Must have features for your webinar web conferencing solution.  Exception: Seats or licenses – depends on your situation and your goals. While, I have my personal preference, everyone is different, so the “what do I get Seats or Licenses?” choice is based on your objectives and needs.

1. Ability to hold multiple sessions per day or at the same time.  In other words, if you want to have 3 seminars going on at 9 a.m. you can. You have 3 different rooms.  If you want to have 5 going on at the same time you can.  As for the per day: You have one at 9 a.m, 10 a.m, and so on…
   
2. Unlimited sessions per month.   MUST HAVE. This ties into #1. Your solution should give you unlimited per month. There is no reason in this day and age for you to have any sort of limitation on this.  The only catch to it, and really its not a big deal is..
3. Seats.  It used to be that every WC vendor went the seats route. However, there is now a push towards licenses.  If the seats aspect is in play – you purchase your seats, but you still want unlimited sessions per month.  Thus, you can have up to x number of people per session. So, yes, you could hold multiple sessions per day and yes, you could hold multiple at the same time – as long as it did not exceed the total number of seats. Example: At your 9 a.m. webinar, room #1 has 15 seats, room #2 has 25 seats.  You purchased 40 seats.  At 10 a.m. you have only one webinar, so you offer all 40 seats and so on.
   
4. Licenses:  You purchase as many licenses as you need for your company.  Each administrator or person who runs the “show” gets the license.  Now, this can sound confusing, but it really isn’t.  You do NOT buy licenses for every person in the webinar. Rather this is for your company.  So, let’s say as the Director of Training you clearly need a license. You buy one.  The license includes unlimited webinars for the month and number of people (in essence seats) OR unlimited number of people.
   
5. Typically with licenses - a lot of vendors do not enable you to have the multiple rooms at the same time – i.e. the multiple seminars going on at the same time offer. Now, Bob, VP of Sales, wants to hold (dare I say it?) meetings with his team scattered all over the country, plus have webinars handled by his team (and not training – I know – how dare he!).  So, Bob now must purchase a license, since he will be handling his own stuff, and will not be using your license.  After all, you have webinars on those days that Bob needs to have his meetings and his webinars. You can’t do both. Hence, another license.
   
6. To License or Not to License that is the Question.  Many Pros and Cons on the licenses aspect versus seats spin.  Really it comes down to what else does your vendor provide, what type of agreement you are seeking, features, what do you want to do with your webinar – web conferencing solution.   As I said, I prefer “seats” purchase versus licenses – Why?
7. Month to Month Players.  New kids on the block, well they have been there for a bit, but you are seeing more and more of them.  You pay per month. You can bolt at any time – 30 days notice.  No “contract” in theory. That said, you always score a better deal signing a one year deal.  However, M2Ms are easier to pull out of – if u are unhappy with their service, compared to a vendor that you purchased licenses.  There are a lot of M2Ms out there, and in my mind there is only one worthy of receiving excellence by me (if u are interested in the name, please email me).
   
8. Visual.  Personally, I like to see the person talking to me. Especially in a webinar scenario. After all, it is a seminar but online. Therefore, you MUST have a vendor that enables the ability to have your instructor/presenter/whatever visible on screen. Some terms they use for this includes: video, web cam.  I eliminate the terminology by just saying: “I want to have blah blah visible on the screen when people are attending my webinar. Can you do this. Yes or No?” – Whalla, easy!   Now, you also want to see how many other people can be seen on the screen at the same time too.
   
9. 1, 2,4,6, 8.. How many instructor web cam/video visual windows does your vendor allow on the screen at the same time?  Can you only have your instructor visible or also some learners/instructors who have web cams as well? BTW, what are your  instructor “window” options?
   
10. Is it stationary – so it the instructor window always stays in one place? Can an end user move it around the screen using their mouse?  Can the end user expand the size of the window, so your instructor’s face or image is bigger? What does it look like when this happens? I mean if it looks grainy, maybe the expansion option for that vendor is not your best choice.
11. Number of frames, Quality.  I love the new option some vendors are pitching “HD”. Great. Problem with that, is speed on the other end – i.e. what the end user sees – which effects quality;  how much better does the image appear when it comes to “HD”; and really can your end user tell the difference?  Personally, at this point in the tech world, ignore the “HD” option, unless it is free.  I had it with one vendor and rarely used it. My end users couldn’t tell the difference and honestly, the image quality often was poor when you expanded out the window, plus the infamous increase of frames per second was irrelevant to someone who is watching on a slow cable line or even any slow line or modem.   Bleech!
    
