Solutions Brief

How to Run Your First

Webinar with
GoToWebinar
A step-by-step guide for webinar producers.

gotowebinar.com
Solutions Brief How to Run Your First Webinar

The thought of running your first virtual event can be quite

overwhelming. There is a huge amount of responsibility on your
shoulders, and of course you want to make sure that everything
runs smoothly and nothing goes wrong. Here are some useful tips
to help you plan ahead and gain the confidence you need to
deliver your very first webinar — brought to you by Citrix webinar
host Gemma Falconer.

The pre-webinar checklist 11. Ensure you have two computers available
Preparation is key: for the webinar itself. Not only does one act
1. Confirm your webinar title and content. as a back-up in case the other suddenly dies
— but that way you can have the
2. Make your speakers are available and
presentation on one screen, and your
confirmed for the big day.
question/chat pane, the polls and
3. Arrange a rehearsal with the speakers. dashboard open on another.

4. Figure out whether your speakers are going

Running the live webinar
to show their presentations from their
Everything closed down?
computer or yours.

5. Set up any poll questions you will use during Before you even log in to GoToWebinar, make
the webinar. sure that your email, instant messenger and any
other program that produces pop notifications
6. Set up your exit survey questions.
is closed down. You definitely don’t want your
7. Check that your email notifications are ready entire audience seeing that message about
(that’s the confirmation email, the reminder Friday-night drinks!
email and the follow-up email with the
recording, should you decide to distribute it). Give yourself time.
When you’re rushing to get something done, the
8. Upload your speaker photos into
chances of forgetting something are pretty high.
GoToWebinar

9. Add the speakers as “panelists” within Make sure that you’ve opened up the webinar
GoToWebinar so that they receive a link to nice and early — say 30-45 minutes before
join the live webinar. you’re due to go live. This way you can make
sure everything is set up, the speakers are
10. Promote your webinar — you’ll need
logged in, audio sounds good and the slides are
attendees! Remember that it’s highly
in position.
unlikely that everyone who registers for the
webinar will attend — particularly if it’s free.
Launch GoToWebinar in practice mode. This
If you get between 30-40% of your
way your speakers can join, but your audience
registrants to attend, you’re doing well!
cannot. You can then speak with your
presenters before you go live.

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Solutions Brief How to Run Your First Webinar

Who’s in control? people have joined, and what percentage of

Decide who is going to be in control of the them are actually viewing the GoToWebinar
presentation during your rehearsal. Perhaps your screen. This will instantly tell you how engaged
speaker is going to show their screen. Or perhaps your audience is in the content. You want to
you’re going to host the presentation and give aim for over 60% attentiveness. If that’s not
your speaker keyboard and mouse control so happening, perhaps interrupt the speaker with
they can move the slides along themselves. a question, or ask the audience a question and
get them to respond via the questions pane.
Panelist or organizer?
Your speaker will join the webinar as a The mute button
panelist. This gives them the ability to speak Before the webinar begins, remind your
with the audience, show their screen or have speakers how they can click to mute
keyboard and mouse control. If you would like themselves. If they suddenly have a coughing
them to be able to see the questions that fit, they’ll want to mute themselves quickly.
have come in from the audience and record, And remember to mute yourself if you have a
then you will need to upgrade them to an non-speaking role. Your audience doesn’t
organizer. To do this, go into the GoToWebinar want to hear you typing away in the
control panel once you have launched the background as you respond to people’s
webinar in practice mode, go to the Attendee questions.
List and right-click on the speaker’s name and
select Make organizer. Be aware that being Time for the audience to arrive
an organizer also gives them the ability to start It’s possible to open up the webinar so your
and end the webinar. Make sure you tell them audience can arrive in the waiting room. Many
not to press Start broadcast or exit the people will want to join early — we tend to
webinar prematurely. open up our webinars 10-15 minutes before
we go live. That gives your audience time to
The essential webinar tools get used to their surroundings, find the
The GoToWebinar control panel is made up of questions pane and select their listening
several panes. These panes can be dragged mode (telephone or mic and speakers via
out of the control panel so you can expand VoIP). To open up the waiting room, press
them. You’ll definitely want to do this with the Start in the top right-hand corner of the
questions pane so you can clearly see all those control panel. At this point, the audience
questions coming in from the audience. You cannot hear you, but they will be able to see
may also want to take out the poll pane if your screen if you have decided to start
you’re going to be asking the audience a poll sharing it. So make sure the presentation is in
question, and the chat pane as well if you slide-show mode if this is the case.
intend to use it to communicate directly with
the audience (for example — you may want to Ready? Set? Go!
chat out a Twitter hashtag or a link to a book The moment you’ve been waiting for! Do one
mentioned by one of the speakers). final check with the speakers, then mute
yourself if you’re not speaking on the live
Then there is my favorite part, the dashboard. webinar. Click the Record button if you want
The dashboard gives you an instant snapshot to record the webinar. Now click Start
of your audience — you can see how many Broadcast at the top right-hand corner of

