We are exhibiting at the Digital Marketing Show today and tomorrow (stand B66). I'm going to try and report here on some of the talks I've attended.

I have started creating webinars for Passle this Autumn so I was very interested to attend Mark Bornstein's talk 'The New Way to Webinar'.

It certainly was a good advert for his product (ON24), but there was value to the talk too. Some takeaways include:

• marketing has a bigger role to play today, arguably bigger than sales, in engaging customers into entering the buying cycle.
• Webinars have been rated the top technique for lead conversion (51%), and second top technique for brand awareness (47%, brand website tops it).
• We should re-think the goals of webinars and make them engagement-driven, and interactive.
• Do polls. Bornstein was very keen on polls during webinars, and I think I'm convinced! They make people re-engage if their attention wandered off, and let you find out more about them at the same time!
• Think beyond single-presenter audio with powerpoint: use video, screen sharing, webcams, multiple presenters. Make it a truly multi-media experience.
• Improve your data-gathering through increased engagement during the webinar.
• Integrate it with social media, such as through encouraging live-tweeting during a webinar.
• Webinars should not be standalones. Brand it consistently and make it as easy as possible for attendees to visit you back after it's finished, such as letting them make a sales appointment afterwards, etc.

Lots of food for thought then, though not every technique will be right for your target audience of course!