The current pandemic has exposed the degree to which consumers, employers and workers are relying on connected technology to carry on, whether through Webcasts or other digital platforms. This has also opened up an opportunity for the brands and individuals to reach out to their target audience in a more connected and personal way digitally. The result has therefore be seen in form of innumerable webinars happening each day, but at times they are not able to connect due to multiple reasons. One major factor could be the lack of a professional speaker who can connect to the audience. To avert this issue, there should be few important factors kept in mind while choosing the right speaker for your webinar:

  1. Experience: Probably the most important factor is experience. The speaker should have prior experience, not necessarily on a digital platform, but events, conferences etc. One can always cross check it through the social media platforms or videos provided by the speaker to check on their tonality, confidence and presentation skills.
  2. Master of Topic: Needless to say, the speaker should be selected as per the theme of the webinar. You wouldn’t want Chetan Bhagat to explain your audience what Cybersecurity is. It is imperative that you have a prior discussion with the speaker and be precise about the topic, theme and the discussion you wish to have around the same with the expected outcome. This will help your speaker to prepare better.
  3. Time Governance: A stretched webinar is really a big no-no! It makes the audience wear out and drop off sooner than expected. It is therefore, very important to manage the webinar within the designated time and the speaker should be well prepared to keep a note of the time and keep his discussion/presentation within time to have ample time for Q&A too. The best practice for this is to have dry run prior to the webinar and track the pace.
  4. Availability: Between multiple webinars happening each day and the professional commitments, it is likely that the ‘One Speaker’ you are looking out for could have prior engagement planned and therefore, you should block the speaker’s time and then have the date of the webinar finalized. One point to account here is that the speaker is not only required during the webinar, but prior to the webinar for dry runs, making presentations etc., therefore the speaker should be given all the details beforehand.
  5. Versatility: Apart from Knowledge of the topic and experience, a speaker should be versatile to manage different important elements during the webinar. These could be right from answering or pushing the questions asked during the webinar to integrating discussion further with the live poll results. A good speaker will be able to manage the presentation along with the questions and base his further discussion as per the audience expectations.

There are many other factors that influence that influence to make a webinar successful including the content, the technical knowhow of the software being used. The only way to have a seamless webinar is to prepare for it in advance, have dry runs and do not leave any space for last minute changes, until necessary.