What is the Ideal Length for a Teleseminar?

The second most common question people ask me about teleseminars is about how to design an effective teleseminar (The most common is about how to make the technology work, but I'm not going to cover that here). In particular, many people would like to know the ideal length and the right mix of talking and audience participation.

So how do you design a teleseminar?

The secret is to forget you're doing a teleseminar, and design it just like any other program.

There's nothing magical about the teleseminar format. You don't have to design the program differently just because you're doing it as a teleseminar (Well, this is not strictly true. There are some things you can do to make best use of the teleseminar format. But they are minor details, not major structural design issues).

The fact is, whatever type of program you deliver now, you can probably adapt it to the teleseminar format.

For example ...

If you give keynote presentations, design your teleseminar as a keynote-style presentation, with the aim of changing their attitudes or shifting their beliefs. It will probably run for 45-60 minutes, with you doing most of the talking, and perhaps a brief Q&A session towards the end.

On the other hand, if you offer your teleseminar as a training session, you'll be teaching them skills. It might be about an hour long, with a handout they download in advance, exercises they complete during the session. You'll still do most of the talking, but you might have more than one pause for them to ask you questions, and you'll allow more time for questions.

If you run a teleseminar as a coaching session (yes, it's even possible to do group coaching by teleseminar - one of my clients does that very successfully), you'll be asking lots of questions and giving the audience more time to answer them.

Similar, if you do facilitation by teleseminar, you'll set the scene, and then open the line for the audience to do most of the talking (with your guidance, of course).

If you're conducting mentoring sessions by teleseminar, you'll combine the training and coaching modes - that is, a mix of teaching and asking, with some time for you to speak and some time for them to interact with you and with each other.

If you're using teleseminars to conduct interviews, treat this like a one-on-one facilitation, where you and a guest do most of the talking, and your audience listens silently.

Which of these will work best for you?

There's more to it than the brief overview I've given here. But I hope it helps you to put teleseminars in perspective. Whatever skill you've already got as an educator, you can apply that same skill in the teleseminar context.

Sure, you have to master the technology. But that part isn't really too hard if somebody shows you how to make it work. The real skill is in the content design, and you've got that skill already!

Gihan Perera is the author of "The Seven Fatal Mistakes That Most Web Site Owners Make - And How To Avoid Them" and "Spin: Turn One Idea Into Hundreds of Information Products". Visit www.GihanPerera.comand get your complimentary copies now.

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