HOW TO REGISTER FOR AND JOIN AN ASTTBC/BCIPI WEBINAR ( as painlessly as possible) Arne Larsen March 13 th, 2012
INTRODUCTION In an effort to move into the new millennium, and to communicate to as many people as possible, ASTTBC/BCIPI has embraced cyberspace by broadcasting online Webinars during live Seminar events. This is fantastic when you think about it, as it is our goal to EDUCATE our members (and non members, alike) and reach as broad an audience as possible. Unfortunately, cyberspace (just like REAL space not that I ve actually been there) can be a cold mistress. To be honest, this is new for many of us. And while on the whole the Webinar has proven to be very successful, allowing people to view, listen to, and participate in a presentation from the other side of the province through no fault of their own there have been a few people who have had difficulty. Is it ironic that those who have had difficulty are within driving distance of the actual Seminar? Sorry, but this amuses me; I m easily amused. In putting together this tutorial it is my hope that the process will be made a little simpler for us all. Like I said, this is new to many of us. If you are one of the fortunate few for whom this is old hat, carry on. I myself have only just discovered the magical place that is a Webinar so bear with us as we try and figure this out together. 2 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
LET S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING I think that a good first place to start is to explain to everyone what happens at OUR end when a Seminar is organized and we then create a Webinar event. Did you catch that? There are actually TWO events taking place, simultaneously. If this doesn t make sense to you right away, file this concept away for future recall, because it will. I know that for myself, I am more easily able to grasp a concept (and know what I am supposed to do and what I can expect to happen) if I understand the bigger picture. And for many people, the idea of a Webinar is just that a concept. Let s try and simplify things. How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 3
WHO S ON FIRST? Before anything can happen, we need a topic, right? At this point, ASTTBC/BCIPI will book a venue (often Kwantlen), decide on a topic, and arrange for someone knowledgeable in the field to be our presenter. Once all our ducks are in a row, we send out the initial REGISTRATION, that looks something like this 4 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
As a Home Inspector you have all received and seen this previous Email, and if you are planning on attending the Seminar, either IN PERSON, or from the comfort of your own home as a Webinar, it is mandatory that you follow the link in the email and REGISTER. Fast forward a week or so. You have all registered, either for the live Seminar or the online Webinar, and have paid the required Fee. We (the BCIPI Education Committee) will then create a Webinar, which is really a simple process of logging into our Webinar account and generating the event. We input the TITLE of the Webinar, set the date & time of the broadcast, and give you a little information about the topic and guest speaker. Once we have done this, we then send an email invitation to those of you who indicated during the initial registration that you wanted to attend the online Webinar. Do you recall that I mentioned earlier that it is important for you to realize that there are actually going to be TWO events taking place simultaneously? Well, here it is; if you only plan on attending the live Seminar (and have registered), you are done and do not have to do anything else. However if you indicated during your registration, that you intend to participate in the online Webinar, YOU WILL RECEIVE ANOTHER REGISRATION FORM. This may seem confusing at the outset, but by understanding WHY you need to register again, it will all make sense. Simply put in order to be able to view the online Webinar, you need a personalized (and secret) direct link to the Webinar broadcast. the ONLY way to obtain this direct link is by registering for it in advance Register ONCE and the only option you have it to attend the Seminar in person. Complete the second registration and you can attend the online Webinar. To help walk you through the process of registering for and joining a Webinar, I created an actual (fake) Webinar entitled How To Attend a Webinar Tutorial. Don t worry if you didn t receive the invitation. I created the event, sent out the invitation to myself only, registered for the Webinar, broadcast the Webinar from my laptop in the Dining Room, and attended it (from my imac in my office) in the span of about 30 minutes. It s now over, and to be quite honest, it was uneventful. On the other hand, had it been a REAL Webinar, and had I sent out invitations, the process would have looked something like this. How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 5
YOUR INVITATION The Webinar event is created and your Email invitation is sent out. It looks something like this It is important to be aware that THIS IS NOT THE LINK TO THE WEBINAR! This is your INVITATION, initiated by YOU when you indicated your interest in the Webinar during your FIRST registration. The important thing to do is to RESPOND to it right away by clicking on the link. You can click on the JOIN WEBINAR button, or on the html link, it doesn t matter just click and register. Leaving this until the last minute puts you at a disadvantage. Why? Because unless you actually register, this will be the last email you see. The date & time of the Webinar will roll around and you will be left scrambling, running for the bus. The thing is (1) Registration closes after the Webinar begins, and (2) just because this bus is electronic, the driver is still human, and if you try and register at the last minute (providing you slipped through the door before it closed), the Driver is likely going to be too busy trying to drive the bus to be able to help you. 6 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
REGISTRATION You clicked on the link before the bus pulled away from the curb, the bus driver has opened the door, and you have been offered a seat. But before we let you sit down, we just need 60 seconds of your time. Please register again. Simply take a moment and fill in the required information. We need it, so you need to do it; it s that simple. And unless you do this, you will not be taken to your seat. And if I could caution you here BE ACCURATE. Please ensure that you have entered your Email address correctly. Welcome aboard. How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 7
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? You have registered. Well done! Now what happens? Well, at this stage, your registration is sitting in the cue, waiting for approval. This cue might exist for a number of reasons but the main reason is that because I need to manually log into our Webinar account and grant this approval. Once granted, you will receive a second email that looks like this If you registered early, you don t need to do anything just yet. Frankie says relax 8 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
