How to prepare for your web conference - basic presentation skills

Web conference presentation - using PowerPoint slides effectively

Tips for the web conference presenter - presentation style

Tips for conducting a web seminar - the web conference format

Genesys Meeting Center web conferencing platform - an independent review

Audio, Data, Video are the three alternatives to face-to-face meetings. They can be used separately, or in concert with one another.

Web Conferencing or Webcasting
Webcasting is a visual tool that can supplement a telephone conference. The telephone serves as the audio, complementing the participant’s desktop screen. Participants can use webcasting to give presentations, demonstrate software or other products, permit anyone in the meeting to view or edit any document electronically, take a Web tour of a facility, compile polling data, share an application or the entire desktop, and incorporate online chat, among other features.

Video Conferencing
In general, video conferencing is the video piece only. It lets individuals or groups be seen on a video by hooking into a television. It is similar to the experience of watching news reporting by correspondents at a remote location. Because it demands a lot of bandwidth, reception can be jerky, or the sound may not match up with the mouth. When used in conjunction with webcasting, it allows participants to see each other as well as share documents over two computers.

Desktop Video
A professional take on the popular webcams, desktop video cameras are an emerging technology that can link people from various sites or different cities into a single meeting and allow them to see each other on their personal computers. Genesys Meeting Center is one of the first fully integrated web platforms bringing together web conferencing audio and video conferencing in one simple interface. Desktop video is a relatively new addition to the online meeting experience.

24/7 Collaborative Technology
Telephone calls, webcasting, and videoconferencing are "real time" technologies, while voicemail and e-mail are "24/7." With more and more businesses having staff and contractors in different locations and different time zones, 24/7 technology makes it easier to connect with one another.

Internet Streaming
Streaming is the process of broadcasting a conference session or other meeting or activity over the Internet so that it can be accessed by clicking on an onscreen link. It’s the convergence of broadcast (TV) quality video, multimedia, and e-commerce and is often billed as an alternative to attending a live conference session. Streaming media applications help companies or associations keep in touch with their members in ways other than newsletters and e-mail formats.

Basic Presentation Skills
Usually there is a lot that can be quickly gained or quickly lost from a presentation. A little bit of guidance goes a long way toward making a highly effective presentation.

the following guidelines are intended for general presentations. These guidelines can be applied to face-to face meetings, web presentations, and desktop video meetings.

Basic Guidelines For Designing Your Presentation

1. List and prioritize the top three goals that you want to accomplish with your audience. It's not enough just to talk at them. You may think you know what you want to accomplish in your presentation, but if you're not clear with yourself and others, it is very easy - too easy - for your audience to completely miss the point of your presentation. For example, your goals may be for them to appreciate the accomplishments of your organization, learn how to use your services, etc. Again, the goals should be in terms of what you want to accomplish with your audience.
   
   
2. Be really clear about who your audience is and about why is it important for them to be in the meeting. Members of your audience will want to know right away why they were the ones chosen to be in your presentation. Be sure that your presentation makes this clear to them right away. This will help you clarify your invitation list and design your invitation to them.
   
   
3. List the major points of information that you want to convey to your audience. When you're done making that list, then ask yourself, "If everyone in the audience understands all of those points, then will I have achieved the goal that I set for this meeting?"
   
   
4. Be clear about the tone that you want to set for your presentation, for example, hopefulness, celebration, warning, teamwork, etc. Consciously identifying the tone to yourself can help you cultivate that mood to your audience.
   
   
5. Design a brief opening (about 5-10% of your total time presentation time) that:
   
   a. Presents your goals for the presentation.
   b. Clarifies the benefits of the presentation to the audience.
   c. Explains the overall layout of your presentation.
   
   
6. Prepare the body of your presentation (about 70-80% of your presentation time).
   
   
7. Design a brief closing (about 5-10% of your presentation time) that summarizes the key points from your presentation.
   
   
8. Design time for questions and answers (about 10% of the time of your presentation).

Basic Guidelines About Presentation Materials

1. If you plan to use a PowerPoint presentation as part of your meeting, then be sure to carefully review your presentation sequence before the web conference meeting, your objective is to synchronize your audio conference presentation with your PowerPoint slide presentation. Genesys Meeting Center gives you full control over your meeting
   with audio control tools and web presentation tools.
   
