Before You Broadcast: A Checklist for Financial Services Webinars and Webcasts

An investor update might only last 30 minutes.

Getting it ready can take considerably longer.

There are slides to finish, figures to check, presenters to prepare and joining instructions to send. Marketing or Communications might be organising the broadcast, IT could be involved in access and security, and the content itself may need to pass through several people before anyone is happy for it to reach an audience.

The same goes for client briefings, market updates, internal broadcasts and plenty of other online events across Financial Services.

So rather than another enormous event planning guide, here's a practical final check before you broadcast.

1. Has the content had its final sign-off?

Let's start with the presentation itself.

Are the figures correct? Is the wording final? Are you using the right version of the slides? Have the people responsible for reviewing the content actually seen the version that's going to be broadcast?

When several teams or senior stakeholders are involved, one small change can quickly create several different versions of the same presentation.

Make it clear when content is final, where that final version lives and who has the authority to make any further changes.

It sounds basic. It's also exactly the sort of thing that becomes surprisingly important 20 minutes before an investor webcast.

2. Is access right for this particular audience?

Not every Financial Services event is meant for everybody.

A public market commentary webinar might have a straightforward registration journey. A client briefing could be intended for a particular audience. An internal leadership broadcast may only need to be accessible to employees.

So check the setup against the event you're actually running.

Who should be able to register? What information are you asking for? How will attendees join? Have the right joining instructions gone out?

Then test the whole thing yourself.

Don't just check that the registration page exists. Register, receive the emails and join the event exactly as an attendee would.

3. Have your presenters had a proper run-through?

Financial Services webcasts often involve people whose main job definitely isn't presenting webinars.

You might have a fund manager joining for a market update, a senior leader presenting company results or a specialist joining a client briefing for one particular section.

They know their subject. They still need to know what will happen on the day.

Show them where they'll present from, how they'll see their slides, where questions will appear and when they're expected to join.

Check their microphone, camera and connection at the same time.

And if you've managed to get 20 minutes in a very busy person's diary for a technical rehearsal, use it well. You don't need to rehearse every word. Make sure they're comfortable with the setup and let them get back to their day.

4. Have you checked the numbers, names and dates everywhere?

A Financial Services presentation can contain a lot of information.

And it isn't necessarily only in the PowerPoint.

Event titles, speaker names, job titles, dates and other information can appear across registration pages, emails, presentation slides and the event itself.

If something changes during planning, make sure that change has made its way everywhere it needs to.

The same applies to figures within the presentation. If a number has been updated in the slides, check whether it appears anywhere else too.

A final consistency check is time well spent.

5. What will the audience actually see?

Now stop looking at the event as the person organising it.

Look at it as an investor, client or employee.

Does the registration page make sense? Is the event clearly branded? Can you hear the speakers properly? Are the slides readable? Do videos play as expected? Do the links and resources work?

If you're using polls, try them.

If you're providing captions, check them.

You can spend weeks looking at an event through an admin account and still spot something completely different when you finally view it from the audience side.

6. Who is responsible for what during the broadcast?

An important webcast can have quite a few people quietly working behind the scenes.

Someone might be hosting. Someone else is presenting. Another person is moderating questions. Marketing or Communications may be keeping an eye on the overall event while technical support looks after the broadcast.

Everyone doesn't need to do everything.

In fact, it's usually better if they don't.

Before you start, make sure people know what they're responsible for and, just as importantly, what they're not responsible for.

Who starts the broadcast? Who introduces the speakers? Who deals with audience questions? Who contacts a presenter if they're missing? Who makes the call if something needs to change?

Get those answers sorted while everything is calm.

7. What's the plan if somebody suddenly isn't available?

Senior presenters have busy diaries.

Meetings overrun. Travel gets delayed. Someone who was definitely free when you planned the webcast three weeks ago suddenly isn't.

You can't plan for every possibility, but you can cover the obvious ones.

Make sure you know who to contact. Keep important event materials somewhere the right people can access them. Know whether another person could cover a role if necessary.

The aim isn't to create an elaborate emergency plan.

It's simply to avoid having to invent one while your audience is joining.

8. Are you ready for the audience response?

If you're opening the event up to questions, decide how you're going to handle them.

Who will moderate the Q&A? Who is best placed to answer particular subjects? Are there questions that should be passed to somebody else for a response afterwards?

The same applies to polls or other interaction you're including.

Don't add engagement tools simply because they're available. Think about what you're actually going to do with the responses.

Ten useful questions from clients can tell you a lot about what your audience wants to hear more about.

9. Is everything around the broadcast ready too?

The webcast is only one part of the audience experience.

Check your reminder emails. Check the time and time zone. Check the joining link. Make sure speakers know when they need to arrive rather than simply when the publicised event starts.

Then look at what happens afterwards.

If you're making the recording available on demand, who is responsible for that? Is there a follow-up email? Does anything need reviewing before the recording is published?

Sorting those details beforehand saves them becoming somebody's forgotten job after the event.

One last check

Ten minutes before the audience starts arriving, you shouldn't still be making major decisions.

The content should be signed off. Presenters should know what they're doing. The right audience should be able to get in. Everyone behind the scenes should know their role.

At that point, you're no longer planning the webcast.

You're ready to run it.

And that's a much nicer place to be when somebody says:

“We're live in ten.”

If you're planning investor updates, client briefings, internal broadcasts or other online events in Financial Services, you can learn more about how WorkCast supports them.

Learn more about WorkCast for Financial Services.