A Virtual Presence-tation

It always seems to happen.  Anytime the economy goes into a downturn, the first thing corporate hatchet people do is go after the training and education budget.  Honestly, when times are the most difficult do you really think this is the best time to attack morale and eliminate necessary training?

I speak in more than 100 cites each year on innovative thinking, Internet marketing, and now about the subject of my newest book, The Social Media Bible (www.TheSocialMediaBible.com), published by John Wiley & Sons due out on May 4th.  I see how Fortune 2000 companies rent entire towers of hotels, grand ballrooms, break-out session meeting rooms, fleets of taxis, and buy 100’s of round-trip airplanes seats all to shuttle their employees or business partners in from all corners of the content for an event.  I can’t help but imagine the inordinate expense associated with these events; $50,000, $250,000, $500,000, and sometimes as much as $1,000,000 or more.  Is there a reasonable ROI on this investment?

Sure there is.  It’s all about improving the corporate bottom line by increasing morale and improving performance through new sales & marketing techniques and motivation.  That’s why businesses continue to hold annual sales meeting, MarCom conferences, and professional organization meetings and trade shows and send this kind of money.  And, because of this inordinate expenses associated with these events, this is the first expense category that gets cut in recessive financial times.

I can certainly understand the logic behind cutting costs to match a reduction in revenue, but why does it always have to be an either / or situation.  Why is it always the extreme?  We all understand the value of training, and learning cutting edge sales techniques.  We can measure the ROI.  We all comprehend why it’s important to motivate your team.  We all know that providing the newest and most competitive tools returns the highest value. Is now the time to stop providing these assets to your sales teams, marketing departments, communications staff, and design division?

What if you could eliminate nearly 100% of all of those expenses and still providing the latest sales tools, training, and motivation for your team?  What if you could eliminate the round trip airfare, taxi fares, meals & entertainment, hotel rooms, meeting rooms, banquet charges, telephone, projector, sound system, entertainment, expense accounts, and most importantly; thousands of hours of employee loss in productivity, and still deliver the same highly valuable, highly exciting, highly motivating, live, interactive presentations?  You can…  Use Web Conferencing.

In my new book, The Social Media Bible published by John Wiley & Sons, I talk about the different options in web conferencing in Chapter 23 – Let The Conversation Begin – Interpersonal I discuss web conferencing applications such as GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, and WebEx.  Here’s what I have to say about these three “Best-In-Class” applications:

Web Conference Applications

GoToMeeting (www.GoToMeeting.com) is for any business a cost-effective, easy-to-use online meeting solution that vastly improves productivity and sales. This service is to use on the fly or for scheduled presentations; to perform live demos; or to collaborate on documents in real time. GoToMeeting’s web conferencing tool allows users to meet online rather than in a conference room. It’s the easiest and most cost-effective way to organize and attend online meetings. The patented technology enables colleagues, customers, and prospects to view any application running on your PC in real time. With the flexibility to meet in person or online, you’ll be able to do more and travel less.

Adobe Connect (www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro) is the next best thing to an in-person meeting. With Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™ Pro software, you can provide instant access to engaging, collaborative meetings with just a web browser and the Adobe Flash® Player runtime. You can enable attendees to jump into always-available personal meeting rooms with no scheduling or registration required. They’re able to share screens, use a whiteboard, chat, video conference, and enjoy real-time interactions without the hassle of travel. They can control meetings and related assets with robust management and reporting tools, and protect sensitive business data and meeting content with tight security and strong access controls.

WebEx (www.WebEx.com) provides the benefit of on-demand web meetings with no significant up-front costs, no servers to maintain, and no software to install or support. With just a web browser and a telephone, you can use WebEx. Users can integrate WebEx into daily business work flow, and use online meetings to get together with anyone at any time. Coworkers and associates can demonstrate products and services, share presentations in any format, and resolve open issues in real time with secure and reliable technology. WebEx allows the impact of live events by holding large, scalable online proceedings—such as all-hands meetings, shareholder presentations, and webinars—with interactive and dynamic multimedia presentations.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye
While the most effective web conferencing includes video, audio, and live chat for interactive question and answers, you could use free services such BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com) or TalkShoe (www.talkshoe.com) and have your employees “listen-in” on a live conference from any P.C. on any browser, anywhere.

