Have you made a decision to host a webinar in medical sphere but have got no clue what to start with? Today we are going to tell you how to organize and host a webinar in the right manner. By following the below pieces of advice and working on each paragraph thoroughly, you will be able to turn your online medical conference into a meeting place for colleagues, a platform for knowledge exchange with renowned experts, a source of constant income and attraction for pharmaceutical companies.
Why Hosting Webinars for Doctors?
In the medical sphere, webinar, conferences, plenary sessions, and congresses have been en-established formats of meetings and educational activities. Yet, even several years ago, it became evident that this form is not always suitable for both participants and organizers because of certain inconveniences, as well as expenditures, of course. And now such meetings are next to impossible in terms of organization.
What can be done about this, as meeting colleagues and sharing knowledge and learning are still important? Doctors, like many others, would need to take a close look at online meetings.
Many of them have witnessed that it is convenient and not scary at all.
Read also: Video Conferencing in Healthcare
Advantages of Hosting Webinars in Medical Sphere
Among obvious benefits and possibilities of hosting medical webinars, we can outline the following:
- Easy organization;
- Low expenditures for both organizers and participants;
- Opportunity to gather more participants and representatives of medical associations and leading doctors;
- Online broadcasting of surgeries;
- Video consultations for patients and advanced studies for doctors;
- A suitable format for communication between pharmaceutical companies and drugstores.
Main Steps when Preparing a Medical Webinar
The preparation of online meeting does differ from preparing the traditional events. Here attention for its technical aspect is as important as the information delivered.
Deciding on goals and formats
The first thing that the doctor needs to understand is the purpose of hosting webinars. Even if you think the answer is obvious, think of it more.
Of course, a webinar to present a new medication would be different from an online meeting to exchange experiences with doctors from other countries.
The strategy of the webinar organization will depend on the topic you select. Based on your aim, you can choose to use a keynote or panel discussion involving healthcare experts or hold a meeting with patients in the format of a Q&A session.
Another possible variant is concentrating on the correct placement of video cameras for broadcasting from a surgery theater.
Identifying the topic and target audience
Unlike live events, where organizers tend to offer the maximum amount of information possible for a single event, webinars would better have some limits. Choose a topic that touches on one aspect. Use the “one webinar — one topic” rule.
The same applies to participants as well. Although you may be tempted to gather as many participants as possible at your webinar, applying some segmentation to the groups is better.
For example, one webinar could target chief medical officers, while another would suit heads of hospital departments. Such division allows for gathering more participants and getting more feedback.
Make sure to form the portrait of your potential client. Who is it? What is one doing? How does one perceive information? Communicate with the representatives of the audience selected. This way, you will collect answers to the above questions, which will further help you decide on the information delivery format.
Make a presentation plan
A webinar plan is one of the key things to pay attention to when organizing webinars. Even if you have got experience in delivering speeches to the public, draw up a plan with the main ideas of the webinar.
Attendees come to an online meeting to get the content in the first row, and they will become disappointed if they don’t get what has been advertised.
Prepare additional materials
During a webinar, attention to changing the screen pictures should be paid. Graphical presentations, tables, videos, other files retain the audience’s attention and complement the topic.
Solve any technical issues
All preparations are done before a webinar can be in vain if any problems may appear during the webinar, e.g., with equipment or the platform selected. There are numerous free online services, yet they mostly suffer from technical issues and instability. When organizing a webinar, it is worth selecting a quality and proven platform.
The webinar platform MyOwnConference offers high reliability and stability. Due to using the most advanced technologies, it operates with no glitches or delays.
No matter what platform you select for your online conference, you must ensure stable and fast Internet connectivity and quality equipment availability.
Promote webinars
It is worth paying attention to the matter of attracting attendees. Use all possible channels for advertising your webinars. Compile a list of the places where your potential clients use online, e.g., blogs, specialized websites, forums, or social networks.
Do not forget about the database of contacts that you have obtained during earlier events. On the other hand, making a call to someone you know or sending our emails can work more effectively than the above methods.
Run a test webinar
Even if you have already become an experienced webinar host, test broadcasts are still required, as they will allow you to test the equipment and serve as a rehearsal to safeguard your main event from many issues.
In case it is your first webinar, such a test run becomes even more important. You can host it for your friends or relatives first, record and analyze it. This helps to choose the best suitable presentation tempo, voice intonation, etc. If you plan to have other speakers at the webinar, gather them all in the webinar room to discuss the future event.
By adhering to the mentioned steps, you will be able to organize a helpful webinar for doctors, medical organizations and patients. And for this process to go smoother, invite a moderator to your webinar and delegate some part of tasks to other specialists.
Here you can find more info on how to organize a webinar.
An expert behind the simplified online meeting and webinar software platform, MyOwnConference. In today’s flexible work environment, Dan offers invaluable life hacks, in-depth reviews, and savvy tips for organizing, promoting, and excelling in virtual conferences and webinars.