Jason Moffatt

I'm curious if any Warriors know of some webinar options that accommodate over 1000 people on a webinar and is incredibly reliable?

We've been using GoToWebinar but we have some JV's lined up that may pack 3000 to 5000 people on the call and we don't want to screw it up.

We've been fooling around with Adobe Connect a bit. It seems pretty slick, but we are looking for any alternative that can handle large volumes of attendees with reliability being of the utmost importance.

We don't mind high prices and willing to shell out $5000 if needed, but we just want to know the best options that exist.

Any help Warriors?

Themeplated

I'm not sure if there's a private option for this specific service, but uStream held up to 100,000 people without any lagg whatsoever when Charlie Sheen jumped on and held Sheen's Korner.

Jason Fladlien

Jason,

we have a system we've built that can handle at least 5,000 people no problem. The downside to this system is that the presentation is slide based (like powerpoint) as opposed to doing live "look what I'm doing on my computer" presentation.

The upside is you can make your call to action slide (or any slide for the matter) clickable, so when you go into the close - you can literally say "click the button you see in front of you now..."

And participants can ask questions, etc. in real time as well plus some other functionality I can show you if you're interested.

So yeah if you're doing a straight up power point presentation then send me a PM and we can set up a time to walk you through a demo of the system.

Jason Moffatt

Ah man, that sounds really cool but we definitely need to be able to share our screen as we demo our software in real time on the webinar.

That's sweet that you can make the call to action link clickable because I can't tell you how many times people are trying to click the text link in the GoToMeeting.

Thanks so much for chiming in. Sounds like a very cool service, but we must show desktop and walk people through what they are buying.

Jason Moffatt

You know, that's a good thought. Didn't even think of that. However, my partner is in St. Louis while I'm in West Hollywood. Also, I think the small size of the video player would be an issue since we are demoing software.

But thanks for the idea. Ustream would be sufficient for quite a few other webbys I have in mind.

Cheers

Greg Jacobs

We live streamed a conference to 6,000 off of a CDN, the technology would be exactly the same as if you wanted to screencast your screen. As for the CTA button would easily be some javascript on the page that appears as desired. drop me a line if you want me to put you in touch with my video geek who handled it.

you can also setup watershed which is a whitelabeled ustream
https://watershed.ustream.tv/product...t_is_watershed


though quick word of awareness, selling off webinars means that if you have 1000 people on... that means 1000 people will be clicking at the EXACT same time on your bridge page.. meaning that this is more detrsuctive to a server than a typical HOT product launch, because instead of being spread out (even by seconds)

those 1000 are clicking at the EXACT same time... meaning that you need a HOT server and especially making sure that your MAX DB connections are set to equal however many people you think will be clicking at once.

I have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in the matter of minutes and careers and reputations ruined because people did not have this handled.

EDIT: You may want to check this out as well
http://www.telestream.net/wire-cast/overview.htm

Jason Moffatt

Thanks man. This is very helpful to hear.

JayPeete

Excellent point Greg. That is one of those things that you sometimes overlook with everything that is going on behind the scenes on something like this.

Also, great job Jason with this upcoming webinar. I saw the email that went out. You and Dax are going to kill it man. Congrats!

Scott Million

Do you need to answer live questions/allow people to chime in on the call? If not, I'd just record the webinar before hand and use an automated webinar script. Your buddy Frank knows of one he left a test. for.

To give a more 'live' feel, you could have your first scene of the webinar show the date and actually state the date when you start (commits you, but an option.)

Geoff1

Jason,

StealthSeminar.com regularly does events for up to 10,000 at a time.

Geoff

Jeremy Kelsall

"sold out"

markcall

Check out GVO Conference, Easy, open, affordable collaboration for online meetings, eLearning, desktop sharing, training, distance education, webinar, free web meetings. - let me know if you want a demo ... we can white label too!

- Mark

Jason Moffatt

Thanks buddy. We are already beyond crushing it. So blessed.

