Tonight I attended a marketing webinar. While it was a neat idea and I think these webinars have some potential, there are a few things that would really make the experience stand out.
First, I got the impression that I was the only one there. The presenter did a fine job and explained the materials in great detail. But there was no camaraderie in the webinar. When I have gone to seminars in person, there is an electricity that permeates the audience. There was nothing like that here. Some indication of how many people in attendance would have have a nice detail. Even a small token that told how many people were listening could have been an improvement. Anything to give me some sense that I was not alone would have been really good.
Next was the presentation. It was very informative and kept simple. I spent some time writing science reports and the one thing that was drilled into me was that you keep consistent in your bullet points. The level that information is shown on has a specific meeting. The number of bullet points, how deep they are, etc all convey information. It is hard to track the value of the material when it jumps around.
Finally, it felt like the Q and A session was forced. Not a lot of really good questions were asked. Now given the nature of the webinar, I would expect more or I would expect the host to coax questions from the audience. I think this goes back to the loneliness feeling that was ever present.
Webinar technology has a lot of potential, but after my first one, I think there is a long way to go. Perhaps I’m just spoiled with the future interpretations of the tools such as what we have seen in Star Trek.