Scenario 1: Recommended Default
Choose a scenario as a starting point
Below is one of four common approaches to scheduling an eWebinar.
When deciding how to configure the Schedule and Chat of your eWebinar, pick the scenario that most closely fits with your team’s goals, capacity, and how quickly you feel you must respond to chat.
You can see and choose one of the four scenarios here.
What this scenario optimizes for
This model maximizes attendance, engagement, and flexibility. Attendees can join through scheduled sessions, on-demand access, just-in-time options, or (optionally) replays, which means they can watch at the moment their intent is highest.
By removing any delay between interest and access, this model typically increases attendance and engagement and improves watch time compared to scheduled-only formats.
This is the default Schedule and Chat configuration in all of our templates.
If you are unsure which scheduling configuration to use, start with this one. Then decide whether or not you want to enable Replays in your Schedule (disabled by default).
Why this is the default recommendation
This model unlocks the core advantages of eWebinar:
- Immediate access
- Global time-zone flexibility
- Continuous availability
- Real-time chat when it happens naturally
This configuration lends itself to the highest attendance, engagement, and watch times.
How it manages chat expectations
Rather than limiting availability based on response-time concerns, this model relies on:
- Your housekeeping script
- Your auto response message
- Clear expectations about response times
Your team defines what “as soon as possible” means — whether that’s 2 minutes or 12 hours.
Hours of operation (in the attendee’s local time zone) prevent just-in-time sessions from appearing at odd local hours, which could create the expectation of real-time responses. On-demand webinars still remain available outside those hours.
Recommended configuration details
Schedule tab
Event type: Recurring
Scheduled webinars:
- Recurrence: Weekly, Monday - Friday at 11am, 2pm, and 6pm
- Time zone: Attendee’s local time zone
On-demand webinars: On
Just-in-time webinars: On, On the quarter hour (at least)
Replays: Optional (Read guide to replays)
Hours of operation: On (Attendee’s local time zone)
- Set hours of operation in a fixed time zone: No
- Allow on-demand webinars outside hours of operation: Yes
Chat tab
Chat preferences: Chat for all session types
Moderators: As many as needed for your coverage plan (Per best practices)
Moderator notifications:
- Send email for first chat message: Yes
- Send SMS for first chat message: Optional (via Twilio)
- Send email 15 minutes before a session: No
- Slack integration: Recommended (if relevant)
Welcome messages: Standard (Per best practices)
Auto response: Yes
- Auto response message: Standard (Per best practices)
- Auto response trigger time: 2 - 5 minutes
Tradeoffs
- You are responsible for clearly setting expectations around chat response times.
- If you have a strict response-time SLA, you may need a more restricted model.