What's Worse - A Trip to the Dentist or a Webinar?

When most people hear the word webinar they groan inwardly then paste a smile on their face and say "Sounds great!" So, why do people react to webinars like they're a trip to the dentist?

In my experience, webinars are either very good or very bad. I've rarely encountered a webinar that was just okay. In some ways, it's the way the concept of a webinar was outlined that have made it an awkward cross between a work presentation and a conference call that many people find so unexciting.

Because face to face communication is lost in a webinar, many presenters, hosts and participants lose the powerful connections that you make when you can see the expression on someone's face. Some of that is down to the natural tendency of humans to let their attention stray when not engaging with someone face to face. Some of it is also down to our inability to accurately judge the sincerity and veracity of what someone is saying when we can't see them saying it.

Though tools like WebEx, Google Hangouts, Skype, and Adobe Connect are closing the gap between an in-person presentation and an impersonal conference call, many designers and presenters fail to take full advantage of the interactive tools these programs have to more fully engage their audience. There's also the tendency among presenters to not give participants something to go out and do with what they've learned in the webinar, which (in my opinion) sucks the life and meaning out of the time spent in webinar training session.

On the other side of the equation, webinar participants fail to fully engage with webinars when they don't actively give their attention to the presenter and interact with the presentation like they would in a live, in-person session.

Obviously, there are some behavioral shifts needed on both sides. Designers need to plug in more interactivity and actionable value to their content. Presenters need to use the tools to engage their audience. Webinar participants need to stop playing games on their smart phones and answering email and pay attention to what the designer and the presenter have taken the time to build and deliver.