Webinar Information
Page Updated: 06/07/2020
What are webinars?
Webinars are meetings/seminars that are conducted over the internet. The benefit of this is you can enjoy the seminar from the comfort of your own home even if the presenter is on the other side of the world! All you need is a computer or tablet and an internet connection. Webinars are also interactive, there is a live chat so you can communicate with the webinar presenter and ask any questions. Polls are also conducted so that presenters can gather first hand information that will help to shape the webinar.
How do I attend a webinar?
The first thing you will need is a computer, tablet or smart phone. Next you need to keep an eye out for when webinars are being conducted, times and dates are often advertised through flyers or the organiser may email you. Both these ways will contain a web link to a registration page so you can sign up as an attendee.
By following this link, you will get to the registration page. You will be required to give an email address and a name, there may sometimes be extra information to complete depending on if the presenter would like to gather some pre-webinar information on their attendees. Once you have completed this you will be taken to a thank you for registering page. After registering you will receive an email that contains information on joining the webinar as well as giving the option to add the webinar to your calendar. There are different ways you can join the webinar so insure you have a good look at this email. If you are having trouble accessing the webinar from a computer, tablet or smart phone you can phone into the webinar and listen to it through a telephone (within your joining email there will be a telephone number as well as a participant pin that you must use). As it is normally an 020 number you phone provider is likely to charge you if you do listen to the webinar via dialling in. Read more on this on the Clickmeeting website. There will also be a button so you can test your internet connection strength. View an example of the registration email here.
All that is left to do is sit back and wait till the webinar begins. Adding the webinar to your calendar will help to make sure you don’t forget about it, but you will also receive an email before the webinar is due to start to ensure that you are ready to go.
What happens if I miss the webinar?
Don’t fret! All webinars are recorded for you to watch at your leisure. You won’t be able to interact with presenters or answer polls during the webinar but email any questions you may have to the presenters and they will respond as soon as they can. All webinars hosted by the Local Offer Officer can be found here. The West Sussex SENDIAS service also have videos they have produced available to watch on their website.
Other Important Information
If you are planning on watching the webinar live on a computer/ laptop that has been provided to you by your employer you will need to inform your IT department to make changes to your account settings on the computer. This is because many employers have particular firewall settings that stop people from entering the live webinar rooms. This document can be passed on to your IT department so they know what changes to make. It is at the discretion of your IT department whether they do or do not make the changes. You must also make sure you have and up to date version of google Chrome, Mozilla Fire Fox or Safari. You must also check that your computer meets the minimum specifications required to run Clickmeeting.
Alternatively you can watch the webinar on a tablet or smart phone that is up to date. Whilst not necessary it is recommended to have your device connected to Wi-Fi as opposed to using mobile data for a more stable connection and so you do not use lots of mobile data as the webinars are roughly 40 minutes long. To watch the webinar live on a mobile device it is best to install the ClickMeeting application. ClickMeeting links to app for mobile devices.
You can also go to the Local Offer Facebook video section to watch replays of past webinars hosted by the Local Offer Officer.
