The first live Kolabora Event! is a 60-minute experts-panel focus on what it really takes to prepare for such a killer event. Scheduled for today, Tuesday February the 24th at 12 noon EDT, this is an event that can't be missed by those among of you who need to present critical information to other people online.

A unique group of guests including the legendary elearning master Jay Cross, online facilitation empress Nancy White, online identity and security guru Wes Kussmaul and online language training specialist Heike Philp will join conferencing industry expert Stephanie Downs and me for a 60 minute brainstorming session on "What Experts Need To Do To Prepare For A Killer Web Event".

You can join this unique free public event by simply registering yourself here.

Here is what we have in store for you:

During this first online live event I have decided to bring together a diverse group of online collaboration specialists that all have something special to say about the issues, technologies and skills that allow effective communicators to pull together powerful and memorable virtual events.

Take a mega-high IQ, some Berkley attitude, a dose of e-learning curiosity and you get Jay Cross. This is what Kevin Kruse, founder of elearningguru.com has to say about Jay.Jay Cross is an educational expert with a great interest in new technologies and their effective uses. Accredited by many to be the original first user of the term elearning, he has somehow become recognized by most academics and researchers in the field to be one of the forefathers of this evolving area of interest. Jay is a strong evangelist of the intelligent application of new learning methods and tools and he helps organizations improve the performance of their people by speeding up their learning. Jay is also an instructional designer and mentor, an absolutely great presenter, a good writer and a sharp mind to work with.

Nancy White is an experienced facilitator of live events, an expert in online communities and in the effective organization and delivery of successful online events. Nancy is a designer, builder and facilitator of online interaction spaces, an online facilitation expert, a presenter, a teacher, a strategic planner and an effective leader and manager. Nancy White manages a highly qualified group of communication and online collaboration experts through Fullcircle Associates, a strategic consulting and support firm of which she is the President. She has a deep involvement in social issues and has invested great time and resources to support development and socially related projects and organizations. Nancy White also coordinates a wonderful group of online moderators, trainers and facilitators discussing hot issues, skills and methods relevant to online forums, conferences and live events at the YahooGroup "Online Facilitationf".

Wes Kussmaul is a genuine Internet pioneer. Wes is the original founder of one of the first Internet provider services, Delphi Internet Services. Today Wes is a visionary thought leader in the area of online identity and security issues. His understanding of the future we are approaching may bring some interesting reflections and tips on how to look at online collaboration and events in the near future. His role is the one of evangelist of the future of online private spaces and how we will need to deal effectively with this reality. Wes has a new great book (both in terms of content quality and size) that will be in bookstores this spring and through which he fully explains the revolution we need to prepare for.

Heike Philp is a high-energy online entrepreneur from Germany who runs a very successful online language training school. She has been testing and trying many different technologies to achieve effective results online and she is continuously learning new tricks on how to best arrange live sessions for maximum results. Her view is simple, pragmatical and down-to-earth. She, like you and me, doesn't care much about the number of buttons in the side bar or the list of facilities listed up front in a new conferencing tool. She cares only about having tools that simplify collaboration and live interaction from being a complex, dedicated activity through sophisticated applications and to becoming an intuitive second-nature, springing from IM tools and escalating to whichever level of collaboration, sharing or presentation required by the specific event at hand. Overall, I think she well summarizes some very evident key trends, while pointing to the essence of what, as users, we are after.

Stephanie Downs is a well-recognized e-conferencing industry reporter and publisher. Frequently hosted by the major enterprise platform vendors, Stephanie is the public evangelist of Web conferencing in the enterprise market. Stephanie has been targeting what she believes are the key corporate marketplace pressing needs, left unfulfilled by most of the early Web conferencing companies: service and training. She is the one to refer to when your company goal is to organize, setup and deliver professional Web seminars, presentations and marketing presentations. Stephanie's role in this industry is truly one of the edu-marketer. The person who without using technical terms and while giving and showing lots of examples can most easily facilitate your corporate initiation in this new fascinating universe called Web conferencing, live meetings and presentations, and elearning. She has indeed lots of practical knowledge and strong understanding of what business and corporate audiences expect.

Robin Good. Yes, I will be enthusiastically part of this event playing my dutiful role of inspirator and instigator of open questioning, critical review of what we take for granted and in-depth analysis of what we truly need to be effective in this new realm. I am a communication expert that works at the crossroad of communication skills and new media technologies. I am a humanist that favours the intelligent use of new media technologies. I am an evangelist of the potential of true online collaboration and of the technologies that can make this accessible to anyone today. Can and check out my three little babies to find out more about me:
MasterNewMedia What Communication Experts Need To Know
MasterViews PowerPoint Presentations For International Presenters
Kolabora The Online Collaboration Authority

Kolabora's scope: Kolabora's role is the one of creating an open conversation between those that belong the Web conferencing industry, and who are technologists and finance people, and those that actually increasingly utilize and leverage the power of these technologies as educators, presenters, facilitators, business entrepreneurs. An open conversation must be started between two complementary worlds that have not been talking to each other at all. Kolabora is the place where to start carrying out this new conversation.

Live questions during the event
During the event you will be able to submit questions via a text facility. In the last part of the brainstorming guests will be responding to the most interesting ones among those.

System requirements to access the event
PC and Macs are welcome. Only a standard Internet Explorer Web browser is needed. Users on all connection lines are supported.

Registration info
To register for this Kolabora Live! event just click here.

Cannot participate?
If you cannot participate to the Live Event we are going to miss you.
Nonetheless a recorded file of the event as it took place will be made available for anyone to access.

I look forward to see you in the audience at Kolabora Live!

Tuesday February 24th, 2004

Robin Good