You can take as long as you want to deliver a webinar. The duration of a webinar can range from 30 to well over 90 minutes. Let’s begin with the standard 60-minute format, which is very popular these days. How did we arrive at this 60-minute format? We simply took the format of the standard 60-minute boardroom meeting from the workplace. The main question is, is this the best way to conduct a webinar?
There’s no real reason for a webinar to be 60 minutes long or 90 minutes long or adhere to any other arbitrary time limit that originated at your workplace. Every webinar is unique and how long you should conduct one depends on your content and the webinar attendees.
The two main factors that decide the duration of your webinar are:
The content of the webinar
How much material do you have to present? How much time do you require to present it properly? An excellent way to answer these questions is to ask yourself how much time I will take to maximize audience interest and deliver my content. If you have enough material for a 60-90 minute marathon, by all means, go for it. However, if your material can be better explained within 20-30 minutes, avoid stretching longer. Or if you can do a better job in multiple sessions of mini 15-20 minute webinars than a single 90-minute webinar, opt for that.
Presentation style and format
It would be unwise to hold a long webinar or a series of short webinars and then not give your audience enough time to ask questions. For example, you have a 60-minute webinar, where the content part is 45-50 minutes, and the audience has 10-15 minutes to ask questions. Now, if you have a single subject matter expert coming, 10-15 minutes is a reasonable time for a Q&A session. However, if there are multiple subject matter experts as speakers, 10-15 minutes is not enough for your webinar attendees to ask questions on different subjects.
Conclusion
Look at your content and tailor your webinar’s length in a way that maximises the value your attendees derive from it. Don’t be afraid to cross the time limit if the audience is actively engaged and asking questions.
