Great America Networks Conferencing offers hold-your-hand kind of service and support for our clients as you have heard me mention a few times before. It is important because the chance to learn, prepare, and practice before a webinar is important for insuring a good event. We take your events seriously and do all that we can to make sure they run the way you envision them.
One of the ways we try to do that is to assist in the first time or two that you might be having a webinar with our service. This means I have sat in on a lot of webinars, and have seen some that run better than others in the "presenter skills" department.
One section that can be a challenge to some is the inclusion of a live Question and Answer session in the their webinar. At Great America Networks Conferencing we make it easy to have a professional, and efficient Q & A with our QuickAssist Live Operator service. What we cannot do though is predict the questions your audience might have and ask, or worse...not ask.
In reading a post from Ken Molay over at The Webinar Blog, he addresses some very good tips that can help you make sure that the your Webinar Q & A session runs as smoothly as possible. Give the post a read as it offers some good insight, but I'll list the tips here as well:
1) Get people used to typing in their console early and often. Ask a question or two that is easy and fun. Ask people to type their first name, or identify a picture taken from a TV show or movie. You want them to learn that interaction is expected, natural, and non-threatening.
2) Refer to questions and comments throughout your presentation if you can. Just a quick offhanded remark can let people know that their contributions are being noticed. "Karen says she agrees with that. Thanks, Karen!"
3) When possible, refer to questioners by first name only. This builds a personal connection, but doesn't identify them to the public. It's the perfect match between recognition and privacy.
4) Avoid the phrase "That's a good question." If you overuse it you sound insincere. If you use it on some and not others, you imply that some questions aren't as "good." Try alternate phrases such as "I'm glad you asked this question, because it gives me a chance to…" "Interesting… Let's take a look at that."
5) ALWAYS have seed questions ready to cover slow spots. Read them as if they came from the audience (announce a fake first name). People tend to start asking questions when they hear other people asking questions.
6) Keep your energy up, up, up! If you give a big sigh at the end of your presentation and read off questions in a bored tone of voice because you've heard them all before, nobody is going to want to play with you. Be enthusiastic about the opportunity to interact with your audience. Make them believe you LOVE doing Q&A!
If you give webinars on a regular basis, I definitely recommend subscribing to Ken's blog as he gives informative posts that can help you in a multitude of ways, and from a platform independent perspective as well.
In the end, good presentation skills in webinars come from the same place people earn them in live in-person events. Practice, practice, practice. Having a company that will work with you on that practice can make all the difference between a webinar... and a memorable webinar.
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
Comments