A frequent concern of webinar hosts and producers is estimating attendance. It’s easy to get carried away with high hopes of an email campaign or a promise from a top influencer with a large list. The cost to you of estimating incorrectly could have an impact for several months before and after your event is over. Under-performing webinars can be embarrassing and put a webinar program in jeopardy.

Based on research by Emily Breder of eEvent.com, an event registration company, two factors can be tied directly to webinar attendance. Even with substantial registration numbers, webinar attendance can be accurately esimated based on the engagement level of the community of attendees it is designed to serve and whether the host charges for attendance or not.

The results of her research show that when the engagement of the community is high and the cost to attend is over $50 in the case of webinars, that about 70% of those who register can be expected to attend. When the engagement is low or non-existant and the event is free, the attendance rate will drop to about 30%. With high engagement and no price of admission, the attendee rate will be around 50%, approximately.

So if your audience recruitment efforts are aimed at a certain percentage of a list you own or purchase, you can estimate that you’ll see about 8-10% of your list sign up, based on the level of engagement and the focus of the list, as well as the cause that connects the community. From those who sign up, use this formula to determine the number who will attend.

The implications for webinar producers are this: find communities with a certain level of existing cohesiveness and become a participating member. Listen and learn what kinds of topics would attract groups at a size level that works for you. Using the figures above, you can estimate attendance, which will help you determine if the ROI would work for your needs. You can also use this to determine pricing for your webinar or online content, by asking in surveys “What would you be willing to pay for webinar that provided valuable (emphasized!) content?” If your numbers don’t work out to justify the cost in dollars and work resources to hold the webinar event, you may need to find another topic or approach another niche.

Sometimes you can also count replays of the webinar as further exposure to the topic and message content. The study indicated that about 20% of those who register will be interested in the replay, if it’s made available immediately after the event itself. Any further lag in providing the replay reduces the number quickly.

Using Console Call’s WebPresenter platform, you’ll get reports on the number who attend via the phone line as well as a count of people who have opened your webinar page with their browser. With GoToWebinar, you can expect a complete report of attendees and registrants that you can check anytime.

Legal Resources

Here’s a directory of Federal Trade Commission documents, laying out what is required of advertisers and those using webinars to promote products and services:

FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
FTC Advertisting & Marketing Rules Of The Road
Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
CAN-SPAM Act Guide
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
FTC for Business
FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
The
Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data
Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy
Framework
FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Copyright Office

Privacy Certificate Companies

E-Trust
Privacy Label

Which is better at the end of a webinar – feeling good about the event or having data and responses from the audience?

While most webinar hosts say that you want both, there is something about having the data to point to, and to learn from, in case there are problems that need to be resolved. Whether you are used to getting kudos or looking for “warts,” you need some feedback so you can continue to improve. And missing out on the applause that comes from live events, many hosts and their guests may leave feeling a little empty about the whole process.

There are two survey software options on the web that do a very good job, without any charges, and for a low monthly subscription fee, they add a whole new dimension to the surveying process. We’d recommend Survey Monkey (http://surveymonkey.com) and Zoomerang (http://zoomerang.com), two very similar offerings that are a great place to start.

One of the best practices of the webinar and teleconference host when it comes to surveys, is to use two main categories of questions. The first category is used to show preferences across a range – simply put, from bad to good or low to high or something along those lines. The second category is called open-ended questions, where you ask for an answer and a comment. By using both types of questions, half and half, in your survey, even a short 10-12 question survey can yield important results. You will get a chance to learn about priorities, best topics, the preferred style of presenter and moderator, the preferred platform and time of day just for asking.

In the open-ended questions, you will receive an answer and then, most likely, an explanation or context for the answer. This can be very helpful and can even start a conversation, where you can get in touch with a webinar attendee, help them solve a problem and make their experience even better next time.

For example, occasionally attendees run into problems with the corporate firewall interfering with them seeing the presenters’ slides, and it can be aggravating because it doesn’t become apparent until the webinar has started and the presenter is well on the way doing the talk. An attendee who’s experienced this problem can share it with the hosts and get help, such as receiving a set of slides in a separate document. Since the survey question is open-ended, a host might even see an attendee tell about a possible solution to a problem.

The other big advantage to using a survey service is that it enables stakeholders in the event to see the results in real time, all collected in a single place where they can be analyzed and even downloaded. Where webinars are a regular part of a marketing program or an educational offering, the accumulated surveys are like a crystal ball that can look over the entire big picture, or focus down to specific feedback. In other cases, the surveys themselves can link attendees to other forms of content going forward, where they might sign up to receive additional content.

Ideally, the link to your survey should be on the same page as your webinar event, so that attendees can visit the survey site immediately after the event is over. By doing this, you will get the most responses to your questions, and attendees will be most receptive to replying. Using a button or link makes it possible for them to share their immediate thoughts in a single click to the survey page you have designed just for that specific webinar.