A Virtual Presence In A Virtual World
Now here’s one for the books. It’s totally cutting edge, it’s really fun, and it’s also free!  You can hold your next live virtual presentation, conference, seminar, or corporate meeting in the virtual world, Second Life!  That right…  A virtual world.

When I contacted Mark Kingdon, the CEO of Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life virtual world to ask him if he would do a ½ hour telephone interview for the book, he refused.  I was really surprised!  He went on to say that if I wanted an interview, I could meet him in Second Life.  Wow!  A life interview in Second Life with the CEO of Second Life.

We created a comfortable little place in Second Life with fountains, and swaying eucalyptus trees called The Social Media Bible Garden and invited 30 or so people from around the world to join us.  If you want to visit The Social Media Bible Garden, follow this SLURL: Pinastri (159, 203, 20), (Second Life URL), and you will be transported there.  I talk about this in Chapter 17 – Virtual Worlds – Real Impact  in my book.  Here’s interview I did in Second Life with Mark Kingdon:
The Video Interview From Second Life (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkYPkn_fYs&feature=channel_page).

This story was so news worthy, it was actually pick up by CNN, both on their web site and their cable cannel and CNN made me a Second Life CNN iReporter!: CNN News Story (www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-108852)

I now hold all of my engineering design meetings for my company; Paper Models, Inc. (www.papermodelsinc.com) in Second Life.  My designers come in from Russia, the Ukraine, I’m in Phoenix, and my partners are in San Diego.  We can sit, see one another (or at least each other’s Avatars), and speak openly about the company, marketing, and new model designs.  All live, all fun, all cutting edge, and all for free!

Conference Conclusion
So whether you ichat, AIM, web conference of visit a virtual world to collaborate, communicate, educate, and motivate your employees, you really need to consider the newest technology that is available today.  With a virtual presentation you can:

•    Your team sees the performance of the presentation live.
•    If you want larger than life big screen entertainment, project it.
•    Your employees never have to leave their locations to receive that same great content.
•    You can have it recorded and make it available for employees who missed it, want to see it again, and those you wouldn’t pay to fly to a remote presentation.
•    It can be stored as chapters / slides, and sound bytes.
•    It can even be converted to an audio CD or MP3 for your employees to listen to at the gym, on their rush hour commute, or on their day off.
•    You can save $100’s of thousands of dollars.  And,
•    You save 1,000’s of lost production hours.

And I’m not the only one taking advantage of this incredible efficient technology, here’s an example where the U.S. government is doing an entire conference via the Internet: Government Conference (www.virtualenergyforum.com/)

And, I wanted to give you an example of one of my presentations.  I did this one for the Arizona Enterprise Network in September.  This was the first time I tried this application:  My Presentation (www.essentialet.com/en/ef/en091808/index.htm)

To hear the Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Labs and Alan Levy, the CEO and Founder of BlogTalkRadio audio interviews, go to www.TheSocialMediaBible.com and select “Insights” from the menu or follow this direct link: (www.thesocialmediabible.com/download/)

Why am I so willing to share all of these incredible cost saving tips, first and foremost because I care, second because it’s all in my book, and also because the one cost that can never be eliminated… is the speaker fee.  You still need good, fresh, cutting edge, motivational, live content delivered to your employees.

Before I close I want to leave you with this one last thought:

• 850 employees * 1,200 Miles * 2 (Round Trip) = 2,040,000 Airline Miles
• 850 employees * 25 Miles * 2 (Round Trip Home / Airport ) = 42,500 miles / 1,700 Trips
• 850 employees * 25 Miles * 2 (Round Trip Airport / Hotel ) = 42,500 miles / 1,700 Cab Fares
• 850 employees * 2 Nights = 1,700 Hotel Room Nights

What’s the carbon footprint on this?  We have a corporate responsibility to think “Green”.

Lon Safko