Hi Claire and all,

In answer to some of your questions
I love the interactivity of a webinar, and think that having an open and interactive floor for sharing or discussing ideas and experiences is important.
You are right I think that performance anxiety may be an aspect - along with the fear of getting it right / or wrong. As you can see in the webinar I answer a question on the colour of the charts of brain layers incorrectly. I think the fear of getting a question ‘wrong’ can stop a lot of interaction. So I think knowing it’s ok to ‘not know everything’ or to not need to be perfect in our knowledge or answers is important. Adopting an attitude of ‘exploration’ is important - but we do need to feel safe in our group to do that! 
Also, perhaps it is a good idea if the speaker let’s people know at the beginning of the session if they would like or hope to receive interaction from participants. Otherwise, a question may come as a shock if it’s not expected. Again, this shock will potentially cause the frontal cortex to shut down in a freeze type response.

I think attendance is an issue. Personally, whilst ‘replays’ are the normal practice for such things, I think the availability of them directly impacts on people turning up for the actual live event. As they can prioritise other things knowing they can ‘catch up later’.

Just some thoughts...

Deborah Wiggins-Hay