The difference between a Zoom Webinar and a Zoom Meeting
Show Notes: Episode 14 The Art of the Webinar and how to host and manage your virtual event with what to do during a live event, before and after.
Transcript
[Music intro]
The 8th Level Podcast is about being self-employed, entrepreneurship, and bootstrapping it. It’s also about unwinding and relaxing, and when we are not working in our business, to discover ways of connecting to our soul and self-care. My name is Lourdes, and I am the host of this podcast. Thanks for tuning in!
I’m so grateful today that you listen to this episode! I’m going to talk about the differences between a Zoom meeting, and a Zoom webinar. And I’ve been using a webinar for about 7 or 8 years now. I provide technical support, as well as build the webinar for my clients. So if you have any questions on this, please go to my website at https://8thlevelpodcast.com and click on “Contact,” and send me any questions or comments there.
In 2022, most people today know what a Zoom meeting is. A Zoom meeting is a collaborative event with all the participants. Each attendee or participant has the option to use a screen share, have the ability to turn on or off their audio, and use the video to show their faces.
So it’s like a meeting, a face-to-face meeting. Except, of course, it’s all done online or virtually. Everybody can see all the other attendees, and are able to participate and talk with each other, just like a meeting you would have in an office or a physical conference room! Everybody can talk and participate in the conversation. So, that is what a Zoom meeting is. An online meeting is always called “live.”
And now, I will explain what a Zoom webinar is. A Zoom webinar requires a few different types of elements and features. One of ‘em is also having a host, same as a meeting. But usually the event is view-only for attendees. So what this means is, attendees can only listen to the webinar, they cannot participate or collaborate with the other host or attendees.
But at times, some of those features can be turned on, and it really depends on the webinar platform that you are using. In a webinar, there is a presenter, sometimes more than one speaker or presenter. There are also different roles in a webinar, like a presenter, a host, a panelist, participant, or attendees. It is not a collaborative event at all. As the host, you cannot see your attendee faces, or hear them. So it’s not like a collaborative event like a meeting.
So there you go, that’s the difference between a Zoom meeting and a Zoom webinar. Now, I have been a webinar manager for many many years, and a strategist for webinars. And I thought about having a virtual assistant, or a VA, help me. But, I was very disappointed. Because as I researched them online, there were many virtual assistants advertising themselves as providing webinar support for webinars.
On top of that, I’ve spoken to so many business owners who thought that attending a webinar with all the people collaborating, all of their faces on camera, was the new trend in webinars. It isn’t, that’s a meeting. Clearly, some people are confused about the difference between a webinar and an online meeting. And so, this idea to have an episode to talk about the differences between a webinar and a meeting came about. And here I am!
So unfortunately, the VAs were actually providing support for a Zoom meeting, and not a Zoom webinar. They didn’t know the difference between a Zoom webinar and a Zoom meeting. So please be aware of this. And I don’t know how much they charge these business owners for a Zoom webinar support, when it was really a Zoom meeting.
Now to help you decide whether you need to hire a VA to help with your webinar, I’ve included some questions you might want to ask before you hire a VA to support you in your webinar. Here they are:
Ask the VA, what platform do they use? If they say Zoom, ask them what’s the difference between a Zoom meeting and a Zoom Webinar.
The next question is, what would you do if my internet goes down while we are having a live event?
Another question, how do you prepare for the webinar?
Will you provide training on how to launch my webinar, how to use the tools?
Do you or someone announce the housekeeping rules?
Who will moderate it?
And let me leave you with this before we end this quick session. A webinar is a virtual event that’s conducted online. It can be live, or prerecorded. It has a host, a presenter, and attendees if it’s live, that can listen and attend from anywhere in the world from their computers with internet access.
Well, I hope this was helpful! And if you’ve never hosted your own webinar, you don’t wanna miss next week’s episode where I go over some of the steps to take and lead generation! So, until next time, thanks for listening!
[Music outro]
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About the Host
Lourdes McCombs is passionate about helping you take your unique skills into the online world, learn digital strategies, and scale. She is a Business Mentor & Success Coach and helps men and women transfer their local business online to create a global impact and to attract more clients. She is spiritual transformation coach that helps people make changes in their life without compromising their mission and their soul.
If you need clarity, or defining your life’s purpose, visit her business website: click here for her website at: BlueLarimarCoach.com
Or schedule a 30-minute complimentary meeting to get to know her, ask questions about business development and kickstart your business ventures here.
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