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Weekly UpdatesWebinars are in vogue for professional development--and just in time for a shaky economy where cash is siphoned from staff training into programs. Nonprofits that are pinching pennies find it hard to justify travel and hotel costs, no matter what the conference discount rate.
"What we are finding is that it's the subject area that will drive interest. But because of the down market, we wanted to offer different methods to assist people. If a webinar was more economic for them, at least that would be a way they could still get the learning," said Pamela Colman, executive education director in the professional education and external relations department for Council on Foundations (CoF), based in Arlington, Va.
Colman said that CoF has kept an eye on the economy and ramped up webinar and distance learning opportunities during the past year, offering courses on community foundation cost revenue, disaster response for grant makers and more. Colman said that webinars can reach more people, and that more than 200 have signed up for CoF's offerings since June. CoF's professional development committee keeps the topics current by looking at focus group feedback and post-seminar evaluations, and assessing "what are the issues that are keeping people up at night in the philanthropic areas," according to Colman.
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NTEN started using a few webinars halfway through 2005, but the Portland, Ore.-based organization exploded its program to more than 60 webinars a year, according to Holly Ross, executive director. Each webinar averages 35 participants, and Ross said the interest has grown exponentially during the past few years. The NTEN webinars include educational courses on working with AdWords, Drupal Web sites and computer security, and free community question-and-answer webinars that can reach nearly 100 participants.
"We are a national organization, but we can't be on the ground everywhere. But what do you do if you work in Kalamazoo, Michigan?," Ross asked rhetorically. "It helps to serve a much broader constituency and it also allows us to provide learning opportunities year-round. We do have our annual conference, but that's just once a year." NTEN used to hold four to six regional conferences in large metropolitan cities, but the costs kept rising. "Being able to do the webinars meant we could deliver the same content and touch people but it's obviously much lower cost to run," said Ross.
Webinars can't provide the conference vibe--no morning coffee networking, nametags, pens, stress balls, or oversized totes Filled with sponsor information. But webinars are giving nonprofit staff the opportunity to continue professional development in the comfort of their offices.
CoF distributes the presentation slides to participants to look over to create questions, and Colman said that an hour webinar gives "golden nuggets" of information. But even webinars have their limitations. A computer screen isn't as engaging as watching most speakers. Colman said interactive questions during the webinar help to retain engagement and cut through the static. "They might not be able to have that face-to-face interaction with the presenter, so certain people will value it just as much, but others want that additional value of face-to-face presentation," said Colman.
"During the course of the webinar, folks actually get to talk to each other a little bit or make a new connection with the presenter," said Ross, who said chat components in the webinar help the participants. "There is some sort of community building aspect built into it so that folks can get the chance to meet each other as much as they get a chance to learn."
Webinar technology is growing to give participants a real-time feel with streaming audio, interactive chatting and video--but Ross said conferences aren't disappearing anytime soon. "It's not the same as being in the room at all. I would say, given the preference, I would still rather have a session face-to-face than do it in a webinar format."
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