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.

During the mid afternoon of April 28th, Lopez Link through the HR / PR Council of the Lopez Group of Companies launched its first webinar session entitled “Social Media and Networking 101”, which was conducted by Janette Toral.

There were close to 50 registrants for the webinar comprised of different employees within the group of companies and guests. About 30 made it to the session. Considering this is their first undertaking within the realm of webinars, the number was definitely a good start.

As the room was opened, attendees started to come in as early as 20 minutes before the session.  The session started at 3PM sharp.  About 70% of the audience were first time webinar attendees, as they were asked by Janette at the start of the session.  A phrase has been coined for newbies stating that they are not “webinar virgins” anymore.

The presentation was filled with statistics, discussed the basics of social media and existing sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn plus a showcase of social media campaigns from top corporations and what made it successful.

One interesting thing to note are the questions asked during the session. Some were basic such as “What is the difference between a blog and a microblog?”, “What does SEO mean?” and “Is it advantageous to “be-friend” your competitors in social media sites?”. Some were geared towards internal communications, corporate branding, whether social media is just geared towards the B & C market but probably hard to penetrate lower C & D, and even a short assessment of Meralco’s effort to confront recent issues through social media.

Despite the audio issues experienced during the session, which could be due to high internet traffic usage at the scheduled time that resulted to a slow internet connection, the participants engaged with the speaker and stayed 20 more minutes to learn. Some even asked for an extension.

Rosan Cruz, AVP of Group Public Relations for Benpres Holdings Corporation informed us that there will be a monthly webinar session available for its employees and guests through Lopez Link, a monthly publication of the Lopez Group of Companies.

Support for the event was managed by ProFora Media.

In partnership with ProFora Media, Digital Filipino is celebrating its 10th anniversary alongside with One Internet Day this year. As we empower more Filipinos globally with the Internet, it is fitting that webinars are introduced, not only to educate of the numerous opportunities that it can bring, but the benefits of how this platform can bring everyone together to collaborate.

The celebration will be a whole day event, starting from 9AM and ends at 8pm on September 17, 2009.  There will be 9 FREE webinars available from different industries.

This is not only a milestone for Digital Filipino, but for ProFora Media and the webinar industry within the country as well, as this is the ever first virtual conference to be done in the Philippines.  Be part of history and attend a Philippine webinar.  Share it to your friends and colleagues so they, too, can be part of this event.

To check on the list of webinars to be conducted live on September 17 and to register, you can visit ProFora’s events page.

Unproven assumptions can lead to major glitches down the road.

Murphy’s Law states that, “If something can go wrong, it is bound to go wrong.”  I never really believed in that before and thought of the cliché as a way for someone else to rain on my parade.  After all, mishaps and bloopers are things that great planning and endless rehearsals cure.  Besides, we’ve been doing the same things over and over for the last two weeks without any hitches, so I assumed that it was “just another day at the office”—was I in for a surprise.

During yesterday’s broadcast (a webinar on internet marketing), the audio was choppy, we experienced intermittent internet connection (thanks to our very reliable local providers), and at one point, the speaker was even heard screaming at the top of her lungs in horror saying, “Nawala ang internet connection ko!” [I lost my internet connection].
We found ourselves laughing about the day’s events afterwards, but two lessons became very apparent, especially since we were dealing with technology.  They are:

1.    Never ASSUME that things will work as they have before.  Assuming most often leads to one simple conclusion—I make an A** out of U and ME.  Not a very exciting situation to end up in with a live audience.

2.    Be Prepared.  The internet is an exciting arena to be operating in, but it is heavily reliant on so many other aspects.  Having a back-up ready to act as a fail-safe are sure ways to guarantee a smoothly running, seamless presentation.  Unless, of course, it’s already the hand of God Almighty that has put you into a corner with no way out.

I guess these lessons apply, not only to web-conferencing, but to everything else in life.  So the next time I get into anything (and I apologize for this in advance), I will keep on asking questions,  double check and run the risk of being tagged as a nuisance.   At the end of the day, no one really got killed because of these, right?

image source:  http://freedigitalphotos.net, Photo by Juan Gnecco

Do you know what a webinar is?  How does it work?  What are the benefits?

You can now attend live seminars without leaving your home or office! Save on travel.  Save time.  Save money.

Online seminars—or webinars– is the new way to learn or share knowledge. If you have a high-speed internet connection and a PC headset, attending a webinar can be a more economical and practical alternative to traditional seminars.

One of its benefits would be savings on travel costs.
If you live in Metro Manila, you know how stressful it can get during the rush hours.  Traffic is terrible!  Yes, the coding scheme might help a bit but because of the sheer number of vehicles being bought is increasing, you know it’s only a short term solution.  Because of traffic congestion, most people are late for meetings and are just not productive.  Not only do you waste time, you use up more gas and spend more on maintaining your vehicle due to wear and tear.

