You’re leading a large group facilitation webinar. What tools do you need to keep everyone engaged?

2 A clear agenda

The second tool you need is a clear agenda that outlines the objectives, topics, activities, and timings of your webinar. You want to share your agenda with your participants before the webinar, so they know what to expect and how to prepare. You also want to follow your agenda during the webinar, so you can keep track of your progress and manage your time effectively. A clear agenda can help you create a structured and focused webinar that meets the learning outcomes and satisfies the participants.

4 A feedback system

The fourth tool you need is a feedback system to evaluate your webinar and improve your facilitation skills. You should collect feedback from participants during and after the webinar to assess their satisfaction, learning, and engagement. This feedback can help you identify your strengths and areas for improvement as a facilitator. Check-ins can be used to monitor the mood, energy, and involvement of participants throughout the webinar. Surveys can be used to gather feedback from participants at the end of the webinar, with open-ended or closed-ended questions. Reflections can be used to review your own performance and learn from mistakes and successes. A journal, a peer, or a mentor can be used for this purpose.

5 A follow-up plan

The fifth tool you need is a follow-up plan that can help you sustain the learning and engagement of your participants after the webinar. You want to provide them with resources, support, and opportunities to continue their learning journey and apply their new skills and knowledge. Additionally, you should maintain the connection and relationship with your participants and invite them to future webinars or events. To do this, you can offer resources such as slides, recordings, handouts, articles, books, podcasts, or videos to help them review or reinforce their learning. You can also provide support like coaching, mentoring, feedback, or guidance to help them overcome challenges or achieve goals. Finally, you can give your participants opportunities such as projects, assignments, communities, or networks to practice or share their learning.

6 A backup plan

The sixth tool you need is a backup plan that can help you cope with unexpected issues or emergencies that may occur during your webinar. It is essential to anticipate and prepare for potential risks or problems that may affect your webinar and have alternative solutions or options ready. You should also communicate and collaborate with your participants and co-facilitators to handle any issues or emergencies calmly and effectively. Technical glitches such as poor internet connection, audio or video issues, platform crashes, or power outages may disrupt your webinar, so you should have a backup device, internet source, platform, or power supply ready. Additionally, low attendance, late arrivals, early departures, distractions, or disruptions may be participant issues that you need to address with a clear attendance policy, a reminder system, a time buffer, a participation agreement, and a moderation strategy. Lastly, inaccurate information, outdated data, irrelevant topics, or unclear objectives may be content issues that you can correct with a quality assurance process, a content update system, a feedback mechanism, and a revision plan.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?