Where to find some of the best quality free training web seminars on business and professional self-growth.
By Felix Litman n nAsk just about any group of business professionals and they will likely tell how important is quality training to their career advancement. But getting such training via traditional “classroom” methods is often expensive and impractical, as it often requires travel and taking days off from work.
The Internet has changed the dynamics of getting such professional and self-growth training. Now vendors of all kinds offer valuable free training seminars online for the benefit of business professionals of all types. These webinars cover topics that range from professional topics such Sales, Marketing, and Information Technology to more “personal growth” areas such as wine tasting skills. The seminars are brief, typically one hour long, almost always free, live or recorded, and can be taken right over the web in the convenience of one’s office. To attract professional audience, the vendors typically attract knowledgeable speakers who are often well-known experts in their field. While for the vendors, the attendees and registrants are valuable sales leads, for the business professional these online training events are a very convenient means to learn new skill and stay up to date on the latest in the field.
But with thousands of vendors offering tens of thousands of live and recorded web seminars on virtually any business and self-growth topic, finding the right one quickly can be a challenge.
As a CEO of a vertical search engine specializing in searching for such training webinars, I am very familiar what is out there and who offers some of the best such training opportunities. So decided to write this article as a handy guide to help cut through the clutter, and point some of the best sources of such training resources on the web.
This is by no means a complete list. But the sources described here cover online training sources on a wide variety of business and technology subjects. While the author is associated with one of these websites (Finervista), I hope readers will find the list as useful and comprehensive as I intended it to be. The sources are listed here in alphabetical order:
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACCA) Webcasts (
http://webcasts.acca.com/)nIt is a collection of audio-visual presentations providing substantive information on legal topics relevant to in-house counsel and legal departments of corporations and other organizations. I find this is one of the best collections on the subject of business law. Both Live and Recorded webcasts are offered.
Bettermanagement webcasts (
http://www.bettermanagement.com/seminars/default.aspx)nBettermanagement offers training webcasts addressing Performance Management, Financial Management, Business Intelligence, IT management, and other critical business management issues. It is one of the best and most comprehensive sources of free web seminars on technology-related business management issues.
CFO.com webcasts (
http://www.cfo.com/webcasts/index.cfm)nIt is a great collection of Live and Recorded events covering issues and training relevant to finance executives. CFO.com offers a comprehensive library of free web seminars on subjects such as regulatory rulings, industry best practices in finance, technology, compliance, and more.
DestinationCRM web events (
http://www.destinationcrm.com/webevents/)nThese webcasts are offered by the DestinationCRM website. Destination CRM web events, is a comprehensive collection of webcasts relevant to CRM users and managers.
EbizQ.net webinars (
http://www.ebizq.net/webinars)nEbizQ offers some of the most comprehensive web seminars and online training for IT professionals focused on enterprise infrastructure including SOA, BPM, integration, Business Intelligence, SaaS, and security. It has a very comprehensive collection of live and recorded web seminars on the subject.
Eseminarslive.com online seminars (
http://www.eseminarslive.com)nThis is an IT webcast source of Ziff-Davis Publishing. nI recommend: Eseminarslive as one of the most comprehensive sources on webcasts and free online training for Information Technology professionals covering virtually any IT-related subject.
Finervista.com business webcast search (
http://www.finervista.com)nFinervista is vertical search engine for business webcasts, webinars and similar such online training events. On Finervista one can conveniently search, find, and attend webcasts from websites listed here and from many other sources. With over 15,000 webinars in its index, Finevista is one of the largest, if not the largest, such sources of free webinars on the Web.
WebEx Presents webinar series (
http://www.webex.com/web-seminars/)nWebEx Presents is perhaps the highest quality overall collection of business webinars anywhere. This is a great training resource for Sales and Marketing professionals, as it has a high number of very high-quality events on Sales and Marketing best practices, including events from the American Marketing Association. WebEx Presents webinars have a very high number of “guru” type speakers such as John Batelle, Seth Godin, Ken Blanchard, and many who are best-selling authors in their respective fields.
Some tips and “tricks” on getting the most out of free vendor webinars.
Here are some final tips on what to expect and how to make the most of the valuable webinar-based online training resources described in this article.nn· Most web seminars are free, but require registration. Be prepared to receive a sales call or an email afterwards from the sponsoring Vendor. n· While some web seminars can be blatant sales pitches, most offer very valuable information and a live opportunity to interact with speakers who are often highly regarded experts in their field. n· When attending live web seminars, be sure to take advantage of real-time Q&A often available with the presenter. n· Be sure to advantage of recorded web seminars available on the above websites. Recorded webcasts offer an advantage of attending at the time of your choosing and at your own pace.
Properly used, for people such free training via vendor Webinars can be come a real personal and professional competitive weapon to enhance one’s business “self worth”.
By, Felix Litmannhttp://www.finervista.com