   
2. Use a consistent layout, or organization of colors and images, on your visuals.
   
   
3. If you use PowerPoint, a good rule to follow is to allocate one image for every 3-5 minutes of your presentation. Include 5-8 lines of bulleted phrases on each image.
   
   
4. If you provide supplemental information during your presentation, then your audience will very likely read that information during your presentation, rather than listening and following you. Therefore,send out this information after you have completed your presentation. Or, send it out at the beginning of your presentation and ask them not to read it until you have completed your presentation.

Basic Guidelines About Your Delivery

1. If you're speaking using desktop video conferencing along with your web presentation then try to accomplish eye contact with the web camera throughout your delivery. Look up from your materials, or notes, every 5-10 seconds, to look into the audience.
   
   
2. Speak a little bit louder and a little bit slower than you normally would do with a friend. A good way to practice these guidelines is to speak along with a news anchor when you're watching television.
   
   
3. Vary the volume and rate of your speech. A monotone voice is absolutely toxic to keeping the attention of an audience.
   
   
4. Keep your hands relatively still, that is, not waving in front of you which can be distracting to the viewer.

Streamline Your Slides
Ten Pounds of Data in a Five-Pound Slide: We all have heard this one before, but often choose to ignore it -- too much content on a single slide. Slide overload reduces your audience's ability to comprehend your message. As attendees struggle to make sense of a busy slide, they are not listening effectively to your presentation.

This problem is worse in a Web seminar than in a live one because your slides are usually a little smaller (in numbers of pixels), so busy slides become even messier.

Slides are not meant to be the script of your presentation. Slides serve two purposes: 1) to highlight your key points succinctly; 2) to graph or diagram key data. Here's a good rule of thumb:

• No more than 8 bullets per slide
• No more than 8 words per bullet
• Always try to substitute a diagram or visual for text
• Editing is hard work, but essential for superb communication.

Review Your Slides
Load 'Em Up Before You Move 'Em Out: In the flurry of activity before a Web conference, you may be busy coordinating audience registration, speaker training, fulfillment, and a hundred other details. Luckily, you've reviewed the presentation slides in PowerPoint, so at least the content is ready, right?

Not necessarily.

Almost all Web conferencing platforms will alter your presentation slides for delivery and viewing through a browser. The slides are likely to become smaller in size, and then compressed through an algorithm designed to make the file sizes as small as possible. As a result, slides that look fine on your desktop can look fuzzy, muddy, and unprofessional in the conference.

The best prevention for this is to review the final slides within your chosen platform. Do this several days before the event so you have time to make and review modifications. Use the following rules of thumb as well as you are preparing your content. Consider them guidelines, not definitive rules, since different content and conferencing technologies may require different approaches:

• Colors -- restrict the color palette to 256 colors or, even better, the subset of Web-safe colors. Avoid really bright colors and busy background images.
  
• Text -- Write in short phrases emphasizing your key points. Use eight or fewer bullets on each slide. Avoid using any type less than 18 points in size. Try to use clean, san-serif fonts.
  
• Images -- An informative picture or diagram is better than words. But understand that photographic and other continuous-tone images can increase download times during the conference. Fine details will be lost when the slide is converted by the conferencing platform. Remember, you can emphasize key points verbally or using mark-up tools.

Use Introductory Slides
Warm Up Your Audience: Many web conferencing platforms will allow you to put up a set of slides that will "cycle" automatically. Such "intro slides" give you a great opportunity to educate and update your attendees while they are joining your event. You have a captive audience that is ready to pay attention to you anyway!

The intro slides can do several things:

• Serve as commercials for upcoming products, services or events
• Remind people how to use the technology and interact with the presenters
• Provide teleconferencing and help support numbers
• Provide hints or previews of the material to come
• Since you have also logged on early as the presenter, don't forget to hit your mute button if you have an interruption or need to take another call

Suggestion for your first PowerPoint slide
To assure participants they have arrived at the right place, at the right time, put the following important message on the first slide of your presentation:
"Welcome. The meeting will begin shortly."

Check the web sites on your web tour
Before your event, check the accessibility of each web site and the links you plan to use during your web tour.

