Dave Clark·Aug 18, 2022The Importance of a Webinar Dry RunAs Ben Franklin wisely said, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. But for as long as I’ve been managing and hosting webinars, including almost a decade as an independent webinar producer, I’ve heard the same words of protest from webinar organizers and presenters: We don’t need a dry run…Webinar7 min readWebinar7 min read
Dave Clark·Mar 30, 2022Zoom Conceals Essential Webinar DataI fear I’ve been focusing this blog too much on Zoom lately. That’s really not my intention, despite the fact that this is my fourth consecutive post explicitly about Zoom, either praising them or panning them. It’s just that Zoom has now become, by far, the largest player in the…Webinar8 min readWebinar8 min read
Dave Clark·Dec 22, 2021New Zoom Feature Makes Multi-Presenter Webinars EasyI’ve been a critic of Zoom in the past for some of their narrow-minded software development decisions. As with most online conferencing platforms that market their software mainly to people looking for an informal peer-to-peer meeting solution, Zoom tends to focus on that core customer base and neglect the narrower…Webinar7 min readWebinar7 min read
Dave Clark·Jun 24, 2021Are Your Attendees Missing the Beginning of Your Webinars?Nope. It’s not what you’re thinking. My headline doesn’t refer to attendees who connect a few minutes late and miss the beginning of a webinar. True, some webinar organizers obsess over this. Their solution is to delay the start of the webinar by a few minutes to accommodate any late-comers…Webinar5 min readWebinar5 min read
Dave Clark·Jan 13, 2021How Zoom Ruined WebinarsI don’t usually call out webinar platform vendors by name. But I’m making an exception this time for two reasons. First, because a recent screen layout redesign implemented by Zoom makes the webinar attendee experience radically worse. And, second, because Zoom is so big now, with so many users, that…Webinar6 min readWebinar6 min read
Dave Clark·Sep 9, 2020Top 10 Webinar Gaffes, Clichés, and Pet PeevesIf you were to produce, host, and moderate as many webinars as I do, you would begin to see and hear some of the same things over and over again, year after year. As you can imagine, this can grate on ones nerves after a while. After posting this, I…Webinar7 min readWebinar7 min read
Dave Clark·Jul 31, 2020Webinar Presenters: You Don’t HAVE to Appear on CameraThe “Zoom video grid” is now forever etched on our collective consciousness. After constantly appearing over the last few months on countless TV commercials and news shows, that multi-camera screen view is as much a symbol of the global coronavirus pandemic as anything else. …Webinar6 min readWebinar6 min read
Dave Clark·May 13, 2020Webinar Audio is Getting WorseTechnology is supposed to improve over time. It’s supposed to get faster, easier, smaller, cheaper, better. We’ve all heard of “Moore’s law,” the observation that computing power doubles every two years, while cost is cut in half. Most of the personal technology we use every day has become more efficient…Webinar5 min readWebinar5 min read
Dave Clark·Feb 11, 2020Three Easy Tips to Maximize Webinar Registration and AttendanceOn average, only about three to five percent of people invited to a free webinar register to attend. What’s more, only about 50 percent of people who register for a webinar actually attend the live event. This isn’t as depressing as it may sound. If you’ve targeted your invitees correctly…Webinar7 min readWebinar7 min read
Dave Clark·Oct 16, 2019Why Your Next Webinar Should Be a Conversation, Not a PresentationPeople don’t really like to be talked at. Yet this is the approach taken by most webinars. A single presenter proceeds through a pre-planned script or outline from beginning to end. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong or ineffective with that. That’s the way most business and education presentations —…Webinar8 min readWebinar8 min read
