Taking all your content and moving it online takes some work. From technology blips to working from home—the preparation and planning needed for training looks different than in the past.
The Bob Pike Group training pros want to help you make your next webinar engaging, fun, and memorable for learners with these easy-to-use tips. Pick and choose what works best that you can use immediately to make it easier on yourself … and learners!
10 Ways To Add Pizzazz To Your Next Webinar
- At the start, break up participants’ preoccupations to get their mindset ready for the content. Offer them the time to network with each other as you wait for all attendees to sign in with openers or ice breakers that are relevant to the course.
- Theme your presentation to keep learners’ attention. Theme ideas include vacations, road trips, pizza or other food, jungles, and treasure maps. Carry the theme throughout in the slide backgrounds and content application while keeping it fun and memorable.
- Make it personal. Sprinkle in some of your own family photos or funny memes at the beginning to introduce yourself. Also encourage participants to share a bit about themselves to create a human connection that expands beyond just the workplace or professional life.
- Use revisiters that keep learners actively engaged in the process. Here, the participants actually do the work versus the trainer reviewing or summarizing the content. Build in opportunities throughout the session to put learners in the driver’s seat. Most importantly, never say “Now let’s just review what I talked about!”
- Create a visual experience to accompany learning. Throughout the slide show and presentation, use lots of eye-catching pictures and visuals versus words. Pictures are proven to create more of a lasting impression than words while also helping with content retention.
- Incorporate physical energizers to get participants moving! They’ve likely been sitting at a computer for several hours and need to get their blood flowing. For example, play a game that has participants standing up if they agree with a statement you make.
- Prioritize the “need-to-knows.” There is a lot of content to cover in a short amount of time with dozens or more participants. Note the most important takeaways that participants will use immediately. Any other bit of content beyond that is a bonus!
- Plan, prepare & perform. Chunk out your content to keep it organized and flowing. Use templates as you design, and remember it takes 10-15 hours to design every one hour of a webinar (including handouts, slide shows, activities, etc.). The Bob Pike Group offers the Interactive Virtual Trainer live online class that can help trainers like you design online courses stress free and efficiently.
- Have a backup plan (or two)! Plan A is your ideal plan, but have a Plan B and Plan C ready, too. Technology issues, sickness, software malfunctions are out of your control. Whether it’s rescheduling a course, moving it to a different platform, or offering handouts as a substitute—having a couple back up plans will ease the stress.
- At the end of the course, include closers. After a 3-hour session, there is a lot of content that was covered! At the conclusion of the session, tie all the content together in a quick summary that includes action items for participants to take away as they prep for their own next presentation.
For 15 more tips and tricks to add energy to your next webinar by The Bob Pike Group training group, watch this free webinar-on-demand. You’ll walk away with 25 fun, easy-to-incorporate training methods that will make your virtual presentation memorable for all participants!
