Giving my first webinar (Adobe Connect 101)

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Having participated in dozens of webinars over the years, I felt that delivering information in real-time via the Web was left for a few select experts. There was a certain mystique to having face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction over computers that I thought was beyond my technical expertise.

So, when I was required by my grad school course to deliver a webinar presentation via Adobe Connect, I was a bit apprehensive. Knowing my grade depended on it, however, I sucked it up, signed up for a test session, and realized there really wasn’t much to fear.

I’m sure other applications offer similar functionality, but here is a summary of my experience with Adobe Connect. 

On the upside, it has an intuitive interface. After one brief test session, I felt comfortable with using the platform in its basic settings. I was able to upload my PowerPoint slides easily, as well as a headshot so listeners could identify who was talking to them. If I had wanted to, I could have turned on my webcam, but felt that enabling that function would have distracted from the content I was sharing.

Another plus was that the tool encourages participant interaction. The program allows participants to type questions in a chat-like function, allowing you to interact with your audience in real-time. Participants also could turn on their microphones to verbalize questions, if they wanted to. 

One downside I experienced was due to the setup I was accessing, not the product itself. Because I used Adobe Connect through my university’s account, the constraints with that setup didn’t allow me to preload my presentation, which meant participants had to sit and watch me scroll through my computer’s files to upload the presentation. Those steps were a bit awkward and detracted from the professional appearance I wanted to convey. That issue, however, should not be a problem for those who have full access to Adobe Connect.

One other drawback was primarily the result of my inexperience with the platform. I wanted to show a video to the audience, but because I hadn’t had a chance to practice with my final presentation, I wasn’t confident enough to embed it in my presentation or move away from my PowerPoint slides to my browser to show it. From watching the presentations of others in my class, this should not be a difficult task, but I preferred, instead, to share the link with my audience at the end of my presentation.

Overall, I was very satisfied using Adobe Connect and pleased that conducting a webinar wasn’t as scary as it seemed. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to try it!