BY WAYNE TURMEL
why trainers
HATE webinars
… and how to get over it!
“Webinars are sucking the life out of the speaking business.”
“Webinars are boring.”
“I’m not comfortable presenting via webinar (when the technology works at all).”
“They’re not interactive or effective and everyone hates them, participants and
speakers alike.”
If you hang out with speakers long enough, you’re likely to hear any or all of these
statements. Before you buy into the whining, replace the word “webinar” with
“PowerPoint,” and you may recall these same conversations 15 years ago.
Speakers have made peace with PowerPoint® and some even use it very
effectively today. It is part of the way people do business. Now, online presentations—webinars, online training and demos—also are part of the business
environment in 2011.
If speakers can make peace with technology and put their egos aside, they can
use webinars to their advantage and maybe even have fun with them.
A Methodical Approach to New Technology
Being a speaker is low tech: You stand in front of an audience, open your mouth,
and brilliance pours out. You don’t even have to think about it, and that’s the
point. Speakers are what psychologists call “unconsciously competent.” When you
add another dimension, like technology, speakers become overly conscious of what
they’re doing, and it feels very uncomfortable.
