PGi Blog Resources for Virtual Events and Global Collaboration for Businesses
Zoom fatigue is real — 80% of U.S. employees claim to experience “Zoom fatigue,” the phenomenon affecting workers with burnout, stress, and tiredness caused by constantly appearing in video meetings. While 60% of employees say their fatigue stems from meetings running too long, a large majority cite “boring", uninspiring meetings. Building an interactive webcast experience is key in connecting with your audience, whether they’re employees, new hires, vendors, partners, or investors.
Strong online events create an immersive, interactive experience that is more than attendees simply staring at a screen. Gone are the days when a simple screen share presentation was enough to keep people’s attention. Instead, there are several ways to ensure your webcast stays interesting and encourage attendee participation before the event starts.3 Ways to Create an Engaging Webcast
1. Kick Off an Immersive Experience with Pre-Event Interaction
Get attendees excited for the webcast before the event even starts. Creating a positive, exciting atmosphere before the event will help prime attendees to be engaged and pay attention. This might look like a welcome survey that gathers information about attendees like hometown, job, a fun fact, or other interesting data points. Armed with this information, you can not only tailor the presentation content itself, but you can kick off the webcast by calling out attendees’ locations or fun facts, making people feel included and heard.
2. Create Opportunities for Discussion
Webcasts can sometimes feel very one-sided, so purposely make time in your presentation for your attendees to interact — whether that’s a reaction, a Q+A, or a poll. You might even open up the audio for them to speak. Don’t be afraid to pause for them to chime in or engage in an interesting discussion happening in the chat.
3. Keep the Presentation Short and Concise
People tend to lose attention quickly, thanks to our ever-shortening attention spans. Getting attendees to stay interactive will be even more challenging if your presentation lasts multiple hours. If your presentation requires length, try to give attendees a chance to interact every 7-10 minutes to keep them engaged.
Creating an Interactive Webcast Starts with Technology
Creating an interactive experience starts with choosing the right webcast platform. Many video conferencing technologies are outdated, clunky, and one-dimensional when it comes to attendee engagement.
GlobalMeet Webcast provides scalable features and functionality for interactive, engaging webcasts for Enterprise and Fortune 500 companies. Reach a larger audience through an immersive experience that brings your event to another level. Download GlobalMeet Webcast’s Event Planning Guide to learn more about how to facilitate an engaging webcast from beginning to end.