Start your event early
Start your event at least 15 minutes early so that your participants can join before the scheduled start time.

-Tips submitted by the Web Seminarian

Presenters: Use Headsets!
Audio body language -- It's hard to sound persuasive -- or even human, for that matter -- on a speakerphone. In a Web conference presenters should always use a headset for superior audio performance. After all, in a web conference, your voice is your body language and takes on a larger roll in the communication process.

Using your regular handset is the second choice if a headset is unavailable.

Speakerphones are a distant last for delivering the audio portion of your presentation. Regardless of the quality of the speakerphone, it sounds tinny and captures background noise and echoes. Most importantly, it sounds more impersonal. And is that the impression you want to make after all that effort in creating your event and attracting an audience?

Prepare Your Room
Quiet on the set! -- The blessing of Web conferencing -- namely, you don't have to leave your own office -- can also be a curse. Think about how hard it is to get an uninterrupted, quiet hour alone at your desk without the interruptions of callers and co-workers. But that is exactly what you need during your Web seminar or Web meeting.

It's critical to eliminate background noise and distractions to put on your best Web event. Here are a few hints to help you.

• Close your door. If you don't have a door, try to use an office or conference room with one. If you use another room, try it out before your event, in case there are noises, distractions, or technical issues you didn't anticipate.
• Hang a sign on the door reading "Web conference in progress. DO NOT DISTURB."
• Turn off your cell phone. Turn off and put away other devices that might beep, buzz, or burst into song. If you are using IP audio instead of your phone, turn off the phone's ringer, or at least turn it way down. If necessary, unplug it.
• Close all unnecessary programs on your computer. This step may also improve the performance of your meeting.
• Tell your co-workers and support staff about your Web conference and the importance of no distractions.
• Use the restroom and get a glass of water before you begin.

Tell 'Em What You Tell' Em
Be understood, understand? Professional trainers and speakers know about the four communication pointers that help make a presentation a success. As you prepare for your next talk, use these tips to make sure your message is understood:

• Let 'em know what they're going to learn. The audience will know what to expect and will be prepared. In your Web seminar, go over the agenda and set signposts as you march through the material to show progress.
  
• Show them. Demonstrate your points through prepared overheads, charts or computerized slide show. Web conferencing gives you many means for doing this effectively.
  
• Give 'em a verbal quiz. Test the audience to keep them involved. And what more efficient means is there besides polling questions?
  
• Tell them again what they've learned. Reiterate your important points as a summary to your presentation. Add summary slides and post-event surveys to focus your audience on main points

Get in Touch With Your Audience
Keep 'em honest: If you've spent as much time preparing for your presentation as you should, you're ready to amaze your audience and have them eating out of your hand. Unfortunately, you're also much too close to your material to know if it's really interesting to the audience.

Unlike a face-to-face seminar, you can't see your attendees slouching in their chairs, doodling, or -- infamous in Web conferencing -- checking their e-mail. This is when interaction is critical to keeping your event on track.

Schedule specific spots in your presentation to pause and get the pulse of your audience. Ask a polling question specifically worded to gauge their interest or comprehension of the subject at hand. Ask for feedback through text messaging or Q&A. If you're using PlaceWare, ask them to change the colors of their seats. Even open the phone lines for questions.

Interaction will not only keep your audience more interested, but it will also give you valuable feedback for addressing their real interests. After all, satisfying your attendees is more important than satisfying your ego

--tips submitted by the Web Seminarian

The web conference format
One-Hour Processing: One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is "How long should a Web conference be?" It is important to remember that most people can only sit patiently at their desk for 45 to 60 minutes.

In addition, make sure that the Web conference is interactive and that it conveys an educational message.

Start With Objectives
Begin with the End in Mind: Web conferencing is not an objective in itself; it is a tactic to achieve strategic objectives. Start with your objectives first, then build your Web conference program around those objectives.

For example, if you are conducting a Web conference to generate sales leads, go first to your sales team. Ask them what they need in terms of the target audience, qualification processes, and key information to garner from attendees during the Web seminar program. In this case, your objective is to hand the sales team a report with the desired quantity and quality of leads, and, most importantly, the right information for the sales person to act on. That’s where the journey both begins and ends.

