Just like Halloween, putting on a webinar can be scary. There are lots of variables and many things can go wrong. Here are a few reasons people are nervous to host webinars and ways to tackle those fears:

5. Mastering the Technology: Technology can be intimidating especially when your presentation depends on it. While ReadyTalk’s webinar tools are easy to use and designed to eliminate this concern, we still recommend that conference organizers and their speakers do a full dry run prior to the event. This ensures everyone on the webinar is comfortable with the technology and the content of the presentation.

4. Poor Participant Experience: We’ve all been on those bad webinars where the chairperson forgets to put all 500 participants on mute or turn off the conference entry tones. We often encourage customers to have the event organizer appoint someone that is solely responsible for running the meeting. This person doesn’t have speaking or moderating duties and can focus on the technical details as well help with queuing up the chat questions and other logistics.

3. Boring: There’s nothing worse than joining a webinar that promised interesting content that falls flat. Worse than that is when the presenter isn’t engaging. Polls and questions are a great way to engage the audience and prevent a boring webinar. ReadyTalk’s lead trainer, Shawn Cardinal, hosts free training sessions to help presenter’s learn skills for engaging the audience.  

2. No One Shows Up: So much time and energy goes into scheduling and hosting webinars—writing a compelling abstract, lining up speakers, scheduling dry-runs, invitations, reminders and more. There is nothing scarier than wondering if anyone will show up. Make sure your pre-event plan includes promotion. ReadyTalk’s integration with marketing automation and new social media tools make it easier to leverage your existing networks and reach new audiences.

1. Public Speaking: This is a common fear. However, many people find webinars to be easier because you can’t see the audience. Another way to ease your fears is to practice, practice, practice. If you’re familiar with the content and the technology it will make presenting much easier.

Do webinars scare you? Why? What have you done to overcome your fears?