Conducting Webinars that can Help Your Small Business

conducting webinarsOnce you have watched and/or participated in webinar as a guest or viewer, you might start thinking how conducting your own webinar might help your small business to gain exposure to not only new potential clients, but also to educate existing customers about how better to use your product or service. The pitfalls some businesses encounter happen when they try to turn their webinar into an hour-long commercial and do not offer a benefit to the viewers or participants. Use your webinar as an online training session and not a commercial.

There are three types of webinars which you can use to carry out online training; non-interactive webinars,  interactive webinars and Q&A (Questions and Answers) webinars.

The idea behind a non-interactive  webinar is that it allows people to see your screen and hear your voice while you are demonstrating something that is useful to them. Your initial webinar experience may be a bit intimidating, so it may be best to practice it in front of colleagues or family. Concentrate on the presentation and not how those watching are receiving your message. The more planning you put into your PowerPoint, Adobe Flash or other slide presentation, the less anxious you will be narrating it and spending the right amount of time on each point.

Once you have practiced and conducted several non-interactive webinars and have received follow up comments and suggestions, you may want to try to conduct an interactive webinar that allows for questions during your presentation that are relevant to the portion of your webinar you are talking about. Often by taking some of these questions, you can clarify your recent points and help your audience to have a better understanding before moving onto your next point.

There are many webinar hosting services such as Gotowebinar, Adobe Connect, ClickWebinar, MegaMeeting, AnyMeeting and many more that offer flexibility and control for your webinar environment. The costs for these services varies, but so do the types of pricing plans. While some offer pricing as a pay-as-you-go service, others require a monthly commitment. Be sure to find the right hosting for the numbers of guests that you anticipate and the number of webinars you plan on conducting each month or each year to find the package that works best for you.

Most online webinar hosting services have the option to allow attendees to type any questions that they have into a question box or chat window. This allows the people attending your live training to direct the conversation in a specific way and allows you to respond to relevant questions at the appropriate time in your presentation.

The last type of webinar, a Q&A webinar, is highly interactive and is the simplest webinar to run since it requires little ifr any preparation – except to know your topic well. All you have to do is answer the questions that get posted or emailed to you. It is best to answer some questions that have been sent in advance by email to allow more questions to come in during the webinar. As more participants see that questions are being answered live, more will submit their live questions as well.

Where to physically conduct your webinar

When doing your first non-interactive webinars, doing them from your office space or a quiet room in your house is fine. Make sure that you have a reliable and fast internet connection, especially if you are streaming audio or video.

Interactive webinars with video and audio often require more dedicated bandwidth. Even though your webinar is being hosted by an online webinar service, you still have to consider how fast your upstream is for your data. You also want to make sure that comments, questions and audio questions or videos are getting to you in a timely fashion. The idea of allowing interaction and live audio questions is great – but if you don’t get them before you have moved on, then you have missed an opportunity to answer them when it is most relevant.

Toronto Meeting RoomFor more interactive webinars that require more bandwidth, many webinar organizers will utilize a boardroom or daily office rental in an office business centre. This way a moderator does not have to worry about having enough dedicated high-speed connections that have ample bandwidth for any type of webinar. The full-day price of a boardroom or day office is not expensive and is worth the peace of mind. Some business centres that offer office space may also rent day offices and boardrooms by the half day.

Once you have mastered the single-moderator webinars, you may want to try combining a live seminar with a webinar audience to have more interaction. Utilizing a seminar training room at an office business centre like Telsec can allow for the space to include different guest speakers or panelists and allow them to also talk as part of your webinar.

When conducting a larger seminar/webinar with multiple speakers and guests, having a production person to mute and unmute different microphones can be very helpful. You can even entertain live questions from one of the people attending your live training sessions by having a designated person taking a cordless microphone around the room, rather than asking them to type their questions online.

 

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Hotels

1. Jennifer Smith
General Manager
The Omni King Edward Hotel
37 King Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1E9
Tel: 416-863-9700
Website: www.omnihotels.com/hotels/toronto-king-edward

2. Mark Perry
General Manager
Executive Hotels and Resorts (Boutique)
8 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E1
Tel: 416-350-2419
Website: www.spazen.ca or www.cosmotoronto.com

3. Emeline Boul
General Manager
Hotel Victoria (Boutique)
56 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1G5
Tel: 416-363-1666
Mobile: 647-574-5832
Website: www.hotelvictoriatoronto.com

4. Omkar Sawant
Reservations Manager
One King West Hotel
1 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1A1
Main: 416-548-8100
Reservations: 1-866-470-5464
Website: www.onekingwest.com

