Training Qualm

If you are like me you get many emails from newsletters, blogs, and e-magazines, which also includes offers to attend seminars for various different topics. I recently received one that offered a topic that I would have liked to hear. Then I saw that it was only being offered somewhere in California.

In today's market with companies saving every dollar they can hold on to, it is hard enough to justify reasonable expenses and even harder to justify things like seminars or training courses. I certainly do not have the money to spend on them. Some companies are better at others in investing in their talent pool than others, but even they typically do not send all their talent. They will rely on the person or few people to bring back that information and spread their knowledge. So why is it that these Guru's or Training Professionals do not provide more web based seminars and courses? With today's web technology it is very easy to provide professional interfaces for this sort of purpose. VoIP is mainstream which allows them to completely control registration and access to the material, and best of all it saves the registrants money, not to mention the hassle of expense reports, travel arrangements, and of course the actual travel. And with the ever increasing acceptance of a green philosophy, you can save pollution from air and car travel, waste from brochures and displays, and reduce energy and resource consumption.

Sure, there are some down sides to web based conferencing. You cannot really control how many people are viewing or listening in on the conference at the attendant's site, but again with the increase in attendance from people who cannot afford to come, this does not add much in the way of missed profits. Also, if the training is good and you are providing advertising space in the conference room, these non-paying attendees would be a benefit. Even with the technology and software we have, I have yet to see a good way for the interaction of a classroom type of atmosphere. And yes, you are not bringing any money into to the local economy or state, but if you feel that bad about it, donate a portion of the extra profits you gain from more attendees to a local charity.

All in all, most companies that provide training have come to understand this view point. They provide some sort of service to offset the travel expense whether it be "on-site," "on-the-job," or some sort of web based training. But for some reason, these email invitations to half day or one day seminars, courses, briefings, outlooks, etc. have not grasped the idea of sharing these ideas via a live web meeting. And at least in my mind, these small "meetings" should be more abundant than week long training courses.