Creating Successful Webinars: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Background:  With the increasing demand to use technology for collaboration, creative problem-solving and maximizing learning opportunities, webinars are essential, cost-effective tools for meeting various goals. Webinars are more than your typical conference calls. They are a low-barrier digital communication platform. Webinars create online venues for real-time discussions enhanced by visual tools and interactive elements, but its effectiveness relies on crafting a unique production and planning process. Most webinar companies offer training and assistance to use their technology, but most of it is geared towards meeting sales objectives. We have developed a process and planning tool to guide organizations to achieve health communications and marketing goals. Through years of hosting webinar events, we have developed a toolkit of best practices and lessons learned that can be applied to other agencies with a focus on intentional planning, not just building technical savvy.

Program background:  The Center for Strengthening Youth Prevention Paradigms (SYPP Center) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has produced more than 33 webinars since 2010 reaching more than 2000 individuals. Our Third Thursday Webinar Series is a nationally recognized cornerstone program as part of our portfolio of capacity building assistance services for HIV prevention for communities. SYPP Center provides technical assistance based on methodical webinar production process along with a toolkit tailored for agencies.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Webinars are evaluated through post-event surveys to measure the quality of the presentation and to collect comments and suggestions. Metrics include data collected at registration such as participant profile information and populations they serve. Evaluation data has shown steady growth of our audience size and an increase of participation across the United States and internationally. Webinars have generated clients for SYPP Center and helped build relationships offline and online.

Conclusions: There is a positive return for investing in webinars. From our experiences, the benefits outweigh the costs. Audience participation and feedback have shown us that our webinars have been enjoyable, worthwhile, and helpful for them, even when they have been disillusioned by webinars in the past. With a small team, SYPP Center has been able to create a substantial and growing webinar community by creatively using limited resources. SYPP Center has created a toolkit that guides agencies through a process of webinar planning, ensuring that they are thoughtful about the audience, presenters, content, and format.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Webinars can be useful in any situation, from sharing organizational updates to mobilizing communities. Given the proper tools and support, agencies can use webinars to maximize their objectives whether by increasing the reach of their messaging or providing alternatives to in-person learning.