My Webinar Pet Peeve
You know what bugs me about webinars? People invite the whole country but either don’t put a list of times or only put THEIR timezone.
Every time I get an email invite to a webinar I have to think about what time it is. Today it hits squarely at lunchtime. Why don’t they make it easy and put the time for each timezone in the US? Wouldn’t that send a message that everyone is welcome regardless of where they live? Isn’t that the point?
Sometimes I don’t think people think about their audience. Please, think about when your webinar will start or end. Will people have to get up early to catch it?
Will it be during rush hour or lunchtime? Put in timezones. At the least, please remember to always include at least your timezone.
Online you always have to have extend a welcome at all times. Never put up barriers or you may bypass another opportunity to get people’s attention. And on the web we all have ADD.
2 Responses to “My Webinar Pet Peeve”
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September 29th, 2006 at 7:45 am
I once had to schedule and publicize nationwide conference calls for a company I worked for. Ugh, what a headache!
We had four different client groups with all of the U.S. (including Hawaii’s) time zones… and of course, some random guy who lived in New Zealand. By the time it’s convenient for one time zone, it’s ridiculously late or early or during work or lunch for someone else.
And then throwing our staff’s schedules of availability into the mix– 9-7 MST…When we did put time zones on the announcements, the Arizona people had a broohaha because we listed “standard” instead of “daylight”…
Basic summary: we couldn’t make everyone happy all the time, so we shot for the median & posted a summary of the call for anyone who missed it.
September 29th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Carolynn,
Thanks for presenting the other side. I can imagine international is a nightmare. Posting a summary or better yet, a podcast version after the fact, is a great solution.
There must be an even better solution, such as a calendar feature that adjusts the appt. to the timezone the person is in. Just pop it in my Outlook with one link.
Best
Janet