Lights! Camera! Web Action!

Agenda: It's hard to imagine: a business seminar without bad coffee, cheap pastries, or endless agendas. Each of Calico's Web seminars ran for just 45 minutes. Speakers talked for about 30 minutes and presented 10 to 12 slides. Then participants emailed or telephoned questions to a moderator, who screened them and posed them to the speakers.

The logistics behind the Web seminars were remarkably uncomplicated. Speakers dialed into a teleconference line. AudioNet then took the live telephone feed, converted it into RealAudio, and broadcast it over the Web. The only serious headache came with checking telephone numbers, email addresses, and passwords - to make sure that participants could get connected without encountering lots of glitches. "One person did absolutely nothing for three days except verify phone numbers and email addresses," says Adams.

Reviews: Adams concedes that there were a few problems in the early seminars. Overall, though, these sessions worked well, both for the participants and for Calico. "We were very nervous," she says. "There was real fear that the technology would fail. But everyone was thrilled with how everything went." What makes Web seminars work? First, Adams says, never underestimate the value of star power - even on the Web: Big-name celebrities like Doerr and Solvik drew the biggest crowds. Second, keep the sessions short and crisp - shorter, certainly, than in-person seminars usually are. Since people didn't have to travel to participate, Calico didn't have to fill an entire morning with activity to justify their effort. Calico has plans for another series of Web seminars in 1998. "The Q&A sessions were really fun," Adams says. "Participants got a kick out of being able to ask questions of such important people."

Coordinates: Calico Technology, www.calicotech.com; Michalene Adams, madams@calicotech.com

Virtual Town Meeting

Event: Back in 1993, when Ray Hoag retired from the staff of Grand Rapids Community College, he vowed to help west Michigan use technology to become more connected. The result was GrandNet, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting community through computers. Hoag became GrandNet's executive director. And in October 1996, he organized a conference to inspire his constituents. It was a good idea. It was also a huge expense. The two-day session cost $65,000. That's real money for a young nonprofit. "Our revenues didn't cover our expenses," he notes. "And we had zero dollars in the bank. It was a scary situation."

So last fall, Hoag held the group's second conference - on the Web. From mid-October to late November, 50 panelists and nearly 700 registrants took part in Grand Community InterActions. (Only about 400 people had attended the physical conference the previous year.) "This is more efficient and more effective," Hoag says. "The Web helps solve the problems that come with busy people and conflicting priorities."

Agenda: Hoag's virtual town meeting covered 15 topics pertaining to the future of greater Grand Rapids - from the Faith Forum, a dialogue on religious unity, to the Environmental Forum, a debate on transportation policies and urban sprawl. Participants came from every walk of life. They included church leaders, businesspeople, political figures, even a low-income resident from the inner-city Heartside neighborhood, who logged in from a laptop. "It was a good cross-section of citizens," says Hoag. "It wasn't overrun by people from any one sector."

Hoag used Caucus, a Web-based conferencing tool developed by Screen Porch (www.screenporch.com), to support the discussion forums. Each day, different people moderated the discussions. In the morning, the moderators introduced new issues for the online participants to consider.

Hoag says virtual conversations miss some of the body language and emotions of a physical gathering. But they offer benefits as well. "People aren't as intimidated by the pecking order," he argues.

Reviews: Hoag believes the best way to measure the success of Grand Community InterActions is not by the conversations it provoked but by the actions it inspired. Which is why, during the last week of the event, participants were encouraged to post to Wave of Actions, the wrap-up topic. People described the steps they would take after the sessions ended. Some steps were personal - a renewed commitment to exercise by participants in the Health Forum. Some were political - a promise to attend meetings of the West Michigan Greenway Council or a transportation summit.

Hoag's own actions will include measures to improve future events. For example, he'll work harder to give people a break. Most Web organizers worry about featuring too little activity in their events. But Hoag says that too much activity raises problems as well: "People need to stop, reflect, and think." He also says the quality of discussion seldom exceeds the quality of the moderation: "You can't throw technology out there and say, 'Anyone can do this.' I'd love to have more voices. But we need some electronic mentoring."

Coordinates: GrandNet, www.grandnet.org; Ray Hoag, hoagr@iserv.net

Heath Row hrow@fastcompany.com is an associate editor of Fast Company.