Leverage Guest Speakers
Image by Association: One of the advantages of Web conferencing is the ease with which you can use multiple presenters in your event. Presenting content from the comfort of your own desktop provides convenience that opens doors to many speakers who would otherwise be unavailable or too expensive to fly to an in-person event.

You should always consider inviting an industry luminary to co-present at your event, even if it costs more. A well respected analyst or business leader adds a number of advantages:

• Greater attendance
• More and possibly better content
• More variety during the presentation itself
• Credibility for your event and company
• Better relationship with the invited speaker
• Running an Web seminar with guest speakers can have a halo affect on your company’s image.
• Leverage your lower "cost of halo" when planning your next Web conference.

Give Incentive for Attendance
Drawing Their Attention -- Due to the complexity of our product and the long sales cycle involved, it is very important that prospects who attend our online events sit through the entire presentation so that they get the most out of the product demonstration.

To encourage them to stay to the end, we always announce that there will be a brief online survey at the end of the presentation that they will have to complete and submit in order to be entered in that month's prize drawing. Every month we do a drawing for an electronic item (Palm, DVD Player or Digital Camera) from all those who attended an event that month. We limit the drawing to prospects who actually attend the Webcast and complete the survey with lead qualifying questions.

Keeping attendees to the end of our events benefits us all: we get the necessary background information on the prospect in order to make a successful follow-up call and they are better informed about our product to help them make their purchase decisions.

Garbage In -- Garbage Out
You get what you pay for: You'll probably supplement your internal lists with outside rented or purchased lists. Start with the highest-quality invitation database as possible. Use previously established benchmark data from prior direct marketing campaigns to start the list segmentation process. Educate your list broker on YOU, and WHAT you are trying to accomplish. Then rely on their experience to guide the decision-making process. When using a list broker, allow an additional 2-3 weeks for building a segmentation plan.

In most situations, your list will be comprised of multiple list sources. As such, the registration process should include a methodology that will map registrations (and or interested prospects) back to a particular list source. The more events (web-seminars, e-mail blast, direct mail, etc.) you run, the better your list-building skills will become.

Don't Waste Anyone's Time
Beat the Clock: Don't waste anyone's time -- your prospect's, or your sales rep's. Create an invitation that tells potential attendees:

• What they will see/hear in the web-seminar,
• What they will learn, and,
• Who should attend (by title or job function).
• Confirmations should be immediate, not bunched and sent at a later time or date.

If you've reached the right audience, here are some more guidelines. Web events may have a greater number of registrants per invitation than in-person events, but show up rates are a little lower, ranging between 30 and 60%. Free events get more registrants than fee events, but show up rates are higher for fee events.

Call Down to Build Up
Reach Out and Qualify Someone: In this day and age, it is nearly impossible to drive high-quality attendance by relying solely on one marketing vehicle, i.e. e-mail blast invitations. Linking marketing tactics will not only increase the volume of qualified registrations/attendees, it will also assist in the lead qualification process.

A call-down program coupled with your e-mail/mail invitation delivers the commitment, and will help ensure overall success. Utilize an outbound telemarketing initiative. Build off your existing marketing/sales efforts to Help-Drive-Quality-Attendance!

Timing is everything: calls must commence and conclude within a few business days AFTER the prospects have received your invitation. During this calling phase, you should be able to differentiate your message from the many other messages that inundate each person – on a daily basis. Remember, you are not only competing with firms that sell a similar service/product, you are also competing with any organization/person that is asking for a "slice" of your prospect's time.

Invitation telemarketing is the perfect time to start the Lead Qualification process. Start by inviting them to your event, and if they register – great! Qualify them at that time. If they do not register, you can still ask "weighted" questions whose responses will indicate near-term/long-term sales opportunities.

A good telemarketing call center asks if the invitation was received up front in the conversation. If not, the telemarketer should have the capability to immediately resend the invitation either by fax or email.

Contact us if you would like USA WorldTel to provide telemarketing services.

Promote and Promote Again
Plot Your Journey: Expect to find all sorts of personality types in your prospect lists as you begin promoting your next Web seminar. In particular, think about these two groups:

Advance planners -- they like plenty of time to consider your event and see if it fits in their busy schedules. That's one reason why you want to start your promotions two or three weeks ahead of time -- to get that all important hour in their schedules.

