Tuesday 8 May 2012

The Webinar is Dead, Long Live The 21st Century Teleconference

By Charles Wallace


Webinars are so 1998. We are in the second decade of the 21st century, so why would we be using something from way back then? Isn't it likely there are more useful options after all this time? Hasn't the Web and your access to it evolved somewhat in the last dozen or more years?

Back when the webinar was a new, cool, cutting edge solution we were listening to audio cassettes and the miracle of VHS tapes allowed us to watch movies on our very own television sets. When was the last time you purchased music on a cassette, and can you still actually purchase new video recordings on VHS?

Simultaneously, the advantages of connecting for business without leaving your desk have never been more critical than they are today. You know what these vital advantages are or you would not be interested in an online response to your business challenges and you would not be reading this.

Hence why are webinars dead? It's straightforward truly, the price and availability of technology has plunged in the last decade, long-distance calling is nearly free, and high speed Internet is available in every home and office. Today, marketing professional services as well as sales, promoting, and customer service has never been simpler and less costly.

Traditionally webinars were first and foremost manipulative. They needed us to download and install some connectivity related software so we could hear/see their material. While the download and installation process only takes a minute or two if it's working as planned, does this make sense in today's online environment?

And is it even mandatory? Why should we've got to open up our PCs to possible intrusions when we ought be well placed to get access to the information being presented by simply going to a regular internet site like we do each day?

The old age webinars needed us to register so we would be able to get a singular password. That is truly 1990's thinking. When we registered they'd our contact info so they could do what? If the password was really unique we could not send it to a couple of our colleagues who might also find the subject valuable.

No, they wanted everyone to register so they would have their non-public information. If you ever forwarded a unique password to an associate to find out it was not unique after all , you have learned the webinar sponsors were liars. If they prevaricated about something like that, are they the type of folks you'd trust to conduct business with or not?

Naturally if you lost the password or couldn't successfully download and install the software you were screwed. No matter how critical the subject could be, you'd be locked out.

While these old time webinars, when everything worked as planned, offered the benefits of connecting you to crucial info in real time - there always used to be costs, even for the free ones. In truth it was actually the free webinars that cost the most. They cost you your privacy, putting you on the e-mail list of yet another vendor.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment