Hosting a successful RingCentral Webinar

Last updated on January 13, 2023

Rehearsing for your event in a prep session

We've put together some easy-to-follow tips to help you plan for, deliver, and measure the success of your RingCentral Webinar.

We recommend viewing the webinar video tutorials in the Resource Center in the RingCentral app for desktop and web. You can also watch our how-to videos and printable PDF tips checklist.

Planning your event

Before scheduling your webinar, create your webinar agenda, determine how you want to engage with your audience, and identify your cohosts and/or panelists.

Setting the webinar agenda
- On what date and time will you host the webinar? How long will it run?
- Who will be participating in your webinar and what roles will they have? Learn more about webinar roles.
- Will you take audience questions? Learn more about the Q&A feature.
  - ▪ Will you take questions throughout, between each speaker, or at the end of the webinar?
  - ▪ Will you allow your audience to ask questions anonymously? Will you answer questions offline?
Determining the responsibilities of your presenters
- Will you have a moderator introduce, mediate, and/or close the webinar?
- What will presenters share?
- Who will control the presentation assets, such as shared desktops and slide transitions?
- Who will manage attendance and facilitate Q&A and polls?
Planning your event presentation
- Will all participants join remotely? Will they sign in separately in different locations?
  - ▪ If you are hosting a hybrid event, with some participants joining online and others joining together at an onsite location? Do you need to book a conference space? What equipment will you need?

Scheduling your event

Schedule your RingCentral Webinar
Configure your webinar’s settings
Set up pre-configured polls
Send out your webinar invitations
- Send invitations and reminders to cohost(s) and panelist(s)
- Send invitations and reminders to attendees
  - Note: If the webinar date, time, or agenda changes, you can update the event details using the RingCentral app and your calendar app

Rehearsing for your event in a prep session

Using a prep session to rehearse your webinar with cohosts and panelists lets you run through your event agenda so that you can become familiar with webinar tools. You can set up handoff cues, make adjustments before you go live with your audience, and assess how long each presenter needs to deliver their presentation. You can have as many rehearsals as you want prior to your event by running a prep session.

You can use your prep session to:

Review webinar controls.
- Set up your virtual background, if desired. We recommend that each speaker use the same background: either your company logo or something non-distracting.
- Practice screensharing.
- Determine hand-off cues to know when to switch layouts.
  - ▪ Gallery view: Allows attendees to see all panelists. This setting is useful for Q&A sessions and for transitioning to a panel discussion.
  - ▪ Spotlight: Highlights a specific speaker.
  - ▪ Filmstrip or active speaker view: Lets attendees see the speaker and presentation.
Set your webinar’s video settings.
Double-check your panelists’ permissions and calendar invites to make sure that they have the right date and time, and that they know when to join the prep session.
- Walk your presentation team through the webinar features, including presenter chat and Q&A.
  ▪ If your panelist(s) use RingCentral Rooms, walk them through the Rooms features, such as controlling cameras, joining using Rooms, and screen sharing using the RingCentral Rooms controller.
- Run through slide transitions.
- If you or your speakers are presenting video, follow the same instructions as recommended for RingCentral Video meetings.
- Check everyone’s equipment. Remind them to use high-quality, noise-reducing headsets to eliminate echo.
- Remind speakers and panelists of any time restrictions.
Review your plans for managing Q&A and running polls, including who will read questions aloud, who will answer certain types of questions, and which types of questions you might want to answer offline.

On the day of your webinar, you can invite your panelists and cohosts to a prep session that begins 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour before your webinar’s scheduled start time. During this final prep session, you can:

Update the panelist or cohost invitations at the last minute, if needed.
Review the agenda, presentation order, agreed-upon verbal or chat handoff cues, and flow of your Q&A and/or poll sessions.
Test connections and technical functionalities with your presentation team.
- Confirm that everyone has a stable internet connection.
- Conduct a soundcheck to ensure that your presentation team can hear and be heard. Remind your panelists to mute their mics when it isn’t their turn to speak.
- Check video connections.
- Close unnecessary apps and browser tabs that could slow down your device.
Review webinar controls and check if anyone has any last-minute questions about them.

Running your event

When you’re ready, start your webinar by clicking Go Live in the bottom menu of the RingCentral desktop and web app or clicking Go Live in the upper right of the RingCentral mobile app. If the host can’t start the webinar, the cohost can start it on their behalf. Then you can:

Kick off your presentation and introduce your presentation team and topic.
Set how your attendees see the video layout based on the agreed-upon hand-off cues.
Chat privately with cohosts and panelists to make any on-the-fly changes to the webinar agenda.
Manage the Q&A session.
Run the poll.
Monitor participants' attendance by going to Participants via the bottom menu, if desired.
Change panelists’ or cohosts’ roles, if necessary.

Ending your event

When you have concluded the event, end the webinar for your attendees and start a debrief session with your cohosts and panelists.

Debrief session

Once you end the webinar for your attendees, you and your cohosts and panelists can remain in the webinar to discuss the event. Ask the group:

What went well during the webinar?
What would you do differently in the next webinar?
Which of the attendees’ questions were left unanswered, and why?
Who will address attendees’ follow-up questions?
Will you share the webinar recording with attendees?

After your event

One hour after you end your webinar, you will receive an email reminder asking you to check your webinar engagement data. Click the email link to be redirected to the Webinar dashboard in the RingCentral app. From there, you can view your webinar’s reports and analytics.

Using reports and analytics

Review your webinar engagement by using the RingCentral Analytics Portal.

Pull your webinar’s attendance report.
- Compare your registration numbers to the number of people who attended.
Pull the Q&A report.
- Send the Q&A report to the panelist(s) who agreed to address attendees’ follow-up questions.
Pull the polls report.
- Study engagement and response rates.
Share the webinar recording link with your attendees.

Hosting a successful RingCentral Webinar

Table of contents

Planning your event

Scheduling your event

Rehearsing for your event in a prep session

Running your event

Ending your event

Debrief session

After your event

Using reports and analytics