Free consultation It covers issues that mainly arise from webcasting a physical event such as a conference or annual general meeting. It is not intended to cover every possible consideration and type of webcast. We recommend that you contact us for a complete assessment.
Considerations for webcasting
There are many reasons to webcast. Here are the most prevalent among our clients.
Capture a large audience affordably: Many government departments and large organizations travel the country to give information sessions to employees and members of the public. However, today's busy lifestyle and challenging economy mean tfhat many people cannot physically attend. Webcasting an event or conducting a web-only event (such as a webinar) can reach far more people because it saves them time and money. It also helps cut costs for the host organization that would otherwise have to travel more and pay for more meeting rooms. Webcasting is normally not a substitute for in-person sessions but is an excellent addition to improve participation and lower overall costs.
Better quality feedback: Many times at physical events, some people are shy about speaking up and giving their feedback. The web is the great equalizer. On a webcast, people do not have to wait in a line to speak, they can be anonymous and their contribution is made without having to stand up and speak in front of everyone.
Promotion and branding: Some people mistakenly believe that webcasting a physical event will mean that nobody will show up. This could not be further from the truth. Webcasting an event is simply a way to allow access for people who cannot attend the physical event. By watching an event online and experiencing its benefits, viewers are more likely to want to attend physically next time. In this way, webcasting becomes a powerful promotional tool. It is increasingly used for branding and public awareness by theatre companies, other arts and culture venues, and organizations with a strong public information and awareness mandate.
The webcast should have an evaluation form
Your webcast can include an evaluation form upon log-out. The form can ask people what they thought about the webcast and solicit ideas for future topics. The response rate for most forms is between 50 and 90 per cent.
Flash or Windows Media?
These are the two most popular formats for webcasting. Most clients don't care what format is used as long as everyone can easily tune in. For government departments, Windows Media is recommended because most governments operate in a PC environment and Windows Media is pre-installed on PC computers. As a result, permission from a government IT department is not needed to install a media player. For general audiences, Flash is recommended because it is accessible across all platforms and is a quick and easy download for machines that don't already have the plug-in.
The webcast should be live
There are several reasons to consider live webcasting.
Offer audience interaction: If you want the web audience to send in questions and comments during the event and your presenter(s) are able and willing to respond right away, live webcasting is the way to go. It is interactive and spontaneous. Web audience members enjoy the ability to interact with the event from the comfort and convenience of their home or office. But, it is strongly recommended that you appoint someone to filter the questions before they are given to the person who will answer. This will avoid potentially embarrassing situations where a question is not properly understood or cannot be answered right away.
Webinars: This is a type of webcast where one or more experts do a slide presentation and answer web audience questions during and after the presentation. There is not necessarily a physical audience. The expert(s) may be alone in a boardroom talking to a worldwide audience. Webinars, by their very nature, are interactive and therefore need to be live.
Immediacy: Even if you have no audience interaction, a live webcast provides immediacy, giving your audience real-time access as though they were there. GC conducts many non-interactive webcasts for arts and culture events to help promote theatre companies and other similar organizations in need of public exposure.
Event recording
Live webcasting is not always essential. If you want to provide access to an event and both live interaction and immediacy are not important, then we can record the event and upload to the web.
Registration and log-in
If your webcast is for a specific audience and you do not want just anyone tuning in, it is strongly recommended to have a registration system. Only people who register will be able to log in and watch. You also have the added benefit of accessing the user database to see who signed up and who logged on.
Registration fields should be non-personal for free webcasts: If using registration, consider whether personal information collection is necessry. Privacy laws require you to inform people why you are asking for personal information and what you plan to do with it. Very few free webcasts require personal information so in these cases, people should be able to provide a nick-name and business information such as the name of their organization and their business email address.
The slides need to be adjusted for the webcast
Unfortunately, many organizations do not take the time to ensure their slides are webcast friendly. Keep in mind that when slides are reduced in size to accommodate a computer monitor, everything shrinks down and if small text is used, it will be impossible to read in a webcast. Use these basic guidelines:
- 24 point text or larger
- Avoid more than 4 or 5 bullets on a single slide
- Pictures should fill up the slide and not be reduced in size
- Do not use animation for webinar slides (if you want movement, create several slides of the same chart, for example, and have each slide show something slightly different)
Make sure there is good lighting
At many conferences, the lights are turned off or dramatically dimmed so that people can see the slides on the large screens. While this is fine for people physically in the audience, it darkens the video for web viewers. Consider a happy medium. Most large screens are still very easy to see in moderate room lighting. If we are hired to manage your webcast, we'll bring a spotlight for the podium and we use very high quality video cameras that have adjustable aperture and shutter speed. However, even with this technology, a room that is completely dark will present problems.
Avoid dull backgrounds
Many events are held in facilities that have very dull wall colors that can make the webcast appear washed out. Consider placing a flag, banner, logo or draping as a backdrop for added color and for branding purposes. Remember, if using black draping, people with very dark clothing will blend in with the draping and only their head and hands will be clearly visible!
Consider the positioning of the podium and slides
For event webcasts, the position of the podium where someone is speaking and the location of the screen for the slides should be the same as the webcast interface page. In other words, if looking head-on from an audience perspective, the podium is on the left and the speaker looks to the right when checking out the slides, then the webcast page should have the podium video on the left and the slide window on the right. If it's the reverse, then the webcast viewers will see the speaker looking in the opposite direction of the slides.
Say these things to the webcast audience
Nobody likes to be ignored and that includes people who have taken the time to register and attend your webcast. During your event, mention that a webcast is going on and say hello to the webcast audience. If your webcast is interactive, make an appeal at the very start to have questions sent in. Tell people they do not have to wait until the end to send a question. They should be sending in questions and comments as they think of them. It's also a good idea to answer a few incoming questions as soon as possible at an appropriate time. That way, you engage the web audience early on and encourage more questions to be sent in. Also inform the web audience that not every question may be answered right away depending upon time constraints. Questions not answered during the webcast can be answered as part of an archive.
Number 1 question asked by webcast participants: Webcast participants will always ask if they can see the archive, when and how. They also always want a copy of the slides.
Have a question or issue not addressed here? We'd be happy to help out.
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