Activate the participants every 5 minutes at the webinar and web meeting

12. oktober 2018

Would you like to have engaging and effective webinar or web meetings?

Then you should plan the webinar or web meeting as a combination of one-way communication and activities, where the participants are active and interact.

Make the participants concentrate and maximize their output

There are many ways that you as virtuel meeting leader og trainer can activate the participants, for them to focus on and relate to what is going on and thereby learn more. So that they don’t lose concentration and start thinking about or do something else – now that they are in front of the screen with free access to work, SoMe and emails …

The participants must be active at least every. 5 minutes

In fact, the participants must be involved at least once every 5 minutes, so that they actively relate to what they hear and see happening on the screen.

Every 5 minutes is more often than on a face-to-face meeting og training, where the physical setting makes it easier for the participants to concentrate, as they are stimulated by the impressions of the speaker and the other participants in the room.

All in all, the participants at a webinar or web meeting must be active at least 30% of the time depending on the objectives. Only a few webinar or web meetings that can live up to it!

What about yours?

Make the participants interact

At the web meeting or training, you can activate the participants by asking them questions about the subjects, that they just heard og learned about.

Make them  answer by using a poll or chat, or by video if you have a few participants. You can also ask them to contribute with their own knowledge and experience, or to collaborate on something in breakout sessions e.g. for 2-4 participants.

Some of the most common and simple methods that you can use, and most webinar and web meeting platform supports, include:

1. Chat where participants in short sentences share their thoughts, opinions and questions about the topic here and now
2. Polls, where participants vote on something
3. Smileys or emoticons, where the participants with a symbol indicate what they think of or know about something
4. Whiteboard, where the participants write or draw on the same virtuel board
5. Raise hand, when the participant want to ask or say something
6. Yes / No symbols for a quick answer to a question

The above methods are easy and quick to implement (if pre-prepared) and they have a huge impact on the participants’ commitment and concentration, and thus the effectiveness and benefits of the meeting/training.

Make the participants feel seen and heard – comment and use names

Always remember to comment on the participants’ responses and contributions, and relate them to the content and goals of the webinar and web meeting. This way you make them feel, that their contributions are seen and appreciated, and that they are essential for the benefit of the meeting/training.

Also, use their participants inputs to create dialogue between them so that they interact with each other, rather than only with the presenter or you as the meeting leader or trainer.