Hosting a Live Webinar Checklist

Hosting a webinar is a great way to engage an audience.

They can be run as a regular occurrence to engage an existing audience, or as part of a bigger virtual conference to perhaps attract a new audience. 

They’re great for encouraging engagement from participants because they allow for questions, polls, Q&A sessions, and surveys. They’re interactive and inclusive. 

There are a number of different ways you can host a webinar; live webinars, on-demand webinars, and always-on webinars are just three examples. 

But statistics show that 59% of attendees enjoy participating in live webinars.

These are the trickiest to host as they are… well, live!

Doing anything live, in front of an audience is nerve-wracking, but especially webinars. Mistakes can’t be edited out, words can’t be taken back, and it takes a great deal of planning and practicing to make sure your webinar goes without a hitch. 

That’s why the team at Process Street has created this hosting a live webinar checklist. 

This checklist will help you plan, prepare, and host an engaging, interactive and successful webinar.

Who is Process Street? 

Process Street is super-powered checklists. It’s the easiest way to manage your recurring tasks, procedures, and workflows. 

Create a template and run individual checklists for each member of your team. Check tasks off as you work through them, set deadlines, add approvals, assign tasks, and track each team member’s progress.

You can also connect to thousands of Apps through Zapier and automate your workflows even more.

Enter the checklist details by filling out the below fields.

This will allow anyone to pick up this process and know who to contact if they have any questions. 

Chances are you have already decided what your webinar topic will be, but to make sure it will inform and motivate your audience, answer these questions, and confirm the webinar topic in the field below. 

Tip! Choose a highly specific content idea that you can go into in great detail. This will make it easier to focus on the topic and minimize the chance of going off on tangents. 

Enter the date and time you want to run the webinar in the fields below.

Try and schedule your virtual conference for a time that works well for attendees in different time zones.

Although if you’re planning to record the webinar, don’t worry about this too much.

It’s important that you choose the right platform to host your webinar on. You don’t want to run into any technical glitches partway through and you don’t want to overspend either. 

The size of your company and your attendee list will dictate how robust your hosting solution needs to be, but something like Zoom works for most. 

Zoom is one of the most-used virtual conference platforms around. It’s super intuitive and has a low learning curve. That means it’s more accessible to your audience, who may be less comfortable with technology.

Confirm your webinar hosting platform in the field below. 

Create a registration page with a form that allows attendees to sign up for the webinar and put the URL of the page in the field below.

Having a registration form is crucial for letting your attendees sign up for your webinar in advance and also allows you to track the number of attendees.

Promote your conference on social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.  

Include key information such as the registration link, webinar topic, plus the dates and times in your messaging.

Make your posts fun and interactive!

Create a hashtag, run a competition, create a conference group, write blog posts and include key information about your webinar in all your campaigns.

Anyone that visits your site should know about your webinar

Here are some ways you can promote the webinar on your site: 

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Countdown Timers (both static and dynamic)
• Inline Campaigns
• Fullscreen Welcome Mats

Since these people have voluntarily given you their email address, there’s a good chance that they’ll be interested in attending your webinar.

Capitalize on that and send them an email. 

Follow these guidelines for making sure your email is read:

Your slide deck should strengthen and emphasize the points you intend to make in your webinar.

Make sure to do the following when creating each slide:

Once you’re happy your slide deck meets the above criteria, upload it into the field below.

See your script is your guide. It will help you stay on topic, and make keeping track of time much easier.

Make sure you do at least one run-through of the entire webinar, several days before the date of your webinar, to make sure that your content works and all your gear is functioning correctly.

Few things will ruin a webinar faster than poor-quality audio and technical glitches.

Test all your equipment before you start the webinar and don’t rely on built-in mics on your laptop – the resulting audio may be tinny, distorted, or faint, even if you have some decent hardware.

Instead, use cabled headset microphones to ensure that everything you say is clear.

Make sure you’re prepared and ready to go at least 10 minutes before the webinar is scheduled to begin, or even earlier if you can.

This will help get things going promptly, and can help you feel more relaxed when it’s time to begin.

Have at least one spare battery on hand for each piece of equipment. Don’t run the risk of a dead or malfunctioning battery ruining your webinar!

Turn off your computer notifications, cell phone, and anything else that could distract you or your audience during the webinar.

At the end of your webinar, it might be a good opportunity to ask for feedback so you can determine what went well and what can be improved for next time.

You could ask your audience to provide feedback there and then, you could send them an email, you could post a survey link on social or you could do a combination of all three.

Here are some questions you may want to ask your audience: 

• Please rate your overall experience
• Please rate the quality of the content 
• What can we improve upon for next time?
• How easy was it to access the webinar? 
• What were your favorite parts of the webinar?
• What topics would you like to see covered in future webinars?
• Do you have any other suggestions or feedback you would like to share?

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• Eventable Event Promotion Checklist
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• Small Event Checklist
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• Budget Preparation Checklist
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Sources

• GotoMeeting – How to Create and Host a Webinar
• OptinMonster – How to Host a Virtual Conference: Everything You Need
• Cohesive Global – Video Conferencing problems? Here are some Troubleshooting Tips
• WordStream – How to Do a Webinar Your Audience Will Love
• SocialTables – 7 Easy Steps to Successful Virtual Event Planning
• Medium – The types of virtual events explained
• Event Manager – 10 Standout Virtual Event Ideas From Around the Industry
• Townscript – 10 Types of Virtual Events that You Can Host in 2020
• vFairs – Virtual Event Planning Checklist 
• Sprout Labs – How to run a virtual conference
• Adobe – Adobe Connect Event Readiness Guide 
• Endless – Your Ultimate Virtual Event Planning Checklist!
• CDN2 – Your Virtual Event Planning Checklist!