It’s always interesting to see how other people do something that you are intimately familiar with.
Kiwi Marketing Group teaches a series of classes on blogging and on Internet marketing methods to help small businesses achieve visibility and sales results. While these classes can be lead ins to further consulting work, we do them because we are passionate about helping entrepreneurs realize that the basics, anyway, are within their grasp. We’ve been offering these courses since last year and getting great feedback on how the information has been helping entrepreneurs integrate Internet marketing into their existing businesses.
Yesterday, we attended a seminar on E-Marketing, hosted by the Millersville University Software Productization Center. It was a generous undertaking, complete with five speakers and delicious refreshments, for free. Given that we are big fans of the Power of Free, we were impressed. And, we feel incredibly fortunate that the SPC is virtually in our backyard.
But, we came home feeling like we’d run a marathon. It was all we could do to make dinner and watch a movie. And, we thought, if we’re this exhausted after a seminar -when we teach and coach on expanded versions of what these folks were saying- how are the rest of the audience coping? And, why were we feeling so wrung out?
It’s all about presentation, we decided. One presenter provided valuable information, but spent a lot of time talking about how their company did things, and hinting that their way was the best. Another speaker did well, using humor to vary the pacing. But, all of the speakers did very little to engage the audience and break the “talking-head” syndrome.
This is not the SPC’s fault. The speakers should have known better. Marketing using New Media methods is too intense a subject to spend four seated hours on if it’s new to your world. We’ve all heard that New Media emphasizes collaboration and community. That was missing in this event. No one gave the audience an opportunity to know who else was in the room, or why. We knew a number of people in the audience, and any sort of discussion or interaction would have been dynamic.
Don’t get us wrong. The seminar was well worth the time, and there was some great information there. In fact, we’re excited to see what the SPC will offer next. We’re just not sure that the Old Media style of an expert talking to an audience is the best way to present marketing technologies which are more and more geared towards peer-to-peer discussions and participation.
SPC, we think you’re a godsend. Just, next time, make the speakers walk their talk.