As a graphic designer for online presentations and speaker support, I’ve always been on the lookout for alternatives to “Death by Powerpoint Slides.” Whether it’s in a physical meeting or during an online webinar, I cring at the thought of boring slides read to me by monotoned presenters.

I’ve been using and reviewing a Flash-based content creation software called “Prezi,” used by an increasing number of visual storytellers, with the greatest exposure at the famous TED conferences, where presenters are projecting and running Prezi shows with great ease and audience interest.

While one still has to pay attention to the content and purpose of the presentation, having Prezi as an alternative adds both movement and a “big picture” opportunity to engage attention and even curiosity. Prezi is an oasis in the desert, and while it could get over-used and over-worked from time to time, it’s a welcome relief.

So what’s new with Prezi? This month, Prezi authors added several new features - editing the themes and the CSS files that control the look and feel of the piece through font selection, color choices and emphasis, snapping to other objects to aid alignment and dragging and dropping videos directly onto the Prezi canvas.

One thing to know about using Prezis in webinars and online presentations is that they tend to jump rather than flow, when used in desktop sharing environments. Even the fastest and most powerful platforms like Netviewer and GoToMeeting show them at lower frame rates, around 5 frames per second or less, depending on connection speeds.

When we author them, we see some nice animated movement as the presentation path is followed from one screen to the next. This is usually happening at about 30 frames a second, depending on your graphics card, and looks nice enough. When you present Prezi shows online, the desktop sharing software is designed to cut from one slide to the next and most don’t show any video in real time. A Prezi is more like a video than a slide show, however, and it can tend to break up for the audience, with some motion artifacts that may distract from your storytelling. Since that is the case, always remember to slow down when moving through your screens and test the latency (speed of refresh) in advance during a run-through, so you have a good idea of how it’s going to look to the online audience.

Another issue to remember and be sensitive to is the effect that zooming and motion has on a viewer. That “motion sickness” affects everyone differently, because we just don’t have a frame of reference for this type of animation yet. These swirling graphics and zooming in and out are so new that people are adjusting to the experience, so take it easy, and don’t overdo it. Some presenters argue against any type of zooming type, for example. In a Prezi, you create zooms by going from large to small frames or vice-versa. So if your frames are about the same size, it looks more like panning the camera to the next screen, which is a little easier to take. I like to use zooming to do a “reveal,” where I show a graphic or type that couldn’t be seen until you zoom in and get a close look. When creating this type of effect, I make sure that the path is clean and I’m not flying over other art elements, which would cause the disturbing feelings of motion sickness.

One can think of it as watching a lot of telephone poles and landscape zip by your window in the car, versus taking off the ground and getting elevation in an airplane. Your brain is not trying to focus on “seeing” everything that is happening in front of you, when you ride in a plane, so you are not as likely to feel queezy.

You can expect some more in-depth reviews and how-to discussions of Prezi here. It would be great to see more presenters take up the challenge of making their visuals appealing, interesting and engaging. If I can accomplish that by leading some workshops, answering some questions and writing occasionally about different methods and features within this platform, that would be great.

Presenters and webinar hosts are always looking for an alternative to Powerpoint slide presentations.

New graphic presentation software called “Prezi” could change the nearly religious use of slides in online meetings, by introducing a new way of visual storytelling that is much less boring. Prezi’s functions and uses are easy to understand, because menus are simple. Within a Prezi presentation, an author can use high-resolution still images,  wordcharts and graphics, plus clean text and zooming and panning animations that allow the presenter to show a “big-picture” visual.

You might have heard the term “Death-by-Powerpoint,” reserved for those boring slideshows with overly stuffed word charts, impossible-to-read graphs and irrelevant stock photos. Hosts who conduct webinars and web conferences would really like to avoid those shows at all costs, and encourage presenters to find better ways to “tell story.” If the presentation makes the audience tune out, their own reputations can suffer.

Presenters using Prezi work on a platform that has evolved for the single purpose of improving the situation with boring slide shows. The software allows zooming and panning, rotating and is designed to move the viewer along a path around a big-picture view. It also lets the author hide show elements by making them too small to be seen until a certain time in the overall presentation, affording an element of surprise.

And that is what is usually missing from the typical Powerpoint slide deck – surprise.

For example, it is easy to spot mind-numbing clip art pulled in from a cheap stock photo house, showing a smiling person in front of a house or in an office setting. The real question is do these stock images add  meaning and clarity to the presentation?

Stock photos can be very useful, but most authors fail to look beyond the obvious first page of choices, where more specific images related to the topics can be found.

Graphs and charts do a good job of capturing data and presenting in such a way that they deliver good comparisons and clarify the messages. Animation in the presentation can be a valuable tool here to show how data evolves over time. Frequently, authors try to show too much information at once, so images become overly complex and unreadable.

When a designer has the ability to zoom in to any areas of charts and graphics, without having to redraw or reorganize the data, so that the presenter can speak directly to a specific point that is demonstrated by the data, things get interesting. Presenters can show the zoomed-in portion of a graph and then easily back out to visualize the big picture, all on a controlled path that defines the overall presentation.

