My first webinar experience took place about 3 years ago. We were producing a live training event through our sister company, Live Spark, and wanted to get a solid grounding in our client's content so we sat in on one of their new product rollout webinars.Webinars, at that time, were relatively new-ish. "How fantastic," I thought,"I can get up to speed quickly without having to leave my desk."
As the webinar progressed, however, my enthusiasm was quickly sapped. I'm not a particularly distraction-prone person, but after about 5 minutes I found myself (somewhat ashamedly and automatically) checking my email...checking the news highlights...trying to squeak in a little copyediting...
The webinar was a great way to reach people, but the problem was that it was just another deadly-dull-and-dry presentation. Not only that, but if it had been an in-person presentation, I would have been required to *try* to pay attention (or at least maintain that placid look of wakefulness). There wasn't even that level of accountability.
I don't blame that client. I've been in many, many other webinars since--and while they have been presented with varying degrees of skill, my mind was still left to wander...to email...to the news...to my other tasks...
There is just *no* way to ensure that attendees are paying attention. And if my mind is wandering, you can bet that every other attendee is experiencing brain check-out in mass as well.
More and more companies are doing webinars now--they're efficient and cost-effective in a world where offices are globalized and travel budgets are slashed. But if people aren't learning the webinar information--if they aren't engaged, if they aren't paying attention, if they aren't accountable--then webinars aren't a cost-effective solution, they're a waste of time.
Clearly, there was a problem here that needed a solution.
Hey, LearningWare had been the expert in making training engaging, memorable and fun for over 15 years... surely we would be able to come up with something to fix this new webinar problem, right?
Right.
That's why LearningWare came up with AllPlay Web.
AllPlay Web lets you create a professional, fully-automated and engaging game show experience within your webinars. You can review and preview content, refresh the audience, and--most importantly--keep everyone engaged and accountable.
They have to pay attention to the presentation--their sense of competition is engaged and there might be a question on the material later.
They have to stay with you on the webinar instead of checking their email, because there is actual, tangible participation required on their part: registering their answers using their own keypads.
It's fun. It's engaging. It's memorable. It turns a common webinar into an interactive experience--truly making the webinar a cost-effective training and communication solution.
AllPlay Web even tracks how everyone answered, so you know where the knowledge gaps exist in your training. You can even ask survey questions.
We've just launched it in a beta version, it's awesome, and you should find out more about it here.
No, seriously, go check it out. Because not only is it absolutely revolutionary, but it's the first thing that's kept me on track--as a participant--during a webinar, *ever*.
And that's a pretty amazing feat. :)
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