Webinars

In my Webinar review, I had a hard time stopping the discussion of the content to address the format itself. Therefore, I will address this in a separate post... Right now!

First let me start off by saying that I think Webinars have a neat concept. The ability for experts to give presentations to fellow professionals regardless of where they are in the world is a powerful concept. In the number of webinars I have participated in, people have logged on from every area of the world. That is amazing, and very cool. What's more is that those people can engage through asking questions - even better!

I think where my attitude towards webinars starts to decline is when the presenters do not have everything together. Some people, it seems, just jump online and start talking without the due amount of preparation. I have seen everything from duplicate slides on their presentation to a complete loss of voices because the presenter is not familiar with their own technology. I have jumped onto presentations of supposed "experts," and the person is merely reading off the screen. If we are going to leverage this tool properly, I believe people should have a bit more respect for the medium and realize that just because you aren't in front of us doesn't mean there is little to no accountability for your presentation.

That said, I still support webinars and I will continue to engage in them. I enjoy being able to ask questions should I have one (despite having to listen to some people ask less-than-informed and common sense questions). I also enjoy the fact that most presenters allow you to access and print off their presentation, allowing you to take notes and have that resource forever. It is and will continue to be a valuable and simple form of professional development.