A TelSpan Worldwide Conferencing White Paper
The decision to create a webinar for your organization is often a difficult one, but even after that first decision to move forth is made, there is much more to think about. In this white paper we look at two theoretical examples, first of an ineffective, then an effective webinar.
You have created an informative webinar with great content. You have a great list of invitees. You have selected a great conferencing provider for your webinar, so what could go wrong? It should be easy to use the great technology available to provide your invitees with a great experience, right? Not so fast.
Invitations Sent
Using a web-based form created by your IT department, you email out invitations to your invitee list. Invitees are instructed to fill out the form, including their credit card information if you are charging for your event, and they email or print and fax it back to you.
Confirmations and Codes Not Received by Participants
Several days prior to your event, you start receiving emails and phone calls from your registrants. They have not heard from your organization since they registered for your event and they want to confirm they are registered, need a receipt for reimbursement, and want to know how to access the actual event. You check with your administrative staff and discover that they have had to print the emails and faxes and are now manually processing the credit cards, then mailing registrants their receipts via snail mail. Your conferencing provider provided you with web and audio dial-in instructions as well as codes for your participants well ahead of the event, and you realize those have not been sent out to your registrants. You instruct your administrative staff to email the instructions to all registrants right away. Your staff has to manually enter the emails of those who have actually registered in order to email out the instruction document after they have typed it out.
Participants are Unable to Access the Event
The day of your event arrives and, as instructed, your attendees begin to log onto the web and audio conference five minutes before the start time. Unfortunately, your speaker, who is the event host, has not followed instructions to open the event on the web and audio side fifteen minutes prior to the start time. As a result, your attendees are unable to get into the event, once again resulting in a flurry of emails and phone calls as they try to determine what the problem is with the instructions they received.
Lack of Control over the Event
Finally everyone is logged on successfully; of course by this time it is past time for the event to start. However now you realize that since the host didn’t log on fifteen minutes prior, the slides have not been uploaded into the web conferencing platform. You begin to help your speaker upload the slides into the program, while all your attendees watch. Worse yet, you have not requested your audio be muted until the start of the event, so while you are assisting with the preparation of the web presentation, your participants can hear you and your speaker as you discuss what you are doing. Realizing no one is muted, the participants also join into the conversation, talking to one another as well as to you. When you are ready to begin your event, you have lost control of the audio portion and must work to regain control of the conversation in order to begin your event.
Did you Rehearse your Event?
If you have not conducted several dry runs of your event, your participants may experience an unprofessional webinar. Although the features of your web conferencing platform are doubtless easy to use, without proper rehearsal, your webinar can truly appear unpolished and poorly planned to your participants.
No Post-Event Follow-Up
After the event concludes, your organization does not have any follow-up interaction with the participants, or with those who signed up to attend but did not actually show up for the event.
A Success?
Do you think the participants of this webinar will be anxious to sign up for your next program, even if you have learned from your mistakes? It is highly unlikely. As they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Be sure your webinar doesn’t ruin that chance for your organization.
You have created an informative webinar with great content. You have a great list of invitees. You have selected a great conferencing provider for your webinar, so what could go wrong? It should be easy to use the great technology available to provide your invitees with a great experience, right? It can be with a little bit of preparation and planning.
Your conferencing provider gives you a demonstration of their online registration product. You realize that by utilizing an online registration product to plan and manage your event, your administrative costs will plummet, and the communication and resulting satisfaction of your registrants will increase. A good online registration tool will allow you to create an invitation, registration form, email confirmations and reminders, all branded with your organization’s logo. Pre- and post-event survey functionality may be used to obtain important information about your registrants for future marketing endeavors. After several hours, your entire event is set up, and invitations are automatically emailed out to your invitee list. Your invitees begin to register. They immediately receive a printable receipt, confirmation of their registration, and all the instructions and code sets necessary to attend your event. They should also receive up to two reminders before the event, again providing all the necessary instructions to attend. If you are charging for your event, a good online registration tool should automatically process the credit cards for you, leaving your administrative staff free to tend to more important tasks. Ask your online registration provider if they have a phone reminder service where someone calls your registrants the day before the event to remind them to attend.
Next you should be able to work closely with your web conferencing provider to obtain all the training you need to run your virtual event efficiently. A good provider will make it easy, providing training and assisting you with a dry run with your speaker if you’d like. Be sure to assign someone other than your speaker to push the slides, and practice, practice, practice so that everything runs smoothly.
