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Dec. 18, 2003 — A group of about 25 recently gathered from around the world to watch their host build a water molecule and attached it onto the tip of a carbon nanotube.
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With the molecule bonded in place, they observed as measurements were taken of how the enhanced nanotube will perform as a transistor in a display.
All of this, of course, happened virtually. The demonstration was an online “Webinar” that Accelrys Inc. put on to showcase its molecular modeling and simulation software.
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Accelrys’ Webinar is part of surging trend in business communications.
The Yankee Group predicts that corporate spending on Webinars and Webcasts, which was $169 million in 2000, will reach $5.9 billion by 2005. Frost & Sullivan estimated in April 2002 that worldwide Web conferencing revenues alone would hit $2 billion by 2008. And Gartner Group research predicts that one of the fastest-growing uses for online presentations and meetings will be for marketing, advertising and product launches.
The Accelrys Webinar, for example, featured a demonstration over the Internet of software that can measure how a pharmaceutical nanopill would perform based on varying the concentration of polymers, the size of particles and other parameters.
This particular Web conference, hosted through Webex Inc., was essentially a 30-minute communal slide presentation with the Accelrys hosts audible via a toll-free conference call. Participants could also chat online with each other and pose questions.
In August, Evident Technologies produced a video Webcast of a symposium featuring speakers including Alex Ekimov, one of the fathers of quantum dot science.
Steve Talbot, Evident’s vice president of marketing, said the company opted for an online event because it was a cost-effective way to reach a global audience in an era of reduced travel budgets and terrorism fears. More than 200 people tuned in to the Webcast, which the company is also now selling as a DVD for $25.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Distance Learning Program is also selling six 90-minute Webcasted videos on nanotechnology featuring people such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Mike Roco and University of Maryland’s Avi Bar Cohen.
Talbot noted that the Webcast, put on with the help of Siena College and Time Warner Cable, was a unique way to attract potential customers and create wider awareness of Evident’s products. It also was a strategy that made simple economic sense.
“Think in terms of what it would’ve cost to send a group to make presentations on even three continents,” he said. Talbot said that Evident is looking to put together another Webcast conference.
While Webcasts are becoming almost commonplace extensions of physical conferences, what then are some of the keys to a successful interactive Webinar? Lisa Neal, editor in chief of eLearn magazine and an expert on Web conferencing, recommends rehearsing. “Go over everything that could go wrong and plan on how you’ll handle it.”
In the Accelrys Webinar, for example, some participants hadn’t been told they had to log into a conference call to hear the hosts. Fortunately, the ability to chat with other visitors enable that critical information to circulate.
Neal also suggests getting the virtual audience involved interactively, perhaps by asking people to say where there from or posing a poll question that will warm them up.
She also recommends that you have a second moderator who can field questions from the audience during the course of a presentation that can be answered during a later Q&A session.
“This is becoming a very common way for businesses to communicate,” noted Neal. “It can be particularly effective if the presentation is from someone who is very notable or distinguished.” Your audience will have a greater sense of having ‘been there’ even if they’re experiencing the event from the other side of the globe.
Indeed, one of the most prominent features of small technology is its global scale. In the Webinar world, Webex is the current king, but Microsoft has recently gotten into the game through their purchase of Placeware Inc. and marketing campaign for the company’s new Live Meeting service. Cisco Systems announced Nov. 12 it was acquiring Latitude Inc. for about $80 million.
For larger companies looking to invest in frequent intra-company online presentations, board meetings and events, Interactive Video Technologies Inc. offers an innovative software suite for quickly and easily integrating video, slides and other elements together.
Finally, Neal, who discussed how to run a successful Webinar at the eLearn 2003 conference in Phoenix this November, noted that for cutting edge businesses like those in small tech, a web conference “is a more engaging way to make news or create connections” than simply sending out a press release or e-mail newsletter.