Guidance notes for speakers at Landlord Law Training Webinars and events
Please read these notes well in advance of your webinar date
Thank you so much for agreeing to be a speaker at one of our Landlord Law training webinars or event!
Thank you so much for agreeing to be a speaker at one of our Landlord Law training webinars or event!These notes are to give you a bit of guidance on the procedure, the technology and what happens on the day. Don’t be alarmed at the length of these notes, it is not a complex process. These notes are just to give you a bit of background information.
Preliminaries
Landlord Law Member Training Webinars
We try to run a training webinar for Landlord Law members once a month. They will usually be on a specific topic of residential landlord & tenant law and practice. Often this will be something which is in the news or a new piece of legislation which is due to come into force soon. Or it may be something which people find difficult or something we have been asked for.
The webinars normally last about 1 hour but can go on a bit longer, although not more than 1 1/2 hours at the most. They will normally take place at 10.30 am on a day to suit you.
Other webinars
We sometimes run other webinars. If they are free webinars they tend to be for 30 minutes over the lunchtime.
We also run other webinars from time to time.
Online Events
We run longer online events periodically – for example, online workshops. These generally use the same software so the notes here will apply to these online events also.
Single speaker workshops
For single-speaker workshops, I generally set up two webinars, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. They tend to run from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm with a break for lunch between 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm.
Multi-speaker events/conferences
For multi-speaker events, we usually use the ‘Big Marker’ webinar service together with our special Event Software (Hey Summit).
- The Hey Summit system will set up the talks and send out the speaker notification emails with your login links.
- But the talk itself will be delivered via the Big Market webinar system.
The two collaborate in a rather clever way!
Setting up the webinar
In order to set up the webinar (or your online event), I will need the following from you (if I do not already have them):
- Your email address and
- a digital picture of you.
The picture will go on the registration page and will also be used for promotion. When I have set up the webinar or event you will get an email from the system notifying you of this and giving your unique link to log in.
The system will re-send this to you again with a reminder, the day before the webinar and an hour before the webinar takes place.
Preparing for the webinar
We like all our trainers to provide a PowerPoint and, for some of our events training notes as well. These will need to be sent to me in advance of the event.
If you are going to be a speaker at one of our monthly webinars and would like to take a look at the recordings of past training webinars to give you an idea, please let me know and I will arrange for a temporary login for the site for you.
In order to access the webinar on the day, you will need a computer with good internet access and a microphone and/or a headset or a telephone (landline).
So far as headsets are concerned, I use an ordinary headset which I got from Amazon. They are relatively inexpensive – you can get a decent one for under £30. A headset is probably better than a mike as it cuts out most background noise.
However, if your computer does not have a sound card, you can also use your landline phone for audio.
As we record all the webinars, the sound quality is very important.
A trial run
The software we currently use for our webinars / online talks is called Big Marker.
It is not that well known, and we find it essential to have a practice webinar with our speakers to familiarize you with the software.
Let me know when you would like to do this. Most people opt for the day before.
I will set up a practice webinar for us for this – you will (again) be sent an email as a panellist. You will be able to tell it is for a trial run, as the title will include the words test or trial.
Once in the webinar room, we can talk, and you can ask me any question you may have which have not been answered by these notes.
For example if you are doing the broadcast from your office, there may be issues if your firm has a powerful firewall. So in our trial, we need to test the actual system you will be using on the day. It may sometimes be better for you to do the webinar from your home computer if your office security measures interfere too much.
Technical requirements
The Big Marker system is browser-based, so it is important to use an up-to-date internet browser.
When we have spoken to the Big Marker support in the past, they have recommended an up to date version of Chrome or Firefox and a speed of 10mbps is recommended for optimal performance. The system does not work well with Microsoft Edge and will probably not function at all with Internet Explorer.
You will find a link on the email sent to you as a presenter when we set up your webinars, which you can follow to check your system complies with their system requirements. Please ensure that you do this before your talk.
Note that they prefer presentations to be in pdf format but don’t worry about that as I can easily convert it if you send the powerpoint version to me.
More help
If you want some more information about the Big Marker system you will find their help page here.
Big Marker support
You will find the Big Marker help page here.
You will also get links to support pages with your email notification from their system when your webinar is set up which you can use to test your system.
Preparing for the webinar / event
The webinars are fairly informal. We will work through the PowerPoint or notes that you have prepared.
You need to make sure that you can be somewhere quiet on the day – if there is a lot of background noise this will interfere with the sound quality and may even mean that I am unable to use the recording, which would be a bit of a disaster.
You will also get better sound quality if you are in a room with carpet and curtains. Radio broadcasters will often, when recording from home, do this from a cupboard under a duvet! We do not ask for this! However please can you avoid recording in a room with polished wood flooring and shiny walls.
On the day
You will already have the links from Big Marker but the system will generally send out another one an hour before the start time.
Workshops
These will have two sessions one for morning and one for the afternoon. We also take a mid-morning and mid-afternoon ‘comfort’ break, but these can be taken when you like, just switch off your audio.
On the day, I will be with you and will monitor the questions coming in from delegates and put them to you at suitable moments. It is nice to show our faces at the start of the day (just so they know you are real!) but we switch the webcams off after this and just show the presentation.
Multi speaker events
If this is an event being run through the Hey Summit system you should get emails from them 24 hours and 60 minutes before your webinar is due to take place.
I will need you to log in early – not later than 15 minutes before the talk is due to start.
We can then run through the things you are going to talk about and make sure everything is working properly.
Doing the webinar
Before the broadcast starts the attendees will start to log in but will be held in a waiting area and will not be able to hear us until the broadcast starts at the appointed time. Although we will be able to talk to each other.
When the broadcast starts I will introduce you. I will also explain to the listeners how they can ask questions, and occasionally we may do a quick poll, but I will normally then leave it to you to do your prepared presentation.
Please, can you try to speak clearly and at the same volume throughout. Some people tend to drop their voices sometimes when they speak, but this makes it difficult to hear and will impact on the quality of the recording. Just speak normally. Doing a webinar is very similar to being on the radio, if you have ever done radio.
There will normally be questions from listeners – I will normally monitor these and ask them at a suitable point in the webinar. Although it may be an idea to stop every now and again to allow me to do this.
The webinar will be for a specific time and I prefer to close down shortly before this rather than be cut off by the system! We will say goodbye to the attendees and I will then close down the webinar.
After the webinar
Once the webinar has closed down we will be thrown out too so if you want to discuss it you will need to give me a ring (01603 763096 and ask to be put through to me). However, please do not do this if we are running a multi speaker event! As I will need to be with the next speaker.
After the webinar or event, I will then arrange for the webinar to be loaded up either (for one of our training webinars) to the training section of Landlord Law along with any notes, and the PowerPoint, or (for an event talk) to any event website which delegates have access to.
The CPD
We will often base CPD questionnaires on presentations. Users will be able to download a CPD certificate if they get 60% answers correct.
It would be helpful if we could liaise with you about this and if you have any suggested questions this would be much appreciated.
And finally
If you have any questions which these notes have not answered, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you!
Tessa Shepperson
