Philippine Webinars

Webinars are everywhere. If you type the word in Google, you’ll get about 8 million results. There is just so much out there and most are hosted by organizations and professionals in the US. Within the Philippines, there are just about 13,000 results and take note that not all of them are hosted in the country.

Being in the webinar business for years now (and learning it years before starting it), I’ve talked to a lot of people and all of them were very interested in the technology and thought it would be a great idea to implement. But, the reality is that only a few were willing to go through it. Despite the benefits, it wasn’t enough to propel them to do webinars. There were several reasons but underneath it all, it seems that they didn’t completely understand why and how they should start it.

With that being said, here is a list of reasons why others are doing it. I’m hoping that this would help you move to the next step and realize that it isn’t complicated after all.

Convenience
A traditional trainer or speaker would normally accept a session for a couple of days and have to travel to different venues. If traffic was terrible (and it always is), he could be late. To make sure he gets there on time, he has to allocate more hours to travel to the destination. That could mean losing sleep to wake up early or rescheduling other tasks for another day. With so much time needed for just one session, other opportunities can’t be accommodated. This can be stressful.

Webinar speakers, on the other hand, are less stressed and can handle more sessions. They are always on time for their sessions, they can conduct the session anywhere (home, office, internet cafe, coffee shop), and even not to stress on what to wear! They have more time to do other tasks and can now spend time with family and friends.

Cost Savings
Renting a venue to accommodate 25 people or more can cost from P3,500 or more. Traveling to the venue will mean spending a few hundred of pesos on gas or even a cab ride. For destinations outside of your city, you will spend more for airfare and hotel accommodations.

Those who do webinars see the value of cost savings. A speaker or trainer can still charge the same professional fee (based on content) but the bottom line is bigger. Organizations that do webinars can now offer more training sessions to internal staff with the existing budget. Webinar attendees also benefit since the price can be lower and they get the same content.

Shortens Sales Cycle
On average, a salesman conducts the same presentation once or twice a day. This means 10 leads a week or even less since follow up meetings are done in between. If he wanted more, he’ll have to sacrifice more hours to accommodate more people.

Organizations that offer webinar sales presentations maximizes their sales force, get more leads and focuses more time on getting the contract signed. They manage to talk to several leads in one session instead of just one. Some have less people in their team, which makes it now possible to have them earn more on commissions.

Value Added Service
Professionals and organizations alike are constantly looking to bring more to their customers. Value added services are often expensive but we know it’s worth every penny to keep a customer loyal.

Some have used webinars to extend customer support and further educate a consumer. Say, Company X now offers monthly webinars to existing customers for them to manage common questions. This has then decreased the number of calls in their call center and customers are more satisfied. The possibilities are endless.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and there are more reasons why YOU should start implementing this technology in your organization and professional life. Stop hesitating and start one today.

If you’re still not sure if it’s something you should implement, list down your apprehensions and write it on the comments box. I’ll go through each one and do follow up posts, if necessary. Better yet, I’ll schedule a webinar for those who would like to get a deeper understanding of what webinars can do for you. Let me know.

Photo courtesy of lovepeachphotography.

Webinars rely on technology most especially on bandwidth.  Without it you can’t attend or host one.  If it’s too slow you’ll be disconnected several times.

Unlike our first world counterparts, our bandwidth is shared and not guaranteed.   Broadband providers here offer a fast download rate but we know that we don’t get the “stated” speed in our plans.

So, the question is: What Internet provider can I rely on to successfully host or attend a webinar?

We’ve managed to test the huge broadband players with several webinar tools prior to us launching and still constantly testing on every session we’ve hosted.  For this post, I’ll focus on the residential service and not the wireless broadband products. Here are the results:

SMART BRO

The 999 Unlimited plan that has a speed of 1mbps.  This should be good to go but because the connection isn’t stable, it’s not recommended.  The “transformers” experience was born when we used it.  I realized, in hindsight, that I should’ve counted the number of times I said “You sound like the Transformers!” during our meetings.

An attendee would be able to connect to a session but might encounter some difficulty hearing the speaker at some point.  For speakers, I would say don’t even dare to use it, not unless you want a catastrophe in your hands.

BAYANTEL DSL

The 384kbps plan just won’t cut it.  Yes, it may be enough to cover the minimum speed, but remember it isn’t guaranteed.  The 1699 plan is workable.  We’ve had a few successful sessions under this plan, mostly on the hosting side.  Just a few tips before you go and subscribe.

If you are presenting and hosting, it’s better to do a speed test at certain times of the day.  It’s still not as reliable as you would expect.  Though you won’t get disconnected as much, the lag time is huge!

As an attendee, this plan is suffice to attend webinars.  Just don’t expect sessions that offer video streaming to work as well.  The host or speaker has to be ready for any unexpected lag times, so those who don’t rely too much on slides, this could work for you.

SKY BROADBAND

So far, we’ve managed to successfully host webinars through this service.  But, we subscribed to a plan that has a high download and upstream speed.

Their 1.5 mbps plan would be good for attendees and speakers, having an upload burst speed of 512 kbps.  I will recommend them for your webinar sessions.  If you could get a static IP address, which is an additional P200.00 then get it.  This will make sure your connection is stable.

PLDT DSL

This is a tricky one.  Their 999 plan is suffice and has worked well with our sessions.  Though they can’t promise the upload speed at this point.  They say it’s the same as the download speed, but based on experience, it isn’t as reliable.  Getting a static IP address is not recommended since they charge an arm and a leg to get one.

The trick here is to request for the installer to connect your line to the “new lines”.  It’s more stable and faster.

The last two would be my recommendation.  Just take note that there are different factors to consider to ensure a successful webinar session.  Bandwidth is just one of them.

Image courtesy of Mayank Austen Soofi