The webinar software has over the years provided a platform for people to communicate and receive information. The Covid19 times left all people looking for a solution on how to play their roles in their different organizations. People were encouraged to follow guidelines like social distancing and countries introduced lockdown. But businesses were left with no solution, sales went down the drain and businesses faced the risk of shutting down.

However, the webinar software platforms provided a solution to these organizations. It provided businesses with ways to market and increase sales while maintain the social distance. In its options, it provides three types of webinar sessions namely live, pre-recorded and a blend of both. People have greatly embraced the live and the pre-recorded sessions. These have encouraged virtual meetings and embracing of the modern technology by businesses.

This article therefore intends to give you a broadened insight in why you should or should not use live or pre-recorded sessions. At the end of the discussion, you have the discretion to choose which type works best for you.

The following are the pros and cons of the live and pre-recorded sessions as discussed below;

Live sessions

Pro

These encourage interactions and growth of interpersonal communication. This is because the audience is given an opportunity to interact with the host. Using the webinar platform tools like polls, Q&As and the chat, the audience can submit their opinions. It encourages a two way discussion making the discussion interactive and engaging.

There is also an exchange of personal contacts like emails. This is because the audience uses its email to log in into the sessions. The host has an opportunity to obtain the email address and use it for future purposes. Purposes like informing the participant of any upcoming events.

Cons

A percentage of the host’s audience may be unable to attend these sessions. This is because people have different schedules for example some are full time employees. The time zones also differ for different participants.

There is also a likelihood of facing technical challenges like poor internet connections. These are big challenge to most webinar software platforms. It causes a disruption in the meetings and discussions.

These are challenges likely to be faced by people who prefer live sessions.

Pre-recorded or on-demand sessions

Pros

The host has power to edit and correct mistakes. Pre-recorded sessions give the host power and time to edit and correct mistakes that were in the live sessions. It gives the host an opportunity to incorporate the audience’s valuable feedback. This makes the information appear professional and a good source of future reference.

The host may choose to add some diagrams or graphs to help add more value to the presentation.

It also gives room to participants with busy schedules to gain the same information as those in live session.

Cons

There is no interaction between the participant and the host or presenter. Unlike the live sessions where the audience interacts with their host/presenter, the pre-recorded session does not. It does not encourage interaction and engagement between host and audience. This likely to cause the participant shun away from watching the session.

The dislike for pre-recorded sessions can be seen form the low viewership rate.

Conclusion

The two types of webinar sessions are provided by most webinar platforms. They give room for the audience to choose which works for them best. However, it should not be forgotten that the webinar provides a blend of the two types. This gives the participants or target audience wide discretion from which to choose from.