Choosing Between Teleconferences and Webinars

Use a teleconference when you want:

• The audience to listen to you only and not interact with you.
• To allow audience interaction, and there is a very small group of people (say 10), and they all use landlines, and they know how to keep a quite surroundings. Otherwise there is way too much noise during such interactions. And if the group is large, just forget it.

Use a webinar when you want:

• The audience participation and you have a large group of people (say more than 10).
• To show images during your presentation. You may show a process visual, or a photo or even use drawing technology to draw one on the fly just as one does in workshops on the flip chart.
• To conduct quick polls during your webinar to gauge the audience.
• To video stream yourself (real time) so people can actually watch you just as they may watch you on Skype.

Use a live video streaming when you want:

• To simulate a live workshop with live global attendees.

Finally, and when it comes to webinars, you could try and facilitate yourself but I would encourage you to have someone else facilitate for you. This way you can focus on your content and delivery and let your facilitator handle the behind the scenes work.

© Chad Barr 2012. All rights reserved