Potomac Webinars

Andy Goodman—Webinar Survey Results

Back on March 16 2009 I posted a link to Andy Goodman's and The Goodman Center's survey on teleconferences, videoconferences & webinars. The results are in their new report: Dialing In, Logging On, Nodding Off: The True Costs of Teleconferences, Videoconferences and Webinars.

 

Over the course of about 22 days last spring, 1218 people took the survey (representing Non-profit 58%; Government 14%; Foundations 13%; Education 7%; Other 9%) The top 5 issues the respondents represented were: Education, Health, Children/Youth, Environment. Click here for a full report.

There are lots of ways to slice and dice the data. I'll focus on the items that jumped out at me the most. Below is the gist of the webinar section, with a few comments.

First, usage rates:

• 25% (about 300) of respondents participate frequently or very frequently in Webinars
• 56% (about 700) believe usage will increase
• 72% (about 800-900) have no training in how to use (when conducting) a webinar effectively.

The next issue noted was a report card. It's worth looking at the results from all of the types of meetings because it shows that even with 72% of respondents having no training in how to conduct an effective webinar, it's clearly a better medium for communicating a meeting or training. I found these results very encouraging for webinar usage.

	Telecon	Videocon	Webinar
Accomplish objective of meeting (or training)	B -	B -	B
Involve all the participants	C +	C +	B
Skill of Meeting (or training) leader	B -	B -	B

The survey listed common webinar problems ranked by FREQUENCY of occurrence:

1. Boring visuals (see my blog posts on Engaging Webinars and Creating a Great Presentation: Nancy Duarte's approach for some tips to combat this)

1. Lack of participant participation
2. Poor leadership/facilitation

Common webinar problems ranked by SIGNIFICANCE of negative impact:

1. Poor leadership/facilitation
2. Lack of agenda or clear objective
3. Boring visuals

So, boring visuals happen more often but are not as big of a problem as poor leadership/facilitation. I found some of the comments about creating interactive webinars noteworthy.  There is a clear link between the leadership/facilitation issue and the participant interaction component.

Overall, when asked to respond in an open-ended format, the respondents listed the issues of poor leadership/facilitation (24%); technical problems/background noise (20%); Misleading description of topic (18%); Too much information for allotted time (16%) and Boring/uninteresting/irrelevant topic (14%) This just echoes previous sentiment.

The webinar section closed with the following 'Meetings are meetings no matter what kind' and that "If you don't know how to run a good meeting in person, adding the prefix tele-isn't going to help you and, in fact, will probably make life even more difficult."  --'nuf said!

I was encouraged for the webinar consulting prospects of Potomac Webinars. As you can tell from the title of his report, there is definitely a need for webinar training and help in developing effective webinars. With growth expected in this medium (56% expected slight to significant increases that they would be logging on for more webinars in the future) the future looks bright.

Stay tuned for blog posts with suggestions on how to combat the issues listed. Additionally, The Goodman Center will be will be offering a free webinar based on this study on July 17^th.

Andy, thanks for the shout out in the acknowledgements section. I was (and am) grateful for the opportunity to speak with you regarding my experience with webinars and hope that I was able to help you spread the word.

Andy Goodman's Survey

Andy Goodman, of The Goodman Center, and a goodman communications consulting is conducting a survey on webinars and teleconferences.  Please check it out and/or send it on if you know if someone who might fit the profile. 

http://budurl.com/AGoodman

** This survey is intended only for those in the following sectors:  non-profits, foundations, government agencies, educational and cultural institutions.  If you aren't in one of these groups, but know someone who is, please send it on.  Thanks **

Here's a bit more from the survey creators:  

If you'll take a new survey on teleconferences, videoconferences and webinars, you'll receive a full report on what works, what doesn't and why.  Here's the scoop:

Given the current economic climate, everyone's looking for ways to cut costs and work smarter.  And that means more organizations may turn to teleconferences, videoconferences and webinars instead of in-person meetings.  Makes sense in theory, but will this really be a good thing?  

You've probably endured enough badly-run "long distance meetings" to agree that these can be serious time-wasters.  On the other hand, there are some organizations that are learning how to master these technologies.  Andy Goodman (author of Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes) wants to find and share those best practices (as well as the common mistakes we should all avoid), but first he needs your help.

His online survey takes only about 10 minutes to complete, and in return for your time, he'll send you a complete report with all the results in April.  So give him just a few minutes now, and hopefully  he can save you from countless borning hours in the months to come!  Click on this link to take the survey:  

http://budurl.com/AGoodman

And then forward this to a colleague and help make this study even more comprehensive.  Thanks for your help!  

I imagine Andy has a "Why Bad Webinars Happen to Good Causes" publication in the works.  As a webinar consultant in the DC area, I think it will be another great tool.  Thanks for helping Andy out.

Video is gaining importance

I was reading a Wainhouse Research white paper (funded by WebEx) recently about the importance of the Webinar in the Marketing Mix and found it interesting that attendees ranked video capability high on the list of features a webinar should have while presenters ranked it lower.  I'm sure a lot of presenters will be taking note and adding it in a little bit to liven things up.  In fact, it's even the topic of the month at Adobe: 

This month’s Topic of the Month is Video and Connect Pro. What exactly does this mean? Well there are a variety of ways in which video can be created and utilized within Connect Pro. Among the topics we will be exploring are creating video for use in Connect Pro meetings, using video with Adobe Presenter, and working with meeting recordings. We’ve posted a bunch of great new assets about this topic on ConnectUsers.com: http://connectusers.com/community/monthly_topic/ and will be adding more as the month goes on

So, presenters time to get out of your PJs!  You're going to have to be web-ready at the virtual podium....even if it's just at the intro and close.