June 18, 2008 Should I Do Webinars?
West Legalworks would like me to do webinars for them. I’m open to the idea.
I could do a series based on MSCD—maybe eight one-hour webinars. They’d be done live and then would be available on demand. Would doing MSCD webinars cause me to lose seminar business? I don’t think so. If you come to my seminars or invite me to give an in-house seminar, the odds are it’s because you want the immediacy and responsiveness that a seminar affords. The seminar audience would likely remain a constant, just as people continue to go to concerts to hear music they could purchase in recorded form.
But my seminar audience represents a tiny fraction of the potential audience. The webinars may be of interest to companies and law firms whose resources, or whose interest, doesn’t extend to having their personnel taking a day off work and perhaps incurring hotel and travel expenses in addition to the seminar fee.
I could also do a series on the structure of M&A contracts. I give seminars on that subject, based on a manuscript I’ve worked on sporadically over the years. Doing a webinar series might provide a sensible way to turn the manuscript into a short book.
Finally, I could do a series on boilerplate. I’ve long thought that the best way to help drafters out with boilerplate would be to make available to them a document-assembly library of boilerplate provisions, using DealBuilder. But that’s not happening any time soon, and I wouldn’t want the best to be the enemy of the good.
What do you think?
June 20, 2008 at 8:37 am
Ken
The webinars would enable those of in the UK who support your cause to hear you live (albeit via the Internet)when you can’t generate a big enough seminar audience at a UK venue. You could also make them available as a package on a subscription basis.
Cheers
Linda
June 20, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hi Ken:
As I mentioned when you were in Toronto earlier this week, I think webinars are great for people who won’t or can’t commit to longer workshops. Also, offering them in a downloadable or streaming format on the internet would provide for just-in-time learning. Live webinars with questions and answers would allow you to tailor the webinars to the audience, much like you would in a live workshop.
I’m looking forward to reading the second edition of your book!
Meghan
June 20, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Brief webinars that are narrow in scope would be a great way to allow an Adams groupie to select those topics that are most important to his or her practice. Good luck.
June 24, 2008 at 1:58 pm
As a person practicing in a public educational institution which vigilantly watches its purse strings and frowns on attending out of town seminars, a webinar would be perfect for me.
October 20, 2008 at 6:08 am
I would love the webinar opportunity. I keep watching your seminar locations to see when you will be closer to my area, and so far I haven’t seen one. A webinar would be a good supplement to seminars as well. Like you said you could zero in on specifics.