Rahmat Berliano Jeyhan
Webinar in Pandemic
The grand coming of pandemic Covid-19, bleach a new color to this world. It affects the world in many ways, with the global economy as the foremost victim. Country stating recession, people lose their job, and companies starting to sweat a lot. But a unique fact comes along with the financial record of Q1 release, that, the Zoom company earning soar more than doubled the same time last year (Zoom, 2020). Meaning a lot of people using their product, or, in simplicity, many people choose to do conferences and communication on online bases now. Be it for work, study purpose, or just want to connect with friends. It is not wrong to say the virtual meeting is the embodiment of the new normal. But, is it effective? While the virtual meeting has its drawback, the interest still outweighs the catch. What's more, in the business like the webinar. Virtual meeting makes it easier to get more participants, having less cost, and more accessible for the online seminar to be organized.
For a seminar to be held online, meaning everyone can access it, which prompts more people to join the event. Statista.com stated that by April 2020, more than 4 billion earthlings were an active internet users (J. Clement, 2020). This shows that as long as they connect to the internet, more than 4 billion people can become your patron. The webinar also makes it possible for people to have the seminar under the warm blanket and enjoy their cup of hot milk. Because the webinar can be said to be held at your home.
For webinar instead of the seminar, make it more cost-effective, be it in the seat of the company either the participant. Quoted from Digitalsamba.com "to organize and host a successful webinar, you don't need much more than a list of invitees, a webcam, some scripted content that you want to share with said audience, and a broadband connection to stream high-quality footage directly to your audience" (Justin Thomas, 2017). Not like a seminar where you need to pay for the place, food, and many other devices. For the participant, they don't need to pay for the ticket and other expenses. What's more, the organizer usually charges cheaper for webinars than a seminar, so the participant can get the same knowledge at lower prices.
A webinar is much simpler to conduct than a seminar. For not having a complicated condition to answer, virtual seminar naturally makes it more popular lately. The existence of the webinar tools that help facilitate and enrich the event, making it more convenient for the webinar to succeed (Wang & Hsu, 2008). The organizer doesn't need an expert to help, any tolls to maintain, and any permit to asks. The only challenge for the webinar is how to promote the event. Which can be done quickly with the advertisement by influencer and public figure.
While the futures of our world is still bleak, things need to be done more carefully, and far-sighted is a practice to have for now. According to the WHO, coronavirus cases are still increasing at this moment, recorded as much as 10.533.779 cases transpiring right now (World Health Organization, 2020). Physical distancing is a necessity, and doing a webinar is a kind of indirect act to dampening the Covid-19 outbreak. People are dying out there, children want to eat to their fill, for crime became everyday things, and accepting them is what we call new normal. There is not a lot of things that can be done by us, common mob. But, attending a webinar rather than a seminar is seriously one of them.
References:
Clement, J, (2020). Digital Population Worldwide. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
Thomas, J, (2017). Benefits of Hosting a Webinar. Retrieved from https://www.digitalsamba.com/blog/benefits-of-hosting-a-webinar
Wang, S. K., & Hsu, H. Y. (2008). Use of the webinar tool (Elluminate) to support training: The effects of webinar-learning implementation from student-trainers’ perspective. Journal of interactive online learning, 7(3), 175-194.
World Health Organization, (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report – 164. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200702-covid-19-sitrep-164.pdf?sfvrsn=ac074f58_2
Zoom, (2020). Reports First Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 2021. Retrieved from https://investors.zoom.us/node/7661/pdf
