If you’ve ever delivered a webinar, you know that things can go wrong—especially at the last minute. I created a webinar checklist when I delivered an investment commentary webinar via Zoom to a CFA Society last year. My goal was to minimize opportunities for problems to disrupt me. Unfortunately, I‘ve learned from experience about some of the things that can go wrong during a webinar.

I’m sharing a generic version of my webinar-day checklist in case you’ll benefit from adapting it for your needs.

☐ Check today’s newspapers for news relevant to my topic.

☐ Reboot PC and close down as many programs as possible to minimize the load on my PC. Kill anything that might put pop-ups—like Microsoft Outlook task reminders—on my screen.

☐ Have a travel clock handy—and a list of my target time to start each of five sections—to help me keep track of time.

☐ Wear non-distracting clothes—for example, no tiny prints that’ll shimmer or wildly swinging earrings.

☐ Make tea with honey and do my vocal warm-up exercises to make my voice more resonant.

☐ Put phones on “Do not disturb.”

☐ Adjust the lighting to optimize it for the webinar (I discovered that opening my blinds for sunlight made me too washed out).

☐ Remind introducer or facilitator of things I’d like them to do during the program and make sure they have my bio (have it ready to email if necessary).

☐ Remind myself to look at the webcam, not my keyboard or my screen.

☐ Have fun!

 

I hope you find this checklist helpful. A webinar can be a great way to connect with people. It works even better when you’re not rattled during your webinar by problems that a webinar-day checklist could have prevented.