5. Van Nguyen
General Manager
Cambridge Suites Toronto
15 Richmond Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1N2
Direct: 416-601-3757
Hotel: 416-368-1990
Website: www.cambridgesuitestoronto.com

Restaurants

1. Michael Pagliaro
Carisma (Italian)
15 Toronto Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2E3
Tel: 416-864-7373
Website: www.carismarestaurant.com

2. Patti Shaw
Terroni (Italian)
57 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-203-3093
Website: www.terroni.com

3. Declan
Restaurant 20 Victoria – Michelin guide approved
20 Victoria Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-804-6066
Instagram for reservations: https://www.instagram.com/twentyvictoria/

4. Mana
Nami (Japanese)
55 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-362-7373
Website: www.namirestaurant.ca

5. Restaurant Lucie
100 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2W1
Tel: 416-788-9054
Website: www.restaurantlucie.com

6. Niam H
Cantina Mercatto
20 Wellington Street East
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C5
Tel: 416-304-0781
Website: www.cantinamercatto.ca

7. Siva Sathasivam
Uncle Tony’s
38 Wellington St E
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C7
Tel: 416-455-6650
Website: https://uncletonys.ca/

8. Pizzaiolo
104 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2Y6
Tel: 416-860-0700
Website: www.pizzaiolo.ca

9. Robin Singh
Woods Restaurant and Bar
45 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-214-9918
Website: www.woodsrestaurant.ca

Health and Wellness

1. Thom Tullo
Morpheus8 by Inmode
47 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-863-6564
Website: www.amanspa.ca

2. Altitude Athletic Training
56 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-366-3838
Website: www.altitudeathletictraining.com

3. Physioheath Studios
33 Victoria Street, #130
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-368-2525
Website: www.physiohealth.com

Our Amenities

We are by far the most experienced and best coworking team in the market – established in 1980

  • We are the highest Tech centre in the market
  • We have a very modern, high quality, brand new facility located at:

   18 King Street East, Suite 1400

      Toronto, Ontario   M5C 1C4 Canada

    • 18 King Street East is a boutique Class A building – East of Yonge: easy street parking, less traffic, excellent restaurants and lovely parks – St. James Park @ Church & King and Berczy Park @ Wellington East, Scott and Front Streets – Very high energy and engaging area
    • A few steps (a few seconds) to the Yonge Street subway/underground PATH network and streetcar available outside building
    • Building is located in Toronto's vibrant financial district
    • Plenty of parking available in the area including street parking and reserved parking in the 18 King building 
    • Adjacent to the building huge outdoor food courtyard - Beer Bistro www.beerbistro.com and Craft Beer Market www.craftbeermamrket.ca restaurants and bars with onsite catering services
    • Onsite amenities:  Tim Horton's, Beer Bistro, Convenience store and Starbucks across the street 
    • Nearby amenities:  underground PATH network, numerous restaurants, banking, Starbucks plus a wide array of nearby shops and services 
    • New modernized office layout fully furnished with meeting spaces and training rooms plus café lounge area
    • We are leaders in the service of training/meeting rooms with full conference facilities, high quality hot and cold catering
    • Largest training room and conference facilities accommodate up to 60 people classroom style
    • Ultra-high-speed - 1 GIG pipe = 1,000 x 1000 fiber-optic network, which will deliver internet connection speeds faster than most North American services
    • Private shower room
    • Indoor Reserved Parking at the current building rental rate
    • Bicycle parking
    • Rent a space to accommodate your team for meetings, training sessions, corporate events or coworking space or flexible office space for one day, one week, one month or one year, or whatever term suits your business
    • Telsec has over 650 locations in 40 different countries worldwide available for their clients.  Office clients receive up to 8 hours of meeting space per month at no charge at any ABCN member location.  Plus, Office and Virtual Office clients may rent a space from any member location at special member rates which varies depending on the location 
    • King Edward Hotel is located across the street - recently completed a $40 million renovation and boutique hotels close by within walking distance
  • Dining and entertainment at high quality restaurants only minutes away – Carisma, Terroni, Woods Restaurant & Bar and Michelin Rated - Restaurant 20 Victoria. Plus numerous lunch and takeout eateries nearby

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Telsec will Customize Your Client’s Office(s) Layout to Meet Their Requirements

You are welcome to drop-in any-time, a quick call would be appreciated to ensure our availability Vanessa 416-574-1112 or Josie 416-606-4349 or e-mail josie@telsec.net.