The viral pandemic of 2020 has become the Great Game Changer, not only for the decade, but most likely for the century. There has been so much tragedy—lives lost and people getting sick, huge job loss, financial insecurity, and business closures with entire industries being devastated by the result of shelter-at-home and social distancing safety requirements. The pandemic has also changed those organizations that are thriving in this new era, but have had to change their working environment. So at the very least, the pandemic has become a profound disrupter to life as we know it.
As a result, it has forced change on everyone—no one has been left out of the mix! This has resulted in everyone needing to learn new skills and approaches while simultaneously addressing the physical, mental, and emotional challenges associated with personal and professional life during this time.
This puts a new emphasis on providing transformational programs that address these needs and to effectively deliver these programs in a virtual environment.
The year 2020 will not only be remembered as the year of the Global Pandemic, but also the year that Education and Training went fully virtual. While the shock of the pandemic came with hope that it would pass quickly and temporarily cancelled in-person trainings and workshops would start up again, we now know that a quick return to normal was nothing but wishful thinking. As business leaders, coaches and consultants, the pivot to virtual is no longer an “if” or even a “when.”
The real questions and opportunity are found in the “how”:
- How do we effectively pivot our transformational in-person training programs to virtual offerings?
- How do we continue to support our clients in real and lasting transformation?
- How do we create safe virtual environments where a depth of connection, engagement, and work can happen?
Because the current truth is that you can’t thrive in business if you don’t know how to pivot your in-person workshops and training programs to effective virtual offerings.
And the key word is EFFECTIVE!
We have all experienced online training programs and workshops where the instructor or facilitator simply turned their in-person training workshop, which they have delivered for years and sometimes decades, into a virtual training program. If it was a three-day program, they offered the same three day program as a virtual training program.
It didn’t work!
For the most part, these programs were boring, ineffective at integrating the skills taught, and exhausting to participants who were often disengaged and disconnected. In this mode, virtual training programs were failing in terms of participant experience and usefulness afterwards.
I’ve co-authored a new e-book with Licia Rester, who has close to 30 years of experience in the field of e-learning design and delivery for Fortune 500companies, non-profit institutions, and academic universities, using technology to provide leading edge virtual programs.
We’ve put together a 113-page book that you can read in a day.
This isn’t your typical training book with a bunch of theories and hypotheticals. It takes you through our process of designing and delivering online offerings and virtual events that deliver breakthrough results.
And when you can support people anywhere in the world in experiencing real and lasting TRANSFORMATION, the impact that can have on your purpose and business is massive.
Some of the outcomes delivered in The Virtual Event Mastery Method include:
- Breaking free from static, stay-in-the-box Zoom sessions that don’t keep your participants’ attention
- Debunking the myths about virtual events and avoiding the mistakes that result in lackluster programs
- Structuring your online offering so that it’s highly engaging and wows your participants
- Creating real meaningful connection and intimacy even in the “isolated” virtual environment
- Overcoming the mental block, frustration, and wasted time involved in designing within the virtual medium with a clear strategy and roadmap for delivering highly interactive, engaging, and transformational training programs
- Learning methods for sustaining the participants’ transformation long after the end of your online workshop—even more effectively than your in-person programs
- Serving more people in a way that responds to different culture and styles of people, since you can reach anyone anywhere in the world who is in need of your unique training, skills and services
- Becoming a recognized expert in your field by designing and delivering programs that consistently deliver sustainable breakthrough results, regaining control over your own success by creating trainings or a business that thrives in this era of social distancing and beyond