I’m attending, and have been attending, lots of live online virtual conferences and seminars this year, as so many others have.
What I’m finding especially frustrating today is that so many speakers aren’t adapting to what live online sessions offer. I’m in sessions where it’s just listening to people, there’s an empty, lonely chat window with nothing going on.
I’m not alone in these, I’m having multiple private conversations with people bemoaning these issues.
And the speaker says “I don’t know if X resonates with you” or similar. Well, of course you don’t, because you haven’t asked.
Webinars research report
Compounding that is this information from The State of Webinars 2020 report from Twentythree.net:
What I’m picking out from this is that people are using chat, polls and showcasing audience questions. But only between 52-60% of the time.
And only 30% of the time are people running webinars actually asking the audience questions.
Why wouldn’t you want to engage your audience more with whatever your message is? Why wouldn’t you want to ask them more questions, to understand their needs and tailor your messages? Why not involved everyone together so they don’t get bored, write a blog about it, and tune you out?
Why?
Sigh. This must really wind you up Jo! it’s a pity that there’s so little questioning to get attendees actively participating. It can be via polls, chat, using annotation tools, or simply letting people speak. I became aware of an over-reliance on the chat channel at first, but now use different ways to get people involved.
It winds me up enough to write blogs about it! 😀
When at a conference with a few hundred faces, it’s hard to engage people, but live online is built for it!