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How to manage webinar problems

These fail-safe guidelines are designed to help webinar teams proactively identify, prevent, and manage a wide range of potential “disaster” scenarios before, during, and after webinars.

By codifying roles, responsibilities, escalation paths, and communication templates, we ensure that every team member knows exactly how to respond when things go wrong, minimising attendee frustration, protecting brand reputation, and preserving lead momentum.

Roles & Responsibilities

Name

Role

Responsibilities

Athena Apostolopoulou

Webinar Producer/Project Manager

Oversees end-to-end planning, coordination, and timeline adherence.

Organises final run‐of‐show, speaker lineup, and creates promotional assets.

Performs pre-webinar tech checks with each speaker, confirms screen‐sharing functionality, and verifies audio/video quality.

Joins webinars on mute and off-camera to moderate in the background.

Acts as primary escalation point.

Manages registration page, email confirmations, reminder cadence, and post‐webinar follow‐up nurturing.

Irina Dzhambazova

Host/Moderator

Starts/stops broadcast

Welcomes attendees, introduces speakers, and facilitates Q&A.

Monitors chat, fields audience questions, and ensures smooth transitions.

Keeps an eye on time, transitions, and pacing per the run‐of‐show.

Troubleshoots any technical glitches in real time (e.g., screen‐share fails, audio dropouts).

Internal/External Guest

Speaker/Presenter

Adheres to agreed slide deck, branding guidelines, and timing.

Completes a scheduled dry-run and joins webinar 15 minutes prior to start time for a required tech‐check.

Provides bio, headshot, and other pre-determined necessary assets in the requested timeline.

Fields and approves seed and pre-submitted questions to be asked during the webinar.

Emily Castles

Tech Owner

Manages Zoom platform subscriptions/licenses.

There are no rows in this table

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Pre-Webinar Preparation

Bandwidth & Redundancy

Primary Internet Connection: stable, pre-tested internet connection of at least 10 Mbps download / 5 Mbps upload.

Test your speed here⁠

Secondary Connection (Failover): 4G/5G mobile hotspot ready to switch to if the primary goes down, with a minimum of 3 GB of data available to consume during the webinar.

Hardware

Ensure your main device is charged to a minimum of 75% battery life, and is connected to a power source prior to the webinar start time.

Have a fully charged backup device with the same webinar platform (Zoom) pre-downloaded, installed and tested (e.g. secondary laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone).

If you use your device’s built-in audio/video equipment, ensure you are in a quiet room where there is no background noise and traffic.

If you connect a different device for audio or video, ensure it’s connected with all permissions granted prior to joining the webinar prep time. If that device is wireless, ensure it’s fully charged prior to the webinar and it’s been previously connected to your device via Bluetooth.

Run-of-Show Rehearsal

Dry run to be conducted at least 48 hours prior to the webinar with internal speakers, or at least 72 hours prior with external speakers.

Always walk through the flow of the webinar, even with experienced speakers, and include:

Host introduction → slide deck share (w/audio) → handoff to speaker → Q&A session.

Review “mute all attendees,” “remove attendee,” and “screen share” features.

Audio level checks (no distortion, no echo, music not too loud).

Video framing (speaker and host are centered, w/ tidy background).

Slide sharing works (no bookmarks bar or unintended windows visible).

The moderator sees incoming messages in Chat/Q&A module.

Practice scenario of the speaker unable to connect, fallback (audio-only mode).

Notify of the timing and duration of the session (room open for 75 minutes)

Disaster Scenarios & Protocols

Even with thorough prep, things can go sideways. If something goes wrong, admit it swiftly, apologise sincerely, and outline next steps because transparency builds trust.

Below are common real-time emergencies and response plan overviews for each:

Platform Outage (Entire Webinar Platform Goes Down)

Webinar producer confirms outage by checking the status dashboard (

Zoom status page⁠

If confirmed, send

Platform Outage template⁠

to registered attendees.

Post-webinar, send a more detailed apology and “on-demand” link.

Internet or Bandwidth Drop (Host or Speaker Loses Connection)

If the host/moderator loses connection, the webinar producer takes over moderating until host reconnects.

Backup host says: “It looks like [Host Name] is experiencing a connection issue. I’ll step in to moderate while we troubleshoot. In the meantime, we’ll carry on with the webinar normally so please drop any questions you have in chat, and we’ll get to as many as possible at the end of the session.”

If the speaker loses connection, the host immediately acknowledges the technical difficulty and suggests everyone take a 2-minute break to refill water or grab a beverage.

Host says: “It looks like [Speaker Name] is experiencing a connection issue. Let’s take a 2-minute break to refill our waters or grab a beverage while we troubleshoot. In the meantime, please drop any questions you have in chat, and we’ll get to as many as possible.”

The host shares their screen on the presentation, showing the slide “Technical Difficulty”

The webinar producer contacts the speaker to get them reconnected, even if via audio only.

Once the connection is restored, revert to live mode.

If the speaker is unreachable, the host shows the “Thank You” slide with contact info, apologises for the inconvenience and ends the webinar with the following message.

Host says: “It looks like [Speaker Name] is not able to join us back live. Once the connection is restored, we will record the remainder of the session and share it with you to watch on demand. As promised, we’ll try to get to as many of the questions you have submitted as possible, but if anything else pops to mind, we’d love to hear from you.”

Audio/Video Quality Problems (Noise, Echo, Frozen Video)

Host confirms if it’s a speaker-side issue or a host-side issue with the webinar producer via chat.

If it’s speaker-related, the host asks the speaker to turn their camera off and then back on.

If still frozen, assume a bandwidth problem. The host takes over audio sharing and continues the webinar with the speaker on audio only.

