A webinar is NOT a physical CME delivered through a laptop.
This is something to keep in mind when preparing scientific presentations for webinars.
The scientific content may be identical. But the way one should approach the deck, prepare the narrative and think about audience engagement changes with the format.
Here is what needs to be done differently.
1. The deck: A good CME deck is not automatically a good webinar deck.
For a physical CME, consider how the slides will look on a large screen and whether the audience can follow a complex figure or clinical algorithm as the speaker explains it. Slides must be readable from the back of the auditorium. The presentation must work with the room, microphone, lighting, and available time.
For an online webinar, pay much closer attention to how that same slide will appear on a laptop or mobile screen.
Dense slides become harder to process on a laptop or mobile screen. Small text, complex tables, and poorly explained figures become even more problematic. A dense evidence table or a treatment algorithm that works in an auditorium may become unreadable online. You may need to simplify it, split it across sequential slides or reveal the information in stages.
The objective is not to dilute the science. It is to make it easier to follow.
2. The narrative: In a physical CME, a speaker can use the room, audience reactions and spontaneous exchanges to guide the discussion.
Online, ensure you build clear signposting into the presentation: the clinical question, the evidence that addresses it, and the implications for practice.
The audience should know why a question matters, where the argument is going, and what conclusion to take away.
A clinical case can be particularly useful: present the decision, ask the audience to choose, and then reveal the evidence and rationale.
3. The presenter: Adapt your delivery.
At a physical CME, I can use gestures, movement, eye contact and audience reactions help in shaping the delivery.
For an online webinar, pay more attention to vocal variation, pacing, pauses and looking into the camera.
Rehearsing the presentation is important in both settings. An online webinar needs a screen-sharing rehearsal, microphone and camera checks, a moderator briefing, clear responsibility for audience questions, and a backup plan for connectivity or presenter failure.
Do not consider an online presentation fully rehearsed until you have practised delivering it on camera. The audience is less likely to be inattentive when the speaker looks at them more often. It is just a human instinct even if the presenter is not looking at a specific individual.
4. Engagement: plan for it rather than assume it will happen.
In a physical session, audience reactions offer useful cues. Online, silence tells very little. It could mean attention, distraction or multitasking.
In a webinar, think more deliberately about when to ask a question or invite participation through questions, audience polls, asking participants to share their clinical experience intermittently, or their perspectives on the data you are presenting. A chat prompt or moderator-led discussion could help bring the audience into the conversation. Give the audience a reason to participate.
