I had just been to a seminar last week. The 3-day seminar is all about IT operations and our company paid the fee. An exam was given on the last day and fortunately, I passed it. Compared to school life, seminars are different because they mostly involve recitation and seatwork, not to mention the actual examples that we had to work on. And what's good in these seminars are the food, hahahaaa. Yes, participants are provided with snacks and meals. Have you attended a seminar lately?
The only kinds of seminars that I have attended were mostly motivational seminars, and even that was several years ago. Since it was one of Zig Ziglar's last seminars, it was an awesome experience. I first became acquainted with Zig Ziglar back in the 1970's, when I was in Amway, because they sponsored a lot of motivational speakers, and Zig was one of the best. Over the years, I also read his books, and listened to some of his inspiring tapes. He always made his point with a story, and usually a funny story, such as the biscuits that squatted to rise, and got cooked "in the squat". When we saw Zig this last time, he was suffering from Alzheimers, and his daughter had to help him, and keep him from repeating the same stories over and over. He just loved doing the seminars so much that , even though he knew he could not continue for much longer, he wanted to go on as long as he could manage. He has since passed away; but I am always glad that I got to listen to the great motivational speaker, one last time.
No, not lately, but I would if there was lunch served! Kidding aside, at work we had seminars now and then but only once was food served. Since so many of us work remotely from home (thank goodness), we now have web-seminars. As far as attending a motivational seminar outside my work; I never have.
Webinars or web seminars are great because you are at the comfort of your computer. But I still have to experience a webinar although I've had online conferences, that meeting with branch managers. It was better than phone conference since at least you can see the person talking. We used Skype for that. But online conferencing is still far from the real thing because sometimes there is chaos when several would talk simultaneously.
I'm all for seminars, to me they are like condensed educational subjects. I started taking seminars in college if they were provided. Later I found them very useful when I needed to learn how the Texas prison system work. I was part of a counciling group called Bridges To Life, for three years, but before any member was vetted we had to take three months worth of different seminars that related to prisons and inmates, even a self defense course. But mostly, I took business, accounting, and art seminars to keep up on the latest techniques.
I have attended quite a few seminars and webinars for work and some even for personal motivational purposes. The nice thing about them is that they are short and packed full of interesting data. I actually have one scheduled for this month. The Ohio Taxing Authority is putting it on and it's an overview off all of the separate tax divisions. I wanted to attend it because the owner of the business owns a supply shop in Ohio and even though I work at the Pennsylvania location I do the books for both. When you live in a border town that is often the case. When I lived in Tennessee I did taxes for Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky businesses. It's a lot to learn in a seminar but the overviews help you to find the who and where for further inquires too.
Hmm... I would say lunch is the best part of a seminary because food, even a real bad snacks selection, have a different taste when eaten at a seminar, aside of the networking opportunity that lunch break brings in. Haven't attending any for decades, but I remember how much enjoyed them while being at college and shortly after.
I have been to many seminars a lot on psychology NLP, educational kinesiology, applied kinesiology, solution focused therapy and others. I enjoyed them all the only reason I stopped is to go sailing the Caribbean.
I am going to a product knowledge workshop this Saturday. I am an insurance agent for several companies, we get information webinars from the different companies to keep us current as required by law. It will be a pleasure to be around people on Saturday instead of hooked up to my computer all day. No food will be served.
I'm trying to remember if I have attended a seminar. I do recall reading a couple of Zig Ziglar's books and my brother in law bought some of his motivational tapes and loaned them to me after he finished listening to them. And, I did attend a two week sales management school back in my younger years. Maybe I did, one of those 'How to make friends and influence people' things or something like that. I guess that was a seminar. I did stumble upon a new word while reading this thread. Webinar. I'd never heard that before. Now I'm wondering if I live in a backward part of the country or am I less sophisticated than those who use that word or have attended one of those "Webinars."
An employer sent me to Austin for a three-day seminar on emergency management once. After practically sleeping through the first couple of hours of the first day of the program, I skipped the rest of it, stopping by each morning only to pick up the handouts for that day. I was still able to give a full report on the seminars when I returned, and I didn't feel as if I had missed anything.
I used to have a few jobs that involved seminars and travel. As long as I was able to arrange my life around them, I didn't mind. It was a nice way to get away, and the hotels were usually nice. The most recent seminars I've attended were for continuing education, and those were usually interesting. All of the CE seminars I attended were local, and I don't work in that field anymore, so don't attend any nowadays.