Jason Moffatt

We already have a built in auto webinar service in our theme. However, our LIVE webinars are pulling down 26% conversions on a high ticket item so far. That's not something you want to mess with and try to automate in my opinion. Part of the reason we are crushing it so hard is because of some of the live elements we are including. We also give away iPads and iPods on the calls to winners, so there is no way to automate that. By trying to automate a webinar with a big JV guy we'd sacrifice anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 per webinar.

Jason Moffatt

We already have our own built in pre recorded webinar service that has all the options that StealthSeminar has. Stealth Seminar is pretty much useless to us.

Jason Moffatt

Hmmm, I had a guy Ken Hammond offer to demo this for me and sent him a message on 2-14 but never heard back from the guy. I'd definitely be interested in checking it out.

However, I have to admit I'm a bit leary with the super cheap pricing model starting at $8.85 a month. Are you 100% sure it can handle a load of 5000 attendees? I'll send you a PM.

Scott Million

I'm not sure what the White Label option is for GVO Conference, but when I last did a chat with a sales rep they told me after the webinar all attendees are forwarded to the GVO Conference website tagged with your affiliate link. Not exactly where you'd want to send people hot on your offer to be distracted by a webinar service.

There is also no "call in" option for hosts/attendees at this point if that's important to you.

I would contact WebEx or any of the other big providers and tell them what you're looking for... most of them have a "contact us for larger volume/packages" link. In fact, WebEx does here on the left side in the content area of this page: Buy WebEx online: Online meetings and video conferencing

Also, someone like Russell Brunson or E. Brian Rose might be better people to ask who run webinars all the time and have probably run into your situation before.

Lastly, hosting two live sessions (like a Thursday evening and Saturday day) and giving registrants an option to choose either might actually do better for you in both sign ups and attendance since many people don't register if they know they can't attend a specific date... split the crowd and get more on each.

By the way, when you do get the registration up PM me a sign up link

Jesus Perez

I tested GVO when it was launching. I was not impressed.

As Scott suggested, WebEx and GoToWebinar should be able to setup a custom solution.

Last recommendation: Adobe Connect WebCast. I've read that it can scale up to 80,000 users.

Vic Shake

web meet live and vereconference.

check it

ruch1v

Good to see go2meeting isn't the only gig in town, $500 for 1000 participants is ridiculous IMO, especially if you're only using it once a month or so

Jeremy Kelsall

I've been looking high and low for a Gotowebinar alternative - they pissed me off with a few botched recordings so I was determined to find something else...so far, it hasn't happened.

Either the alternatives just flat out stink or they are wayyyyy ovver priced for what they offer.

I was and still am considering GVO, but my problem with GVO is that I've been in more than a few hot conference rooms for meetings/chats when the rooms would freeze and everyone had to reboot etc...that is something that can't happen during a presentation. Plus, looking at their available packages, it doesn't look like they are set up to handle 1,000+ people at once.

Jason Moffatt

I feel ya man. GoTo's recording feature is horrendous. I set up a separate computer as an attendee and record it on Screenflow as a backup if GoTo's recordings come out like crap.

I've witnesses the same things with GVO as well, and when doing webby's with this kind of money on the line it's just not worth the gamble.

I think Adobe Connect may be the solution. We've messed around with it a little bit, but unsure of how much it really costs. I reckon a ton, but probably worth it considering the numbers we are doing.

We really like GoTo because we've customized a feature that is absolutely incredible that no one that I know of has ever done. It's pure genius. But that 1000 attendee limit is our crutch right now.

Jeremy Kelsall

Yeah, trying to figure out how much some of these services cost is practically impossible. One of the suggestions you got a few posts up wanted to charge me almost $1,000 for 2 webinars a month, but wouldn't even give me a demo lol

Then a couple of others make you give them more information than you have to provide for a mortgage and still beat around the bush...I've been talking to a few companies for almost a week and still don't know how much they cost.

My partner is talking about setting up some sort of custom solution for us, but not for a couple of months, so until then, I guess I'm going to stick to GTW, and a service that makes the recordings look "live" as that seems like the most reliable and practical set up for the time being.

jasondinner

Dude, I was forced to do the same thing when I was running my coaching program. I promised 8 live weekly Q&A Webinar sessions and ended up doing 11 or 12 because GoToWebinar always crashed while it was rendering the recording.

