This is a great question and a big concern. With Webconferences, there’s no speaker in the room, and if you don’t somehow connect with your audience, you’ll lose them. So the first rule of virtual speaker programs is, DON’T BE BORING! Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to hold audiences’ attention, as follows:

Be interactive. HCPS prefer active learning over passive lecturing. Avoid lengthy, didactic slide decks. Design your virtual events so that attendees actively participate, using tools like chat, polling, cases and decision points.

Be stimulating. Use live video of presenters (no excuses!) to make the human connection. Turn flat slide sets into dynamic presentations by incorporating slide builds and effects, as well as live and embedded mark-ups. Consider using advanced animations, especially if your brand has already paid to develop quality animations on disease process or drug mechanism.

Be interesting. Select topics that excite your HCP audiences. This may mean less focus on your brand, and more focus on topics that relate directly to the challenges facing your HCP audiences.

Be respected. For virtual programs, select a subset of top-tier speakers from your current speaker bureau. Remember that virtual events leverage the ability of these top-tier speakers to reach larger numbers of their peers on a national basis, without travel.