The event industry has undergone a major transformation over the past few years with the addition of completely virtual events, conferences, and webinars. These events have come a long way since 2019, but still have room for improvement.

With the big shift to a hybrid work environment, webinars are fast becoming a top funnel for all industries to get information to their employees, current customers, and potential customers. Companies around the world are constantly trying new tactics to keep attendees engaged and rethink what a webinar should look like.

Among these strategies, we’ve honed in on four crucial elements: 

Interactive Platform: One of the biggest challenges of online events is to keep attendees engaged without in-person entertainment, swag bags, and of course human interaction. A webinar can truly take the form of whatever the company wants it to be, so after two years of them, make sure you’re avoiding the sleepy agendas and classic PowerPoint demos to engage with attendees more creatively. A few examples include:

• Animated Campus Tour

• Interactive Award Shows

• Themed event - you’d be surprised how many attendees and speakers are ready to get into costume!

• Charity Auction

• Team-bonding activities like a virtual flower arrangement, mixology, or painting class 

• Leadership-building workshop

• Getting-to-know-you games when new team members join!

Discussion-based:  Keep in mind how limited in-person interaction still is in most work fields. Webinars should be conversational and should allow for attendees to chime in whether it be over the camera or in the chat. Allowing connection in the webinar will keep people captivated by the information. Not to mention, people tend to absorb more when they are hearing or conversing with others, versus seeing stats on a screen.

Engagement vs Distraction: Incorporating exciting polls, games, and online chats keeps participants engaged and focused—but you want to ensure you’re not distracted the audience too much. Make sure to strike a healthy balance. We recommend no more than 3-4 engagements per 10 minute session (an engagement can be a poll, a blurb, a notification, etc. anything separate from the content the attendee should be focused on). 

It is important to optimize every experience for engagement by using webinar platforms that allow for the max number of people to attend. There are a number of platforms that can be used for these types of events- Zoom Webinar Platform, ON24, Webinarjam, and many more. Tip: Use a platform that supports attendance on mobile devices to account for your on-the-go attendees. 

Timing: Plan webinars on ideal days to get the most engagement.  On24’s Mark Bronstein mentioned in his “5 webinar rules to break”, that Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday are the most ideal days for a webinar. Avoid Monday and Friday. Time is a commodity to everyone, so schedule your webinar for peak attendance and engagement. 

Once you start rethinking webinars in the ways we've described above, your attendees will be engaged, informed, and excited to tune in. 

Need more help creating your webinar? We’re here to help!