Taking part in an online seminar can be a daunting prospect - how will it work? Do you have the right technology? Will you manage to handle the audio and visual element of the seminar without missing any of the content? Questions like these often put people off attending online seminars when really, they would have found it an easy and useful process.

Advances in technology, however, and the growing availability of both real-time and on-demand seminars offered by an ever-increasing range of businesses, means that taking part in an online seminar, whether at work or home, will become a much more attractice prospect.

People Ahead of Technology

Some online seminar providers have been blinded by the technology that allows them to provide seminars - and have forgotten about the customer. This results in poor seminars, and so companies are now starting to think about the sort of audience they are dealing with, and tailoring the technology to be more accessible and understandable to them.

Collaboration

Online seminars are starting to move into more interactive territory. Providers have discovered that users prefer to work with the presenter and be fully involved in a session, rather than sitting passively at their terminal listening to a lecture. Users feel more involved, reap better benefits from the seminar, and are more likely to book for future seminars if they are engaged throughout.

Customisation

Although companies can have bespoke seminar technology built for them, it is an expensive project, usually undertaken by those companies who are planning a significant seminar offering. For those who want to provide seminars as a part of their customer relationship management service, or to use internally for workforce issues, there is currently little customisation available. This will change as software providers anticipate the needs of smaller businesses, and as those businesses realise the value of buying software that creates exactly the sort of seminar that their customers want.

Online Consultations

Issues of privacy and security currently overshadow any attempts to use online seminars to cover individual personal or financial topics. It is possible, however, that in the future, companies will be able to give financial or medical advice to individuals in an interactive online seminar that is secure and confidential.

The integration of disparate technologies such as webconferencing, video, audio and SMS text messaging means that there is still much to come from online seminars. Growing usage will drive demand for customer-centric, customisable software, with full interaction capabilities. As always, companies who listen to their customers and anticipate their needs will be the winners.