Picture this. A conference room. No refreshments. The a/c has been jacked way up. The presenter stands on a stage, a laptop open on the podium with a projection screen directly behind him. Page after page of bullet points with sad clip-art for show. But it gets worse. All the presenter does is read directly from a powerpoint that does absolutely nothing but lead you to ask more questions, but one question in particular stands out: why did I get out of bed for this? Yes, it’s a seminar nightmare. And, to top it off, you’re sitting in the front row!

Webinars that lack proper planning and essential creative elements will leave our audience with the same feeling of living through a recurring webinar nightmare. Except with webinars, they have a small benefit — the office work they have been neglecting for weeks. Oh, they can complete this chore or that chore while you drone on without interest.

Your job as the webinar host is to keep the audience engaged and interested. How do you accomplish this? Quote Stork Solutions offers several options but in the interest of brevity, we will discuss one key strategy here (if you want more, you can sign up for the free newsletter). This strategy alone, however, will keep all of your presentations fresh and interesting.

The secret ingredient to a successful webinar? Curiosity. Yes, it’s that simple. By keeping the audience’s curiosity level high with each of your presentation’s slides and points, you keep their interest. Curiosity allows your audience to entertain questions of their own and either work through their own problems, or build a great case. Regardless, they will sit at the edge of their seat, waiting for what comes next.

Examples of how to arouse curiosity in your webinars are abundant. Since you are dealing with a visual media, look at some of the greatest films and how their filmmakers kept their audience attentive (and awake). Darth Vader in Star Wars kept audiences coming back over and over, even after it became public knowledge that Darth was Luke’s father! The Prestige - What is the ultimate magic trick? The Usual Suspects - who is Kaiser Soze? You get the point; make your audience curious.

To accomplish curiosity, present a problem instead of all five hundred answers. After all, the best managers are those that empower employees to offer the “means” toward the corporate “end.” Of course, the manager usually has a rough roadmap in mind when soliciting advice from employees and the webinar provides a great medium to visually present such a broad roadmap.

In today’s difficult economic climate, the typical financial advisor makes for a great case study. While the advisor understand that bearish markets present the greatest opportunities for long-term growth, she would be wise to NOT give a million reasons for why clients should invest more and invest now. Instead, she might provide questions. Like asking the audience what they do when gasoline prices are high (partially fill the tank) versus when they reach lower lows (fill everything from the car, the boat, even the lawn mower!). Questions like what Donald Trump does (buys dumpy properties, pretties them up, and sells them for way more than they are worth). Hmm… the audience will come to their own conclusion that now is the time to invest.

Citrix Online leads the market with their GoToWebinar solution. Through Quote Stork Solutions, enjoy a free trial and an additional $10 off your first payment (if you subscribe). GoToWebinar allows unlimited webinars throughout the month, meaning you can as many clients and employees as you want.