Wayne concentrates purely on public marketing / lead generation webinars. His approach is highly pragmatic, laying out specific tasks that need to be accomplished on a timeline, starting from six weeks before your scheduled webinar.

One of the most useful features in the book is his inclusion of checklists and templates that are ready for a webinar producer to copy, revise, and use. For instance, Wayne not only gives you tips on what types of things you should include in your invitation and follow-up emails, he actually writes out sample text, with fill-in-the-blank spots for your information.

This is a great way for business webinar producers to get organized and to make sure they don't overlook any of the myriad small details that can cause panic if forgotten during the planning and production process.

As far as the recommendations in the book, I can't think of any more flattering thing to say than it sounds like one of my own lectures on the topic! :)

As I read the book, I made a few mental notes about how I might flip the order of a few tasks, or in certain cases I would leave something out as unimportant, or I might change the timing on one item or another. Then at the end, I read Wayne's final note about his advice:

"This system is designed to be a living document, not written in stone. Our goal was to give you the basic skills and knowledge to put on a webinar event. To use a musical analogy, we’ve taught you the scales - it’s up to you to play jazz. Change it, ignore it, use your own best practices and continually get better at what you do."

So now what do I complain about?

All joking aside, this is a terrific resource for people just getting started with webinars, those seeking to add more organization and planning to their programs, or even experienced webinar producers who want to check their approach against industry best practices.

Nice job, Wayne!

Coach Nick has a saying, “All things being equal, people buy from those they like and those that are most like them.” Hey Coach Nick, how do I become more like my prospects and contacts? Look to DiSC®, a methodology to help you tune into your prospect’s communication style – their tonality, speed, words they use, whether their approach is primarily visual, auditory or kinesthetic. The feedback is designed to:

* Enhance your communication with those that possess a differing style than
   yours
* Increase your sales due to your ability to match/mirror all types of buyers
* Improve your negotiation because you’ll learn strategies that motivate each
   of the four styles to buy

Please listen to the archive and be prepared to think, learn, explore alternatives, and leave with fresh ideas for increasing the new business results of your company and the performance of your entire team. Packed full of thought-provoking sales management strategies, you will take away ideas to implement immediately.

Click here to watch the webcast archive!

Here is a link to a hilarious thread on the FARK social commentary site. Some of it is mildly distasteful for work, but no explicit swearing and no nasty graphics. It seems to have been inspired by a text ad that WebEx ran on the site, sparking a major running commentary chain by users of the software and its competitors.

Nothing of educational value, but fun reading nonetheless.

For me, the most significant findings were those related to what type of presentation vehicle the respondents preferred. Jason said that live webinars scored low on preference compared to other options. Archived (recorded) webinars scored highly. But then the same question was asked as a hypothetical, "if time and money were of no importance."  This time, live webinars scored highly!

My take on this is that audiences have come to anticipate and expect bad webinar practices. There's going to be some good information in there, but you're going to have to listen through uninteresting and time-wasting fluff such as introductory comments, marketing information, backgrounder material you already know, and so on.

I am not here to do a hatchet job on eg3.com or Jason. I appreciate their work in assembling and sharing the information. But I noticed several practical examples we can learn from just in this one presentation. This may end up sounding negative, but it's symptomatic of 99% of all business webinars that get presented and probably applies to your webinars as well. I'm just using specifics from this webinar as illustration. (Sorry, Jason!)

First of all, nobody started talking until five minutes after the scheduled start time. That's five minutes of my day I could have saved by watching the recording. Then we heard a standard script from a moderator, including the recommendation to call in on the telephone instead of using the computer audio that comes up as the default way to listen when logging in. The script also included the baffling line: "By now you have probably downloaded and installed the conferencing software..."  If I'm watching and listening, that's probably true! And how does it help me one way or the other? Try to cut down on your introductory scripts.

Then Jason started his presentation with a backgrounder pitching eg3.com. He also shared his personal background in a format that looked almost like a resume. Unless it's a key part of the information you promised, your audience most likely doesn't care about your educational background... Take the benefit of your perceived authority and gain their trust by presenting the information they want and need!

Then we moved on to some background information about webinars and virtual events in general. That was followed by information about what vendors generally consider their own priorities in promoting and benefiting from webinars. Then we heard about the survey methodology and profile of the respondents. Finally, at slide 19  - and 23 minutes after the scheduled start - we heard the first statistic about how people responded to a question about webinars.

If I represent a "typical" listener who knows what webinars are and has read through the event description, the information that was advertised and interested me enough to sign up has come after 23 minutes of less important, less interesting presentation. That makes a strong case for watching the recording and forwarding, forwarding, forwarding!

