Web Events and Online Meetings Made Easy™

When shopping for the best Webinar software for your needs, you need to be on the lookout for key features. To determine whether a Webinar software provider can meet the criteria I need to run a great webinar, I look at the following criteria:

Scalability Webinar software needs to be able to handle a large volume of participants. While most of my webinars will never have more than 200 people, there are spikes in interest where I want to make sure I can handle larger volumes. Think of scalability as the difference between a conference room that can only hold 100 people and one that can easily seat 1000 comfortably. If the attendance is there, you don't want to be scrambling to find a new conference room at the last minute.

Ease of Use Even with some of the more technical topics I cover, the skill level of participants varies greatly. On the day of a webinar, the last thing I want to do is troubleshoot why someone couldn't participate. I want to make it easy for everyone to be part of the webinar and actively use all available features. This means installation of software must be simple and alternate audio options must be available so that people can actively participate in a way that is simple for them.

Desktop Sharing Being able to pass the microphone to other experts during a webinar is a vital feature. While I'm perfectly capable of holding the floor for 2 hours, providing other perspectives is a much better learning experience. If you can easily pass desktop sharing off to another presenter, they can be in charge of their own slide desk as they present. Without smooth desktop sharing, one person has to run slides for all presenters, which often leads to miscommunication.

Flat Rates Avoid a webinar service with hidden fees. If the service charges by the minute, you'll quickly rack up fees you never realized you were about to pay. Better to pay a flat monthly fee up front, knowing what you're getting into. With a flat rate, you also have the option to do impromptu demonstrations without any additional monthly cost.

No Blackout Dates or Times If your webinar service doesn't allow you to set up presentations any time of the day or night, find a new one. The last thing you need is to discover the best time for your audience is a time that won't work because your webinar software doesn't allow it.

Application Integration Find out what additional applications work in conjunction with your webinar software, or at least what key features it has. Integrated chat and email capabilities make it easier for participants to communicate without needing to learn anything new. Hand raising features are key for allowing participants to come into the audio portion of the presentation in an orderly fashion.

Recording Support Get a webinar solution that records your entire event and allows you to easily host the video online after the event. People who don't participate may not get the full value of the live event, but allowing them to refer to the event afterward can be a huge value for both people who had something come up or people who want to refer back to high value info from your presentation.

Try a great Webinar product that meets all these criteria.