Asma Zaineb asked:




According to Wikipedia, a webinar is a term to describe a kind of web conferencing for conducting live meetings, trainings, presentations, etc., via the Internet. The presenter or host communicates with the participants, lets them view the presentations, allows them to ask questions and engage in a discussion.

Webinars can be either one-way where the speaker speaks to the audience with limited interaction from the participant’s end or it can be a collaborative effort with polling, Q&A sessions enabling full participation between the audience and the speaker or presenter. Webinars, held via the Internet, offer the advantage to both the participant and the presenter to attend or hold sessions from the convenience of their personal location, such as their home or office.

If the company does not want its employees to spend a whole day in training, webinars can be held for short durations like an hour or two to focus on urgent training needs. The key feature of a webinar is its range of interactive elements-where one can give, receive and discuss information in contrast to other options where data transmission is one-way and a lack of interaction exists between the presenter and the audience.

The benefits of webinars are too many to be ignored. Chief among them are:

- Incredible savings for a company as its employees will not have to travel from various places to attend training sessions.
- Reduces travel time.
- Increases productivity.
- Helps the company to make decisions faster.
- Reduces unproductive time.
- Improves management communication.
- Allows for greater participation and teamwork by reaching out to a larger audience.
- Avoids administrative hassles associated with Instructor Led training.
- Accessibility to view documents, diagrams and illustrations from the comforts of one’s PC.
- Review prerecorded or archived presentations.
- Easy sign up and login.
- Real time feedback.

A webinar is also a fantastic way to interact with prospective clients, unable to meet face-to-face, that are interested in learning more about the products or services of a service company. Very much like meetings held in a conference room, webinars offer an added benefit of allowing participants to listen to informative audio about the product or service via a telephone, interact with presenter or speaker and ask questions in real-time.

Samantha

Diane Parker asked:




You may already have recognized the need for web conferencing within your organization. You have heard all about the many benefits and have decided it is the way forward for your company. Now all you have to do is decide which type of web conferencing would best suit your company’s needs.

A quick investigation into the types of web conferencing available will result in a myriad of information. For the uninitiated, unraveling what is available can be confusing and time-consuming.

Below you will find a quick guide to the types of web conferencing currently out there. Each organization will have its own individual requirements and it is important to be clear about what you hope to gain from web conferencing. For example, is it a fully interactive virtual meeting place that your organization needs, or do you require a document sharing system that will allow employees in different geographical locations to work together on projects? Once you understand how you want web conferencing to work for you, analyzing the types of web conferencing and how they could work for your organization will become much easier.

Web Meeting

With growths in international business and a growing trend towards home working, the need for a virtual meeting place is increasing. A web meeting is just what it says – a meeting that takes place over the Internet. This facility has the capabilities to hold real-time conversations and share documents. Web meetings can be fully interactive, allowing participants to converse in real time and for information to be exchanged between delegates.

Web meeting set-ups vary in terms of sophistication and a very rudimentary system can be set up using just a digital camera and a broadband connection.

The Webcast

As the name would suggest, a webcast is a type of broadcast similar in nature to a television broadcast except, of course, a webcast takes place over the Internet. The broadcasting nature of this facility means that there is little opportunity for the presenter and delegates to interact with each other and therefore its function is primarily as a presenting tool. The other main feature of a webcast is that it can be broadcast simultaneously to hundreds of recipients.

If your requirement is for a presenting tool that also offers the interactive features of a web meeting, then you should consider a webinar.

The Webinar

As the name suggests, the webinar is a facility that allows you to conduct a seminar over the web. Allowing a greater level of interaction than the webcast, a webinar enables the presenter to conduct question and answer-type sessions with delegates. However, you should remember that a webinar does not afford the same degree of interaction as a web meeting.

Other Uses For Web Conferencing

Online Presenting

Web conferencing can also be used for conduction online presentations. Online presenting is ideal for sales pitches, performance reporting or providing training for other members of your organization. Add on features include slide shows, web based conversing and audio/video streaming.

Online Collaboration

This is by far the most commonly used type of web conferencing and is the ideal solution for organizations who have multi-location sites yet require collaboration between their employees on projects and documents. Online collaboration has file sharing capabilities that updates changes and alterations to documents in real-time to avoid errors.

Claude