When most people hear the word “webinar,” they picture a dull lecture with a PowerPoint presentation and no participation from the audience. That kind of webinar is archaic and never should be popular again. These days, a webinar includes a lot more than just a talking head. They combine many approaches, methods, tools, and technologies that can result in an engaging, fascinating subject with tens of thousands of participants. Most companies and event organisers choose the best webinar platform to host webinars.
The panel webinar is one underappreciated webinar format. Two speakers plus a moderator make up a panel webinar at its most basic level. It’s a well-known structure that’s frequently employed in conferences and trade exhibits, but it also works incredibly well for webinars. Panel webinars can be conducted in a variety of ways, including over coffee, in-depth discussions, all-hands gatherings, fireside talks, and other informal settings. The discussion’s structure is typically decided by the topic at hand and the tone of your industry. You will learn how to run a successful panel discussion webinar in this session.
What is a panel discussion webinar?
With the aid of the best online webinar service, hosting this kind of webinar is a terrific way to expand your network and audience. Ask other professionals that you are aware are knowledgeable about the topic to participate in your webinar so they may express their thoughts. A panel debating a current trend or subject will keep an audience very interested. Before starting, don’t forget to present your panel to give them legitimacy. Your audience will have confidence in the panel as a result before they even speak. At the conclusion of your webinar, if you have time, offer your audience a Q&A session with your industry specialist or professionals.
Best Tips to Host A Panel Discussion Webinar
Understand your goals
Provide what your audience wants! What comes first in organising a webinar panel discussion that is successful? Consider your audience. A session presenter would frequently fill the time with personal acquaintances and associates who may not have anything of interest to say to the listeners. Think on the purpose of your event (aka – the reason why people have signed up to begin with). Your search for panellists that contribute to the main discussion rather than detract from it due to their own personal agenda will stay in focus if you are aware of the objective of your webinar panel. Some webinar hosts believe that soliciting audience feedback is the greatest approach to concentrate on the viewers.
Choose a professional speaker
When you know what you want to accomplish, you can start compiling a list of potential webinar panel speakers. You get to pick the greatest speakers for your cause, which is one of the biggest advantages of holding a webinar panel. Using Webinar live video streaming, you may bring speakers and audiences together in real-time. Don’t only look through possibilities with whom you already have a business relationship. Reach out to any industry professionals you believe may benefit from your session and ask if they would be willing to join.
Including well-known figures on your guest list will enhance both registration and actual attendance on game day. Don’t choose a webinar panel of speakers that all have the same message to share or who have the same opinions. By adding presenters with a range of viewpoints and perspectives, you can diversify your discussion.
Choose the best webinar platform
Different businesses favour various webinar systems. Choose an affordable webinar service provider with the most feature-rich platforms by asking your panellists and partners about the ones they have access to. Simply said, think about the price and the features you’ll need or want. Making sure there is a recording to give attendees after the webinar is a significant plus. Therefore, be careful to choose a programme that can record your broadcast. Furthermore, the platform you choose needs to offer chances for audience participation through chat, Q&A, downloaded materials, and interactive polls. When making a decision, consider the following:
- Amount of participants it can hold
- It should be simple to switch between speakers and allow people to ask questions
- screen-sharing capabilities
- Slide sharing capabilities
- recording capabilities
- Cost
Point out any important issues that should be discussed or avoided
There might be some topics you want to make sure are covered or avoided in the discourse because trends are continuously shifting. As soon as you can, let everyone know this. If there is time, sketch out the general direction you want the talk to go in. The speakers and moderator might divide up the themes for discussion and arrange a follow-up conversation with a more thorough agenda. Plan a sidebar meeting with the required team members to discuss the topics later if there isn’t enough time for this.
Create slides
Your speakers should be recorded as they are speaking, but you should also use certain visual aids to enhance the audience’s overall perception. Find out from each of your presenters whether they will be using slides and visual aids for their discussions. If so, you should have access to them in advance of the event so you may include them into the main presentation. You should make at least one slide if they don’t supply any for you. A straightforward slide with their names and discussion points might give a visual element to their speech and keep listeners interested.
Organize Q&A sessions
To maximise interaction with your webinar participants, you should always include Q&A sections. Question and answer sections can fascinate the audience, break up the monotony, and rapidly increase energy levels (which, inevitably, do dip a bit as the conference goes on). Don’t let each panellist respond to each and every query. A certain method to lose participation is to keep hearing the same response. Instead, let one or two presenters to comment. Following, move the discussion on to the next question.
