I attended a webinar yesterday using Microsoft Live Meeting as the technology platform. In my attendee confirmation, along with the usual login instructions carrying information about the login URL, meeting ID, and audio information was the following section:
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System Compatibility
This meeting is using the Microsoft Office Live Meeting web access feature and only requires a web browser. No downloads are required for attendance, just click on the link above.
To maximize your connection, please be sure to do the following prior to connecting to the live Web Conference:
- Clear your temporary internet files/cache
- Disable your pop-up blockers, spyware, or anti-virus software during the session
- Close all other programs
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My first thought is that as a casual attendee of a marketing webinar, I have neither the time nor the inclination to jump through extra hoops involved in clearing caches, deleting temp files, and closing everything else I'm working on at my computer. Making it sound like these are important or necessary steps makes me not want to participate.
My second thought is that when joining a collaborative internet session, the LAST thing I want to do is disable spyware checks and anti-virus software!
My third negative impression came when I joined the meeting. Despite a notice that said "No downloads are required for attendance," the first thing I saw was a screen that said "Downloading Web Console..." which sat there for 45 seconds. It was another 45 seconds before I saw the first slide of the meeting. Some of that time was spent looking at a blank white window, waiting for the first image to appear. An applet download is still a download, and 45-90 seconds is a LONG time these days, when I am expecting instantaneous connection.
Web conferencing vendors need to find ways to make the connection process easier and faster for attendees. I recognize that allowing all the fancy features of fully interactive conferencing requires sophisticated software. I recognize that it's hard to figure out ways around the many different protection filters in use. But that's your challenge and I think it will increasingly be a key differentiator for the different conferencing technologies. If you want to stand apart from the crowd, solve the hard stuff. Especially if you are one of the largest software manufacturers on the planet, with more engineering resources than anyone.
