To continue to spread their message, many professional speakers and trainers have had to “pivot” from live to virtual events.
I have facilitated over 1,300 live workshops and have now hosted 100 three- or four-hour webinars (which fortunately have helped keep my sanity during this quarantine). Here are my impressions:
Pros of Live Workshops
Face it, “live” is why most facilitators do what we do. We love the interaction, seeing the light bulbs go off in the faces of the participants we have the honor and pleasure of being in front of. The spontaneous laughter or riffing off random comments made during the workshop is pure joy!
The best workshops evolve from one-way lectures to two-way discussions when it truly becomes about the participants, not the facilitator.
After most workshops I facilitate, I am flying so high that I really wouldn’t need the airplane to get home. This brings me to the …
Cons of Live Workshops
In a word, travel. No need to recount the numerous travel horror stories all road warriors have encountered.
Pros of Virtual Webinars
This time two words … no travel.
No leaving the family on a Sunday morning or afternoon for a Monday presentation, spending the night alone in a hotel room, then trying to locate the client’s training location (very) early the next day to set up the audio-visual system.
Instead, for a Monday morning virtual presentation, get up out of your bed, say hello to your spouse, and grab a cup of coffee. Then, it’s lights, a camera, and action!
A participant on one of my webinars who runs her company’s training department told me, “Employees love virtual training! They can take classes wherever they are. We love virtual training! For the attendees, we don’t need to book or pay for flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, or meals. We don’t even need to fuss with maintaining training rooms and AV equipment. We can save on those expenses which have nothing to do with the quality of the training. We’re not going back. For us, virtual training is here to stay!”
Virtual presentations are an introvert’s dream – they never need to leave the safety and security of their environment.
At the end of the virtual presentation, no running to the airport. In fact, after one recent webinar, 15 minutes after we finished, I was outside with my wife, walking our dogs.
Suppose you attempt to change behavior or implement a cultural shift in an organization. In that case, all team members need to notice in real time the buy-in of management and their fellow associates. This is only possible by sitting individually at computers and participating in online training.
However, a webinar can be a preferred delivery method for technical presentations. You, as the instructor, can arrange your notes and props on your desk and then grab and deliver them when needed. (Don’t bend down to leave the participants looking at the top of their heads!)
Thus, it can be more detailed in a webinar. In addition, you can easily use the cursor, whiteboard, polling, and other nifty technical tools built into the webinar platform to direct the participants’ attention.
Cons to Virtual Webinars
In a word, interaction.
All participants kept their microphones open for the best webinar I have hosted. It was a blast! Just like a live workshop, except we had participants from Arizona, Iowa, and New England … all in one room. At the end of that particular webinar, I left so energized!
Unfortunately, some participants believe participating in a live webinar should be a passive activity, like watching a Netflix series.
When I asked participants to turn on their microphones, I received the following responses:
- My microphone doesn’t work.
- I am sitting in an office environment and want to ensure my co-workers are safe.
- I am at home and don’t want you to hear my kids, pets, or spouse.
I understand that participants want to keep and enjoy their anonymity, but this can create an environment like when you are visiting with your best friend. Except that, other than texting a few words in response to your friend (i.e., using the chat feature of the webinar), your friend needs to do all the talking. So at the end of a three-hour, mostly one-way conversation, your friend will be completely exhausted!
This is why a training organizer may want to re-think, to save on travel costs, just converting that seven-hour live presentation into a seven-hour webinar!
Many participants are kinesthetic: they learn by doing. So facilitators introduce interactive activities into the live environment. When the facilitator explains an interactive activity, the participants fully engage in the activity, and the facilitator and participants debrief the activity, 20 minutes (or more) can quickly elapse.
The same activity on a webinar might take a mere 20 seconds – one participant responds by typing a few words into chat.
Zoom meetings versus Zoom webinars
To replicate the interactivity you would naturally have in the classroom, choose a Zoom “meeting” instead of a Zoom “webinar,” and then use the breakout room feature of Zoom meetings. This way, you can both see and hear the participants and then, in groups, they can see and talk with each other.
The breakout rooms always receive high marks in the Zoom meeting presentations I have delivered. Participants miss seeing and interacting with their colleagues.
“Turn on your camera!”
Sometimes it can be challenging to get participants to turn their videos on (and keep on). One of the best ways for a host to encourage this behavior is to have frequent breakout room sessions. It also keeps participants on their toes – they don’t want to be the only one in the room whose fellow participants discover is not present!
I was recently in a meeting on Zoom. Because we are all so accustomed to staring at a screen, I found it easier to focus on whomever from the breakout room was talking on the screen of my monitor and giving them my undivided attention than if I were sitting in the room with the group, trying to listen to them!
Making the transition from life to virtual
If you are a speaker or trainer who has never done a virtual presentation … relax! Many of the skills you have developed from facilitating live events are transferable.
But you will indeed find the experience to be different. Realize that you will move from being a group moderator to being more of a television host.
I have been coaching speakers on successfully making the pivot. For example, one indicated that she was going to open up her first virtual presentation by having each of over two dozen participants introduce themselves.
“It won’t work,” I suggested to her. “We know that some long-winded participants love to talk about themselves, so by the fourth or fifth introduction, other participants will turn off their webcams and be head for the fridge. Instead, wait until you have participants in breakout rooms. There they will be more likely to give their fellow participants their undivided attention.”
Zoom does not have the sophistication of other virtual meeting tools, like Adobe Connect. The advantage is that, as a Zoom meeting or webinar host, it is unlikely that you will need to spend the first few minutes of your presentation troubleshooting your participants’ technical issues. With Zoom, there is no required plug-in for participants first to download or a need for them to run through various connection diagnostics before they can connect. All your participants need is a web browser. You, as the host, send them a link to your event, or even just a meeting ID and password, so they can access your meeting or webinar through the Zoom website or app on their phones.
Three ideas for delivering a successful webinar
First, let your light shine.
Unlike a live presentation, for which you can use your entire body to keep the participants interested (facial expressions, gestures, even the ways you contort your body for effect), they are limited to only what they can see of you on the screen.
So, first of all, ensure the participants can see your face. The best kind of lighting comes from directly in front of you. Therefore, I bought a light clipped to the top of my monitor.
Second, look me in the eye.
If you were facilitating in the room, you would be looking directly into the eyes of the participants. One participant told me about my role, “Establishing a connection comes first, delivering the content comes second.” The virtual equivalent of establishing that connection is looking directly into your webcam’s eye.
Yes, occasionally, you need to glance at chat, Q&A, or the participants’ list to see who is raising their hands, but get back to your webcam as quickly as possible.
Third, no “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.”
The participants have myriad temptations they don’t face in the live setting. Unlike in a classroom setting, where it may be easier to keep your participants’ attention, your competition is now just a click away.
They know that you can’t see them in a webinar and won’t know what they are doing (although some webinar platforms can display some of this information). Therefore, during the webinar, the participants can quickly check email or Snapchat, run to get something to eat, or even let the dog out.
I need to extend extra effort to keep them involved.
I cannot just be a talking head spewing information for three hours and expect to command their attention. I need to be so engaging and passionate about my topic that they won’t want to leave! What might seem over-the-top behavior in the workshop room might be just what is needed for a virtual presentation.
So I am glad that the view of my webcam allows me plenty of room to lean into the camera, lean back, or use my hands (and even my arms) to make my points.
Think Steven A. Smith or Jim Cramer.
Certainly not Ben Stein.
