With permission, we’re posting this video produced for our client Golf Suites. They needed an interview style webinar or video example of why you might want to invest in their project.
The interviews were planned, PowerPoint decks edited, and opening and closing scripts created. We also provided some webinar coaching and consulting.
IRA Club, Vice-President Ramez Fakhoury was also included in this webinar with information on how you can invest (self-direct) your IRA assets.
With permission, we’re posting this video produced for our client ERC Golf Communities. They needed an interview style webinar or video example of why you might want to invest in their project.
The interviews were planned, PowerPoint decks edited, and opening and closing scripts created. We also provided some webinar coaching and consulting.
IRA Club, Vice-President Ramez Fakhoury was also included in this webinar with information on how you can invest (self-direct) your IRA assets.
Welcome to episode thirty-one of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. And another shoutout to Jane Wing at JaneWing.com for our new podcast introduction!
Today we’re going to talk about “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”
I’m often asked, “When planning a #webinar or #virtualevent, what is the single most important factor I need to cover?” Well, here we go! If you are planning a #virtualsummit, or a simple #zoommeeting, I have the answer! The most important factor is…
I’ve discussed many things over the first thirty episodes! And quite frankly, most of them are really important! Stay tuned for a moment while I review…the last episode (thirty). I discussed the staffing needs larger webinars need and the bodies and capabilities to make sure you have covered for success. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode thirty.
Okay, so what IS the The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)?
It’s you! I’ll bet you’re not even surprised! NO ONE else will care as much as you do your webinar, zoom meeting, or virtual event. No one else will have as much skin in the success or failure of the event as you will.
Any single one of the staffing needs I mentioned last episode, if done poorly, can certainly embarrass you.
Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we think we’ve seen it all. Expected speakers that don’t show up or misunderstood the time zone of the event. Bad connections, scammers that do stupid things in a public forum, really bad backgrounds, bad scripts, bad powerpoint decks, those that simply don’t even understand the interface and take no time to figure it out, poorly managed hand-off and more.
A step aside here. Actually, it’s a step up to my soap box. When asked to speak for an international conference because they’ve achieved some modicum of success, they may have been awarded a PhD in a field, published papers and more. Then this person comes onto a virtual webinar session where they are the featured speaker. Their screen comes on and they are still straightening their hair. They don’t know how to share their screen or know how to get PowerPoint into slide show mode. Oh, they’ll open it and start talking in edit mode where you can see all their notes and remnants of their desktop and more. Really?!
In my mind this is the Walmart version of presentations. It’s just way too casual! And I see it ALL THE TIME.
If you have no respect for yourself, at least have respect for those that have invited you to speak?! Makes me want to scream.
Sorry, I’ll step down for now. However, throughout the series, I’ve constantly pointed out the pitfalls that can occur while planning or holding a webinar.
How can you avoid these things? Well, partially, the answer is “good luck”.
One way is first to contact a company whose sole purpose is to produce an amazing webinar or virtual event for you.
Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we include all these points and work with your speakers and others to help ensure they are prepared and you look amazing!! Yes, I’m the webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!
So how do you eliminate this?
Let’s go back to what we’ve identified as the “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”
You.
One other thing I often see is that would-be presenters doing their first webinar, is that they think that pulling off a fantastic, memorable (for the right reasons) webinar or virtual summit is a walk in the park.
Its like they think, “Well, I’ve been on plenty of zoom sessions. It’s can’t be that hard!”
Well with that attitude it won’t be hard! It will likely be embarrassingly bad.
Most new clients are surprised by how may questions we ask. It’s because we know what’s all needed and we want your event to be stellar! And we try not to leave anything to chance!
Many times, in this series I ask you to stop and consider the depth of the subject we’re on. Not to take it lightly or pass over it entirely.
This is another of those times. It is YOUR name or YOUR brand. How do you want to be perceived? How do you want it treated? This is one of those crossing line decisions we make in life. We can cheap it out and hope for the best or decide today that you’ll put in the work to produce the most noteworthy, fun, engaging, interactive and maybe more- webinar possible.
THAT is why you are the most important “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”
YOU will set the standard that all the participants producing your webinar will follow. The standard of excellence on the script, the slides, backgrounds, production values and more. Its. ALL. On. You!
That everyone on your team gets that standard is the hurdle you must cross! At TheWebinarGuy.com, we get it and can join you at that same standard!
—– —–
This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!
And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!