Now it is the day of your event. You log on as the host of the event fifteen minutes prior to your start time. You upload your slides into your web conferencing platform. Your speaker is prepared and ready to go. Your conferencing provider may have suggested that you have a dedicated operator assigned to help facilitate your event and add an additional layer of professionalism. The operator puts all participants on hold as they join and explains to them that they will be on hold until the event begins. While your participants wait, you can speak freely with an operator to clarify any questions you may have. When your event start time is reached, the operator will take your participants off hold, and explain that their lines will be muted during the event, and then the operator starts your event off with a professional introduction of your speaker, written by you. Utilize interactive features such as polling, chatting, and annotations to keep your audience engaged. At the conclusion of the webinar, your operator can open up the lines for a Question & Answer session if you so desire. This allows your participants to interact directly with your speaker.
After your event concludes, your online registration product should automatically email all your attendees the post-event survey you created. You should then have access to your registration account and be able to download all the reports from your event into Excel® for follow-up and future marketing endeavors. After receiving the reports, your sales and marketing team should follow up immediately with the attendees. It is advisable to also send thank you emails after your event. Thank those who attended for attending and advise them where to access additional information such as copies of slides or other event literature, or where they might access an archive of the event. Send another email to anyone who registered for the event but was unable to attend, and include a link to an archive of the event, if you wish.
Your webinar was a huge success, and your attendees eagerly anticipate your next event.
Call 1‑800‑800‑1729 or contact us to learn more about conducting online training utilizing TelSpan’s web conferencing services, TelSpanRayo, TelSpanExpress and TelSpanPresents, as well as TelSpan’s online registration tool RegistrationPlus. Let TelSpan show you how you can begin producing professional webinars today!
A TelSpan Worldwide Conferencing White Paper
Acoustics
If you are setting up a conferencing room, make sure you design for “broadcast studio” quality. For example, you might not be aware of the noise coming from the fan of an air-conditioning unit located in your room. This type of background noise may be relaxing and rhythmic, but to the other participants of a video conference, it simply sounds like static from an unknown source.
Lighting
Participants should be lighted from the front as well as from the back. If possible, avoid natural lighting since it is unpredictable and may cast shadows upon the conference participants.
Camera and Microphone
Position the camera so that conference participants at other sites will receive the best view of your location. Especially with desktop equipment, be sure to place the camera as close to the screen as possible so your image to other participants is displayed as if you are looking at them. Also, remember to place the desktop unit's microphone within the direct sound of your voice.
Equipment
Become familiar with your video conferencing equipment. Know the placement of the controls, how to maneuver the camera, and how to use the auxiliary equipment. At least one conference participant at each site should know how to mute the audio feed. Be aware of the phone numbers assigned to the equipment you are using.
Movement
Minimize the background activity in your conferencing room since this may be very distracting for you as well as for the other participants. Also, speak clearly, and try to avoid rapid and constant movements. If you are video conferencing at a speed less than 384 kbps, quick movements are “strobed.” That is, the frame transmission rate cannot keep up with the movement. The wider the bandwidth, the better the frame rate and resolution.
What is “Video Conferencing”?
Video conferencing is collaboration among geographically dispersed participants via real-time video. Video conferencing isn't new. Expensive, room-sized systems have existed for years. What is new is that the current generation of video conferencing technology has downsized these large systems into inexpensive, desktop units.
Why is it becoming so popular?
Video conferencing brings a valuable strategic tool to millions of individuals and small businesses for face-to-face meetings, team collaborations, brainstorming, training, and more, regardless of the proximity of the participants
What types of Video Conferencing exist?
There are two general types of video conferencing: Point-to-Point and Multipoint.
What is “Point-to-Point”?
A Point-to-Point conference is a connection between two video (or data) terminals. For example, a point-to-point video conference may occur by connecting a boardroom in Los Angeles and a conference room in Zurich. Connecting two locations can be arranged simply by having one location dial the other, just as in a regular telephone call. No outside assistance is necessary.
What is “Multipoint”?
A Multipoint conference is a connection among several video (or data) terminals. This type of connection requires the assistance of a bridging service to “bridge” the sites together into one conference. TelSpan provides such a service.
What do I need for Video Conferencing?
To organize a video conferencing, you need
What type of equipment do I need?
There are many options to choose from and, in most cases, you can purchase kits that include all the equipment you will need. Here are a few options:
Is my equipment compatible?
In the past, video conferencing systems could only communicate with systems produced by the same manufacturer. Since then, the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) has intervened and developed standards to be used by all manufacturers. These standards were named H.320. Anyone using H.320 is expected to communicate with anyone else using H.320 regardless of the equipment vendor.
