Ever heard of a webinar?<\/p>\n
A webinar is an online event that is hosted by a company and broadcasts to individuals through their computers via the Internet. A webinar allows a presenter\/speaker from the hosting company to share PowerPoint presentations (or other multimedia content) with audiences that can be located anywhere.<\/p>\n
A webinar also allows the hosting company to interact with the audience. The audience can ask the presenter\/speaker, who is leading the webinar, questions in real-time through an instant messaging tool.<\/p>\n
This week, I took part in my first webinar in my capacity as the independent Chair of the Customer Challenge Group<\/a> at South East Water<\/a> which supplies drinking water to 2.1 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.<\/p>\n The event was\u00a0ably facilitated by Jane McLaughlin, a PR professional with a lovely Edinburgh accent, with me giving a PowerPoint presentation, commenting on polls of the participants, and answering questions from the participants. Jane and I sat in an office in the company”s head office in the delightfully-named town of Snodland, while the 14 customers who took part sat at home in front of their computers.<\/p>\n The audio was one way: from Jane and me to the customers. The text was one-way: questions from the customers to me. It only lasted three-quarters of an hour, but we covered a lot of ground and I found it intense but fun. Certainly I commend \u00a0South East Water for trying a new approach to engage customers in an interactive way and hope that the company will develop this approach further.<\/p>\n