Online Training – The New Normal!
As a trainer, I get huge satisfaction from passing on my knowledge to business people so they can learn how improve their online presence.
I am so used to standing in a room among groups of people eager to learn about social media and all things digital and I love it. Also, I particularly liked hanging out in fancy hotels and the Local Enterprise Offices that provided warm scones and good coffee at break time!
Training Online
That all changed very quickly in the past weeks. My regular two days a week travelling the country was suddenly cancelled as hotels and offices closed around the country and we were all asked to stay home. After the initial shock, something quite positive happened when we looked at other ways of delivering training. Somebody said, ‘What about offering it online instead?’ The answer was ‘Well, why not?’ and the idea just spread.
Zooming Around
Welcome to the new business world that involves Zoom! With everybody at home it was time to bring the training into people’s home. Business people were still hungry for knowledge, in particular for ideas on how to bring their business online instead. Now we are in a virtual classroom, meeting new people and seeing some familiar faces. We are sharing ideas and more importantly, sharing the positive attitudes that entrepreneurs have in abundance.
Time to Do
We now have the time to attend courses, to think about setting up new offerings or using this time to get ready for when it is all back to normal. We are using our time to share news about our business, to ask for advice and to expand our network.
Ups and Downs
There are advantages and disadvantages to the online training.
The good stuff: Seeing other faces, interacting in breakout rooms, spending time productively, learning new skills, no sitting in traffic.
The bad stuff: Nothing beats physical interaction, online is only suitable for short courses, technology can let us down sometimes, it can be hard to get the same interaction and you have to make your own coffee.
However, the benefits certainly outweigh any downsides and the reaction to the online training has been extremely positive. And as usual with all my courses, they still seem to end in creating a ‘to-do’ list for participants. I’m sorry about that….. I’m not sorry really!
While much will change in the future and online training will be more popular. Call me old fashioned but I am looking forward to the live sessions where I get to meet everybody in person – and being somewhere where somebody else makes the coffee and gives me a scone! I hope to see you there.
For information about online courses check out your Local Enterprise Office website.