Adobe Connect 8 is a useful tool for online seminars. This webinar service features a variety of audio and visual aids to help engage your attendees and create memorable presentations. It includes options to set up coursework and mentoring in addition to standard product demonstrations and reporting tools to help you make the most of your online meeting time. The high quality and rich feature set of Adobe Connect 8 makes it our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner.
Webinars are a way of creating marketing presentations or training sessions. Instead of costly travel, you can now host these events from your home or office. Web-based seminars are different from web conferencing because they require more host preparation and less interaction from the participants. Connect 8 uses the same program for web conferencing and web seminars, but the lack of specialization didn't hamper functionality or usability in our tests.
Your computer needs to have Adobe Flash Player in order to use Connect 8. However, since most computers already have this application, this shouldn't cause many problems. An additional add-in is required to share your screen with other users. This add-in also enables you to upload files and experience "enhanced VoIP," according to Adobe. These downloads are minimal, but any sort of download may deter some from attending your internet presentation.
Creating a presentation event with Connect 8 is fairly elaborate. Use an 8-screen set-up wizard to create a meeting and invite attendees. This is a new feature in the latest version of the webinar service. An audio set-up wizard is also available to help you get over the first hurdles easily. You can invite attendees by adding their email addresses to the application, or you can invite guests using a unique URL that you can send with your favorite email application.
Users are required to register for your webinars with Adobe Connect 8. Once the attendees register, they are sent occasional reminders about the meeting. After the presentation ends, the host can send thank-you emails to participants. This kind of follow up is sure to increase attendance for your future sessions.
The makers of Adobe Connect 8 understand that participation is essential for any online seminar. To that end, the company lets you transfer multiple kinds of files, allows private chat and helps you conduct polling to keep your audience interested. This kind of interaction is invaluable because it allows presenters to know what the attendees like and what is ineffective. Users can also click a button on their profiles to agree, disagree, applaud or make special requests during the presentation. The host can see these status updates and adjust the webinar on the fly.
In addition, after the internet presentation is over, participants can give feedback that allows the host to evaluate his or her presentation. You can record, edit and download these files for future use or distribution, or you can host them on your website. These recordings can include video elements from your presentations and synchronized audio from the VoIP or telephone call-in.
Your attendees won't be able to use their smartphones or tablet computers to join your webinar. Furthermore, Adobe doesn't provide you with a way to bill your guests. However, the service claims to have the capacity to accommodate an unlimited number of webinar attendees.
Adobe Connect 8 works well with almost any audio provider or teleconferencing platform. Users can dial in by phone or use the included VoIP feature. Having an audio presence makes any online presentation more comfortable for the attendees. Plus, as previously mentioned, the audio from the session can be recorded.
Connect 8 offers video streaming to enhance your presentation. It supports webcam use and embedded video sharing, and both features performed brilliantly in our product tests. Using video capabilities, you can keep yourself on the screen during the presentation or you can show ads and testimonials. Video is an important aspect of any online seminar, and this web service does an excellent job providing video options.
Another great feature of webinar services is screen sharing. Adobe does this as well as any other product available. With screen sharing, you can display either your full desktop or one application at a time. To protect your privacy, applications that pop up that you don't want to share are blocked from view by a white and blue grid.
Adobe Connect 8 is more involved than many of the other webinar services we reviewed, but changes to the latest version provide reorganized options and new pods that improve usability dramatically. Still, Adobe Connect is not an application that you can learn to use quickly. We recommend perusing some tutorials and demonstrations before your meeting so you will feel adequate in creating and presenting your online seminar. Even then, you might not feel like an expert. The experience can be like being in a military jet capable of amazing speeds but not knowing which buttons to push to fully open the throttle.
Connect 8 is backed up by substantial support. In fact, it offers every kind of help we looked for. You can email customer support directly or contact them by telephone. For general questions, check out the FAQs page. Adobe also offers live chat support, but it is difficult to find. During our testing process, we had to wait several minutes for the live-chat invitation window to pop up so we could talk to a service representative.
If you have any complications during your presentation, Adobe is one of the few webinar services that can remotely connect to your session and help you out. These support features will help you figure out how to best use this service.
Connect 8 offers every feature you can imagine for effective web-based seminars, and the new version of its webinar service makes the job easier than ever. Nevertheless, using this tool is cumbersome if you're unfamiliar with webinar services or computers in general.
Despite its challenges, Adobe Connect 8 is a top-tier webinar service. It has more options for users and hosts than almost any other product we tested, and its sleek feel makes it a truly professional option for your business or school. We highly recommend this service, especially if you need to present webinars of several different types.
