting window, handouts, continuing-ed certificates and post-event surveys. Many organizations give their Webinar(s) a unique name/logo to help create expectations for excellence.

Presenting online is very different from in-person. e-Presentations require hosts/faculty to sustain programs with vocal vigor and Web elements. Obviously, humor and spontaneity with the audience aren't easily planned-your presenters' commitment to practicing e-delivery goes a long way to successful Webinars.

It's time to build your program. You have attendees at their places of work, with all of the typical distractions. How do you keep them engaged? Can you replicate the nuances and advantages of onsite
meetings? The answer is yes; however, it takes careful planning and cooperation from all involved.

Plan the entire program, down to the minute. Remember, the conveniences of communicating at an onsite meeting are gone. Backroom logistics, transition moments, introductions and closings have to be handled flawlessly.

When choosing Webinar tools, don't just opt for familiar names (WebEx, Live Meeting) without regard to your association's needs/requirements. Be thorough: talk to IT and research features offered by various e-meeting providers.

Select a solution offering simple access that supports your program objectives. If the Webinar: is scripted properly-and has the right faculty and teaching techniques-the meeting technology's chief role is not inhibiting the process.

These criteria are the foundation of solid Webinar management, along with establishing a flow map of how each participant will be taken from initial promotion to post-event evaluation.

While the logistics of Webinar planning may seem daunting, do it well and your organization will be a primary resource for your industry.

The best part? You have a built-in audience: fewer than 20 percent of association employees attend off-site conferences. The roughly 80 percent remaining are prime targets for well-planned Webinars.

* This article is the abridged version of the full text, which will appear in the April issue of the prestigious FORUM magazine, published by the Association Forum of Chicagoland.

For the full article, email info@commpartners.com or call your CommPartners account executive.

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