My friends know I love attending seminars and lectures — especially if I can sit in the front row, wear slippers, and sip tea. Okay, so I am not actually sitting in a conference room. Instead, I am sitting in a comfy chair in my home office, watching a webinar, i.e., web + seminar, on my computer screen.
Most webinars last about 60 minutes. Usually, you listen to the speaker while looking at their PowerPoint presentation (slides). In some cases, you can see the speaker. Often when you watch the webinar live, you can write a question in a box in the top-right corner that may be answered at the end of the presentation.
About 10 to 15 minutes before the webinar begins, to make sure everything works on the technical side, I click on the link provided when I registered. Arriving early also helps ensure there is a seat for me. Webinars are sometimes overbooked.
One of my favourite webinar speakers is internationally recognized genealogist Lisa Alzo. She could talk about baking bread, and I would listen to her. Within the next ten days, there are two opportunities to learn from her in a webinar.
On Saturday, March 1, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) presents Lisa’s webinar, Timesaving Apps for Busy Genealogists. To attend this free webinar, you must register. You do not need to be a SCGS member to watch live. To watch the webinar afterward, however, you must be a member of the society. The 2014 SCGS webinar series includes a variety of topics with many well-known speakers. Visit their website to see the schedule for the year.
On Tuesday, March 4, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, Ontario Genealogical Society members will be able to watch Lisa’s free webinar, Storyboard Your Family History with Scrivener, through the Members Only section on the society’s website. Scrivener is a combination word processor and project management tool that’s affordable and simple to use. Lisa will explain how to set up your writing projects, how to use Scrivener’s virtual
“corkboard” to storyboard-visually plot out the story you want to tell, how to store notes, citations, images, and research materials, compile your finished draft for printing or exporting for final formatting, and manage multiple projects.
OGS has an interesting list of upcoming webinars, and I think it would be a good investment to renew my membership to watch them, and Lisa returns in December. As with the SCGS webinars, OGS archives its webinars so that members can watch at their leisure.
Makes being an OGS member worthwhile!