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GoToWebinar - could you please share your experience/comments on this service?

by PatrickDom
8 replies
Greetings all,
I am planning a teleseminar with approx 500-1000 participants.

GoToWebinar seems very affordable for this event.

Does you have an experience with GoToWebinar (positive or negative) you would like to share?

Responses are much appreciated!
Many thanks,
Patrick
#experience or comments #gotowebinar #service #share
  • Profile picture of the author Jillian Slack
    I've attended several GoToWebinar events and thought they were great.

    It was easy to download their gadgets to be able to attend, and it was SO MUCH nicer to see and hear the whole thing online vs. a plain teleseminar (phone only).
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    • Profile picture of the author PatrickDom
      Thanks Jillian for your feedback!

      I would also like to hear comments from people who have organized a teleseminar with GoToWebinar

      Thanks
      Patrick
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      • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
        Originally Posted by PatrickDom View Post

        Thanks Jillian for your feedback!

        I would also like to hear comments from people who have organized a teleseminar with GoToWebinar

        Thanks
        Patrick
        My company just bought it 2 days ago. It is absolutely brilliant. It's like having a live, online class. You can mute everyone, then unmute selectively. People can "raise their hands" to get your attention, you can ask everyone a question and attendees can respond by checking off "yes" or "no" on their dashboard. You can also see how many people have "clicked off" the webinar and are no longer paying attention. Very, very powerful stuff. Worth every penny.

        Ask me anything you want. I'll be happy to answer.

        Finally, if you sign up for the 30 day trial, it's ask for a credit card. But if you leave, they'll try to win you back with a credit-cardless 15 day free trial.
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        • Profile picture of the author PatrickDom
          Originally Posted by BlueSquares View Post


          Ask me anything you want. I'll be happy to answer.
          Thanks BlueSquares. Have you had any experience with a large audience? I'm curious if they can handle volume of participants close to 1,000.

          Cheers,
          Patrick
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          • Profile picture of the author Bill Brickman
            Yes they can definitely handle that. However keep in mind that a certain percentage of your audience will have some computer issue or other and won't be able to connect. This equals complaints.

            Be sure the audio portion gets conducted on a teleconference line they can call into. You may also want to consider a written handout of some kind for people who write in afterwards saying they could not view the presentation.

            Bill
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            • Profile picture of the author PatrickDom
              Originally Posted by Bill Brickman View Post

              Yes they can definitely handle that. However keep in mind that a certain percentage of your audience will have some computer issue or other and won't be able to connect. This equals complaints.

              Be sure the audio portion gets conducted on a teleconference line they can call into. You may also want to consider a written handout of some kind for people who write in afterwards saying they could not view the presentation.

              Bill
              Bill, thanks for the insights.
              I'm planning on pointing our audience primarily to the telecall (phone) option, with the option of listening to the audiostream via the web.
              Our event will be pure audio, with no material/slides presented on the web.

              An idea I'm taking away from your comments: to be ready to provide access to our recording of the audio event to people who had technical troubles. (Otherwise, we are planning to sell the teleclass audio recording afterwards).

              Best regards,
              Patrick
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          • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
            Originally Posted by PatrickDom View Post

            Thanks BlueSquares. Have you had any experience with a large audience? I'm curious if they can handle volume of participants close to 1,000.

            Cheers,
            Patrick
            So far, we've used it with 50 or so participants. No hiccups at all. Everything is multi-cast from the GoToWebinar servers (its a Citrix platform if you're familiar with IT)

            We also recorded the Webinar to WMV and it came out surprisingly well. It picked up the video and audio.

            Finally, at the end of the presentation, GoToWebinar emails you a full downloadable list of attendees.
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  • Profile picture of the author PatrickDom
    A few thoughts after using GoToWebinar for several teleseminars:

    - Its interface is somewhat complicated if you just want to do teleseminars (i.e. just audio, no video)
    - Their customer support is pretty good, you can actually get a human on the phone (though sometimes with a wait)
    - They can't track how many people are calling into a teleseminar, they can only track people accessing via the web. So you don't really know how many participants you have. (Unless you have people register for the call and get a unique ID, which is a more complicated process for the participants)
    - To access the teleseminar via the web, participants have to register at GoToWebinar's site. Which is inconvenient if you've already had them register at your own site.

    All in all, GoToWebinar gets the job done if you need a large capacity of phone lines - we wanted to be ready for 1000 participants, which is their maximum.

    If you need fewer phone lines, then I've found InstantTeleseminar (which allows 200 callers and I think 2000 via the web) to more straightforward to use, if you can overlook the "cheesiness" of the InstantTeleseminar experience (i.e. being forced to sign up for a trial before getting any product info, the amateurish and limited online support, etc.)
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