Earlier this week I received a webinar invitation from an e-invoicing company. I probably get 5-10 invitations to webinars a week most of which I ignore. But this one caught my eye. The webinar was being hosted by UK-based invoicing vendor in conjunction with the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA). IOMA focuses on applying best practices to a number of critical business processes including Accounts Payable (A/P). The reason I found this particular webinar more interesting than others was the promotion, which offered a free continuing education credit to attendees.
“This event is approved for one Accredited Payables Manager (APM), Specialists (APS), and Department (APD) CEU credit, which IOMA will process at no cost, as part of your registration.”
I have seen a similar certification credit technique used at a number of tradeshows. Attendees can obtain credits towards certifications by participating in sessions offered by vendors. However, I had not seen the concept applied to webinars. Technology vendors are always challenged attempting to get decision makers and influencers to attend webinars. By offering a certification credit, the risk to attendees is lowered. First, it is a safe bet that the content will be more educational in nature due to the fact that a certification credit is being awarded. Second, even if the vendor’s solution is not of interest to the attendees, the educational credit will be.
This is a technique I think more technology vendors should experience with to boost webinar attendance levels.
