Mark Robson, Training and Adoption Consultant

Following on from my first blog, “Prior Preparation Prevents Particularly Poor Performance!”, that you can read here, I continue my dive into the worlds of Webex Event and Training Centres.

 

Get set

No P here… or is there? You’re now at the checking you’re ready to deliver the presentation stage. Fifteen mins before, join the event with your colleagues. Check your microphone, check your video. With Webex Event and Training Centre, you can talk amongst your fellow presenters without the attending audience hearing or seeing you. This is akin to the “green room” we have heard about on TV. This is a great time to do a final test, as however you see your colleagues, or they see you, that’s how the audience will see you. Check your surroundings, background and lighting. Check to see what happens when you lean back or forward; do you go out of view? Also, even though you see yourself in a small screen, the audience are able to change views so on their screen you may be in full screen, so things you may think are not visible, actually are! Don’t just try and find a white wall to sit in front of, try to find something interesting. It may even create a talking point in the future.

 

Go for it!

This is about planning your session. Plan out your delivery, as noted before, with an event your speaking to a muted audience, so plan what they see (and hear) before you start, plan to be prepared and have everything ready, and plan to start when you said you would. If your event was planned for 09:00 start dead on 9:02. This is an event, its recorded. Don’t wait for the “room” to fill up. Most people will arrive a few mins before to ensure that they are prepared. Minutes are a long time when your waiting for someone to start. So, set yourself a time to start and GO FOR IT!

 

Keep to the plan, but if you suddenly think of a relevant anecdote, add it in. It helps to keep things current and fresh. I do have a few “Don’ts”, well they’re more “try nots”! Try not to look at the attendance list as it grows or reduces; you’re recording the session, carry on regardless. Looking at the list or someone joining may jog your brain to other things and may put you off your train of thought. Don’t just ramble through or talk to quickly, your audience need to be able to understand you. Also, don’t rigidly read from a script. Your audience can tell, and it can make you sound robotic.

 

I also have some Dos; or try tos! Keep an eye on the Q&A, so you can choose when to answer, or acknowledge someone’s typed question if you’re going to get around to it later. Do try and interact with your colleagues or the audience. If you see someone that wants to ask a question, and you can see they don’t have their mic enabled, don’t be afraid to unmute them and get them to ask the question, but warn them beforehand, and then introduce them by name so the rest of the audience knows who is speaking “so Mike, you have a question, fire away”. Do remember to mute them again when their question or point is covered. Do use polls and other interactive means to get feedback from the audience during the session, it makes it more fun! Do control your meeting, even if it’s just you, keep an eye on the time and know when you have spent too long on a specific area. Do have fun and enjoy the experience

 

Hitting the X.

So, your presentation is done, you glow in the knowledge you have done all the practice and prep you could have done and delivered that polished performance! But don’t hit the “X” just yet. You can step back into the “green room” and have a debrief with your fellow panellists. You can also save all the Q&A’s ready to distribute out to your colleagues that may have the answers, or you can go back to someone that has asked a question that you would like to cover further. You can also go onto the Webex portal and have a look at the event stats, how many joined, how many dropped off, when did they drop off and did they come back? So was it a network issue or did they drop off and not come back? What time did they drop off? At this stage Webex is asking them for the feedback on the event, so you will start to see that come in. You may have also asked Webex to send out an email to those that didn’t attend and ask them if their interested in joining a future event on the subject, or even asked Webex to send out a link to the recording so they can watch again or for the first time (don’t worry, you can vet or edit it first). Don’t worry if you did hit the “X” though, this information is available to you for as long as you have Webex.

 

I hope my two blogs have given you an insight into the power of Webex Events. Natilik, as with all Cisco products, is here to help guide you through the capabilities and work with you to ensure the platforms get utilised.

 

Natilik offers a blended learning program to help your hosts, presenters, trainers and audience get the most out of the platform. If you want to know more, drop me a line and we can setup an event and see what Webex Event and Training Centre can do for your organisation.

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