The latest trend in meetings and conferences is without a doubt, web-based video access for people who aren’t able to make it in person.  I am constantly seeing more and more conferences who offer this feature.  On top of their normal meetings, they are creating webinars to have shorter and more focused conferences on a more frequent basis because they don’t incur travel.  

But what about an attendees time and patience?  How many people actually have enough of both to sit down and watch these webinars?  It really varies from conference to conference.  For your conference to have success with a webinar offering, it must have material that is just as easily digested from watching on a computer as it is in person.  

Sometimes, you do all of your marketing to encourage people to ‘show up’ on line, but if  they don’t become engaged or encouraged to stick around then your on line attendance can quickly drop to zero.  

There is no magic number for those that watch on line.  If you are having a traditional conference with the web as an extension of that broadcast, I would say you will see anywhere from 10-50% of your in-person attendance on line.  But this really varies from conference to conference.

One thing that you do want to do if you have a webinar, is make sure your webinar provider has enough options and tools to keep those watching on line engaged and interested.  

I will post another entry about some of the ways that we help to keep viewers around.  But in the meantime, let us know if you want to add your conference to the growing list of webinars.  We would be happy to discuss your needs and details.