KNOCK, KNOCK WHO S THERE? YOUR WEBINAR, THAT S WHO! If you re like me, you receive 75 emails before noon every day. Thankfully, the developers of the Webinar software have taken this into consideration, and send out a REMINDER email the day before the event. This reminder contains the same link that was in the previous email the personalized, SECRET link that allows you to actually attend the Webinar. It looks like this DO NOT LOSE THIS EMAIL! I can t stress this enough. If you lose the thank you & reminder emails that have the direct link to the Webinar, there is no kind way to put this any other than you re screwed. There is no magic log in and password to get you there (as a few unfortunate members have found out). You need the link, plain and simple. How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 9
IT S SHOWTIME almost! The date is finally here and the Webinar starts in about 30 minutes. Put on a pot of coffee, grab a bag of cheezies, a pen and paper to make notes, and log in. How do you log in? What s the password? Oh crap! Phone Peter! No I m kidding. Remember, there is no password. There is no magic incantation. Stay calm, open up your REMINDER Email and click on the link that reads: Click here to join. Do not click the link in the pre registration email unless you haven t registered yet, and have left everything to the last minute (and if that s the case may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits). Remember the person running the Webinar is very likely DRIVING THE BUS, and may not have time to confirm and approve your registration right away meaning that your ability to attend may be delayed, or stalled altogether. Now, depending on your computer, after you click on the log in link, you may see something like this. I have a MAC so this is what I see. The system is actually designed around windows based computers, so it might look a little different to you, but this is the general idea In my case the Webinar application needed to install a small program on my computer in order to allow me to take part. I selected OPEN and the program installed in about a minute. 10 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
Now, depending on your system, if you have any kind of administrator passwords set up on your own computer that you need to enter in order to allow you permission to install new software, you might want to have this handy. Me, I m the only one who uses my computer so I don t have any secondary levels of security built in. I click go; it goes. I like that. Once the program installed it AUTOMATICALLY logs you in. If you didn t need to install the program (because maybe you already have it), you will have gone straight to being logged in. Again, there were no passwords it was really simple and straightforward. After clicking the link everything was automatic. I m logged in and waiting for the Webinar to begin broadcasting. Why are we not broadcasting yet? Well, for any number of reasons, but most likely we are busy greeting people as they arrive, setting up the system to run the actual live seminar, setting up the microphone(s) for the Webinar, you name it. We are also waiting for the clock to strike 7:00 PM. What I am saying is don t be alarmed if you don t see anything yet. If you ve made it this far, you will! How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 11
THE CURTAIN RISES! 7:00 PM rolls around, the show begins, and your screen changes to look like this (or whatever the Presenter is discussing at the moment). I am actually viewing this screen on my Office computer, after logging into the Webinar that is being broadcast from my Dining Room. The photo is from one of my own inspections. Can you tell me what s wrong with this Water Heater I found in a house? Well, other than the slight leak at the cold side connection, not much. The Water Heater was in decent shape. Now the venting on the other hand CONGRATULATIONS! You are a participant in the webinar. Make sure your sound is turned up! From my end, I can see who has logged in. And if you type a question, I see this too although the font is REALLY small and I don t always see it right away. Patience Grasshopper. And if you are interested, once the show is up and running, it s not hands free for me (or whoever is operating). The speaker has given me their presentation file, which I have loaded onto my computer. While broadcasting the Webinar, I have to follow along with the speaker, who is operating their own computer, projecting their presentation on the big screen. When THEY change slides, I change slides, mirroring their every movement so that you (in the virtual audience) are able to see and hear the same presentation that those in the actual Seminar are seeing. Cool beans. 12 How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar
FINAL THOUGHTS (or parting shots, depending on your perspective) Let s recap. 1. ASTTBC organizes a Seminar 2. ASTTBC emails you an invitation and asks you to *register and pay a fee 3. YOU REGISTER and decide if you want to attend LIVE or view ONLINE 4. We create the online Webinar event we re excited! 5. If you registered, the Webinar invitation is then emailed to you you re excited! 6. You immediately respond to this new email by *registering for the Webinar 7. You receive a personalized link which will give you a seat on the Webinar bus 8. A few days later you receive a reminder that you have a seat on the bus 9. 30 minutes (or so) before the Webinar starts, click on the link to log in 10. Follow the on screen instructions and wait for us to join you It really should be that straightforward. If you leave Webinar registration too late (like, once the broadcast has begun), even if you have paid your attendance fee, I m sorry but it s too late and we probably can t help you we re busy. It s no different than if you buy a ticket to ride the bus from a ticket machine. If you try and get on the bus after it has pulled away from the curb, the driver can t stop for you he s busy. I hope this helps! If anything doesn t make sense, please don t hesitate to email me at westcoastinspections@shaw.ca and I will be happy to try and answer any questions you have. Happy Webinaring! Arne Larsen *Denotes that there are TWO registrations. The first registration is from ASTTBC for the Seminar itself. This is where the Fee is collected. The second registration is necessary to generate your personalized link to attend the online Webinar. If you plan on watching online, you will need to register again for the Webinar. It makes sense if you understand that there are essentially TWO events running in parallel the actual Seminar, and the online Webinar. How To Join an ASTTBC/BCIPI Webinar 13