Here’s a look at a Prezi show used in a webinar and captured into a video.

Florida’s Solution to Domestic Violence in the Law Enforcement Community

Live Animation via Web Cam

Let’s tell you a little bit about what happens -

a) when we see your response, we contact you to set up an appointment where you will be at your phone and hopefully at your computer, so you can see CHOPS live. In many cases, you can set your appointment for the same day, or at least 24 hours from when you send in your response.

b) to bring CHOPS to you, we are using Netviewer Meet or Skype, if you have it. Netviewer Meet is our favorite desktop sharing software, and it supports our webcam as well as VOIP, so that you can see CHOPS and hear him, and he can see and hear you, if you also have a webcam on your system.

c) here’s how we get CHOPS to your desktop – I am actually pointing my webcam at a flat-screen monitor where CHOPS is appearing. My own system has ManyCam enabled on it, which allows me to use controls to add special effects as well as text and other features which make the experience even more interesting. So my webcam is shooting a video of video output of the Digital Puppeteer system and sending it in high resolution to your computer, via Netviewer. If you have a Skype account, we can do the same thing there. In fact, we can connect with many other IM systems, such as Yahoo or Microsoft, with the webcam technology in place.

The images are not as high quality as they are when we appear at a location in person, because webcam images are fairly low in resolution and in bandwidth settings. So the appearance of CHOPS is even cleaner, brighter and more vivid, when you see him live.

d) since we are performing as CHOPS, many things are now possible – no limit on the amount of time CHOPS can speak with you, for example. We can reach out to you just about anywhere in the world, and maintain good lip sync with Skype, which has recently improved its quality. With Netviewer, we can take you on a personal tour of the CHOPS.com website and show you some of our other characters. And of course, we can do this with any of the dozens of characters we are able to produce on our CHOPS system.

So take a minute and sign up for a visit – you’ll have a good time, we promise.

"LET'S FACE IT!"

All the details and preparations are in their final stages for the introduction of the Web’s most new and exciting online quiz show – “Let’s Face It,” hosted by CHOPS, the live, interactive avatar who hosts this one-of-a-kind event.

The quiz show is the brainchild of Gary Jesch, a live animation pioneer who has worked with virtual characters since 1993. It uses Game Show Presenter Plus as its game software platform, with the quiz show designed and written by Jesch. The debut event will feature the topic of Sales and Marketing, with questions testing the contestants’ knowledge of social media, search engine optimization and other modern marketing methods.

Four contestants will be chosen for each quiz show event. The shows last about 10-15 minutes and the winner will receive a $30 gift certificate to Starbucks or some other valuable prize. Each show’s audience can number up to about 200 viewers simultaneously, using Jesch’s Console Call webinar platform – a combination of Netviewer Webinar and the Console Call teleconference phone line.

This example from Console Call shows the "Raise Your Hand" feature

While the use of VOIP within the webinar environment is becoming more and more common, using conference call bridge lines as the primary audio source is still the preferred method.

During webinars, the host or coordinator still needs to mute the guests’ audio during certain portions of the event, to eliminate interfering background sounds. Unmuted phones are usually the culprit and these are easily controlled by the webinar host, using switches that mute everyone but the presenters. VOIP is a dfferent story, and can be more difficult to mute. When it is not muted, and a guest is listening from their computer speakers, the presenters can hear a problematic echo of their own voices while they speak.

Full-on muting must be controlled by switches as well, though, since the best webinars are those where the audience can ask questions over the phone or VOIP connection. Some webinar packages allow for “global” control of audience muting. The best practice in modern webinars allows the host or coordinator to see who is on the phone bridgeline via a console, and to allow them to “raise their hand” to signal the host, by pressing a key combination, like *6, for example.

The host sees who is asking a question and calls on them while opening their line, but keeping the rest of audience muted. This fine point of control benefits the other guests as well as the presenters. And if the host doesn’t see anyone raising their hand to speak, they can defer to the chat screen or Q&A panel of the webinar, for those who prefer to type in their questions.

The ability to “raise your hand” in a webinar isn’t offered by every bridgeline service provider, but it is certainly an improvement over those that don’t provide it.

Console Call is one of the few companies that offers this form of interaction along with a console-display of all the guests on the phone line, dialing out and other valuable features.

To start the presentation, click on this link first -

Florida – Turning the Tide on Prezi 

When you arrive at the Prezi website, where the show is hosted temporarily, click on “More” and select “Full-screen.

The presentation will fill your computer screen. You may now click on the “More” label in the lower right and choose “Autoplay” or you can advance the show, using the Play triangle in the lower center of the screen.

This presentation is planned for a webinar next week, and replaces the traditional use of Powerpoint slides as a visual storytelling medium.

For more information, contact Gary at Console Call -
gary@consolecall.com or phone 775-831-7451