Thread by @jonworth

We're all tired of #Webinars

We've all had too many of them because of COVID and working from home

But we're all going to have to endure more of them in the next few months

So please, please folks - can we get better at them?

And I mean better in often pretty simple ways

First, if you are running a webinar, get your setup right

This is my desk - at home

💻 is up high, so my webcam is closer to eye level - and yes, I am just using a box to do that!

External ⌨️ - so if I need to type when running a webinar my webcam does not shake

External 🖥 - so the chat and participant windows can go there, with videos on the laptop screen

But what about the cost I hear you ask?

Cheap USB ⌨️ - €10
Cheap USB 🖱 - €6
22 inch Monitor - €100

Yes, the ones I have are a little more than that - but you don't *need* an Apple Magic Mouse

Also I have never seen a webinar well moderated by a person using a tablet (rather than a PC) for that purpose - you simply do not have enough screen space, and tapping the screen makes the camera wobble

Use a PC if you can

Second, lighting

Make sure your light source is in front of you, not behind you. Put a 💡 next to or behind your laptop. Definitely avoid having a window behind you

Third, sound

If you're using a headset or wireless headphones, make sure the quality is good. Also in style terms do you really want to look like you're in a call centre in your video?

Echo cancelling in most webinar software is now pretty good - do you even need that headset?

Fourth, screen and slide shares

Sharing local files almost always works better than sharing files from a cloud service. So download your PowerPoint deck to your computer and share that

And share the window of one app, not your entire screen. Don't know the difference? Learn.

Don't just use the same slides you would use in real life.

Check animations make sense - probably remove some.

Check text size - make sure it's large enough.

Sharing in Presenter mode in PowerPoint can be messy - make a PDF of your slides and share that instead.

Fifth, tech

The simplest tech solutions are pretty much always the best. Audiences can tolerate short interruptions - while switching speakers for example - better than they can tolerate a complete breakdown.

Have online backups for photo and video content - for emergencies.

Sixth, team roles

Make sure it is clear from the outset who is to do what, and who is to control what.

A kind of hold-all-the-tech together person who never talks is always handy as well, if you can afford it.

Seventh, location

Don't try to do a webinar in a location unfamiliar to you. The sound might be awful if the place echoes. The internet might not be as stable as you had hoped. It's a recipe for things going wrong.

And yes, I *know* all of these points might - for good reasons - be impossible.

But in my experience more often than not over the last 6 months people *could* have thought of these points, but simply did not do so. It wasn't that they *could not* do so.

Now back to preparing videos for a webinar for a class this afternoon... 😜

/ends