Why I no longer watch live webinars
Have you noticed how everyone is doing live webinars now?
Like you, I am invited to a dozen or more each week, but I never watch them.
I am often interested in the topics and presenters, I really enjoy learning, but I believe it’s almost always a waste of time watching events like that live.
The allure of live events is they somehow seem ‘more valuable’ and a better use of your time than recordings of webinars. Certainly, live webinars are more time efficient than travelling to a venue like we used to “in the good old days”, but I’ve found they are nowhere near as time efficient as they can be.
So why don’t I watch live webinars?
The main two reasons are: I can get the same information in half the time using a little known secret while watching the recordings and I can more easily fit the recording’s viewing into my lifestyle.
Live webinars mostly take place at 7pm on a weeknight and last for 90+ minutes. In my household, that is a busy time of the day and a rare time when my family are all in the same place at once.
The “cost” of removing myself from family activities far outweighs the benefit I may get from the live webinar’s ability to potentially ask the presenters a question.
I decided early on that it’s always more efficient to watch the recording rather than the live event. (in fact, I believed this so much I built a whole business around this one idea)
The advantages of watching the recordings instead of the live event are:
- You get exactly the same education outcome, so there's no downside.
You get the same information watching recordings as watching the live stream. The information exchange is the same. The slides are the same, the presenter says the same things.
The main selling point of live webinars used to be 'interactivity', but virtually every webinar in our postcovid world is didactic and the only opportunity to 'interact' with the presenter is in a short Q&A session. Even then, only a very small percentage of the audience ever asks questions and so, like me and the 95% of the audience who do not ask questions, the so called 'interactive' nature of live webinars is watching a video of someone else asking questions. I don't find that a compelling enough reason to overcome the significant disadvantages of watching events live.
- I can watch the recording anytime I want.
I've already mentioned that the time of most live webinars is inconvenient to me (and I suspect most people). I personally like to consume videos while exercising on our elliptical trainer, it seems more efficient to be doing something else while watching a didactic lecture and the feedback we get from the members of ArmchairMedical.tv indicates that many people feel the same way. However, I don’t have the endurance or inclination to spend 90 minutes exercising, so I like to break my education viewing into 30-minute blocks. With recordings it is easy to stop and start when I choose. The recording will still be waiting for me tomorrow morning.
- I can watch a recording in half the time it takes to watch the live event.
The good online video platforms (ArmchairMedical.tv, Youtube etc) allow users to choose the speed of video playback.
For reasons only known to the presenters, many webinar meetings seem particularly slow (I’m sorry, now I’ve mentioned that, you won’t be able to watch a live webinar without noticing it), they lack the “excitement and pace” of a live face to face event.
Utilizing the playback speed button means that I can watch a recorded webinar at 1.5 x normal speed or faster. So, a 90 minute live lecture can be viewed in just an hour (or two blocks of 30 minutes while I’m exercising) This immediately saves me 30 minutes of my life for every recording I watch on demand instead of watching it live.
Some presenters speak so slowly that watching the recording at twice normal speed is possible and still enjoyable. (and I have found the more I play videos at faster than normal speed, the more adapted I have become to the faster speed and the easier it is to understand).
Almost all my lecture viewing now takes place at twice normal speed saving me 45 minutes per 90 minute webinar.
- Most webinar or lecture recordings are edited to remove the fluff
You have probably noticed with live webinars there’s always 5 or 10 minutes where the presenter is getting ready or the host is doing housekeeping.
Watching online recordings allow me to avoid the “how to mute my microphone” training.
- Lastly, the easiest way to save time is to not watch a poor webinar at all.
If the webinar recording is not as useful as I thought, I can skip to the end and just watch the conclusions, then re-decide whether I will benefit from watching the entire lecture.
In addition, if the recording is housed on ArmchairMedical.tv, I can download a verbatim transcript and review it to get a feel for what is covered, then decide whether it is worth my time watching it. The transcription also allows me to search within the video for key areas that I maybe interested in.
With the live events, I will never know if it is going to get better unless I watch to the end.
So, in summary, when I watch a 90-minute webinar (at twice normal speed) I save an extra 45 minutes of my life for no downside. I can schedule my viewing to take advantage of times in my day when it is more convenient to be in the one place for a significant period of time.
I personally prefer to make use of the time when I’m exercising but I know many ArmchairMedical.tv members listen to lectures while commuting and ‘consume’ hundreds of lectures a year that way.
It’s wonderful that educators are embracing online video, (and vindicates the creation of ArmchairMedical.tv as a platform that provides over 200 on demand conferences) but as “consumers” of medical education we need to be aware of the massive “time cost” of attending live webinars. Time is our most valuable commodity because unlike money it cannot be replaced.
Can you afford to waste 45 minutes of your life every time you watch a “live” webinar? If not, wait for the recordings.
You can thank me later.
About ArmchairMedical.tv
ArmchairMedical.tv was founded in Sydney in 2013 to help busy medical professionals stay up to date in the most time efficient manner possible, today it has grown to be called the “Netflix for Doctors” and contains over 200 local online conferences and 6,000 on demand lectures. Advanced technology allows members to watch entire on demand meetings in half the time of live events. Healthcare professionals wanting to explore the site can obtain a free trial at https://discover.armchairmedical.tv/armchairmedical-join
Medical educators looking for a platform to host their on-demand content can contact ArmchairMedical.tv at E: [email protected] or 02 9016 7116
