Preparing for a Zoom Webinar

Do you want to create a webinar but don’t know where to begin? If you are thinking about or getting ready to host a Zoom webinar, use the timeline and information below to help you get organized and create the best experience for your panelists, your co-hosts, and your attendees.

AT LEAST TWO WEEKS BEFORE WEBINAR:

1. Confirm the date, time, title, and a basic description of your event
2. Assemble your team who will help you during the webinar
3. Assign your webinar roles, such as host, co-host, and panelists.
4. Begin scheduling and organizing your webinar
5. Contact and meet with your panelists to discuss structure, content, and run-of-show
6. Decide whether you want registration for your webinar or not, and what that will look like
7. Get the correct size license for your webinar, depending on the expected attendee amount
8. Determine if the event will be local, or will have people from different areas and countries
9. Begin thinking about design, layout, and branding
10. Test the internet speeds of your host, co-hosts, and panelists to ensure the best experience possible

 

AT LEAST ONE WEEK BEFORE WEBINAR:

1. Review your webinar settings, your Zoom account settings, and enable the meeting functions that you would like to utilize
2. Finalize your date, time, title, description of the event.
3. Finalize your host, co-host, panelists, and begin creating an attendee list (unless your webinar is open to the public)
4. Review all content, presentation materials, run-of-show, and branding
5. Create and add Q/A questions if you are using this feature in your webinar
6. Update your Zoom program or app to ensure you have the most up-to-date version
7. Send out an email to your attendees to confirm their attendance as well as any information they need
8. Encourage your panelists or presenters to test their internet speeds and confirm that they have a minimum of 50 Mbps download speeds and at least 5 Mbps upload speeds. These are the bare minimum speeds required for a lag-free webinar
9. Schedule a “practice” session or run-through of the webinar, including all presenter content, such as PowerPoints or videos

 

30 MINUTES BEFORE WEBINAR:

1. Have the host start the webinar 30 minutes before the event’s actual start time
2. Be sure that “Enable Practice Session” is enabled so that the host, co-hosts and panelists can join the webinar and review any material prior to the webinar start
3. Review the roles of the host, co-hosts, panelists
4. Have the host, co-hosts, and panelists all test their internet connections
5. Test any material or content that was recently changed or edited, to ensure that no mistakes, technical issues, or misspellings will occur
6. Be sure that any webinar features that you would like to use, such as Polls or Q/A are enabled and are ready to be used in the webinar

 

5 MINUTES BEFORE WEBINAR:

• Have the host, co-hosts, and panelists share either their cellphone numbers or email, for emergency contact purposes
• Have the host, co-hosts, and panelists test their audio and video prior to officially starting the webinar
• Create a “Plan B” for in case internet connection is lost or a panelist was to be disconnected from the webinar
• Make sure that “screen sharing” is enabled if screen sharing will occur during the webinar
• Typically, all panelist should be muted and will remain muted until the presentation starts
• When ready, use the broadcast function to move out of the practice session and into the actual webinar
• Remind panelists that once the webinar starts, they will be live and all attendees will be able to see and hear them
• Remind panelists to mute themselves when not speaking
• Have the moderator welcome attendees and let them know that the webinar will start momentarily
• If the webinar is being recorded, be sure to let attendees know this in order to avoid issues

 

DURING YOUR WEBINAR:

1. Start recording, unless you have recording automatically enabled
2. Have the host mute themselves and turn off their video, unless they are an active participant in the webinar
3. Welcome attendees, thank the panelists and go through the “housekeeping” items
4. Monitor Chat or Q/A for questions and technical concerns from attendees
5. When the webinar is over, be sure to thank the panelists, attendees, and anyone else involved in the webinar process

 

AFTER YOUR WEBINAR:

1. End the webinar and wait for the recordings to be converted by Zoom
2. Once the recordings are converted and ready, trim and edit the recording in order to get it ready to be published or shared.
3. Send a follow-up email to attendees and panelists, and feel free to include the recorded video

 

Need additional advice or technical support?

1. If you ever need help creating or hosting a webinar, reach out to Henry van Vuuren from the Events AV office, or contact the IT Service Desk at itservice@lclark.edu
2. On Information Technology’s Zoom Resources Page, you will find several links to documents and videos showing you how to use Zoom, create meetings, and various other tasks
3. Zoom’s Help Center has created extremely useful, short clips on how to complete various tasks in Zoom, from basic troubleshooting to specific features and actions. We highly recommend these videos based on their quality, clarity, and overall usefulness.