When strategizing and preparing to host a great webinar, it’s easy to miss out on attendee engagement opportunities throughout the pre-event experience. The time between registration and when the webinar begins is a great place to start sharing related content, and preparing to curate the pre-join experience with a warm welcome message, music, or event interactive polls to get creative juices flowing. One issue is that many webinar platforms don’t give organizers and hosts the tools needed to execute these pre-event experiences. And the bare minimum following an attendee’s registration – a few email reminders – leaves “engagement” to just during the session. But if we’ve learned anything from a great show, movie, or event, is that the experience is interesting and thoughtful every step of the way. Close your eyes and imagine a theater with its curtains closed. The audience is flooding in after being admitted and waiting for the show to begin. Staring at this blank curtain while the host, producers, and cast are preparing for their big moment would be boring for an audience. Wouldn’t some lights shaped like animals or stars or anything related to the show theme be a lot more enjoyable? Or even having a puzzle to solve in the pamphlet that they are given as they walk in? Luckily, with Webex Webinars, we are introducing new ways to help make the pre-event anticipation and waiting more engaging.   While panelists, hosts, and cohosts are in the practice session running through their presentation and preparing to begin the webinar, attendees who join prior to the start of the webinar will be greeted with this custom view. You, as the host, can use any default background options and colors or upload a custom image that relates to the webinar theme. Along with that, you can add a message to overlay on the image or place clearly above the image. To top it all off, you can upload a music file so your audience can jam out with great vibes before the webinar begins. This can be a powerful trio if utilized to its full potential. If they are used to supplement the themes in the webinar, it can become an essential part of your audience engagement strategy. Some ways that I like to make the most of this experience is by:

• Having a warm welcome message
• Asking a thought-provoking question that segues into the topic of the webinar
• Uploading a slide with a QR code for Slido to get polling and Q&A started
• Uploading a custom MP3 file that covers housekeeping in a voice loop – or just some upbeat music to get the audience inspired

There are endless ways to make the most of this time and I hope you find joy in engaging your audience with this tool. Learn more about how to customize the attendee view during practice session here.