Rock Valley ASTD - February Newsletter

I admit I put this on the schedule because I thought:
A. I could do it from home (I live between Dixon & Oregon).
B. I thought I could just delegate and let go (more on that later)
C. I thought it would be easy.
D. Online Meetings/Online Training - same thing. I knew how to do training online, meetings online should be the same thing.
E. Whatever needed to be done could be handled by email.

I was wrong on every count.

It all started... 2 months before the event.
1. I discovered that my vision of a meeting was not the same as the facilitators that had volunteered. To me, online meeting/presentations are not Video Conferencing. They had different ideas.
2. The volunteer facilitators kept wanting to meet F2F (face to face)! I was confused. Since this was about online meetings, shouldn't we start by using online tools?
3. Invitations are sent out to surrounding ASTD chapters to participate. No reaction.
4. Vendor invitations are outstandingly glowing: I want to participate, tell me how.

1 month before the event.
1. Facilitators react positively, lets learn neat, new stuff.
2. Facilitators still want to meet to F2F but there is much difficulty in determining a time. I'm asking myself "Isn't this the problem that an Online Meetings should solve?"
3. Still no reaction from other ASTD chapters.
4. Vendors appear to be clueless about how to commit to a time and date, and supply the necessary information so we can continue marketing the event.

2 weeks before the event.
1. One facilitator drops out and I step in.
2. Many emails pass between Sherrie Hedman and me to share vendor/plan info. With so many possibilities, it's tough to choose. We test drive a few services and run into conflicts between different combinations. Hmmm, probably time to simplify our approach.
3. No reaction from any other marketing venue, probably because we still don't know what we're marketing.
4. Still no idea which vendors are participating and how they're participating so I send a "drop dead or reply before this deadline" email to the 6 vendors who were committed to the event.
5. Sherrie Hedman creates some supporting web pages for the event with the information we have.

1 week before the event.
1. I'm a basket case, my professional load has gone into super nova mode.
2. Sherrie Hedman at RVC continues to be the event savior. Enthusiastic, committed and organized.
3 . Vendors are confused about supplying basic info - where, when, who. I'm receiving emails at midnight from vendors.
4. Several vendors are dropped from consideration because they can't supply basic info.
5. Still nothing from anyone outside the area. Entre (one of the alternate computer lab locations) sends out a notice to 3,000 local clients.
6. Set up an email forum so that when we get setup and sign on info from vendors we can immediately distribute no matter at what client location I'm at.

3 days before the event: (weekend)
1. We get some info from the vendors but we're not doing an organized presentation because we're only getting a piece here and there
2. Attendees are confused about the vendor info supplied and some of it doesn't work.
3. I'm glad we haven't been inundated with registrations - this isn't going at all according to plan.
4. The few remaining vendors are clueless, even on the simplest issues. They've set up their services according to PST time and we've sent multiple emails referring to CST times (yes, we said "CST"). This is bad.

2 days Before the event:
1. Sherrie continues to be the voice of reason making sense out of chaos.
2. 'ta heck with it. I'll just cancel and that will be the end of it.
3. RVC's lab space is filled with scheduled attendees but no one's signed up for the Entre location, hmmmm.
4. Vendors are still clueless. Drop another vendor because they are "too busy to confirm the implementation process"

1 Day Before the event.
1. New plan, use Tour Bar and just "visit" vendor sites. Training is NOT the same as an online meeting.
2. Simplify, simplify.
3. Still nothing
4. Drop another vendor because of their insistence on audio only through a separate phone line connection. Totally unworkable solution and why wasn't this info on their web site in their "about our product" section?

Summary: Choose your tools where they apply. There is no "one service for all needs." For online learning, I'm using part of keeboo.com, part of eproject.com, a dash of placeware.com and other tools where they fit my needs. I wouldn't recommend this approach for an eMeeting.

Find a vendor that fits 80% of your needs and forget about trying to integrate multiple services. You need to be aware of what is/is not available AND you need to stay aware of where this is going. I'm managing resources from across the world and you will too. My impression is that you can't find all the tools in one place but you can find what you need from the online services - if you know where to look and are willing to do your homework.

Some day soon, the vendors will figure out that technology isn't the problem, service and support are the missing components. Once they learn and implement basic business strategies, their services will save money and increase communication. Sherrie has offered to revisit this subject with another event next year. I think it'll be very interesting to revisit this topic in 6 months and learn where these services have/have not improved.

Editor's note: Christie's therapist is happy to report that her recovery is progressing faster than expected!