Creating and Testing the Meeting Space

In a dream world, a successful webinar would entail the presenter showing up a few minutes early before the presentation, loading up the files into the system, and addressing the audience when the time is right. In actuality, the best webinars are those that are highly organized and thoroughly tested. This entails an investment of time beforehand for setting up the meeting space and running as many dress rehearsals as are needed to ensure that everything is laid out in the best fashion necessary for the participants.

Creating the Layout for the Webinar

When folks enter the meeting space, you want user process to be as self-evident as possible. Steve Krug writes in his book “Don’t Make Me Think” that the main usability rule above all others is just that – don’t make your participants expend extra effort to figure out what’s going on and how things work. He gives five usability tips (in bold) to help ensure that your users will understand as much as possible, and I’ve included brief explanations of each as they apply to setting up your meeting space ^[1]:

• Create a clear visual hierarchy on each page: What do you want your users to focus on? Make that prominent on the screen and cluster that item with content needed to support it.
• Take advantage of naming conventions: Name buttons, windows and links with obvious titles. What may seem clever to you can prove confusing to your users.
• Break the screen up into clearly defined areas: Define set areas for evergreen (non-changing) content and stick to that format. If you want a chat box to be available to users at any time to ask questions, don’t move it around.
• Make it obvious what is clickable: Make links and buttons prominent and obvious. If you want people to go somewhere or do something, make it self-evident with bold design.
• Minimize noise: Just because you have access to cool tools doesn’t mean that you have to use all of them. Keep your pages focused on the content and don’t add distractions.

Many systems for online presentations give you preformatted templates that align to the standards listed above. However, focusing on these usability points will help for you to design custom layouts that meet user needs, highlight your content in the best way possible, and help you to achieve learning outcomes.
Below, we highlight some of the most popular features available in online presentation software, and give you examples of how they can be included into strong visual layouts.

Common Components of e-Meeting Rooms

Loading in Content Beforehand

When I give people advice on presenting face-to-face, I always tell them to have as much of their content that relies on technology loaded up beforehand and tested on the system that they’ll be using to give the live presentation. One of the nice features about webinars is that you have the ability to not only load your content into the system well in advance, but you can also test it thoroughly right from the start. You don’t have to worry about unknown technology being utilized for the presentation of your content, such as arriving at a conference room or meeting space and realizing that your presentation is not compatible with the system available. In this way, you have the ability to set up your PowerPoint presentations, websites and software for demos, polls and quizzes, and any engagement activities that you would like to include, embedded into the system and ready for prime time. Keep in mind that this is not much different than preparing for a face-to-face lesson – just as you would get your handouts and resources ready for an in-person class, spend a little time prepping your online meeting room to alleviate the pressure of having to present on the fly.

Choosing Your Broadcast Location

Most people think that because webinars are held online, the physical space that one chooses to host from is inconsequential. Although webinars give you flexibility in terms of location, the broadcast space is actually quite important.

Because webinars take a set amount of bandwidth to stream audio, video and multimedia content in real-time, having a speedy, wired connection can make an enormous difference in terms of picture quality and reliability. Additionally, if you are concerned about sound quality, consider wearing a headset with a microphone. Sure, they can look a nerdy, but comparatively, your sound will come out crisp and clear and use up a lot less bandwidth. There is nothing worse than a session where there’s an echo or feedback, and headsets can help mitigate those instances where multiple audio feeds sounds like a disaster.

If you have options in terms of your camera, mic and broadcast location, take some time to test with a colleague beforehand to ensure optimum delivery quality for the day of the presentation.

Practice Makes Perfect

No one thinks that they have time for a dress rehearsal, but in actuality this is one step that should not be shortchanged as it is directly related to the success of your online session. Even if the presentation is one that you’ve given many times before, and with great success, it is helpful to practice delivering that content in the new system that you are using for online delivery. This will not only allow you to hone and tailor your content to the medium of choice, but it will also illuminate the places in which you can insert meaningful engagement activities that are specifically built for the online environment. Better yet, on the day of the presentation, you will be an expert at shuffling between different layouts, windows and points of engagement, instilling in your participants the fact that you are well-organized and in control.

You might also consider recording your dress rehearsal so that you can play it back and analyze it later. Sometimes it is difficult to gauge the energy level conveyed with the tone of your voice until you hear it for yourself. It can also help to shed light on any slow, confusing or boring spots in the presentation. Be mindful of maintaining a consistent tone throughout the presentation without sounding monotone. Also be mindful of natural speech patterns that may sound funny if you’re not using video – for instance, pausing to reflect on a question over an audio feed can sound as if the audio has been dropped.