"A great tool to reach out to people from all parts of the world."

 

Professor Jörg Auer, Chair of the AOVET International Board, shares some personal tips on how to make your webinar successful.

 

 

How was the webinar you moderated received by its audience?

Really well. People from all over the world attended—from Russia, Japan, Australia, India, Brazil, the USA, and Costa Rica. It is exciting to be speaking live to people from so many different countries. A webinar is a great tool to reach out to people from all parts of the world.

 

What is the key element of a good webinar?

It is the same as for a good lecture—preparation. AO provides professional support for webinars, making it easy for the presenter and the moderator to do their jobs. One of the most important points is the rehearsal shortly before the live webinar. This helps to eliminate technical mistakes, and can enhance the surgeon’s presentation.

 

How is it different from a regular lecture?

The most distinguishing feature is the lack of a visible audience. You speak to a camera, and participant interactivity is limited to a few questions and answers. You have no idea whether your participants are actually interested or fast asleep.

 

How do you deal with this?

I ignore the thought of sleeping participants and focus on my competence. The best webinars are those delivered by confident, knowledgeable lecturers, who captivate their audience when transferring knowledge.

 

 

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ABOUT Jörg Auer Dr. med. vet. MS

 

Jörg Auer is the chairperson of the AOVET International Board. He spent his early career in the United States at the Department of Large Animals Medicine and Surgery at Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical) University. Jörg Auer was recently the moderator of the Webinar "Fracture Management of the Head Region; Part II: Head and Skull—What can be done?"

 

 

 

 

 

Moderator Diarmuid De Faoite shares the challenges of being the man in the background

 

When I was asked to comoderate the webinar, I was excited to be involved in a new experience. After all, I was not going to be the one the camera was on, how hard could it be? The answer was: very hard indeed!

 

I was lulled into a false sense of security in the run-throughs, because it was impossible to replicate the real-time experience of questions whizzing in from all around the world. In the practice runs, I simply posed the presenter a few questions I had prepared myself. During the live webinar, I asked people to send in their questions, but they came in only in drips and drabs. With the benefit of hindsight, I know this was because they were too engrossed in the presentation to chat with me.

 

During the webinar itself, I was rather nervous. Did I send my message to the right person? Did I manage to send a reminder to everyone to send in their questions?

 

However, once the Q&A session began, I suffered from question overload. The chat window began to fill up quickly, as the questions whipped in from across the globe. I had little time to reflect on each one. I quickly had to evaluate whether the question had already been covered or was appropriate for the webinar (some questions were too specific. I asked these people to contact us after the webinar). In addition, since English was not the first language of many of the participants and they were typing quickly, I also had to make some fast edits, in order to make the questions as easy to understand as possible for the presenter.

 

Having worked in radio, I know that the worst possible thing is “dead air” or time when nothing is being said. I kept feeding the presenter with questions to avoid this, plus I made sure to offer her a choice of questions so that she could pick the one she felt most comfortable with. Obviously, the person giving the webinar is under the most pressure and the support team should be there to reduce any additional stress.

 

Based upon my experiences over the two days, organizing and giving a webinar involves a steep learning curve for everyone doing it for the first time–even for the moderator in the background.

 

Further information

Discover the upcoming AOTrauma online learning opportunities or search for the recorded events on the webinar and webcast library.