New 30 Minute Webinars Trend – Presenters Rushing Through Information and Slides
Most 30 minute webinars sound like a great idea on the screen or paper. In practice, they seem to be an exercise in rushing.
I have listened to three webinars over the last two weeks that were of the new 30 minute webinar trend. Two of them sounded like a sprint that left the presenter(s) breathless.
One recent 30 minute webinars example presented by the WCIRB (California’s Rating Bureau) was good but left little time for questions. I am writing an article on the WCIRB webinar tomorrow. One large distinction with the WCIRB is that they have always been excellent in answering any questions that I had over the years.
The difference between the rushed webinars and ones that should fit into a smaller time slot originates from the presenter’s preparedness. I am not saying that any of the webinar presenters come unprepared for their slides.
Oh no, I think the difference is that their old webinar covered one hour. The presenters decided – hey, I will just cover the same slides more quickly. That situation occurred twice this week.
Ironically, one webinar was sponsored by a webinar presentation assistant/consultant company. The presenter covered 1/4 of what was on the slides. The results were not disastrous, but somewhat comical.
We are all time-pressed, or at least think we are under clock-based pressures.
I discussed the 30 minute time slot idea with one person that performs many webinar-based presentations. They said the drop rate at 30 minutes totals to a huge number when examining the participation numbers.
Could it be the quality of the presentations or the webinar did not apply to the listener, so they just gave it 30 minutes and then signed off? Of course, the attention span of the average listener is twenty minutes. The 20 minute figure was tallied long before the smartphone effect.
The old(?) format was 45 – 50 minutes and then 10 minutes for questions. From what I have experienced, the listeners that stay beyond 30 minutes are actually very interested in the topic. When I present a webinar, the participants that hang in there for the whole presentation are often the ones that follow up with me by email within the next 10 days.
Are all webinars going to the 30 minute format? Will this spill over into mini-in-person-conferences? Can a presenter or presenters compress their ideas that compactly? What is your opinion on 30 minute webinars?
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