"Technology gives us the facilities that lessen the barriers of time and distance." Emily G. Balch
The industry isn’t the same as it used to be. The good old days meant that as a speaker all you needed was a phone and a rolodex. Those days are gone. You can’t just keep up. You have to stay one step ahead. There are some great technological advances, that if embraced can actually save time, energy and money. Let’s examine three basic, cost effective options.
Webinars
The term webinar is short for web-based seminar and is a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web. The webinar is the most interactive and allows the most participation between the audience and presenter.
It allows much more flexibility to the instructor because it makes it easier to touch more audiences in a single day. A webinar presenter can give multiple presentations while a live speaker is limited to one or two. The audience is only restricted by technology versus location.
The audience can ask questions without disrupting the presentation. The speaker can take the pulse of the audience by posting a text question and actually change the outcome of the presentation by appropriately reading and responding to the participants. Plus it is hard to beat giving a program in your bunny slippers from the comfort of your own home.
There are great benefits for the meeting planner as well. Because everything is virtual, there are no travel, airfare, hotel or meal expenses to pay for the instructor. A lot of speakers offer these types of programs for reduced rates for the convenience of delivery from the comfort of their living room. The participation rates can increase because none of the attendants have to worry about travel expenses either.
The meeting planner doesn’t have to secure a venue. The savings in meals and room rental alone can have a tremendous impact. The webinar service itself is also reasonable. Most come with a cafeteria style menu where you can select, and pay for, what suits your needs. Because everything can be downloaded by the individual participants, this method of education is completely green. The meeting planner doesn’t have to spend time, money or resources printing handouts. (Loriann White would be so proud!) Plus, if you miss it, that’s ok. These sessions are archived online for fast and easy retrieval.
Teleseminars
Teleseminars are telephone based presentations. They are extremely similar to webinars but lack the interaction that so many customers desire. My company had a recent request from a large industry association to host a series of teleseminars. This is new for this particular association and the participation numbers are high for a teleseminar so I asked the planner about the change. She let me know that attendance at their recent annual conference was down due to budget restrictions on travel. By offering a teleseminar series, they can bring the necessary education to all of their members regardless of location for a fraction of the price of booking speakers for a multiple day conference.
Podcasts
Podcasts are normally a series of audio files that are available on line. There is usually no interaction between the facilitator and the audience. However, all technology has its place. There is an extremely successful health and wellness speaker that has grown his empire over the last year fifteen minutes at a time. He gets up every day, seven days a week, and loads a fifteen minute podcast on ITunes. He has done this for a year and now has a following of over 16,000 people all over the world. Pretty cool, huh?
The main thing to remember with any technology is that is works for you if you know how to work with it. There are pros and cons to any form of education. The best thing about these technologies is the registration information you acquire when hosting a function that can be used for marketing afterward. Plus, I have never seen a webinar have too many cocktails and hit on anyone’s boss.
