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Sometimes, such as our Global DPCA Meetings, we need to combine remote Webex WebEx participation with a gathering of people in a conference meeting room. This becomes much more complicated than when remote individuals are each sitting in front of their own personal computer.

Participants in a meeting room can easily forget about the remote participants on WebexWebEx. Having dedicated Webex WebEx moderators will help keep the meeting together and create a more positive experience for everyone.

These moderator tips are intended to provide orientation and guidance to moderators who may be new to Webex WebEx and help them to create a successful and productive meeting.

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• Make sure that people in the room do not forget about remote Webex WebEx participants

• Make sure that all speakers in the room use a microphone AT ALL TIMES, or remote participants cannot hear anything

• Make sure that remote participants do not disrupt the room with audio-feedback or other noise

• Keep everyone engaged and communicating with each other – but don't flood the chat box

• Always use the chat box to "Everyone" to request **Hand Up to manage the speakers queue. It is possible to pop out the chat pane to a separate window by pressing the button found at the right end of the top of the pane:
  

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• Know how to reach one of the in-room technical specialists in an emergency

Moderator Responsibilities

• Webex WebEx moderators are responsible for helping to make sure that there is smooth communication between people in the room and the remote Webex WebEx participants – you are the "bridge" between these two groups

• Much of the communication for remote participants will be in the Webex WebEx Chat box, so you need to always be monitoring this

• Unless it is really one-to-one personal communication, encourage participants to address their comments to "Everyone" – especially if it is a request to speak, or a notification of a problem with Webex WebEx communication

• Don't let the people in the room forget about the Webex WebEx participants – you are there to represent them and speak for them in the room

• Take turns and share the moderating responsibility so that one person is not left to do the job alone

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• Make sure that presentation documents are loaded from the DA Wiki to the Webex WebEx whiteboard in advance

  • Presentation materials are always best shared as PDF files, rather than Word, PPT, or other files

  • Convert files to PDF before uploading to the Webex WebEx whiteboard

• Make sure that in-room Presenters use the Webex WebEx whiteboard for presentations – do not let them just open a file on the desktop

• Help the podium presenters to learn how to move from page to page in their presentation

  • Offer to help manage their presentation slides for them, if they are not comfortable with this

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• Test your pc/workstation prior to the meeting. Ensure that audio works. Always use a headset if your computer is connected to audio

• Keep active discussion going in the Webex WebEx chat box so that people know you are there, but don't flood it with too many messages

• All participants in a meeting can now see who has raised their hands, automatically sorted at the top of the Participants list. The order that the participants are listed follows the order in which they raised their hands. The sort menu is opened with the up and down arrows to the right of the search field:

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• Keep all participants on MUTE if they are not speaking to the meeting

• Help ensure that individual participants who are having technical issues do not interrupt the meeting

  • Encourage them to connect with you or another support person via a personal Skype chat, if needed

• Always encourage remote participants to use the Call Using Computer VoIP audio, NOT the US-based phone number

• It is helpful to re-type questions to the speaker into the chat box so that everyone can follow the discussion

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• Host and Presenter need to closely cooperate and share the work load

• With a large number of remote participants and a group gathered in the room, it is too much for one person to fill both roles

  • The host is responsible for keeping everyone on mute and fixing the focus of the video presentations

  • The presenter manages documents and slides in the whiteboard area

  • The presenter manages the screen that people see in the room – from full video display to seeing the Chat box

  • The moderator ensures that Webex WebEx participants are recognized in the room, that the Question Queue is tracked, and that in-room activities (e.g. coffee breaks, voting, etc.) are communicated to Webex WebEx participants

• Have the Meeting Host Key number ready, in case something happens to the Host computer and someone else needs to reclaim control over the meeting

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WebEx Login Names

• When logging in to Webex WebEex from the in-room Host and Webcam computers, use a name that describes that computer, for example (“!” in front of the name will keep it at the top of the alphabetical participants list):

  • !PuntaCana Hub

  • !PuntaCana Podium

  • !PuntaCana Webcam#1

  • #PuntaCana In-room Moderator

• Encourage all participants to include their DA Title/Officer position in their name when they sign in

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• Team Lead – someone who is responsible for the overall coordination, staffing, network, and hardware set up

  • Do not assume that someone else will "make it happen" – get confirmations on all the details

• On-site tech team – providing the A/V setup of projectors, mics, sound board, cables

• Network providers – to ensure Internet bandwidth. Often not the same people as the A/V equipment team

  • providing both fixed line and WiFi connections for the room

• Host Manager (in-room or remote) – real-time management of participant mute controls and passing control to the Presenter

  • share Host Key with Presenter and Moderator Managers so that they can take control as needed

• Presenter Manager (best if in-room) – preparing presentations as PDF files and uploading them to Webex WebEx whiteboard

  • presentation slide transitions when the Podium speaker is not controlling the slides themselves

• Moderator Manager (must be in-room) – monitoring the chat box, tracking "**Hand Up" queue, keeping room aware of Webex WebEx issues

  • always have emergency access to reach the tech-team and network providers

Hardware and Technical Setup

• Make sure that other Webex WebEx participants in the room do NOT connect to audio (this can create terrible audio feedback)

• If professional microphones and an audio mixer are being used, make sure that all webcam or computer microphones are turned off

• Use a personal headset/earphones if you are connecting to audio or have any other sound coming out of your computer

• Make sure that all speakers in the room use a microphone AT ALL TIMES, or remote participants cannot hear anything

• Encourage speakers to stand where they can be seen by the webcam

• Know how to immediately reach the Internet and audio/visual technical specialists in case something goes seriously wrong

• The projector screen must be big enough to be clearly seen by everyone in the room (two screens may be necessary in some situations)

• Provide a monitor or second projection screen that can be easily seen from the podium

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This is an outline of the audio, video, and wired network connections that are needed to setup and manage a typical Webex WebEx configuration in a conference room.

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• This does not take into account additional WiFi networks that may be made available to in-room participants, but that network should be separated from the high-capacity Quality of Service wired LAN that is needed to ensure good video transmission in and out from the Webex WebEx Hub computer.
  In-room microphones may be either wired or wireless depending on the audio mixer setup

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