Webinar Tips #1: Keep the duration of your presentation between 60 and 90 minutes
Have you ever sat in a class or training seminar that was over 3 hours long? Did you leave that training feeling like you were going to retain all the information only to find that days later you only remember a few points? For some it is very hard to stay focused in a long class or training whether you are sitting in front of the instructor or your computer. Kelly Kirkpatrick writes “people become apathetic in the face of too much information.”
If your webinar is too long you run the risk of your participants multitasking during the presentation: checking email, surfing the web, etc. To avoid this you want to keep the length of your webinar within the recommended time frame and engage your participants with robust content and participant interaction throughout.
If your webinar is too short you aren’t maximizing the time frame for which you have captured your audience. This is especially true for sales, marketing or promotional webinars. You want to seize the opportunity during the time you have your audience’s attention.
We have found that 60 to 90 minutes is the right amount of time to keep someone’s attention on your presentation. The retention rate of information seems to be optimal in this time period and will provide a digestible amount of information to your participants. Delivering within this time frame also allows you to deliver a compelling presentation while keeping your participants engaged.
Determining the duration length of your webinar(s) should be one of the first steps you take in the planning process. Will you split your 3 hours of content into two 90 minute sessions or three 60 minute sessions? The answer to this will differ based on the content being presented. Can it be logically split into three parts or will it be more effectively delivered as a two part series?
Keeping your delivery within this recommended time frame offers the highest likelihood that your participants will leave with a positive view of your material (and that they’ll remember it!)
Reference:
Kilpatrick, Kelly. The Human Attention Span and the (Too Much) Information Age. http://www.matchacollege.com/blog/2008/the-human-attention-span-and-the-too-much-information-age/. 2008.
