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When I was a college student I took a course on creative writing. We had to write an essay of sorts twice a week. At first, I received  so-so grades. My professor asked to meet with me and he told me that he thought that I could do much much better by writing from my heart and about things that inspire me or impassioned me. He also suggested writing from real experience and to stop creating fictional scenarios.

I did that and began to receive As on my essays after that.  What does this have to do with this blog? EVERYTHING!!

The first blog post that I wrote that received the most hits was my take on a live event that was televised, the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s  funeral.  Sometimes I forget to pay attention to my college professor, but not today.

So what is one of my passions? Virtual and hybrid meetings

This past week, Meetings Net had an article entitled Virtual and hybrid meetings: The future is now, based on an interview with Corbin Ball.  Here’s what he had to say:

”Virtual meetings technology has come along way in a short period of time and will continue to transform the industry. “Remember the classic scene in the movie ‘Star Wars’ where R2D2 projects the shimmering image of Princess Leia? We are way beyond that technology right now.”

Hybrid meetings are hot right now, and we’ll see more of them as it becomes cheaper and easier to extend a face-to-face meeting to a greater audience, Ball said. Planners are finding that hybrid meetings are not cannibalizing face-to-face events as many had feared, but in fact are increasing their exposure. Ball cited a recent Meeting Professionals International survey where two-thirds of respondents said that the hybrid meeting did not hurt attendance while about one-quarter said it increased attendance.”

There are a variety of free virtual meeting tools that can be used in conjunction with face-to-face events. Skype, which connects people face to face over the Internet, can also be used to broadcast speakers to live events. He mentioned a conference he attended recently in India where a speaker joined a live panel via Skype.

Another tool is Google Plus Hangouts. Those who have free Google Plus accounts can use Hangouts to convene small groups virtually and broadcast a video recording of their Hangout to YouTube or their own Web sites. It could be an effective tool for planners to hold webinars or small meetings and post them to the Web, YouTube, or other social media sites.

Ball experienced the ultimate hybrid meeting at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York recently, when he looked across his table at a high-definition virtual wall, a screen that projected images of people who were attending remotely. He said it looked like they were sitting right across the table from him

“Virtual meetings technology won’t ever replace the networking, brainstorming, and relationship building that happens at face-to-face meetings,” Ball said,”but they are going to play an important role.”

Returning to my being passionate about this, check our short webcasting video and page http://pnventerprises.com/pnvwebcasts/ . If you have any questions, please let me know.