Dedication - or what I learned when the weather goes from bad to worse
As fellow leaders I thought you would appreciate this story:
Let me set the scene
- Agenda was spectacular for last night's meeting.
- I had a speaker driving 3 hours from Buffalo to participate
- I was trying a new venue that was spectacular and the price was right (free)
What happens: 5 inches of snow and freezing rain. You must be joking...
I handled it by signing up for 1 month of web conferencing that could support 30 people at one time. Good thing I did - only 7 people showed up for the meeting. But I had much more then that on the phone.
As a leader I was surprised how much you must change your presentation delivery to support this new medium:
- You must speak far slower.
- Bullet points and 2-3 key essentials is about as detailed as you can accurately deliver per topic.
- The need to actively enforce interactivity is crucial. Far too easy for people to tone out while on the phone.
- Your meeting must be shorter then normal. Headsets and speakerphones are only comfortable for so long.
However what really shocked me was that even with all the technical issues and the situation - people stuck with me. A very strong agenda can overcome most problems.
That and raffling off a GPS seems to help.
Brad
Pittsburgh UG
Comments
Great idea and great post! What web conferencing software did you use?
Rhonda
Posted by: Rhonda Ross | Mar 2, 2008 5:10:04 PM
Rhonda,
I used Yugma. Http://www.yugma.com
Posted by: bradgross | Mar 3, 2008 1:35:18 PM