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Tips for Facilitating a Successful Webinar

Another first!!

My first introduction to the webinar world .. I could not have done it without you Henry Fowkes!

This was a 1 and ¼ hr webinar on “Facilitating Successful Groups”.
We covered 4 key areas: Benefits of Groupwork, Role of the Facilitator, Creating Safety and Engagement.

So, for those entering the webinar world I thought I would share some of my learnings … love to hear yours!

Enjoy!
Sarah

Learnings:

• That it is invaluable to have a tech support person, Henry Fowkes you are a star!

• Waving ‘hello’ to everyone when they arrive sets the scene beautifully, especially when there is lovely background music (Henry again😊), and allowing them to say ‘hi’ when they arrive creates a lovely energy to start

• Running through a quick zoom orientation at the start, so we are all on the same page and being clear about how we wanted to run the session, eg all on mute, speaker view for me and Henry, unless in small groups

• Having participants on mute until they go into small group work works well

• Clear roles of the presenters, Henry was “The Voice” of the group, I was the presenter and main facilitator.

• It makes it more engaging when there are two facilitators riffing off each other, and also allows space to breathe for the presenter

• Mixing up delivery activities eg presentation, waterfall sharing, small groups keeps people engaged

• Waterfall chats are a quick way of assessing engagement and accessing the wisdom of the group for everyone to read (where you put the question in the chat and people add their answers below)

• Stepping people through what is happening next, eg we are going to put you in small groups now and this will happen, creates a sense of trust

• A 1 ¼ hr webinar takes hours to prepare for!!! … client negotiation, design, creating slides, chat notes, agenda … my perfectionist may have got a little carried away, but don’t underestimate the time it will take to prepare … the good news is you then have the resources for future webinars!

• Small groups are gold, and keeping the same small group throughout helps build connection and a level of comfortableness

• Less is more, giving time for people to engage, reflect and discuss allows a deeper understanding and ‘stickiness’ of the content

• It is weird talking to a screen and not seeing people!

• Having online evaluation forms to link in the chat at the end means more likelihood of getting feedback .. genius!

• Taking people off mute at the end so they can all wave and say ‘bye’ creates a lovely full stop

• And finally … that I loved it … online webinars may not create deep connections in these large groups, but it does make the content more accessible for more people. Participants from all over Victoria connected without them having to leave their desks. That’s got to be a good thing 😊

So, in conclusion:
I have been obsessed with this webinar for the last couple of weeks. It did feel like a big step into the unknown.

Online groups I am comfortable with, but a 1 ¼ hr webinar to 66 participants is a different beast.

I learnt so much in the preparation and the delivery .. and I loved it!

Well ... I did put “courage” on my vision board for this year!

Stupendous to be back doing in person workshops after 11 months of online!

What a great day Andrea Jones! Loved working with you and the beautiful group we had 😊.

The main reflection I walked away with was how easy it was to be back ‘on the boards’, my natural habitat after 20 odd years, a bit like riding a bike.

Now, do not get me wrong, I am enjoying the adventure, exploration and convenience of online … I find in my therapeutic groups the level of safety can often be higher as individuals are already in their ‘safe space’ at home, I’m not chasing small groups back to the large group when they are deep in conversation, I have easy access to slides, music, videos, all these things and more.

But … reading the energy of the group I find so much easier in person, I didn’t have to work so hard.

Love to hear reflections about what advantages you are finding about online and how it compares to in person.

Travel well my friends, Sarah

energy