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  • 1.  What’s your secret to successful webinars in today’s environment?

    Cvent Staff
    Posted 10-18-2021 10:34

    Hello community members! I’m excited to kick off the next Huddle of the Week discussion. Last week we focused on a common event type for many of you – internal companywide and sales kickoff events. Another common event type, even prior to the pandemic and the shift to virtual, are webinars. However, we know that due to almost all other events also being virtual, your standard webinar format or process likely has shifted, too.  

    The environment we’ve been in for the last year and a half has taught us to get creative, try new things, and switch out old processes that could be improved. We also have expanded and improved much of our event technology and our virtual experiences overall. Considering how much you have learned about virtual events, let’s discuss how that’s impacting your webinar approach: 

     

    • What’s your secret to successful webinars in today’s environment? 
    • What makes your webinar stand out amongst the competition or industry?  

     

    Let us know your thoughts and ideas below! #HuddleoftheWeek #VoiceIt

    ​​​
    #ManagingVirtualEvents

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    Andrea Zobens
    Online Community Manager, Cvent
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  • 2.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    Community MVP
    Posted 10-20-2021 12:52
    Hi Andrea, 

    It's true that the bar has been raised quite high when it comes to webinars since March 2020! Our best practices to get our content to shine are as follows: 
    - assign a dedicated tech resource to your session. Somebody who's there to launch polls, moderate the Q&A, set the stage, etc. 
    - have the tech resource and presenter(s) practice ahead of time. Who will be doing what? Review the timing to avoid dead air. 
    - make use of every feature, even the ones you think are gimmicky, like the reactions. In a one-to-wany webinar, a quick request for thumbs up or down is a great way to get a feel for the room, and keep the audience engaged. 
    - keep it short! 

    Best,

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    Béline FALZON
    Conference Program Specialist II
    California Teachers Association
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  • 3.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    Community MVP
    Posted 10-20-2021 14:13
    I agree with Beline's response - love the ideas! 

    We have kept our webinars fairly simple and straightforward, but we do use the polling feature and provide continuing education credit, which I think may increase the "show rate" of our registrants.

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    Lori Wildman
    Senior Marketing Manager
    DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    Posted 10-21-2021 09:38
    • What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment? 
    It's been noted in some of the other posts, but mastering tech is a huge component for success. No matter what the content, we find that both presenters and attendees can easily get distracted when there are tech glitches, or when attendees have trouble accessing a session. We do a lot of pre-event preparation - training presenters, communicating/educating attendees - to help ease any potential issues. 

    • What makes your webinar stand out amongst the competition or industry? 
    Our events may be unique in that we only do internal-facing events, so we have the advantage of knowing our audience and what the key objectives are. But the key for us is keeping content fresh and driving engagement.

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    Bouran Qaddumi
    SR MANAGER, NATIONAL FIELD TRAINING
    Cajun Operating Company d/b/a Church's Chicken
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  • 5.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    Posted 10-25-2021 05:58
    Hello Andrea, 

    We always start with breakout rooms for the audience to have the change to introduce themselves with a small group and that increases interactivity during the session and makes it more collaborative :)

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    Laura Maestro
    CSE
    Nexia International
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  • 6.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    User Group Member
    Posted 10-25-2021 09:00
    • What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment? Have tech support on site to launch polls, moderate the Q&A, and any tech needs.
    • What makes your webinar stand out amongst the competition or industry?  Great speakers (panel) and strong content attendees can use now.


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    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Specialist
    Federal Reserve System
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  • 7.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    Posted 10-25-2021 12:17
    We try to implement as much interactivity within the webinar as possible. Including polls, surveys, questions that are relevant to the material presented or just funny questions, short tests, and we give away "door" prizes at the end. Depending on how large the webinar will determine what we use and how we use it.

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    Sheila Hanna
    Project Manager
    Denise AAmber Lee Foundation
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  • 8.  RE: What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment?

    User Group Member
    Posted 10-26-2021 09:04
    • What's your secret to successful webinars in today's environment? 
    • What makes your webinar stand out amongst the competition or industry?  

     It has been hard with everyone having webinar fatigue so we're trying to create more engagement, 1:1 networking among attendees, photo booths with a CSR give back (i.e. take a photo against a tree backdrop at our sustainability focused event and we donate 10 trees in your honor)



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    Rachel
    NJ
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