I have just completed running a seminar with 145 participants, 78% students and the rest staff. While we had some slight technical issues at the start, we had an excellent 2.5 hours and I'd like to share some pointers for large virtual seminars.

- Choose a platform that doesn't require you to admit each participant one by one. E.g. Google meet usually asks for one by one admission.
- Automatically mute all participants and only the host should unmute those who speak. Zoom and others have this feature.

- Include audience interaction to enable audience try out things and also participate in quizzes. Today I used Kahoot for a game, Direct Poll for a live poll, and Zoom polling for an after section exercise.

Use only the chat for questions to minimise background noise. But, organize the session such that participants wait until you call for questions then they type them.
This worked excellently and I was able to answer all Qs, which were quite a number.

Ask for signals to confirm if audience can hear you or see your screens. I usually ask people to switch on their videos or just do a thumbs up so am aware they can see my screen and hear me.

I am big on evaluation so I always always have a feedback form because I like knowing how am doing. Google forms is a good free tool. Pop the link on the webinar chat and ask people to fill before logging off.

I find that asking participants to first fill the feedback form and then type in the webinar chat a "bye" or just a statement of how they found the session keeps people engaged to the end and ensures a good % fill the feedback form. Usually, most people comply.

Anyway, I'd like to share some of the data feedback from my seminar today. I hope you'll find the above pointers useful.