April 25, 2011. 2 pm ET / 11am PT. Visit TrainingIndustry.com to watch the recording.
A special, limited-seat encore presentation will take place Wednesday, May 25 at 2pm Eastern in VenueGen.Contact us for an invitation.
In an effort to drive efficiency, many of us are exploring virtual environments for instructor-led training. But virtual ILT platforms, particularly those originally designed for web conferencing, can feel more like a barrier to learning than a solution. To improve learning outcomes online, the e-classroom must be just as engaging as the physical classroom.
Join us for this informative and challenging TrainingIndustry.com webinar, sponsored by VenueGen, as we tackle the problem of moving ILT online without sacrificing the engagement and outcomes of face-to-face learning.
In this free, one-hour webinar, we’ll draw from real-world solutions and learning psychology to:
Quantify what engagement is and why it is so critical to learning outcomes;
Identify the four subtle but crucial components that foster engagement in learning environments;
Rank various modalities as to their engagement effectiveness
ONE+ ‘s Jason Hensel talks with VenueGen CEO David Gardner about the usability and user-engagement advantages of immersive web technologies. “You recognize people on-site. You can see who’s talking. When everyone turns and looks at you, your energy level spikes. It feels just like being in a real meeting.”
According to a recent Gallup study, disengaged workers cost US companies over $325 billion each year in lost productivity. Fully engaged workers and learners demonstrate an energy, creativity and level of interaction that is critical to meeting the goals of any gathering, but it is particularly difficult to create truly engaging online meetings. If you utilize online audio, video or web conferencing then this free seminar could dramatically improve your virtual meeting outcomes.
Register to hear business leader and technology pragmatist, David Gardner, as he distills the findings of over 30 studies into an easy-to-follow and practical guide to getting the most out of your online meetings. See a recent TMVnet interview with some of David’s insights here. Additionally, all attendees will receive Gardner’s whitepaper which distills the top tips for running virtual meetings, including 3D online meetings.
This live event will cover:
1. Top 10 tips for running online meetings
2. Why creating highly engaged audiences makes meetings three times more productive
3. Using online meetings to make faster business decisions and increase post-meeting learning and retention
Live Event Details:
Duration: 90 minutes, including Q&A
Date: Wednesday August 18, 2010 at 10:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM EST
Where: VenueGen
Technical Requirements: Windows based computer and optional headset. If no headset, a dial in number will be provided.
No professional in his or her right mind would hold a critical business meeting in a crowded bus station, or in an empty un-carpeted room that acts as an echo chamber. Yet, typically, online meetings and audio conference calls are no better places to meet.
Folks tend to be very particular as to where they hold their face-to-face team meetings, sales conferences and brainstorming sessions. One executive went so far as to visit nearly 20 stores in search for the perfect conference table and chairs for her company’s boardroom.
What she failed to realize that the tall chairs she bought would block participant’s view of the presentation screen. She ended up selling the chairs for pennies on the dollar, and purchasing custom replacements.
The good thing about virtual venues is that it costs nothing – just a little of your time – to change your meeting room, furnishings, decor, and amenities. Are you a stickler for online meeting room details? If so, we’d please share your experiences here.
What VenueGen features work for you. What don’t? What enhancements would you like to see? What problems have you encountered? What tips can you pass on?
Your feedback in this forum will help to making everyone’s virtual conferences even more productive and meaningful. Thanks!
The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own. ~Benjamin Disraeli
If so, you’re not alone. Time is money and by the time most non-profit board members and volunteers leave the office, drive to a conference room, wolf down a sandwich, exchange niceties and hear the treasure’s report, there’s little time for collaboration, idea sharing and engagement.
Worse, if your organization holds boring web conferences and audio conference calls, there are usually many no shows, few opportunities for key leaders to follow up in person or conduct break out sessions following the ambiguous conclusion of meetings like those described here.
If this bothers you, your thinking mirrors ours at VenueGen.
As community minded people, we’re all volunteers with organizations that we believe are vital to the health and well being of our community. We are tolerant, but have little patience or time for involvement in stagnant organizations that can’t seem make the best use of our time by doing away with boring meetings, calls and web conferences.
With both our community and our user communities in mind, we’ve made it specific point to offer a lifetime subscription of VenueGen Thunder for free to non profit organizations, small businesses, community groups, churches/religious organizations and cause related groups who are willing to buck the trend of boring meetings by offering Virtual 3D conferences and events as the means to give participant ideas a voice.
All we need now is for our users care to ask the organizations they care for to sign up for the free chance to utilize VenueGen Thunder. Of course, if you’re a non-profit leader, start working to make the most of your big ideas.
Do tell us what you’re thinking and we’ll be glad to share your thoughts and discuss your goals and objectives later both here and on our Twitter feed.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”–Margaret Mead
Let’s be honest. Effective advocacy starts long before the point where strong leaders recognize the need to get important messages across. At the core, change or desirable results begin to form the moment someone recognizes who to interact with and how to best get their points across.
