Below is an hour-long webinar we presented to over 100 various certification and licensure association executives on the topic of transitioning their certification testing and training program from an offline setting into an online one. I wouldn't normally post it here, as we will make it available on our ProExams.com website, but I found this event to be interesting for a couple of reasons, which are worth commenting on.

Basically, this webinar event was never meant to happen and was established in response to the cancellation of the American Society of Association Executives Technology Conference which our company was planning to attend in Washington DC at the beginning of February. The event was cancelled 2-days prior to the show's expected launch date due to one of the largest snow-storms to hit the city in the last 100 years. We had planned to have 5 people at the show, had shipped our booth and even had one employee stranded in DC when they made the call to cancel.

What I found amazing, in light of the last minute cancellation, was that there was an immediate effort by some of the Social Media enlightened in the ASAE group to create an "Un-Conference". There were of course people already in the DC area who had planned to attend the event, plus thousands who couldn't make it due to the weather, who still wanted to enjoy the connections of the conference. Within 24 hours of the cancellation, there was a website, twitter hashtag, Flickr photos, Slideshare account, basically an entire online community created around the UnTech10. Interestingly the community that was created online at that time has continued to persist with real relationships and business opportunities happening.

At the same time, the group recognized that many of the exhibitors of the planned conference will have missed the opportunity to present their company to the delegates, and a business opportunity was born. A company called Peach New Media which specializes in webinar, live training and online community work for associations created what they called the Technology Toolbox Seminar series and allowed 12 of the exhibitors to sponsor and present an online learning session on the topic of their choice. These new webinars were FREE to viewers and were marketed to tens fo thousands of association professionals.

So, from a weather related disaster, to a very well attended webinar event whose audience was perfectly aligned with our product. NO TRAVEL COSTS, NO COST TO THE AUDIENCE, and DOZENS MORE SALES LEADS for us vs. the traditional trade show experience. In my opinion this is the future of conferencing and education. Of course attending trade shows will always be important, as shaking hands and looking into the eyes of our potential clients is important, but this is a very price effective second choice and will be used more and more to replace events.

If you have an interest in losing an hour of your life and learning about Psychometrics and Online Testing, fill your boots.

If you would prefer to read more about how UnTech10 happened, I recommend this great blog post.

Webinar Summary

Yardstick Software Inc. operates two business that specialize in helping Associations bring their examination / testing programs and online continuing education online. We hope to share with our listeners the fundamentals of an assessment program (online or paper-based), psychometrics 101, why online delivery works, and in some cases why online delivery may never work. We also plan to review some of the technical details that you should consider when making an investment in web-based exam and e-learning applications, and finally a rough idea of pricing for program delivery.

Seminar Objectives
1) Assessment Program Fundamentals & Psychometrics 101
2) Things to consider when transition from a paper-based to web-based program
3) How do you choose between online delivery vs. offline delivery
4) Technical / IT considerations when looking to take your programs online
5) Budgetary pricing ideas for online exam and online training programs

Speakers
Greg Sadesky, PhD, Senior Psychometrician - VP – ProExams As the big man on campus for our ProExams™ Professional Testing Service, Greg applies his expertise to ensure that your tests are fair, sound, and interpretable. He works with our partners to demystify the process at any stage of the assessment cycle. An avid hacky sack athlete, Greg is passionate about rock climbing and loves to play the upright bass.

Chris LaBossiere - Co-CEO of ProExams.com & ProTraining.com As one of the founders of Yardstick software, Chris works to see our company grow through satisfied customers and strategic partnerships. A pilot and motorcycle junkie, Chris is happiest when he’s riding around town or flying above it, hunting with his dog Murphy, hanging with his family, or simply enjoying coffee and the morning paper.

As the foundation to what will be a few more posts on the topic of business, I thought I would tackle the issue of "Big Business". Nothing gets my knickers in a knot more than the way we throw the term around like it's some kind of evil certainty. Let the record show, I own and run a small business, but I have every intention of making it a big one.

I almost typed that "it's not about the money", but then of course I would have risked a rare mid-winter lightning strike. It is about the money. Because without money, we would be left with little to review as our "report-card". Our company is a very fast-growing business, in a fast-growing industry. If we weren't marching on a path of growth, we would be doing a disservice to ourselves, our customers, AND our employees. When our company was started 3.5 years ago, it was nothing but a concept and hobby created by two guys in a basement. Growth has allowed us to reach 15 employees in size, in a relatively short period of time. Each of those individual employees are helping to provide for their families because of our company and idea. Our employees and our company are also helping provide for our communities.

I don't believe that growth should be allowed unchecked, nor do I believe that we should simply just grow and take, without giving back. BUT it's awfully hard to give back unless you have something to give. I also believe in the spirit of entrepreneurs, and how they tend to give back in a disproportionate way versus the rest of the community.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I was at the Boyle Street Christmas Dinner yesterday helping serve Christmas dinner to the disenfranchised community of Edmonton. I was there as an invitee of a local business owner who has supported the dinner for decades. When I met other founders of the dinner, I was AMAZED at the wealth of some of the senior volunteers and founders of the dinner. ALL of them I recognized as successful entrepreneurs. They were not there to be recognized, and I will not do so, but they were largely the reason the event was a success, and their businesses were major underwriters of the day.

These entreprenuers have been successful in building their businesses. Finding success and then sharing it back are totally seperate passions, but understand that one comes ahead of the other, and profits and growth make the latter more effective.

Also, thinking that it's the responsibility of business-owners to give back all of their profits, and/or pay greater than their share of taxes, is the ridiculous position of those who have never taken the risk, or worked a day in the shoes of a business person. Wealth is CREATED first before it can be distributed. LEGISLATING that wealth be transferred in a punitive way, FROM those who create it, TO those who rely on it, is clearly not sustainable. Of course we all know that businesses and our wealthy should be paying their fair share, but make no mistake, NO GOVERNMENT can create wealth. It can redistribute it, and it should. But an environment that allows it to be created by the people who can, is the important first step.

Now, I have also spent 15 years working for very large public companies. Two of them with Billions in revenues, and with me managing hundreds of millions per year in revenue. I will agree that the individual spirit of those organizations are lessened, as they answer to their many shareholders first. But even then, our most successful public companies are those that find a way to deliver shareholder value, in a way that sustains the communities in which they make a living.

The problem that has plagued the large public companies lately, has been the complete disconnect between senior management, who seemingly make money no matter how they perform, and the shareholders of the companies, who ironically are the everyman of society. In Canada, due to our highly regulated banking industry and stock markets, nearly every Canadian who owns an RRSP or Pension, owns the shares of a large public company.

So, in my opinion, reasonable legislation and regulation IS required when we are overseeing our business owners and managers. But if we approach it from a perspective of being punishers, instead of regulators, we will inevitably kill the Golden Goose.