It’s always important that your webinars are carried out in a professional manner and that every party taking part is able to walk away feeling like the call was a valuable use of their time. This is especially the case for international calls, which can be a lot harder to prepare for and manage. Different time zones and languages can cause issues, and there are a lot of other factors that could cause some issues for the discussion. It’s fair to say that not many people look forward to these types of calls! However, there are ways you can improve your international conference calls and ensure that they run as smoothly as possible. Here’s how:

Take Time Zones Into Account

It’s important to find a time that fits all of the participants of the webinar, and this will probably require you to figure out all of the time zones that each participant will be in. If there are just two of you taking part, then it shouldn’t be so difficult to get a time that will suit you both. However, if there are three or more time zones that will be involved, you might find it difficult. As a courtesy, you should offer to hold it at a convenient time for your invited parties, even if that means that you need to hold it out of your regular office hours.

Research The Participant’s Culture

Every country has its own culture and way of doing things. This is even the case when it comes to business, and you might find that your participants might do business slightly differently to you. This could involve some different etiquette in meetings and conference calls. So, to make sure that you don’t inadvertently do or say something that could offend, it’s really important that you research the country’s culture in full before the call.

Figure Out Language Solutions

There’s a chance that there might be a language barrier between some of the participants taking part in the call. As the host, you are responsible for considering the solutions. To try and minimize the barrier as much as possible, it’s worth finding a company that can offer interpreter and translation services as they might be able to send out an interpreter to take part in the call with you. Alternatively, you could hire some multilingual staff who can also sit in these types of calls with you.

Always Prepare An Agenda

I’m sure that everyone taking part in the call will be very busy indeed. To ensure that the call is as efficient as possible, it’s worth planning an agenda for it and then emailing this out to everyone so they have time to consider it. They will then know what to expect and at what point they will be able to bring up any issues or questions that they might have.

International calls & webinars can be quite a pain if something goes wrong. Use these tips to eliminate any possibility of problems cropping up!

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