12. I have a highlighter, underlines, you can draw images, point to things, upload your powerpoint or other presentation. -  Big deal.  They all offer this.
    
13. Desktop sharing - i.e. you can take control of your end users screen or they of yours – so you could share or work on a document together; you can do a “web tour or whatever term they like to use” – you can surf the net and your end users follow you and see what you see; you can upload your presentations on the fly – you do not need to upload ahead of time.   You want all these features.  The first two – nearly all do this. The last one, not all vendors offer this. Many are still stuck in the ice age with requiring you to upload your whatever ahead of time, and not on the fly – as in oh, I want to add this right from my desktop into my presentation – now.
14. Email within. You want to be able to import your attendees or at least add them into the program – including newbies (which for the latter, they all do) and then EMAIL INVITES WITHIN THE PROGRAM and not having to use your own email account to send out the invites.  You want to track who accepts and declines right? – Some systems offer this.  You want to see who opens it right? – Some vendors offer this (very rare though).  You want to see if someone even gets it – i.e. you have the right email address, right? (some vendors offer this) – So, why would you want to have to email your invites through your own email account?  Ludicrous.
    
15. Reminders.  Sent from within the system and you can set it up so they can go out x number of days prior to.  Better: You can send out multiple reminders.   Regardless, you have to have the reminders option. End of story.
    
16. Verification of Registration. Unless you are using some type of event management solution, once your end user accepts your invite, they should receive some type of verification.  Rare to find, but a nice bonus feature.
    
17. Text chat, people can raise their hands using icons, send private messages to the instructor, ask questions by text.  They all have it.  However..
18. End users can send messages to each other while the webinar is taking place. If you want this feature, not all vendors offer this.  And if they do include it, ask them if you can turn it off – it is a nice option, if you do not want Sarah and Lisa to be badmouthing your instructor or talking about this weekend during your webinar in private messages.
    
19. Edit Text Transcripts.  Very rare to find with vendors, but for those of us who do not want our end users to see a final version of stuff not relevant to the topic, an edit option prior to the final version (which includes the audio/video portion) being released, can be cool.  However, you cannot edit the audio/video version ahead of time, unless you receive it as a download and have the capabilities to do so. Really, who wants to do that and who has the time?
    
20. As for text, some folks like the edit option, since your text transcripts may include Aleen mentioning she is hungry in the chat that everyone can see.  No thank you.  BTW, not all vendors even offer the text chat transcript with your final version (a/v) for view or download.
    
21. Mute.  The instructor can mute end users either while the end users are on the phone or VOIP or both.  Must have it.  Better: Instructor can mute individual end users, rather than everyone.  Why do this?  Have you ever heard the “hold music” while someone puts the phone on the hold line? What about hearing keyboard tapping or someone talking to someone else in the room?  Talk about distractions.  Nobody wants to hear this.  My recommendation: try to find the individual end user option, since it is nice to just pick Mike who is at home and you can hear his kid screaming in the background, rather than everyone on the call, since others may have questions.
    
22. Twitter and other social media.  Very new concept. Rare to find among vendors, however there are those who are implementing this solution. Basically, you can send the invite to the end user via Twitter/another social media offering.  You can also have reminders sent out via Twitter/another social media offering.  Nice, however – if your end users never use Twitter or social media, then worthless.
    
23. Looks like your site – branded. YOU WANT THIS, especially if you have a LMS and plan either some form of integration or at least a link from within your LMS.  Now, if you do not care that your end users see the name of your vendor and their colors and not yours, then this is not a big issue. But I always liked to have my colors at a minimum on the site and my logo. The logo had to be there.  Some vendors charge extra to have their logo removed or some require that their logo or text is somewhere on the screen. Try to negotiate this to remove it. I’ve walked before. Frankly, I am paying for this service and I do not want to see your advertising, unless you are paying me or offering this free.
    

A word about Mobile and WC: Great concept, really nice. Downside: I have yet to see a vendor who offers the “video” capability – i.e. you can see the instructor during the webinar.  Those that offer the mobile capability use text chat.   When the video option comes into play, it will be a nice bonus.  However, the ability to register or sign up for webinars via mobile is awesome and if your vendor offers it – WOW.  I love this feature, especially if the person – end user does not have to have a smartphone.

This Week 27-29th:  TechKnowledge Expo Hall Reports: Favs and Duds. I will reporting nightly on my blog, some of my Favs and Duds, that I see at this year’s TK Expo Hall.

Coming Next Week – Feb.:  Here Data, Data, Data – LMS Reports

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