A secondary issue with all this preliminary material is that it was written out verbatim on the slides. Each bullet point was animated with a fly-in effect. And Jason basically recited the information we could see on the screen. Since I can read faster than he can talk, it makes another strong case for watching the recording and speed reading through the slides.

What if eg3.com had launched straight into the survey results they had promoted and pitched as a benefit for the listener? They could have written out all the background material on those first 19 slides and made it available as a handout, nicely formatted and branded with eg3.com identifiers. They could have told attendees they would receive the materials in an email, giving them an expected and desired additional communication opportunity. They could have made the online session shorter or made more time for Q&A. Once you start making your presentations in that style, people begin to trust you and feel that it's worth their time to show up for the live event.

The next time you create a business presentation, add one last step after you finish your slides... Go back and read the marketing promotion that went out. Highlight the key promises made and the reasons given why people should attend. Now go back and look through your slides. How long is it before you deliver on one of those key promises? If it's more than 5 minutes, you need to do some editing and reordering.

You can make live webinars something worth looking forward to. One of the key ways to do it is to give your audience what they want. Do it fast. Once you have them hooked, you can take the time to add the rest of the things you wanted to say.

The percentage of show attendees that will meet our unique target profile might be quite small. Gone are the days of blanketing a list of 6000 attendees with a direct mail postcard inviting all of them to your booth number. Many exhibitors are pairing that list of 6000 down to 1,500 to 2,500 defined prospects. Though this allows us to do a much better job of aiming our resources, the MicroCasting concept pushes us one step closer.

Ponder this, if you were able to orchestrate 10 meetings with just the right 10 attendees and in those 10 meetings established post show activities with each of them, wouldn’t that in itself justify your exhibit spend? BOTTOM LINE – We can’t let the masses get in the way of our primary objective – “The Critical 10″.

Click here to watch the webcast archive!

You’ll learn:

• The project steps to putting on a webinar and
   who does what with which and to whom

• Tips for getting the right people to attend

• Tips to be a better online presenter

• Why you’ll get better reaction after the event than during

Click here to watch the webcast archive!

Here’s some highlights:

• Understand how simple humans are limited in their aiblity to absorb information.

• Grasp why audiences easily become frustrated and overwhelmed by most presentations.

• Learn how to create great PowerPoints to your advantage!

Click here to watch the webcast archive!

Here’s a recap:

• What is technology doing to us? Is it making us stupid? Learn the amazing things brain researchers are discovering about just how much we can take. The results of those studies will surprise you.

• The vast amount of misinformation on the internet is really a crime. Learn who’s trying to pick your pocket. We’ll name names and take prisoners so that they don’t take you to the cleaners.

• Discover what is starting to make Google nervous and why it’s a cautionary tale for you as well. It’s not what you think.

If you answer yes to any of these then you need to look into web meetings software like GoToMeeting. Just think for a moment how much it costs to attend a meeting across town. There's the cost of gas, usually food and the time before and after the meeting wasted traveling. With a web meeting solution like GoToMeeting, you can sit down at your computer with a cup of coffee, join the meeting with all of your office at your disposal and it is really easy to quickly add someone into the meeting at the last minute instead of the logistics of getting them there which usually results in another meeting being scheduled.

If you have questions, just check out the other articles in this blog for information on how it works and how it compares to its competition.

When using VoIP for your meeting, audio quality can vary based on your audio software/hardware manufacturer as well as your operating system.

 Listed in order from best quality to poor quality

USB headset connected to your computer

Headphones and USB microphone connected to your computer

Analog headset connected to your computer

Headphones and analog microphone connected to your computer

External speakers and USB microphone

External speakers and analog microphone

Laptop built-in microphone and speakers

External speakers and USB Webcam microphone

Avoiding Call Echo

• A USB headset is recommended
• Built-in or external speakers can cause echo. We recommend reducing the speaker volume to a low level.
• Webcams with microphones can pick up additional noise and cause echo. Using a Webcam for your audio is not recommended.
• Laptops with built-in microphones: Built-in microphones can pick up noise and cause echo. Using a built-in microphone for your audio is not recommended.
• Echo from an attendee: If you suspect echo from an attendee, check who is talking at the bottom of the Audio pane and mute that attendee or ask the attendee to lower his or her speaker volume.
• Reduce background noise

Avoiding Background Noise

• A meeting is best presented from a quiet location.
• If using a microphone, move the microphone closer to your voice and away from competing sounds (i.e., computer fans).
• Avoid moving or touching the microphone during your meeting.
• A good quality headset is recommended. Webcams and built-in microphones can pick up noise and are not recommended.

Dropped Words, Delay, Robotic Sound

Dropped words, delay or robotic sound is often due to poor network performance, lack of memory or high CPU usage.

• Close all applications you are not using for your presentation.

A dial-up Internet connection can cause poor performance. For optimum performance when using VoIP, we recommend a broadband Internet connection.