True skills are learned, not inhaled.

As a small business owner, I am a regular reader of INC. Magazine, and a big fan of Joel Sposky's "How Hard Can it Be?" column. In the December 2007 issue, he wrote about putting on road shows around the world for his company (Fog Creek Software), and broke down the costs. In some ways, it makes the case for doing web meetings instead- if they're done right.

Basically, he planned a number of live events, with a couple of hundred people at each and it works out to about $50 dollars a head. (Read all about it here).

When does it make sense to hold a live event, and when does a web meeting make more sense?

• How many people are you expecting and how sure are you they'll show? A big empty room can be awfully embarassing
• What kind of show can you put on for your audience? Fog Creek had pretty good production values and a plan to add value through networking- it was a good, classy event
• $50 bucks a head sounds like a good deal, until you realize it was 34 cities with 100 attendees per city and an assumption of 2-3 sales per city (it's good to sell high-ticket software). They had a marketing budget of $160,000- 'nuff said

So most of us have to settle for holding web demos and webinars....but do they have to look like second class events?

• What are you doing to make your events special? Try guest speakers and rich graphics... it doesn't have to look like your presentation was created in your basement- even if it was
• What would you do at a live event- have give-aways? Door prizes? Chances to network with other guests?
• Would YOU leave your desk to attend your event?
  
• Is there enough value in your webinar that people would come if you were to hold a live event?

Your web meetings can save you money but they don't have to look cheap- or make you look that way.