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What's the benefit of doing a live virtual event vs. a pre-recorded virtual event?
What's the benefit of having a live webinar, etc. vs. doing a pre-recorded webinar? Do you get more attendees if it is live?
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4 Answers
Let's consider the assorted options for delivering webinars:
1) Live, presented truly live.
Some attendees prefer webinars to be "truly live", as they know there's a presenter on the other end who's speaking to them in real time. For presenters, presenting "truly live" affords opportunities to engage (in real time) with your audience, in the form of polling, live Q&A and even group chat. It's only this "truly live" arrangement that allows presenters to interact with viewers in real-time.
2) Live, presented "simulive."
This has the appearance of being "truly live," but the presentation was actually pre-recorded. The typical set-up is to broadcast the presentation "simulive" and follow that with Live Q&A, where the presenter is "truly live." The benefit to the presenter is that it removes some operational risk from the presentation. But on the flip side, during the simulive broadcast, the presenter cannot stop, pause and engage with the audience.
3) Pre-recorded and provided on-demand.
This arrangement also removes operational risk. It also removes the scheduling from the equation, allowing attendees to view the webinar at any time, whenever their schedule permits (kind of like "On Demand" programs on your cable TV service at home). This is quite convenient for viewers - but for presenters, it removes the opportunity of real-time engagement with viewers.
Hi Lauren, in our experience you will get more attendees if the event is live. You still have the option for people to download a recording of the live event after the presentation. The benefits of the live virtual event are that the presenter is engaged and in the moment, and the quality of the interaction between the presenter and audience lends itself to more effective learning process (even for those who may pick up the recorded session).
The downside of a live event is that, if you are presenting to a global audience, that you may be presenting at a time that does not suit everyone (including the presenter). A key principle of a virtual webinar is that you want to try to overcome distance and isolation between audience and presenter. Ideally the live virtual event is the way to go, but the pre-recorded event doest still have its place. We tend to use those purely for marketing purposes to get people to a live event.
I'm a big fan of live material versus pre-recorded, but you can always mix in live and on-demand content during one event. Benefits of live:
- Anything can happen! This does make it much more interesting and exciting for both the audience and speakers
- The interactive elements are all in play - questions, polls, chat
- Social elements have a much bigger impact as people are gathering at a particular time and place
For me, the live elements of virtual events are what makes them special. The on-demand period afterwards makes great use of existing content and extends your reach to a wider audience.
Its an interesting question. Glad to answer this one.
I believe Live material and Recorded material should be part of the same package. It all depends on the type of packaging you want to sell i.e. a pure business call.
1. Its a one time event: e.g. a product release, a concept that the company is going to work, a sample launch, etc. then the event should be live and build a buzz around it. It will get you more share of eyes. Even more if you are a reputed brand
2. Its an event with time-to-time updates - a coaching session, a tutorial, tutorial with practical sessions (hands on experience). Then it should be opened for customers with live session, then downloadable material and then time-to-time live updates to instill customers' trust and confidence
3. If its a ready reckoner/tutorial sort of material - It need not be an online material, because all users may not have time to go through the same as per the publishers time slot. International audiences will have trouble to match it with their timezone
I personally feel that the decision to make the event 100% live or offline should be well thought. Because, you can sell your idea only once.
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