Tell me, I’ll forget
Show me, I’ll remember
Involve me, I’ll understand
                              Chinese Proverb

Teachers want to teach, and the classroom experience enables exactly this. Any good teacher knows you teach by involvement, not dictation. On-line learning systems are still in their infancy, notoriously difficult to use, and not always effective. The experience just doesn’t match up to actually being there, and it’s because other platforms assume the information is only flowing one way – it’s not, it’s a conversation.

GlobalPodium is built to address this problem – to create an online environment where viewers are as involved as if they’re there in the room, no matter where they are or what device they’re using. To date, GlobalPodium has been used in a wide range of situations, including CPD seminars, policy discussions at local and national level, international presentations and seminars of various types, and many more besides.

For live events, just watching a video of a typical presentation or seminar is, visually at least, boring. It’s hard to get involved with a video of a person talking, especially when it goes on for 6 or 7 hours a day! How then do you grab audience attention? The answer is to involve them on more levels than just watching – engage and involve them.

Audiences interact with presenters in three ways:

1. They ask questions: the most obvious form of interaction – and one that’s essential to help presenters clarify their message. This interaction is on a personal level, but for every question asked, it’s likely there are others who thought it, so it’s also representative of the group, and contributes to the discussion. GlobalPodium includes an intuitive yet sophisticated question submission and moderation feature.
2. They express the opinion as a group. Many decision-makingprocesses are democratic; “what should we do here – option A, B or C?” Taking a poll of opinion is the best way to measure opinion as a group: GlobalPodium includes a powerful, yet simple to use and very quick polling system built in, allowing real-time polls to be set up in seconds.
3. They heckle and murmer – expressing their view of content as its delivered. This mood, or vibe, is often overlooked in on-line events, but it is very important. We ask every presenter we work with “would you prefer to present to a camera, or a hostile audience of 500?” The answer is the same every time – the 500! The reason? Feedback – presenters don’t like cameras, because they offer no feedback. With a hostile audience, at least they know what they’re up against; they can identify the source of the hostility, and begin to work on turning it round. Presenting to a camera tells the presenter nothing; audience reaction is unknown. This is why we developed The Murmuriser – our unique live sentiment tool, to measure sentiment as content is delivered; providing the presenter and the audience with a great sense of the mood in the room. It is compact, fully customisable, and looks like this:

Providing your on-line audience with a high quality, natural looking view of proceedings is essential. Don’t be fooled by DIY options for shooting your event – if you do it yourself, it will look like you did it yourself. Is that a professional solution? The bar for video production is set extremely high, and our expectations are reinforced every time we turn on the TV. Anything less than a professional approach will cheapen the look of your production and will be a distraction for your audience. We use professional camera operators, who know about subject isolation and framing for maximum effect; and use cutting edge cinematic (large sensor) cameras to video your event, to provide the best visual experience of your event. Watching a full day seminar on an iPad or laptop is a big ask – if any part of the production is less than perfect, it will show in audience drop off rates. If you want proof of this, just see our user feedback.

Do I need a multi-camera shoot for my event? Absolutely not. We ask presenters if they’d like to be part of a large, multi-camera shoot, and quite often they turn pale before saying an emphatic “no”! Presenters and teachers are, mostly, not professional performers. They’re there to teach and inform, not entertain; multi-camera shoots are intimidating and faceless, and will distract presenters from their job. We’ve also found that audiences find constant changing camera angles as distracting. Far better to have fewer high-quality cameras that represent the experience better.

We recommend a minimal, high-quality camera presence – a single camera is often best – to give a realistic experience of the presentation to the on-line audience, as well as being less expensive and less intrusive due to the reduced presence in the room.

GlobalPodium is built entirely on standard web-based technology. Cutting out the jargon, this means seminars and events can be seen in standard web browsers, and on any device that has a standard web browser: smartphones, laptops, desktop are all no problem. Importantly, viewers will never have anything to install before they can participate – it genuinely is click and go. We use only the biggest and best global content delivery networks, so your event will be delivered quickly and smoothly to viewers, no matter where in the world they are.

We regularly host events that are watched in 20 or more countries around the world. Just imagine the market for your seminar business…