In a previous post, I told you why you need to attend conferences in-person and why they provide more value than other events where you do not meet people face-to-face. Unfortunately, some of you don’t have a choice in this. It’s not just today’s economy but we’ve been seeing for quite some of the past years that training and conference budgets have been cut for many people. It’s just that it’s probably even worse when the economy slumps.
And so, let’s consider some alternatives:
1. Webinars: These can be especially good for single topics. If they are run properly, you will get appropriate opportunities to ask questions (by typing and/or speaking). If the people running it do not know how to use the on-line tools, properly, it often ends up as a waste of time to attend, but the well-run ones can be quite good.
2. On-line courses: My comments are the same as for webinars. If the trainer doesn’t understand the tools and the difference between providing a live training course, it will be a problem. Try to avoid taking courses where some people are seeing it live and some are on-line because instructors often focus on the questions of the people sitting right in front of them over those posting questions on-line or via the telephone.
3. Web-sites, discussion groups, on-line social networking: There are a LOT of these available. Most of them have little to no activity. Some of them do have activity but not useful activity. What I mean is this – seeing 100 people wish each other a “happy holiday” is not useful. Being entirely inundated, these days, you can aimlessly look-around the web until you find the right tool. However, you will help yourself in this if you ask others for help. Some of the people you will network with on-line or in-person can point you to sites and tools that they’ve found useful.
Let me point out as I always try to remember to do that none of this is as powerful as going and meeting other living, breathing human beings. Face-to-face interaction brings better results and often provides unexpected and useful information. But these tools are productive for their own purposes and have their uses.