Impulse buyers -- these people have such hectic days that they don't even think about anything weeks ahead of time. You want to catch them a couple of days before the event, when they can sense some urgency in signing up.
Whatever list you use, you'll find both types of prospects, and a big range in between. This fact argues for contact your list more than once. Come up with two or more invitations, with the latter ones emphasizing "this is your last chance." This also lets you evaluate different headlines or offers for impact, even though it would not be a head-head comparison.

But Wait! There's More!
Offers they can't refuse: Offering an incentive to respond to an invitation is one of the oldest tricks in the book -- yet still effective. Incentives allow you to sweeten the deal for your target audience, underscore more benefits for your product or services, and leave your attendees with something tangible to remember you by -- even if it's only a coffee mug.

Choosing the right incentive for a Web seminar can be difficult. The incentive must have value for the intended audience member, yet not drive your cost per lead through the roof. It should be practical, yet not so broadly used that it attracts attendees outside your target audience (for example, who doesn't want to win a trip to Florida?). Also, you need to be able to deliver it quickly and cost effectively.

We recommend that Web seminar planners think in terms of "knowledge incentives" that are closely related to the event's theme.

• A white paper detailing research results for a particular market segment
• Copies of reports from industry analysts
• Subscriptions to analyst or industry newsletters or periodicals
• Checklists of best practices or business processes
• Product or technology comparisons, as long as they are reasonably unbiased or thorough
• Knowledge incentives appeal to very specific audiences and can be easily distributed. Very often, you can use them for other marketing and sales purposes as well.
  
  --tips submitted by the Web Seminarian

As web conferencing connoisseurs, we have watched with guarded interest as Web conferencing vendors have striven to integrate audio, over the telephone or the Internet. We were a little surprised, therefore, to learn that an audio conferencing leader – Genesys Conferencing – might have come the closest to truly combining audio and web conferencing in a single platform. Announced last October, the Genesys Meeting Center builds upon the solid collaboration technology Genesys received when it acquired Astound about a year ago. Most interestingly, Genesys is practically giving the web conferencing portion away.

At first glance, the Genesys Meeting Center appears comparable to other leading Web conferencing platforms. You can easily share presentation slides, Web sites, and a white board. You can demonstrate and share applications. Audience members can chat with themselves and presenters, or click on icons to give feedback to the presenters.

In this view of the participant console, we can see how the controls are all organized neatly along the left panel while content (in this case, application sharing) appears in the right window.

But look deeper, and you find that the technology has some unexpected advantages. With its Astound heritage, the Genesys Meeting Center is one of the few that maintains slide animations and transitions from PowerPoint (and Astound) presentations. It does so by converting the content into DHTML, which should be compatible with most firewalls. Also, the platform tracks and displays how quickly participants are receiving information, so presenters know when the audience can see it (individually or as a % of the total group). The presenter can even resize the images on the fly, to accommodate participants on lower-resolution monitors.

The presenter has a variety of other tools for managing meetings and enabling participants. Two windows allow her to capture and display meeting minutes and action items. She can open a third "notepad" window that each participant can use for his/her own notes. She can transfer files on the fly to participants.

Genesys also offers a very flexible survey feature not found on most leading platforms. You can create multi-question surveys before meetings or on the fly, and deliver them to participants before meetings, during meetings, or at the end of meetings – even attached to an invitation to a meeting. You have the choice of several question types, from yes/no to multiple choice. The surveys are especially important since Genesys doesn't track the individual responses to its polling questions.

Event scheduling and invitations are well integrated and easy to follow. You can upload content and surveys when you schedule a meeting, or at any time before or during a meeting. You'll find check boxes for sending invitations and reminder e-mails. You can customize the invitations and select passwords for your meetings.

Returning to the Web-audio convergence, users of Genesys Meeting Center find all their audio and Web conferencing controls neatly integrated in one UI. During meetings, it may be or "makes it" easier to monitor and manage participants. It's easy to monitor participants, mute and unmute audio lines, or move participants to a sub conference as you present to them. But having a single source is probably most convenient for support and billing. If you also perform a lot of teleconferencing, you can combine your usage for greater volume discounts.

Learn about the latest updates added to Genesys Meeting Center