Welcome to an anniversary episode of sorts- Episode Thirty of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. And a special shoutout to Jane Wing at JaneWing.com for our new podcast introduction!
Today we’re going to talk about “Planning your Big Webinar or Virtual Summit- Part two”
We’ll talk about the pieces parts you’ll need! Stay tuned…
In the last episode (twenty-nine) I started talking about producing larger webinars and how that might be defined. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty-nine..
As I mentioned in that episode, here at TheWebinarGuy.com we’re often involved in large virtual events. These events can be “large” in different ways. What are those ways? It’s all about numbers. The number of speakers planned, the number of days it will span, the number of staff required to take care of myriad details and of course, the number of dollars you’ll spend to do any of that. ALL the numbers are related, btw.
I talked about overusing the word “multi” as I hit those numbers above, Multi-everything!
And I said that the webinar or virtual summit, or virtual event- whatever you want to call it, will be constrained by two significant factors. Audience and Budget.
Okay enough going back over the last episode, let’s move on, but first.
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Before we dig in too far a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!
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So, define “Big” already, Grant!
Alrighty. Again, I define a BIG webinar or virtual event when it just flat can’t get done by you alone and likely not by two people. Can they be done, yikes, yes but not if you like to sleep!
What you might need; First take a real, honest, frank evaluation of what you can actually do on your own. Know what your gifts and capabilities are and make an honest assessment of whether that serves your virtual summit or event.
Now fill that in with those that can do other things around your gifts.
Let’s start at the beginning with marketing the event. Here we go…
Web designer/web master to post events. Will they need to integrate with platforms like EventBrite to post or zoom to create the event?
Social media posting: There’s a specialist in every field, and this is no different. You may need someone with knowledge of each platform for best practice and keyword usage and more. How often will they post. Are they paid ads? Is the budget made for that? Can that person or persons interact well with your speakers or their staff to market them into your event?
Script writing/editing: Maybe you’ve got a script and you just need someone to look at it for clarity, maybe it needs written from scratch. I get many scripts to record for clients that you can tell were written by the person that is the subject expert, so it’s really detailed and then at the same time, it steps right over the points the audience really needs to know!
Slide Deck creation/editing: Repeat the paragraph from above on script writing. I’ve gotten slide decks where the “expert” just flat skipped an important slide or two.
But the other problem with inexperienced slide deck creators is using all the cute bells and whistles that will ruin a professional presentation. We spend a lot of time normalizing animations, removing animations that aren’t needed and more. And we end up adding graphics that better explain processes or expressing the appropriate emotion for that point the speaker is making.
Back to Speakers: Who else is going to speak? Who will interact and help to manage them, their notes, their slides and as mentioned, possibly work with their staff?
Event coordination: Who is going to track all this and manage all these people?
Tech Coordinator: Who is responsible for set completion? If a simple virtual event, you may just use your room (see episode seventeen) what do you need to do to be ready? What about sound (mic, etc) and your speakers and camera (just go hit episodes fifteen through eighteen!). Oh yeah, make sure your computer is ready as well as your internet connection too.
Software: Do you have someone to check your computer and KNOW that all your software is working and will play nice on presentation day. By the way, a word of caution on “updating your software because the publisher said it was a new version that can run faster and jump higher. Just last month we had to roll back three of our packages to the point where they would play nice. I’ll just say it will be a while before I upgrade stuff that’s working.
Do you need programs like: OBS, WhatsApp, Skype, Discord, zoom or another platform installed and working?
WhatsApp, Skype and Discord are great for off platform communication for your team. Get everyone in a group!
Moderator(s): Depending on size, you may need one or two folks to monitor chat and the Q&A box, assign breakout rooms, setup and show polls, remove trollers (episode twenty-three, twenty-four and twenty-six).
Host: Usually one host is sufficient, but if you’re doing sections, you may want a different host for each section. Maybe you’re doing a session for say Spanish speaking attendees and having a host that speaks whatever language or that looks like them, might matter!
Finally: POST Webinar: Who all from the list above is needed for follow-up, sending thank you notes, follow-up social posts and other web related activities? You just had a great webinar, don’t let the energy die now!!!
It IS a LOT to consider, and I think I hit most of it! So what is a BIG webinar? I think I was on a team of eight recently- that I knew of!
But with the help of TheWebinarTeam at TheWebinarGuy.com, we’re ready to jump in where YOU need us!
—– —–
This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!
And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!
Welcome to episode twenty-nine of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.