A classic example would be a salesman trying to meet as many clients as possible on a given day.  If you were to market and do your presentation through a webinar, you can schedule an hour a day (or week) to meet your potential clients, without having to travel.  This saves you a lot of money!  Your potential leads then increase because you can invite several at a time.

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Did you know that a minimum wage earner can retire as a multi-millionaire? Do you want to be wealthy but aren’t sure where to start? This webinar will show you how!

It’s not true that a high salary or rich relatives are the only sure ways to achieve wealth.  If you dream of reaching a point in your life when you wouldn’t have to worry about money, then this is for you!

This webinar aims to:

• Simplify the complex world of finance.
• Reveal investment strategies you can take to jump start your journey to wealth.
• Break “Money Myths” such as having a high salary to achieve your desired wealth.

Expert Speaker Hoover Uy de Baron is a Registered Financial Consultant (RFC) and specializes in managing the hard-earned money of Filipinos.  He has been investing for the last 13 years and specializes in real estate and stock analysis. Hoover has experienced most of the financial pitfalls that all investors normally go through and his wish is for others to learn from his mistakes.  He currently is a director and officer in various finance, real estate and insurance companies.  He finished his MBA in the University of Western Australia.

Hoover is currently writing articles in his blog, How to Make Everyday a Sunday.

He regularly speaks at his own webinar, hosted by ProFora Media twice a month.  Included in his webinar is a free consultation with his attendees after the session.  If you’ve attended his session, tell us about your experience.

Is your Quality Assurance program measuring up with the best?  Let this webinar reveal you the essentials of a topnotch QA program.

Call Center Quality is more than just tagging scores on an agent’s performance.  While metrics can be reliable, they don’t fully monitor the overall dynamics between agent and customer.  An effective Quality Assurance program is dependent on finding out the “complete picture” of every call, including the “unmeasurable” elements, and that’s why contact centers are struggling to find the winning formula behind Quality Assurance.

Beneficial to contact center managers, supervisors and QA professionals, this 1 1/2 hour webinar will reveal how to get the most out of capturing, analyzing, reporting and coaching for Quality Assessment purposes.  You will learn about:

• Defining your program goals
• Balancing call quality and call metrics
• The Common Scorecard pitfalls
• Successful calibration
• The bottom line in data reporting

Expert speaker Tom Vander Well has been providing Quality Assessment (QA) in contact centers before “your call may be monitored” was a common phrase to consumers.  For the past 17 years, he has been on the cutting edge of this developing discipline.

He is a partner and Vice President of c wenger group, a consulting firm in Des Moines, Iowa, USA that helps companies like Volvo, John Deere and Principal Financial Group, measure and improve service quality in their contact centers.  His group incorporates Customer Satisfaction Research, Quality Assessment and Training into a cycle of continuous improvement.

Tom has become a popular speaker on the subjects of QA and Customer Service.  He also writes a blog that has been called the “Best Call Center Blog” by a leading industry magazine.

If you’re interested in attending this webinar, you can leave a comment and include your preferred time.

You’ve heard it from your friends. Working in a call center is the hottest thing in the employment scene. Fast career growth, free training, and a high salary. But, this is your first time and anxiety sets in.

What do you do? What are the requirements? You’ve submitted your resume’ but it has been weeks and you haven’t received a call back. You went through a lot of assessments but don’t know why you failed.

This webinar aims to:

• Orient participants on the standard call center recruitment process
• Provide standard interview questions and tips on how to answer them
• List common requirements expected of a call center agent applicant

Expert Speaker Jam Mayer-Flores has been in the industry for 8 years and specializes in training and quality. She started as a call center agent and worked her way up to becoming an executive in a global call center. Her passion for education has led her to do consultancy work as a Call Center Career Coach. She maintains the Call Center Blurbs blog and has written for Know More Media at Call Center Script.

Important Note: This webinar is exclusively for the Philippine market.

If you are interested in learning how to maximize your success in getting a job in the call center industry, do leave a note and include your preferred time.

The Internet has become the fastest-growing and most exciting marketing frontier. Discover emerging technologies and trends that will change how you plan and execute your online marketing campaigns. Learn how you can maximize your site’s earnings with affiliate and e-mail marketing programs. Find out how you could put yourself or your brand in front of more eyes with Search Engine Marketing and Landing Page Optimization techniques!

This webinar series includes the following topics:

• Internet Marketing and SEO Basics

• Landing Page Optimization and Usability Basics

• Email and Permission Marketing Basics

• Affiliate and Pay Per Click Marketing Basics

Expert Speaker Elymar Apao is a User Experience Manager and Web Marketing Strategist for a US based online retail store.  His specialties include user experience, usability, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web marketing and pay per click management.  He spoke about “Link Building Tactics, Tool & Techniques” during the SEMCON conference in 2007.  Recently he had a place within the Philippines Top 100 Blogs conducted by Janette Toral and Ratified.

The first 25 registrants who attended this webinar series received a free audio book on “The Science of Getting Rich”.  This was hosted by ProFora Media last December 2008.