When you wish upon a webinar...

You've seen how I feel about webinars. I think I compared attending them to a trip to the dentist. Think about that blog post now imagine how I might feel about hosting a webinar...

It was't that bad. It was only a short webinar. It was actually pretty OK when I look back on it but with my perfectionist tendencies I'm not a big fan of OK. Let me illustrate:

The title of my webinar was Online Self-Defense: Reporting and Blocking Abusive Online Behavior on Facebook & Twitter.

What Went Well:

1. I had some really great participants who showed up and actively participated. Not only did my participants participate, but they were very open in their participation and shared information, including that one of them revealing that they had been a victim of cyberbullying in the past.

2. Nothing went too wrong on the technical side. Well, unless you count the webinar not starting the first time I pressed the Start button. No worries though. I quickly realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be and started the webinar through my backup link.

3. My audience was able to participate in the practice session and appeared to find value in what I presented. If it helps them or someone they know be able to react quickly to online abusive, my webinar did its job.

What I Wish Had Gone Better:

1. I'll be honest. I wish my audience had been a little larger, but the time was triple-booked with two other webinars happening at the same time. Not have as big of an audience as I wanted threw me off my game and made me doubt the appeal of my topic to my audience.

2. I'm not a fan of facilitating and I'll admit I got nervous in front of my audience. Because I got nervous, I don't think I did as good a job of interacting with my small audience as I could have. I think a wider scope of experience among my audience would have made the discussion richer.

Lessons Learned:

1. I need to continue working on my facilitation "stage fright." I have to get used to my audience looking back at me, whether it's online or in a classroom. I knew my presentation backwards and forwards, but it went right out of my head once I saw people on their webcams.

2. I need to react a little faster when technical glitches happen. While I responded quickly this time, my mild tardiness could have cost me audience members with a larger group.

3. I will ask more directed questions to my audience in the future. This will help get them talking (or Chatting) and make the content of my webinars richer.

All of these are great things for me to remember when I host webinars in the future. Am I glad this one is over with? You bet I am!

Check out the great infographic I created for my webinar!