What are “Protocols” and “Standards”?
A “protocol” is a set of rules for data communication. A “standard” is a set of detailed technical guidelines used to establish uniformity. Protocols and standards create an environment of universal compatibility.
What is “ISDN”?
Because video conferences send a great deal of information back and forth between sites, digital phone lines are required. The preferred type of connection is known as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). These digital lines provide unrestricted use of the full bandwidth (as opposed to other digital lines such as Switched 56). ISDN service is now readily available in most countries.
What is “Bandwidth”?
Bandwidth is the capacity of the phone line to carry audio and video signals. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the signals can move and the better the quality of your video conference.
How do I schedule a Video Conference?
Call 1‑800‑800‑1729 or contact us to learn more about TelSpan’s video conferencing services. Let TelSpan show you how you can begin video conferencing today!
A TelSpan Worldwide Conferencing White Paper
Acoustics
If you are setting up a conferencing room, make sure you design for “broadcast studio” quality. For example, you might not be aware of the noise coming from the fan of an air-conditioning unit located in your room. This type of background noise may be relaxing and rhythmic, but to the other participants of a video conference, it simply sounds like static from an unknown source.
Lighting
Participants should be lighted from the front as well as from the back. If possible, avoid natural lighting since it is unpredictable and may cast shadows upon the conference participants.
Camera and Microphone
Position the camera so that conference participants at other sites will receive the best view of your location. Especially with desktop equipment, be sure to place the camera as close to the screen as possible so your image to other participants is displayed as if you are looking at them. Also, remember to place the desktop unit's microphone within the direct sound of your voice.
Equipment
Become familiar with your video conferencing equipment. Know the placement of the controls, how to maneuver the camera, and how to use the auxiliary equipment. At least one conference participant at each site should know how to mute the audio feed. Be aware of the phone numbers assigned to the equipment you are using.
Movement
Minimize the background activity in your conferencing room since this may be very distracting for you as well as for the other participants. Also, speak clearly, and try to avoid rapid and constant movements. If you are video conferencing at a speed less than 384 kbps, quick movements are “strobed.” That is, the frame transmission rate cannot keep up with the movement. The wider the bandwidth, the better the frame rate and resolution.
What is “Video Conferencing”?
Video conferencing is collaboration among geographically dispersed participants via real-time video. Video conferencing isn't new. Expensive, room-sized systems have existed for years. What is new is that the current generation of video conferencing technology has downsized these large systems into inexpensive, desktop units.
Why is it becoming so popular?
Video conferencing brings a valuable strategic tool to millions of individuals and small businesses for face-to-face meetings, team collaborations, brainstorming, training, and more, regardless of the proximity of the participants
What types of Video Conferencing exist?
There are two general types of video conferencing: Point-to-Point and Multipoint.
What is “Point-to-Point”?
A Point-to-Point conference is a connection between two video (or data) terminals. For example, a point-to-point video conference may occur by connecting a boardroom in Los Angeles and a conference room in Zurich. Connecting two locations can be arranged simply by having one location dial the other, just as in a regular telephone call. No outside assistance is necessary.
What is “Multipoint”?
A Multipoint conference is a connection among several video (or data) terminals. This type of connection requires the assistance of a bridging service to “bridge” the sites together into one conference. TelSpan provides such a service.
What do I need for Video Conferencing?
To organize a video conferencing, you need
What type of equipment do I need?
There are many options to choose from and, in most cases, you can purchase kits that include all the equipment you will need. Here are a few options:
Is my equipment compatible?
In the past, video conferencing systems could only communicate with systems produced by the same manufacturer. Since then, the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) has intervened and developed standards to be used by all manufacturers. These standards were named H.320. Anyone using H.320 is expected to communicate with anyone else using H.320 regardless of the equipment vendor.
What are “Protocols” and “Standards”?
A “protocol” is a set of rules for data communication. A “standard” is a set of detailed technical guidelines used to establish uniformity. Protocols and standards create an environment of universal compatibility.
What is “ISDN”?
Because video conferences send a great deal of information back and forth between sites, digital phone lines are required. The preferred type of connection is known as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). These digital lines provide unrestricted use of the full bandwidth (as opposed to other digital lines such as Switched 56). ISDN service is now readily available in most countries.
What is “Bandwidth”?
Bandwidth is the capacity of the phone line to carry audio and video signals. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the signals can move and the better the quality of your video conference.
How do I schedule a Video Conference?
Call 1‑800‑800‑1729 or contact us to learn more about TelSpan’s video conferencing services. Let TelSpan show you how you can begin video conferencing today!
