In the current financial climate and increasing pressure on training budgets, lawyers have to look at more cost effective ways of keeping up to date with legal developments. Gone are the days of getting the nod from the senior partner or manager for a trip to London to attend a face-to-face course with a three-course lunch thrown in! Technology now offers an opportunity to obtain much of lawyers’ CPD requirement from the comfort of the office, home or even train at a time to suit in the form of web seminars or webcasts (also known as webinars).

Examples of providers of CPD training webcasts include CPD Webinars, Society for Computers and Law and my own company Act Now Training.

With an audio webcast, which is the type of webcast I provide, participants watch the slides and listen to the speaker. The webcasts allow participants to ask questions, give feedback and take part in polls. Most webcast providers also offer an opportunity to watch a recording from an archive of previous webcasts (usually held on their website) as many times as is desired.

So what is needed to participate in a webcast? Surprisingly, very little. Each participant sits at his/her own computer and is connected to the speaker and other participants via the internet usually through the training provider’s website. Participants may need to download software to do this or they may be invited to access the webcast directly (without any software) by clicking on a link email sent to them by the training provider. The precise method of access will be clearly explained on the training provider’s website.

Creating webcasts for clients

But webcasts are not just about being able to obtain cheap CPD credits. They can be used by law firms to engage clients and keep them informed about legal developments. For many years lawyers have used breakfast briefings, online newsletters and email alerts to do this. Now is the time to move to webcasts.

The advantages are many, including:

• Effortlessly being able to reach an amazingly broad and diverse audience, from 20 to 2,000 participants.
• Providing for a better attendance rate. Clients are more likely to attend as they avoid travel costs.
• Providing immediate feedback. During the webcast, speakers can ask for comments or mount an instant poll.
• Driving action, such as sending participants to the firm’s website or prompting them to request advice on detailed issues.

So how do you start webcasting? Firstly a webcast hosting provider is required. This is the organisation which will provide the technical means needed to deliver a webcast. Some hosting providers offer a software application, which has to be downloaded by the webcast provider as well as those who wish to participate in the webcast, eg Windows Live Meeting. Others offer a web-based application, which requires no software but just a link to be distributed to participants by email, eg BrightTalk.

Costs vary between webcast hosting providers and often depend on the presentation, number of “seats” or participants and the duration and number of webcasts. A small law firm can purchase a subscription or pay on a per minute or per participant basis. For example, Windows Live Meeting’s services can be purchased on a pay-per-use basis or on a plan that covers a specified number of seats per month.

Act Now Training has been running free webcasts for almost a year now. Our webcast hosting provider is BrightTalk. It is a web-based service so neither our webcast participants nor we need to download any software. They charge a monthly fee depending on the level of service (channel) required. The basic channel allows 12 webcasts a year to an unlimited number of participants. They also offer a one month free trial which is worth taking as an experiment.

So how do you get started? There follows a brief guide based on the service offered by BrightTalk. Other web-based providers may differ slightly but the basic principles are the same:

1) Schedule and run your public webcast by selecting a time and date. Use the “Schedule a Webcast” form on the BrightTalk website to enter a presentation title, description, presenter name and details, duration of the webcast, date and time. You can provide tags to help people find your webcasts and you can confirm the time zone.

2) Upload your slides as soon as they are ready, but no later than 15 minutes before you go live. BrightTalk requires all graphics and images to be in the form of slides. You can re-upload your slides at any time up to 15 minutes before your event goes live. Each upload replaces the previous version.

3) Invite your network. BrightTalk gives you all the technical information required to:

• link to your webcast from your website and email marketing
• embed your webcast in your website or blog
• share your webcast using social networking and bookmarking

4) Dial-in (using a normal phone) 15 minutes in advance and be sure any guest speakers do too. BrightTalk provides you with two dial-in telephone numbers. You can add more people to your presentation using your own conference phone.

5) BrightTalk provides useful reminders in the run-up to your webcast and a countdown to your go-live.

6) When it is time to start you will see a large “Start Presenting” button to press on your presenter section of the BrightTalk website. Start your webcast and welcome your audience. As you present, advance your slides using the buttons at the bottom of the screen. Your audience is listening through their computers, so they cannot talk to you, but they can ask questions by typing them. Enjoy the presentation and encourage your audience to participate with questions, to provide feedback and to share your presentation.

That’s all there is to it! Webcasting is a cost effective way to obtain CPD and a very worthwhile alternative method of keeping clients informed of the latest legal developments. Whilst it is difficult to say if it generates direct work or referrals, it is certainly an excellent way of building brand loyalty. We have a channel running free webcasts on the latest developments in information and surveillance law. Within ten months we have built up almost 500 subscribers and, on average, 200 people view each webcast. Not bad considering the minimal time and cost.

Ibrahim Hasan is a solicitor and director of Act Now Training. He runs free webcasts with CPD on all aspects of information and surveillance law.

Email info@actnow.org.uk or follow him on Twitter @ActNowTraining.