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Solutions Brief How to Run Your First Webinar

your control panel. You and your audience will recording. Select the recording you wish to
hear an automated voice say “The webinar is archive. (It’s typically saved to your desktop, but
now starting, all attendees are in listen-only you can change this in your settings.)
mode,” and from this moment on you are live!
Your audience will be able to hear the speakers. You will also want to look at the attendee report
so you can see how people have responded to
Wrap up your exit survey. To download the report, select
When the speaker has finished and it’s time to Generate Reports from the menu options,
end the webinar, the first thing you will want to then select Attendee Report. This will also give
do is click the Stop Recording button. Now you an overview of who attended the webinar.
mute your speakers in case they forget they’re
still live. Leave the presentation on the final There are a lot of things to think about when
slide — the audience can still see what is being running a webinar. But, as they say, practice
shown. Now click File and End webinar for all. makes perfect. Make sure you familiarize
yourself with GoToWebinar before the live
After the webinar has ended event — set up dummy webinars and ask a
You’ve made it through your first webinar! colleague to attend. Test out the tools that are
Congratulations. Now to archive the recording available to you and make sure you are
— this will convert the webinar into a link that comfortable with how everything works.
you can use for the next 12 months to send out
a copy, post it on your website or promote it via Webinars are a great vehicle for delivering your
social media. message to potentially hundreds and
thousands of people, and they are cheap to run
Log in to your GoToWebinar account. From the — always a winner!
options on the left-hand side, select Webinar
history. Select the name of the webinar you I wish you every bit of success with your
have just run. Then click Manage and Archive webinar program. Be brave, be bold and enjoy!

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 Solutions Brief How to Run Your First Webinar

About the Author About GoToWebinar

Gemma Falconer is Citrix GoToWebinar is the do-it-yourself
responsible for hosting webinar tool that projects your message —
the UK webinars at Citrix. including HD video conferencing — to up to
She lives and breathes 1,000 online attendees for one low flat fee. You
these virtual events every can also reach even larger crowds with
single day! You’ll often GoToWebinar Premier Event. To learn more, visit
find her moderating and www.gotowebinar.com.
providing behind-the-
scenes support to our attendees and various Don’t have GoToWebinar? Start your free
speakers. 30-day trial now.

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About Citrix
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leader in virtualization, networking and cloud services to enable new ways for people to work better. Citrix
solutions help IT and service providers to build, manage and secure, virtual and mobile workspaces that seamlessly deliver apps, desktops,
data and services to anyone, on any device, over any network or cloud. This year Citrix is celebrating 25 years of innovation, making IT simpler
and people more productive with mobile workstyles. With annual revenue in 2013 of $2.9 billion, Citrix solutions are in use at more than
330,000 organizations and by over 100 million people globally. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

Copyright ©2014 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, OpenVoice,
Podio and ShareFile are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. and other
countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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