What Is the Ideal Number of Slides for a Webinar?

One of their most common questions about webinars is about the number of slides in an "ideal" webinar.

As you might imagine, this is one of those "How long is a piece of string?" questions, where the only logical answer is, "It depends".

That's true, but I can give you two guidelines to help you find the right answer for your webinars.

First, most webinar presenters use too few slides. Keep in mind that in a webinar, your slides are not just visual aids; they are the visuals! Even if the audience can see you on video, they will get most of their visual information from your slides. It's exactly the other way around in a good face-to-face presentation, where you are the main visual, and your slides are just visual aids.

OK, so I'm saying you should add more slides, right? Yes. So... how many more?

Here's the simple rule of thumb: What they see on the screen should match what you're saying.

In other words, you want the audience to get (in essence) the same message, whether they are seeing it on the screen or hearing it through their speakers.

I don't mean this literally! I'm not saying they should be able to get the entire message from either the screen or the speakers. I'm saying they should match.

For example, let's say you're presenting a one-hour webinar, and you follow the classic structure of three main points, with each point having three sub-points. That gives 9 "points" in total; and allowing time for an introduction and conclusion, each of those 9 points takes approximately 5 minutes.

You should not have just one slide for each of those points. Having the same slide on the screen for five minutes is way too long. That's a sure-fire way to lose your audience (Even if you don't lose them completely, they will quickly realise they can be doing other things while listening to your webinar - so you won't have their full attention).

Instead, consider what you're going to say about each of those 9 points, and design slides to match. You might end up with 4-5 slides, or one slide that builds up gradually over the five minutes. In rare cases, you might need 10 slides for that point (if, say, you'll be talking about a lot of examples). In even rarer cases, you might decide that just one slide is the right option for this point (if, say, you're telling a long story).

It's up to you, but remember the rule of thumb: What they see on the screen should match what you're saying.

Gihan Perera is the author of "Webinar Smarts", the smart way for professional speakers, trainers, thought leaders and business owners to deliver engaging and profitable webinars. If you want to know how to reach the world with mic, screen and mouse, visit http://webinarsmarts.com/ for your copy.

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Why Conference Calls Are Ideal for Business Communication

The concept of conference calls is not entirely new. It has been around for quite some time and generally refers to calls that can be attended by multiple participants. A normal telephone call allows only two participants to communicate while conference calls enable three or more people to exchange information with efficacy. Initially, the prices of these services were high, which restricted their usage to large corporate firms only. However, growth in the telecom sector and emerging alternatives to costly set ups have lowered the prices of these solutions.

With changes in market scenario and growth of e-commerce infrastructure, conference calls have become part and parcel of business communications.. Making use of reliable teleconference services, companies small as well as large firms can effectively communicate with customers. Similar to client interactions, international conference calling also enables organisations in delivering news and briefs to their satellite branches, as and when needed. Every department within the firm, whether finance, marketing, sales or human resource, can benefited by utilising this conferencing solution.

The benefits offered by international conference calling have made the decision making process faster. Furthermore, last minute changes in the project plan can be conveniently conveyed to every team member with ease. The benefits enjoyed by any company making use of these efficient services are multifarious in nature. To conduct successful and efficient business meetings, open and direct channels of communication are highly important. This importance surges in case any organisation needs to conduct business across different time zones, as international conference calling is instrumental in this regard.

Whenever any change or modification is made in organisation policies, the message has to be conveyed to all personnel. However, accomplishing this task by making use of conventional communication modes causes wastage of human effort as well as business hours. For instance, the CEO wants to pass on some urgent notification to every manager working within the firm. The individual, however, is unable to contact every manager personally due to busy schedule. Then, making use of conference calls, CEO can do the same with efficacy without investing lot of time. If time management is the key to success for any business operation, international conference calling is the tool for efficient time management.

The benefits of conferencing services are not only limited to global corporate and commercial establishments. A large number of students, today, are also utilizing international conference calling to attend classes and lectures online. Many faculty members, who get transferred or relocated to a new location, still have to attend to a particular batch of students. Conventionally, these faculties would have travelled to their old campus in order to deliver lectures and seminars. The process, along with being inconvenient, also consumes time on the part of these faculty members.

Companies rendering teleconference services are supported by professionals and engineers. In case of any outage or discrepancy, troubleshooting can be managed remotely.

Dines Mark is an experienced writer having more than five years of experience in writing articles on various topics such as conference calls, teleconference services, and virtual meeting etc.

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