Webconferencing: Technology vs. Culture

It’s going to come eventually, the question is ‘Are you ready to take your meetings online?’ Webconferencing, as a theory, has been around for years, in the back of everyone's mind... thinking it's a wonderful idea, but how do we make it happen? The initial roadblocks were centered around technical requirements and bandwidth restrictions. Now that these two shortcomings have been overcome by most technology providers, how can meeting planners ensure that their meeting objectives can still be accomplished over the web?

While most people interchange the two descriptions, there is a fundamental difference between a webcast and webconference. To me the cast suggests a one way projection, as in broadcast or cast your eyes. The new technologies available in best-of-class webconferencing technologies suggest just that- a conference. A two (or five hundred) way dialogue to gain mindshare, spread ideas and collaborate.

To successfully migrate B2B or B2E meetings over the web, planners must first focus on three fundamental criteria: strategy, tools, and implementation.

When I say strategy, I don't mean logistics or timing, but rather navigating the cultural shift necessary to facilitate consumption by the audience. While Gen X & Y generally have no problems attending a meeting over the web, how do you interpret your content so that it engages your Boomer attendees? How do we keep attendees from checking email, running to the bathroom, taking that phone call, or worst of all... tuning out completely? No, it's not designing prettier slides! The answer lies in providing interactive and blended content that not only solicits input from attendees, but interprets that data into actionable results later in the program.

Energize your online program by taking surveys, polling, asking questions, displaying results, and getting participants involved in the outcome of the program. Remember, this is not supposed to be a one-way communication. If that's what you're looking for, burn it on a DVD or send them your deck on a USB Drive.

To further captivate your audience, use a mix of live video, slide decks, commercially produced commercials, and randomly displaying different participants via webcam. Simply having a webcam focused on the presenter will not do the trick, you need to have an executive producer working behind the scenes to manage and direct the production and switch "camera angles" to provide a fresh perspective to the viewer.

Selecting the right solution from the various tools available will depend upon your strategy, amount of users, frequency and long-term plan. The leading providers are WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, GoToMeeting, On24, Saba (Centra), Pixion/PictureTalk, Genesys, PGI NetSpoke. Convenos is an interesting option, albeit not yet ready for prime time. Similar to Facebook, Firefox and many other leading Web 2.0 programs, it is open-source and allows users to alter the code and customize the solution for their individual needs. Keep your eyes on it though, I think this is a trend that will flourish. Scalability will be the most important factor when selecting a vendor, especially when you are first starting out. The billing structures vary from a per-person/per meeting charge (WebEx), to an up-front license fee (MS Live Meeting) to a per meeting fee. We have had success with our clients because of our vendor agnostic approach and flexibility to offer the right solution for the right meeting. We maintain partnerships with the top 4 vendors and because we are technically a 'reseller', we are afforded nice volume discounts that we can pass along to our customers.

Implementation is fairly time consuming, but like most other projects, the more you do it, the better you get. Our production team has the process down to a science, whereas all implementation issues that can arise (and have arisen) are addressed well before the meeting starts. Remember, each attendee is going to have various technical issues concerning firewalls, bandwidth speeds, access to applications, and unfortunately user error. Nowadays there aren't too many more annoying things than technology standing in your way. Remember the last time your email went down?

Not only can webconferencing save time and money, but is also a huge opportunity for meeting planners to have a positive impact on the environment. Instead of asking people not to print emails in their email signature line, planners can finally demonstrate measurable results on their "Green Meetings" strategy. It’s no secret that airplanes are the most obvious offender to the environment (and one the largest line-item expenses in your budget), so shifting one meeting online can provide enormous effects on the environment in terms of carbon offsets.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts