A Happy Accident for AllPlay Web Webinars

We were asked to sit in on a customer's webinar (where he was going to be utilizing AllPlay Web).

He wanted to do a discovery run (not even as polished as a dry run) to figure out how his content should flow, which slides should go where, and when to play which questions in the course of the webinar. (The screencap on the side is one of his AllPlay Web questions.)

And--as with any first time--there were some hiccups. We found ourselves seeing some of the questions only to have our host say, "Whoops, I haven't covered that yet!" and switching quickly back into the content. However, two things happened:

1. We were surprised how competitive we got, considering that we had NO knowledge of the dry topic. We really focused in on the details and data of the webinar--knowing that things may be covered later. We found ourselves taking notes (with specific details of content WE DIDN'T CARE ABOUT) in order to get correct answers.

2. Related to the mistake of showing questions before their time: We became laser-focused in on that content. We knew we were going to find the answer somewhere in the webinar material coming up, so we payed extra-close attention to getting those questions answered.

So what are the implications of our accidental discovery?

• It's definitely important to pre-frame the game at the beginning of the webinar. Tell the participants right away that they'll be playing a game--competing against each other.
• There's really no substitute for competition. We felt compelled not just to interact (i.e. like with polling) but to get the *right* answer to demonstrate our attention. There was skin in the game, so to speak.
• It's not a bad idea to preview which questions are going to be in the game before the content is covered. Especially if there is content you want to be sure to focus on or highlight. It's not tipping your hat, it's shifting the attendee focus to the most important place.
  

Time and time again, we're surprised by the amazing experience that we have as *participants* using our products. What we mean is, we spend a lot of time testing and practicing internally, but there's really no substitute for the real-world experience of the game shows--and seeing the absolute joy and effectiveness they bring to a webinar or training session.