Use the phone dial-in backup for the speaker if the webcam on the laptop fails altogether.

Speaker No-Show (Late or Fails to Show Up)

Immediate response (0-5 minutes post start time)

Host starts the webinar as scheduled, greets attendees, and says, “We’re waiting on [Speaker Name] to join. While we give them a moment, let’s review today’s agenda and key takeaways.”

The webinar producer attempts to call/text the speaker on their phone.

Escalation path (after 5 minutes):

If no response within 5–7 minutes, the host decides to postpone the webinar by saying: “We apologise, due to unforeseen circumstances, [Speaker Name] is unable to present. We’ll reschedule this session for [New Date/Time]. All registered participants will receive a new link automatically.”

Overwhelming Q&A or Off-Topic Questions

Webinar producer steps in to moderate questions by moving them from chat and Q&A to the webinar summary doc, and highlights the appropriate questions for the Host to pick up.

Host stops monitoring chat/Q&A and only pulls highlighted questions from the summary doc.

Webinar producer redirects off-topic queries via chat response, by saying “Thank you for your question about [Off-Topic]. We’ll follow up with you by email after the webinar”.

If time runs short, Host says, “We’re at time for live Q&A. Submit additional questions, and we’ll respond via email within 48 hours”.

Recording Failure (Recording Doesn’t Capture Content)

Webinar producer verifies recording status 1–2 minutes after the webinar begins (platform usually shows “Recording” indicator).

If the recording indicator is missing, begin local screen capture as a backup.

Communication Templates

The templates below are ready messages for each major issue. Customise only the details (date/time, new link, apology tone) and send to the appropriate registration list.

Below, we have templates available for the following scenarios:

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Delayed start⁠

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Postponed to another day/time⁠

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Canceled webinar⁠

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Platform outage⁠

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Link distribution issue⁠

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Template #1: Delayed start

Subject: [URGENT UPDATE] Webinar Starting at [New Time] Body:

Hi [First Name],

Thank you for your patience. Due to a last-minute technical issue, we need to push our start time back by [XX minutes]. We’ll be live at [New Time] (that’s in approximately XX minutes). In the meantime, feel free to review our latest report on [Topic], linked here. [Resource URL].

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to sharing valuable insights on [Webinar Title] with you shortly. If you have any immediate questions, please reply to this email.

Thank you for understanding, [Host Name] [Company Name]

Template #2: Postponed to another day/time

Subject: [IMPORTANT] Webinar Rescheduled for [New Date/Time]

Hi [First Name],

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we must reschedule our webinar “[Webinar Title].”

The new date and time are: • Date: [New Date, e.g., Thursday, June 19, 2025] • Time: [New Time, e.g., 11:00 AM Eastern / 18:00 EEST]

We apologise for the inconvenience. As a token of appreciation, we’re offering you early access to an exclusive guide on [Relevant Topic]. Download it here: [Download Link].

Please use this link to join at the rescheduled time: [New Webinar URL]. If you cannot make the new time, the session will be recorded and available on demand within 24 hours.

Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to having you with us.

Sincerely, [Host Name] [Company Name]

Template #3: Cancelled webinar

Subject: [IMPORTANT] Cancellation of “[Webinar Title]” on [Original Date] Body:

Hi [First Name],

We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, we must cancel our upcoming webinar “[Webinar Title]” scheduled for [Original Date] at [Original Time]. We understand this may cause inconvenience, and we sincerely apologise for any disruption.

While we won’t be able to host this session as planned, we still want to ensure you get value from the topic you registered for. As a gesture of appreciation, we have gathered some relevant resources that we think you’ll find interesting:

• Link #1

• Link #2

• Link #3

We hope to reschedule “[Webinar Title]” in the near future, and we’ll send you an early-registration link once details are finalised.

Again, we apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. If you have questions or need immediate assistance, feel free to reach out to our team by responding to this email.

Kind regards, [Host Name] [Contact Information]

Template #4: Platform outage

Subject: [URGENT] Temporary Interruption: Please Rejoin “[Webinar Title]” in 5 Minutes Body:

Hi [First Name],

Thank you for joining us for “[Webinar Title].” We apologise for the unexpected platform issue that temporarily took us offline. Our team is working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Please try rejoining in 5 minutes using your original webinar link: • Webinar Link: [Original Webinar URL]

If you still cannot connect after 5 minutes, please don’t worry. We’ll send the full recording of today’s session by tomorrow, so you won’t miss any of the content.

We appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need immediate assistance, reply to this email.

Thank you for bearing with us. We look forward to resuming shortly.

Sincerely, [Host Name] [Contact Information]

Template #5: Link distribution issue

Subject: [ACTION REQUIRED] Correct Link to Join “[Webinar Title]” Body:

Hi [First Name],

There was an error in the link included in your original confirmation email for “[Webinar Title]” scheduled on [Date] at [Time]. We apologise for the confusion.

Please use the correct link below to join the webinar:

• Correct Webinar Link: [Correct Webinar URL]

We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. If you cannot access the webinar using the corrected link, please respond to this email, and we will ensure you’re able to join.

Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to having you with us for “[Webinar Title].”

Best, [Host Name] [Contact Information]

Roles & Responsibilities

Pre-Webinar Preparation

Disaster Scenarios & Protocols

Platform Outage (Entire Webinar Platform Goes Down)

Internet or Bandwidth Drop (Host or Speaker Loses Connection)

Audio/Video Quality Problems (Noise, Echo, Frozen Video)

Speaker No-Show (Late or Fails to Show Up)

Overwhelming Q&A or Off-Topic Questions

Recording Failure (Recording Doesn’t Capture Content)

Communication Templates