I didn't mind doing it either way, but at the same time, I didn't need GoToWebinar making me have to do it. I would have rather just decided to do extra sessions to add value for my peeps.

So after the first 2 or 3 times, I just ran Camtasia in the background as a back up. Pretty sad considering their price structure and also that they are considered a leader in the industry of webinar presentation software.

I'm certain you will find something to accommodate your needs.

You may want to reach out to people who actually do webinars with that many attendees.

Scott Million

Yeah, if Instant Teleseminar allowed screen sharing (only PPT now) and VOIP for hosts (have to dial in as of now) they'd be pretty ideal for marketers even though it's very powerful as is.

- Pretty much instant recording available afterward (hosted and ready to watch)
- Click-able button/link next to presentation to send traffic to offers
- Great pricing (3000 attendees for $197/mo... more and less available like $67/mo for 500 attendees)
- Can now embed everything on your website even though it's hosted through them
- Dial in or web access

Once they get the screen sharing going and perhaps a 16:9 option (4:3 presentations now) it will be the most complete best priced option out there for marketers IMO. I can't believe Go2Webinar and so many other big ones out there STILL don't have click-able link in the presentation area abilities and/or lack good recording/replay options.

Jason Fladlien

Jason,

I will show you a super hot tip that my friend Tim Castleman showed me to get all your gotowebinar videos to convert perfectly with camtasia.

First, you have to make sure NOT to use gotowebinars wmv codec for the recording. Second, download Free Video Converter - Any Video Converter Free Version - convert video to any formats, avi to MPEG, avi to MP4, flv to MPG.

Any video converter is the ONLY video converter that converts it properly for a prefect render. (I have the pro version but the free version works just as well).

What you do is bring in your WMV into any video converter, convert it to an uncompressed AVI (xvid encoding). Then take that newly converted AVI through camtasia and it will render without hanging.

rts2271

After about 500 people expect to pay about 10 bux a head for quality service. The only real players in this realm are IBM and Cisco. Go2Webinar, Fuze and the other rinkydinks are toys designed for less than 100 people, sure they'll do more but you will have problems eventually.

Look for enterprise collaboration software.

askloz

Hey Mark,...

This your site bud?

I'm looking for a webinar service that allows 1280x720 playback... do you know of any that offers this?

cos gotomeeting, etc play back in 640x480

Cheers

askloz

I dont see any prices on their site, or what the playback size is...

James Sol Radina

Moffatt! Yo Brother, it James from San Diego...

What did you end up using? Did it work? Cost? Glitches?

Share the love, I am looking for a few thousand seats. Last time we did a live call and blew out the lines at 3000 people on two call times... so I need some beef.

Thanks!

askloz

me too... i dont want to use gotowebinar, they have a crappy rendering process that just makes more work for ppl

Mary Greene

Jason Fladlien (and Tim Castleman): Thanks for the tip!

Cheers,
Mary Greene

Maria Gudelis

Hey Jason - did you end up using Adobe Connect?

Cheers, Maria

dom4biz

Jason @Greg Jacobs offered 2 good systems you should use together:

Ustream / Watershed or not... does not matter just embed the player on to your own page and protect it via an opt in requirement. and...

WireCast - Ustream offers their version which works seamless with Ustream and broadcast in HD its called: Ustream Producer go for the Pro version it rocks...

Other plus's with Ustream can handle thousands of viewers... can be embedded and made private, plus if its on a page you control you can do dynamic offers...

Only issue you deal need to consider - especially for your products Jason - the ability to handle thousands of purchase request at the same time.

Good for a cup of coffee

dom

magentawave

Jason - How did you end up doing that webinar? Inquiring minds want to know...please.

Steve

Ryan K

Not sure if you got your answer yet, but I think that GoTo provides and Enterprise product for webbies over 1000. I was on an event recently that Frank Kern put on and he changed over to the grande version of GoTo since he knew that the webinar needed to uped and didn't want to have to do another presentation or send out a replay. Check it out!