What You Need to Know about Webcasts

Many advisers have found online presentation tools to be helpful, whether for participant enrollment meetings or ongoing financial education (see “Spinning the Web,” PLANADVISER, May-June 2009).*

The most important decision to make in regard to Webcasts is how you want to use them with participants. That requires conversations with the plan sponsor and knowledge about the participant base. Once you decide to do Webcasts, the next step is choosing a Webcast provider that will give you all the features you want—some considerations for which are listed below. For those of you who already do Webcasts, perhaps you’ll learn something new.

Some Webcast providers:

• WebEx
• GoToMeeting (Citrix)
• Live Meeting (Microsoft)
• OnStream Media
• AccuConference
• Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro

Practical Considerations

• How many participants will be using the service at a time (this can affect which service you choose and how much it costs)?
• What level of interaction do you want participants to have? Do you want participants to be able to ask questions over the phone or online in a “chat room” function? What about the ability to poll them live?
• Will you want to update the base of a presentation easily for reuse?
• Should the presentation be available live, on demand, or both?
• Would participants prefer the ability to call in or to stream it online?
• How often do you plan on using a service (can your firm purchase a bundled service)?

Technical Considerations

• Can the presentations be on the phone and/or Web?
• Does the service allow for both display/video and audio or will you need separate providers (this is especially important to know if you plan to have both phone and online access)?
• Can you access your desktop to display during the presentation (for example, if you want to demonstrate for participants a Web site login process)?
• Can you record the presentation for participants to access easily later, and in what file format will the recording be (some providers have proprietary formats that require downloading specific software)?
• How flexible are file formats you can use in a presentation? (Can you use PDFs, PowerPoints, Flash, video files, etc.?)
• Does it allow for transcription (in case you want to have a text file after the call)?

Webcasting Pros and Cons

Pros:
+  Many participants like to have information available on demand to consume at their convenience.
+  Participants are increasingly more comfortable with online communication and even prefer receiving information over the Web.
+  Participants easily can access their own accounts online while listening.
+  Using the Web can be cost-efficient by cutting down on adviser time and travel expenses.
+  For companies with telecommuters or work sites all over the country, Webcasts may be more efficient.

Cons:
–   Not all employees have Internet access.
–   Some employers and employees might be more comfortable with the Web than others.
–   The Web can be impersonal.
–   It is easy to do other things and, therefore, participants might miss important information when listening to a Webcast.
–   Putting together Web presentations takes time and energy.
–   Some advisory firms have compliance hurdles for advisers using Webcasts.

*Check with your firm’s policy before starting a Web strategy. Regulatory agency rules may apply and broker/dealer strategies and protocol can vary.