Webinars demand a lot of both the presenter and the participant. There is so much that pokes on our attention – our email, social media – and it’s very easy to leave a webinar. So, to increase the possibility that your participants stays on until the end, you need to involve some engagement and interaction. Remember, we want to create strong relationship here!

Here are some things you can do to prepare for engagement:

• Have an active moderator
  The moderator is the host of the meeting, who is in charge of welcoming the participants, managing the chat, and introducing the speakers. The moderator also asks the questions that come in.

• Test, test, test!!!
  To make you comfortable with the technics, do one or several test sessions with colleagues and the presenter/s in the webinar environment. Test putting on/off your camera, sharing and stop sharing the screen, setting up light, and so on. You don’t want any unpleasant surprises when going live.
• Prepare questions
  If you have a dedicated time slot for questions, you can prepare some in advance just in case.
• Music
  Music can be nice while waiting for the presentation to start, and also to create energy.

And here are some examples to keep the participant active:

• Polling
  Use polling to activate the participant, and/or gather information. It is usually possible to use polling in different webinar tools, but you can also use external polling tools, such as Mentimeter (where the participant join with a code via their mobile). In Mentimeter you can gather feedback, questions and opinions, and also do a quiz.
• Ask questions.
  Ask questions and make them answer in the chat, or in the polling app. Or, ask rhetorical questions, for example in your opening. This will make the participant think.
• Q&A
  Include 1-3 Q&A sessions.