Voice Over: In this episode, we’re testing out our new webinar platform, Crowdcast. Check out this interview with Crowdcast developer and CEO, Sai Hossain and see how Crowdcast can streamline the webinar process for you.

At Leverage we searched high and low for the ideal webinar platform, until we found Crowdcast…and we had to look no further.

To kick-off our use of this new platform, we hosted a webinar about the platform, interviewing CEO Sai Hossain.

Turns out, Sai has a background in development and the CEO actually built the very first version of the tool. Years ago while spending time in Costa Rica surrounded by meditators and yogis, he realized there were important messages that needed to be shared with the world but there wasn’t a proper platform that allowed the non “techies” ease of use to reach the masses.

In his previous experiences with webinar platforms, the tools were designed for marketing tactics or for holding team meetings, with the perk of hosting a webinar on the side. However, Sai envisioned something more.

The Old & Outdated

Historically speaking, there are three long and laborious parts to hosting a webinar.

1. A long form where the attendee must submit personal info, which can feel invasive to say the least.
2. An email reminder sent to the attendee about a week before the webinar, that’s hard to remember or to keep track of by the time the event rolls around seven days later.
3. Wonky downloads needed that a new user sometimes won’t even realize is required until they try to join the webinar. By the time the tool is downloaded, they miss crucial parts of the presentation.

Let’s hope in this case history doesn’t ever repeat itself.

Crowdcast: The Breakthrough

The vision for Crowdcast was to eliminate these three tedious steps into one easy process. The user submits their email to attend the webinar and BOOM they are in the event room. Once in the room, users can see the countdown to the event or even submit questions prior to the webinar, all which runs through a browser, which wasn’t an easy feat.

Plus, since this takes place in a browser — no need to download tools. The browser makes it simple to find previous webinars by the same party and to review the recording in as little as 15 seconds post webinar.

Down Sides

Nothing is always rainbows and butterflies, and every tool has its limitations. One of the downsides of the browser model is video quality. It’s only as good as your streaming allows, however Crowdcast is a big believer in pushing the limits and the team is already reaching for improvements like HD recording. Crowdcast recently launched a whole new way to stream in HD by connecting to professional live-streaming gear and software.

Best browser to support Crowdcast = Chrome (surprise, surprise). Firefox works well too, but Safari isn’t recommended. #SorryApple.

Up Sides

There’s much more good than bad when using Crowdcast.

• Chrome extension — easily share your screen during the session
• Time stamped questions — if you review the webinar, you can jump to the parts that
• Live Polls — ask survey questions to your audience and see live results
• Analytics — these are visible only to the host. At the least you’ll see how many people are attending vs. how many registered and if you want to get fancy you can track their geo location and their referral info. Ex: did they join from Twitter or Facebook, and what is the conversion rate per channel?

COMING SOON

The future of Crowdcast is going to make your webinar life even easier. Soon, your specific page will become a “channel” that your audience can follow on a regular basis. Therefore instead of sending a new invite or a link for each webinar, your followers will be automatically notified every time you go live — through email, browser and the IOS App…stay tuned!

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