Hood's Winks – Webinars bring new dimension (Dec. 10, 2014 issue)

By Ralph Hood
I Am A Webinarist!
I have spoken for hire from Hawaii to Spain and from Alaska to Puerto Rico, but had never presented a webinar, which is kind of an online seminar.
Webinars popped up online a few years ago, and I’ve participated in several of them, but never presented one. I kinda felt old and out of date about that.
Then, on an online speaker forum came an announcement about a group looking for speakers to do a webinar on business issues. Hey, I wanted to get my foot in the webinar door. I offered, they accepted and—ZAP!—I was scheduled for my first webinar.
I felt really good about being a webinarist at first. I told everybody about it. But then—as the time drew nigh and nigher—I got plumb scared to death about it. I bugged the lady who handled all the details. She wasn’t the least bit worried. I was borderline manic. I mean, like who controlled the slides? Could the participants hear me? Could I hear them? How long did I have? Would there be questions? If so, how would I get them? Why did I get into this?
This webinar was the brainchild of LabX Media Group and sponsored by Unity Lab Services. They had all of the details worked out and had a bunch of people lined up to participate, and had me lined up to present. I, on the other hand, didn’t really understand how it all worked, and I was sore afraid. The participants would watch the whole thing on their computers. They could hear me talk, but I couldn’t hear them at all. That’s one of the things that scared me. How would I know if they liked it or hated it? I wasn’t used to silent audiences.
One kinda good thing was that they couldn’t see me. I didn’t have to dress up! All they could see were the slides I had prepared. I could do it from my office in a bathrobe if I wished. All I needed was a landline telephone. As the time continued to draw nigher, I suddenly remembered—Gail and I had canceled all our landlines months before. Now what?
Maria True, of WEMB/WXIS radio, solved that problem. Maria offered a landline and a cubbyhole at the radio station—then she actually provided me with her own private office! Wonderful! (That meant I couldn’t do it in my bathrobe, of course, but to tell the truth, I don’t even own a bathrobe, anyway.)
The big day finally quit drawing nigh and arrived! On that day I woulda paid to get out of doing the webinar. I still had a zillion questions and wondered how I could make it come to a close at exactly the right time.
Wife Gail went to the station with me and turned the pages of my notes for me while I talked and clicked for each slide. I ended on time. Then I answered relayed questions for a bit and it was over. Whew!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow—it went well! Responses said it was “great” and other nice compliments. I dunno why I was worried anyway; it was a snap! Anybody want a good webinar?
Uh, wait a minute—I have some questions first! Let’s not rush into this!