The Power of Webinars - Bringing your Education Online

What on earth is “untech10”?  Answer: Untech10 became the ‘Unofficial Alternative to ASAE 2010 Technology Conference, which was canceled due to a blizzard that hit Washington, D.C.  The team from NFi Studios at this event were honored to help organize and be a sponsor to put on this truly notable day!

Created by six organizations, this 'Un-conference' came to fruition within 42 hours of the canceled conference.  “We were able to secure a room at the Renaissance Hotel for the full day –Thursday 2/11.  Fully loaded with a projector, screen, and equipment for live streaming, managed by Peach New Media,  the "Un-conference" catered to those who were on location but made the event virtually available as well.  Thanks to the Peach team, the UnTech10 sessions are now online.  If you're on Twitter, check out #untech10.  It was the official tag of this unofficial event.”

Now we enter the arena of Webinars - a dynamic and totally interactive tool which envelops the possibility of having people from all over the globe come together without having to travel anywhere! From sales and marketing, training a group, or even one-on-one training, webinars are becoming an integral part of associations overall marketing plan. 

Not really new in the marketplace, webinars are being used to reach/educate a large number of people, build brand or generate sales leads.  Just a few of the advantages of hosting a webinar include:

• Maximizing your member benefits/increase revenue (members have additional opportunities to learn from industry experts and address member priorities)
• The capability of building your association’s audience and increase association’s web presence/reaching target audience
• Cost and time effectiveness (low cost ways of exchanging information without the expense of travel/maximizing time)
• Digital recording for frequent/future playback

So the question is posed?  Will webinars eventually replace live conferences?  Or, can there be a combination of webinars and live conferences?  Perhaps an added custom field on your webinar registration page asking – “Will you be attending the live event?” will at least give you an idea of how many will be attending. 

My thoughts are if you give your members a “taste” on a free webinar as to what will be highlighted at your live conference… your audience may find this a compelling reason to attend the live event and your attendance may very well soar!

I doubt there is a one pat universal answer to this issue, but would love to hear what you think.  Any suggestions re: live vs. webinar? 

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