The real truth begins to surface the moment strong leaders demonstrate that they are capable of both listening and speaking.
That’s the model we began to address at the point where we began plotting out the creation of VenueGen. We wanted not only to create a Web Conference and Event platform, we hoped to equip thought leaders with everything they needed to conduct sessions that are easy to schedule, even easier to conduct. We hoped to spark the sharing of profitable interactions and powerful dialogue.
This week is an exciting one for us, as we’ve launched VenueGen Thunder. We’re reaching out to thousands of bloggers, thought leaders, non-profit organizations, small businesses, trade associations, community advocacy groups and to anyone with a strong following.
All we ask in return is for folks to demonstrate the overwhelming ability to achieve change nirvana through the use of our Virtual 3D Platform.
Can you help us spark community action and change? Please offer your comments and suggestions.
Do you know how to speak Swahili? If not, imagine this scenario:
Following a sociably late entry to a very large, crowded college classroom/auditorium, you notice that the host professor of your “Current World Problems” class is noticeably late
A couple hundred people sit quietly in anticipation that an intellectual genius will enter
In walks a little African man in full costume, playing native drums and screeching out words only recognizable by those who speak Swahili
Not exactly what college students hoping to gain the insight necessary to launch careers as Ambassadors would expect, eh?
But, why is it that 23 years later, I still remember the name or that Ph.D candidate? Why can I tell you that Charles Boateng was the most effective lecturer/presenter of information that I’ve ever seen? And, more importantly, how was he able to gain my attention, earn my trust and help me retain all of his insights about nuclear disarmament after that notorious entry?
Would it surprise you to know that our class performed better on final exams than every other section taught by other lectururers who weren’t natives of Ghana, Africa?
Now, sadly I can’t tell you the names of the last three audio conference call presenters or online web conference hosts I’ve been exposed to.
But, after checking my calendar, I can honestly say that all of these professionals are intelligent individuals who have insightful and profitable information to share with me. I have managed to retain some of their presentations. But, I hardly recall everything. Do they have to dress in full costume, beat on a drum and speak Swahili to gain my attention? No.
Though, they can use the same elements of surprise and present themselves as clearly as the little African Professor. They can pre-plan to make appropriate use of their 3D venue. They can add some passion and cultural significance to their simple and authentic avatar. They can work effortlessly to make their messages powerful and work to engage their participants in meaningful dialogue. And, if I’m in their presence, they can even look right at me while telling me that it’s a good thing that I never pursued my interest in becoming an Ambassador.
Do tell me why you think Dr. Boateng still resonates with his classes? Later, let’s use this forum to discuss the other fascinating elements of his teaching techniques that you believe can be successfully adapted in Virtual 3D.
Reality bites, especially if you conduct a regular schedule of online sales training sessions or staff meetings and haven’t planned to make your sessions personally engaging and meet the needs of your meeting participants. Before you start working on a flashy Power Point presentation or plan to deliver a killer motivation speech , why not focus your efforts on bringing out your users needs out from under the Cloak of invisibility?
For, where high rates or user action, information retention, profitability and increased returns on investment are concerned, you’ll never succeed if you cannot give those whose business is important to you engaging command of the interaction process.
Like 1:1 meetings, you must plan to be relevant in 3D
Organize your efforts to be concise and to make the most of the time you have to conduct a quality information exchange with your customers/prospects
Pay close attention to small details.
Do your homework, be fully prepared to listen first.
Work to encourage participation, establish trust and maintain competency and order in the process of bringing out relevant information.
Gather all of the necessary feedback from participants during the meeting. You must work to
Measure emotional responses to your messages before working to fulfill participant needs
Where the intersection of profitability and virtual 3D meeting technology is concerned, here’s good news. Unlike the traditional online meeting or audio conference calls, many of the tools you can use to conduct 3D meetings are not just designed to make your messages attractive or to insure inter-connectivity anymore.
It’s now very simple to use 3D virtual reality technology to make your meetings both engaging and proactive. You can deliver transparent messages and expect these meetings to be more effective than in person, 1:1 meetings simply because you have the ability to fully understand reactions to your messages. You can see for yourself how engaged participants are with the meetings. You can solicit comments and participation in more ways. And, you can keep your people from multi-tasking while participating in your online meeting or audio conference.
In the coming weeks we’ll highlight successful businesses and the steps they take to make their internal conferences, ongoing training sessions and weekly sales team meetings profitable through the use of Virtual Reality, 3D meeting and conferencing tools.
In the mean time, isn’t it time online sessions became more personal like 1:1/face-to-face meetings?
According to a recent Gallup study, disengaged workers cost US companies over $325 billion each year in lost productivity. Fully engaged workers and learners demonstrate an energy, creativity and level of interaction that is critical to meeting the goals of any gathering, but it is particularly difficult to create truly engaging online meetings. If you utilize online audio, video or web conferencing then this free seminar could dramatically improve your virtual meeting outcomes.
