Webinars – the way of future

Scott Picken, CEO of IPS talks about the future. “It is really exciting when something new comes to the market and revolutionises the way things are done – for example, the mobile phone and the way it affected communication.”

Scott believes that webinars are going to have the same impact on education and seminars. Simply explained, a Webinar is an online seminar. It has the potential to revolutionise the way information is taught, learned and communicated.

From the comfort of your own home or office, you can join the presenter of a Webinar for a fully interactive presentation. It’s very easy to use - all you have to do is connect through the internet or (if your internet is slow) you can phone in to participate (or both).

Think about it - no more sitting in traffic, battling to find parking, leaving work early or having to go to hotel over your weekend or in the evenings to attend a lecture. Rather, find a comfortable spot, sit back and enjoy yourself. What’s more, you can record the Webinar so you can watch it whenever you like!

And there’s more to look forward to. At present, South Africa is held back by World standards with this technology because of the speed and expense of our broadband (internet connection). However, on the 27^th of June 2009 Seacom’s 1280 Gbit/s cable which has been laid on the East Coast of Africa will be ready to join Africa, Asia and Europe. It will provide an alternative international route for SA telecom operators and service providers, who previously had to make use of the Sat-3 cable along Africa’s West coast. Until recently, access to Sat-3 was controlled by Telkom, which kept prices artificially high. The cost access to Sat-3 has already fallen because of the threat of looming competition, but Brian Herlihy, Seacom CEO, expects prices to come down another 40% to 50% with Seacom’s arrival. This cable also has 10 times the ultimate design capacity of the West coast system, the latter only having a design capacity of 120 Gbit/s.

What does this mean to you? Broadband is going to be substantially cheaper, faster and therefore more available to the man in the street. As soon as fast internet becomes the market norm, Webinars will be the way forward. Until then, you can still join into the presentations over the telephone, even if you don’t have a computer.

IPS (International Property Solutions), prides itself on the use of technology to bring its clients’ property solutions. Once again, they have brought a first to South Africa by hosting a number of presentations on how to invest in South Africa, Australia and the UK. The IPS philosophy is to educate people so that they can make informed decisions and then provide them with solutions. IPS continues to hold a number of FREE seminars / webinars and many different topics of interest are covered. Click this link to view the up and coming presentations.

IPS has had very positive feedback from their clients. In fact, the last two events held by IPS had more people watching online than physically attended the event, and they were spread all over the world. Think of the opportunities this presents!