In-room Moderator Tips and Guidance
Tips and Guidance for in-room WebEx Moderators
Sometimes, such as our Global DPCA Meetings, we need to combine remote 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 WebEx. Having dedicated 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 and help them to create a successful and productive meeting.
Key Points To Remember:
- Make sure that people in the room do not forget about remote WebEx participants
- 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
- Know how to reach one of the in-room technical specialists in an emergency
Responsibilities
- WebEx moderators are responsible for helping to make sure that there is smooth communication between people in the room and the remote WebEx participants – you are the "bridge" between these two groups
- Much of the communication for remote participants will be in the 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 communication
- Don't let the people in the room forget about the 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
Presentations
- Make sure that presentation documents are loaded from the DA Wiki to the 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 whiteboard
- Make sure that in-room Presenters use the 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.
Moderating the Meeting
- 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 chat box so that people know you are there, but don't flood it with too many messages.
- Enforce the **Hand Up to "Everyone" in the chat box rule to keep a clear indication of who is in the Queue to speak next.
- Remind participants of this rule periodically with a message in the chat box
- (We do not recognize the "Hand up icon" option in WebEx. It is only seen by the presenter/host and does not show who is next in line)
- Provide a regular update of the names of people in the Queue by retyping the list in the chat box
- 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.
Host, Presenter, and Moderator Team Work
- 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 do both rolls
- Host is responsible for keeping everyone on mute and fixing the focus of the video presentations
- Presenter manages documents and slides in the white-board area
- Presenter manages the screen that people see in the room – from full video display to seeing the Chat box
- Moderator makes sure that 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 participants.
- Have the Meeting Host Key number ready, in case something happens to the Host computer and you need to reclaim control over the meeting
Staffing and Team Members
- 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 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 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 issues
- always have emergency access to reach the tech-team and network providers
WebEx Login names
- When you first login to WebEx from the in-room moderator computers use a name that describes that computer.
- For example: (using the "!" in front of the name will keep it at the top of the alphabetical participants list)
- !PuntaCana Hub
- !PuntaCana Podium
- !PuntaCana Moderator
- Encourage all participants to include their DA Title/Officer position in their name when they sign in
Hardware and Technical Setup
- Make sure that other 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 (iPhone earphones work great) 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.
- 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
In-Room Audio/Visual/Internet Setup Schematic
Outline of the audio, video, and wired network connections that are needed to setup and manage a typical WebEx configuration in a conference room.
Notes:
- 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 Hub computer.
- In-room microphones may be either wired or wireless depending on the audio mixer setup
Webcam Positioning
- Keep the Hub Webcam#1 always pointed at the speaker/presenter or main activity in the room
- Set the Moderator Webcam#2 on the other side of the room and pointed for a general view of the room, so that remote participants can also see the in-room activities
- Periodically adjust the camera angle to give a sense of room dynamics
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