The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings: Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions. The bad news is that when there are 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.
Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:
Mark W. wrote, “What is your recommendation for how to schedule times for global audiences when doing a presentation spanning many time zones. How do you ensure to get the best situation for all?”
If it’s going to be live, you’ve got a couple options.
The more obvious one is to accommodate the largest portion of your audience. If you’re hosting more than
one presentation (e.g., a monthly webinar series), consider using a registration or polling question to ask them what they prefer. For instance, I regularly present to European audiences from Oregon (Pacific Time) without having to get up too early because they’re hosting the webinar at 3pm British Standard Time… much later in the day than we often host webinars in the U.S.
The second option would broaden your reach considerably: hosting the same presentation at two different times during the same day. I’ve had many clients who figure the hard work is done (i.e., writing invitations, creating presentations, etc.), so it’s easy to host a morning event that covers early risers in the U.S. and Europe and a later-afternoon event that accommodates the U.S. and Asia Pacific.
The tougher reach is India and West Asia… they’re 11-15 hours different from me and I’m often up near midnight.
Recording content obviously extends your reach here, too, but that loses the live Q&A opportunity (which can be quite powerful for your message). Used thoughtfully, however, a blended approach might be the trick for you.