Today we’re going to talk about “Planning your Big Webinar or Virtual Summit”.
We’ll talk about some of the pitfalls and advantages! Stay tuned…
In the last episode (twenty-eight) I talked a bit more about promoting webinars and virtual meetings. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty- eight.
Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we’re often involved in large virtual events. These events can be “large” in different ways. What are those ways? And how does this play into your planning and budget? Stay tuned because in this episode, twenty-nine, we’ll discuss some of the many ways that larger virtual summits and multi-day, multi-presenter, multi-EVERYTHING is different than “just doing” a simpler webinar.
Let’s start with defining what a “Large” virtual event looks like. Maybe an “official” definition from the web is in order:
“Webinars provide attendees with a single session to attend, while virtual events offer flexibility in single or multi-session agendas that take place at different times or days” Okay, that helps, but…
Another definition suggests that the answer to virtual events is that they are multi-dimensional.
Where webinars go big on a single topic for whatever period of time, Virtual events can be just a few sessions on multiple subjects that are usually related in some way, to multi-day events with myriad speakers from all over the world, drawing a multi-national audience.
Sorry, I feel like I’m overusing “multi” but there just isn’t another word that works!
Okay back at it. So what DOES large mean? Add complexity and it gets “large” in every sense of the word from number of attendees to speakers to well, everything you can think of.
I’m going to suggest that the webinar or virtual summit, or virtual event- whatever you want to call it, is going to be constrained by two significant factors. Audience and Budget.
First, I’ve talked in multiple episodes about promotion and snagging audience and getting attendees to your virtual event. This is the first factor. It may be or seem obvious, but your ability to define your audience, market to them, get them to register and the million dollar part: Get them to attend- That is a huge challenge! (And then make them want to stick around!!)
The second part that I’ve really not gotten into in this series is defining your budget. Well, this is really the first factor, quite frankly. Because if you have enough budget, you can get audience!
—-AD START—
But before we dig in too far on that little gem, the budget, a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!
—-AD END—
Okay, the 900# gorilla in the room: BUDGET. A standard conversation we often have with new or potential clients goes like this:
THEM: “How much does it cost for you to produce a webinar?”
TWG: “Here’s our standard list of fifteen questions we always ask to get started. One of the first is; Do you have a budget?”
THEM: “Yes, but…”
I can tell you that this conversation goes back and forth until there is an understanding that there is no “one size fits all” webinar or virtual meeting/event. And to help you, we really need a realistic budget. It saves our team AND the client both time and resources.
So my first advise here is: Get you or your current team serious about how much you can or will spend.
That said, a simpler, one day event could cost well, what all do you need done?
Marketing? Planning? List buying? And on and on. Again our simple “starter questionnaire” is around fifteen questions and our planning sheet has more than eighty things we consider when planning an event!
Some things to consider; is your event going to only be in your native tongue? Do you need moderators in other languages for that specific audience?
We were involved recently with a two-day multi-national event that started in India with speakers and moderators working in Hindi, then it flowed to Africa, Europe (switching to English), then into the Americas. Do you need interpreters? And more.
Are you doing social postings? Are awards involved? Breakout rooms? Casual networking rooms? Do you need someone to manage each breakout room? Will presenters help? How will you handle it when a speaker doesn’t show, or has connection issues?
How will you introduce speakers? Will you use a host? An introduction video (cartooned intros are fun!)?
What will you do to keep the event fun, interesting and keep people from becoming fatigued during a five hour event?
Do you have systems in place already to assist with any of this, or does it all need produced for you?
How will you measure ROI? What will you do as follow up with speakers and attendees? What marketing data do you expect back and how will you use it?
Will you be paying speakers or are they speaking pro-bono for some exposure? How will you handle that?
What polls will you plan to capture marketing data?
How are you going to present or push your brand? How far can your stray from your brand story, and serve the webinar topic. OR… How far can you push the webinar topics and speakers and stay on point with your brand?
Just like going out to dinner, or virtually any purchase you make, adding complexity, creating videos, hiring a band to play, and all that I’ve mentioned to this point adds to your budget.
These things also add to audience experience and their want to stay around.
The bottom line, and I’ve mentioned this often in previous episodes: Focus on what you and your attendees want from a virtual event!
I’ve often mentioned the webinar planning sheet we use (that you can request on our website: TheWebinarGuy.com) that grows almost daily as we add things that we take for granted, that you shouldn’t.
Best of luck in planning your “Large” event!
—– —–
This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two! And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!
