Webinarmed / BeaconLive Blog

Happy Thursday everyone!

Now I have been eavesdropping, maybe even spying, on some of our competitors and I’m seeing one topic that has gone untouched- how to get the most out of a webinar, as the listener. Of course the role of the speaker is infinitely important and takes devotion, time and effort, yet time is money people and if you are going to hunker down in your cube (or from the comforts of your own home, poolside chaise lounge or inner tube) you might as reap as much knowledge as possible.

(See! Look how ecstatic Michael Phelps is…while underwater, and with no scuba gear! Webinars, folks, they make you happy.)

Anyway sorry from straying from the main topic here…So the question is, how can you, as the listener get the most of the information being presented to you? My suggestions and tips are as follows…

1. Be prepared. Obviously something about this webinar caught your eye, so identify what it is and do some research on it. (Using the Google: News search engine is great. You get the most recent articles and opinions of your topic.) This will be most beneficial during the Q&A session when the speaker offers an allotted amount of time to field questions from his audience.

2. Get comfortable. About twenty minutes before the webinar is schedule to start, take a break! Grab a latte and a scone and take a brisk walk around the office. Too much time behind a computer can cause you to zone out and that’s exactly what you don’t want to happen when you are trying to soak up all those facts and insights.

3. Plug in some headphones. Distractions are everywhere from ringing phones to chatty office-mates to screaming babies and barking pups.

4. Take notes! Nowadays I like to stay as far away as I can from the evil college ruled notebooks, and as close as I can to my beloved keyboard. I find that using Stickies are the most helpful. For my Mac users out there, just search for ‘stickies” in the upper right hand corner of your screen and the app will pop up. For the PC people, click here to go the site where you can download this amazing program. With these you can type up for notes expeditiously, and keep the virtual post-it right next to the webinar window. So convenient!

5. Be engaged! The polls are there so the speaker can adapt his content to what his audience wants to hear, so utilize this tool and pick the best answer you can! Also, at the end take the extra fifteen minutes or so and take the questions or comments you dreamed up (and recorded on your Stickies!) and let the speaker hear what you have to say.

I want to know what you do to prep for a webinar or any meeting really. Quirky and even strange rituals will be appreciated and most likely even talked about!

Enjoy the beautiful day!