The New Face of Seminars

With the current economic scenario, businesses see high
value in adopting innovative tools such as webinars, online or virtual events,
podcasts, etc, as it provides effective market reach with better returns at a
lower cost.

For instance, webinarsthe virtual form of physical
seminar or event transmitted over weboffer several benefits to businesses.
Webinars offer rich audio-video and graphical content designed for specific
audience, educate them with information, and also allow interactivity.

"Marketing events are critical for any business. However,
it involves huge cost depending on the kind of event whether it is a multi-city
or a single as it includes the cost of hotel, traveling, infrastructure, and
other elements," says Balaji Kesavraj, marketing head, Cisco WebEx.

"However, using webinarswhich is a replication of
physical event or seminarcompanies can easily save cost of hotel, traveling,
and other expenses. The participants can sit in front of their computers to
attend the event without traveling to the event venue, and can ask questions to
speakers using the Internet," adds Kesavraj.

Talking about webinars benefits, he points out that
webinars can be recorded for those people who were unable to attend, and they
can even ask questions after the event. So, it offers a great advantage to
businesses and people.

"As webinars are pre-registered online events, it provides
the measure of audience with their correct information and details. The cost of
webinar is one-tenth of any regular physical event," Kesavraj points out.

Cisco WebEx is a top rated company which offers web
conferencing and collaboration solutions for large and medium businesses
including Event Assist and Event Center, which are online event production
services. According to Frost & Sullivan, the company tops with 67% market share
in the collaboration solutions market in India for the past five years from 2005
to 2009.

Marketers are extensively using webinars as part of
standard marketing features, but its usage is beyond marketing and promotions.
According to Kesavraj, any business can use webinars for internal and external
purpose.

"For example, a life insurance company can use webinar for
providing direct product information to the agents and sales teams, and
communicate with them on a short notice. Here, webinar is used for internal
communication and educating about new products," he says.

Internal usage is for training employees and staff, while
the external usage is directed at a target audience for generating business
leads. While marketers are extensively using webinars as part of the standard
features for marketing, some companies are using webinars along with the
physical event.

According to Kesavraj, the global market for collaboration
solutions is estimated to be around $34 bn by 2012; however, the adoption of
collaboration solutions by businesses in India is slow.

"The low Internet penetration in the country is one among
the several other reasons for slow adoption of collaboration solutions here," he
opines.

Pankaj Maru/CIOL

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in