Tips and Tricks for a Well-Executed Webcast
Producing a live webcast is both a science and an art. On one hand, you are making sure all technicalities like encoders, slides, and other interactive features are functioning properly. On the other, you are constantly coming up with clever ways to keep the audience engaged and making sure the presenters are keeping pace. There is a lot involved, and depending on your setup, can become quite complex with many moving parts that require a cohesive production team. Here are some tips and tricks to help you balance both the science and the art of live webcast production.
It’s important to understand the difference between a webcast and a web conference because their production requirements are quite different. A web conference is a virtual meeting meant for a small group of people where two-way conversation is more fitting (think WebEx / GoToMeeting). A webcast is a large, online broadcast where audience sizes can scale into the (hundreds of) thousands. Both have different levels of interactive features, which are mainly aligned to the size of the audience. Webcasts have bigger technical impact on networks due to the large audience sizes and video content and typically require more personnel to produce.
When you’re live, you’re live!
Make sure your presenters have their cell phones turned off and laptops muted. Keep an eye (or ear) on the audio sources to make sure that only the proper microphones are turned on. You don’t want the cringe-worthy “Am I live? Is this thing on?” to leak its way into your live stream.
Greet your audience, and provide instructions
Always greet your audience. It makes them feel like they’re in the room with you. Give them brief instructions on how to submit questions and where to get help if they experience technical difficulties. It’s also a good idea to create boilerplate slides with screenshots to go with your brief instructions.
Be smart about the presentation design and flow
A common mistake is to try and stuff as many bullet points into a single slide. It’s about quality, not quantity. If your audience wanted to read a Word document or an article, they would have gone somewhere else. I’ve seen webcasts with 100+ slides covering a multitude of topics that were more memorable and succinct than those with 10 slides stuffed with content that could have been spread out across more. Use larger font sizes. You don’t really need your logo on every slide and take it easy on the clip art!
If you can avoid lecturing, please do. Have your presenters engage in a conversation about the topic(s) at hand – like a talk show or TV interview. It is much more engaging and often entices audience members to ask questions. Presenters are less likely to follow a script and the flow of the discussion will feel more natural. You’ll appear more genuine to the audience as well.
Before the live webcast as audience members start tuning in, make sure you’ve got some great music playing in the background on the stream. Be tasteful but don’t bore them to death either. Think something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXpIDh2TfHk
When the live webcast is about to end, fade in to the music and let it play out a bit more before you end the event. If you have a live audience on-site in the auditorium or studio, a shot of people walking around and leaving is usually good. You might also want to add a thank you slide or some other general instructions for event follow-up as the music plays. If you have event sponsors, this would be a good time to highlight them again.
The last thing you want is to have little to no questions when it’s time for Q&A. It usually results in an awkward silence and really interrupts the pace and flow of the webcast. Sometimes, the audience might be shy or they are just hesitant to post a question under their name (even though there might a “keep me anonymous” option.) To overcome this possibility, plan a few key questions that align with the presentation and stage them in advance. The general audience won’t know where the questions came from, and it usually helps break the ice.
Delegate tasks, keep open team communication
If your webcast is expecting a large audience, delegate specific roles to your production team members. One can be the Q&A moderator, another the slide flipper. Open a team chat and communicate there. It’s also a great way to keep log of the production in case there are any technical difficulties during the event.
If you have the resources to execute fully redundant fail-over, do it. Have a backup or secondary encoder running streaming to redundant streaming servers. Also have backup personnel ready to fill-in in case of technical difficulties that a particular producer might be experiencing. Two seconds of black on a live event is a big deal – especially for large, high profile events.
Come up with a pre-event test plan
Always test the core functionalities of the webcast in advance of every live event – video/audio, slides, polling, Q&A, etc. Have your production team verify functionality as you go through your list. Think of this as a dress rehearsal. While that is happening, ensure that the presenters’ microphones are all working and that they’re looking good for the camera.
Follow up after the webcast
Chances are, the presenters won’t be able to answer every question that comes in during the live event. Try to provide responses to any unanswered questions even if by e-mail after the fact. Also, give your audience members a channel or method for submitting follow up questions – an e-mail address or a website form is a good idea.
How else will you know if your content is hitting home and if you are providing value? Don’t be afraid of any negative feedback – use them to improve the next go around. Use a survey or feedback form as the webcast is about to conclude or right after the webcast ends.
Don’t spam your registered audience
Keep the e-mail correspondence to a minimum. Provide a way for audience members to sign up / opt out of mailing lists and upcoming event reminders.
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