Resurrecting the Webinar: Old Format, New Life!

Webinars have become an essential tool for learning and engagement, but keeping participants attentive and involved can be challenging, especially in the wake of Covid and so many in-person meetings and trainings moving online.

To make your webinars more interactive and fun, consider these strategies:

1. Start with Movement: Kick off your webinar with an engaging introduction that gets people participating. Use activities like quick polls or rapid-fire icebreakers to set a friendly tone and encourage participation from the start.

2. Set Your Intention: Set a clear vision for the goals of the webinar, including what participants should gain from the session and the expectations for participation. Depending on the subject, set a clear tone for the discussion.

3. Use Interactive Tools: Incorporate tools like polls, quizzes, and live Q&A sessions throughout your webinar. These not only keep the audience engaged but also provide valuable feedback. Tools like Kahoot, Mentimeter or Slido can add a layer of interactivity that keeps your audience involved in the session.

4. Break Up the Content: Break up your webinar into different spaces by using different design elements or learning techniques. Avoid long, uninterrupted monologues or long slide presentations. Instead, break up the presentation into short segments and follow each with a breakout room discussion, a poll, or a quick activity. This helps maintain attention and makes the content more digestible.

5. Leverage Multimedia: Mix up your presentation with videos, animations, or interactive infographics. Visual content can make complex information easier to understand and more engaging than static slides alone.

6. Encourage Participation: Invite attendees to participate by asking open-ended discussion questions, encouraging them to share thoughts in the chat or by allowing them to take the mic. Liven up the chat by allowing participants to post emojis and GIFs. Track chat participation and offer prizes for the most active participants, best questions, funniest GIF, etc.

7. Gamify the Experience: Incorporate elements of gamification, such as point systems for participation, leaderboards, or small prizes for correct answers in quizzes. Gamification adds a fun competitive element that keeps energy levels high.

8. Wrap Up with a Fun Recap: Conclude your webinar with a summary of key points in a fun format—such as a rapid-fire Q&A, a quick game, or a creative visual recap. This reinforces learning and leaves your audience with a memorable ending.

The key to making your webinar more than “Death by PowerPoint” is to keep things interactive, varied, and, most importantly, fun!