TechChannel Webinars: Engaging Content Led by Industry Experts
As the COVID-19 pandemic effectively eliminated most in-person interaction in 2020, nearly every facet of daily life went online. From medicine to education to friendships, individuals around the world turned to digital measures to stay connected. This explosion of virtual communication also saw companies turning to digital methods to facilitate career development and employee knowledge of relevant industry technologies and topics. To address this need, webinars have become the go-to option for distanced education. TechChannel webinar programming offers solutions for companies and individuals looking to strengthen their tech acumen in an ever-changing technology landscape.
Why Webinars?
Webinars are by no means a new tool in the world of online career training, but their prominence has risen as they fit into the new work landscape. “Webinars suit the environment we’re in,” says TechChannel’s Director of Webinars, Janine Donnelly. “People are working from home. Business travel and face-to-face interaction with existing and potential clients has been curtailed, and conferences have been cancelled. What better avenue to connect with these people than through a webinar?”
As the business world continues to change and adapt to the COVID-19 crisis, audiences are seeking out opportunities to learn about solutions that are relevant to handling the pandemic in the moment as well as how to optimize business for what may come in the future. Additionally, with current limitations on travel and in-person conferences, webinars provide relevant solutions for far less cost than a traditional conference.
10 Years of Webinar Programming
Although the need for online resources like webinars skyrocketed during the pandemic, TechChannel has been creating these unique digital assets far before this all started. While TechChannel’s name might seem new, the webinar team is anything but. TechChannel webinar programming was formerly known as IBM Systems Media webinar programming. In January 2021, IBM Systems magazine transitioned to TechChannel, a purely digital, independent communications channel.
Since its inception over 10 years ago, TechChannel’s webinar programming was developed based on high demand from software developers to create a platform that would allow these companies to present their technologies and software solutions in an educational format to TechChannel’s global user and subscriber base.
The program’s structure hasn’t changed significantly since it was first created, with webinars released regularly. However, as the program grew in number and recognition, it led to a regular stream of content that serves as a library of valuable resources for technology professionals—and TechChannel is seeing a positive response from the community.
“Through readership surveys and by our growing registration numbers, our readers have told us that webinars are one of the most highly valued resources we provide,” Donnelly says. To continue to provide engaging content for the webinars, TechChannel switched platforms to create a more visually enhanced experience. This change included participant access to assets such as slide decks, live links on slides to external resources, speaker headshots and more. “Our business partners value our robust community of highly qualified and engaged readers, our ability to reach our constituents through our trusted and diverse communication channels, as well as the professional, full-service experience we provide.”
TechChannel’s constituents aren’t limited to one sector of the tech industry. “Our audience is anyone and everyone in the IT space,” says Donnelly. “We have C-level: presidents, CEOS, CTOS, and we have datacenter managers, programmers, analysts, database managers, salespeople, system administrators and system engineers—they run the gamut.” This variety of professional status of TechChannel’s audience members creates opportunities for anyone interested in growing their skills and knowledge base to join this engaged community, regardless of status in the industry.
Diverse Themes Led By Industry Experts
To address the needs of a varied audience, the topics covered by the TechChannel webinar programming are also diverse. With each webinar led by experts and available on-demand for viewers at any time, topics range from automation, to business insights on query, to mainframe security and more. Overall, themes focus on solving attendees’ business challenges while helping them leverage their systems to their best advantage. “Our constituents are always interested in getting the most out of the system they already own,” Donnelly says. “They want to optimize those systems, lower their cost of ownership, prevent downtime. Their IT systems are the lifeblood of their business and they’re essential to meeting business and customer demands.” She adds that COBOL, performance, modernization, open source and cloud are some of the highest interest topics.
Modernization, for example, has always been a key topic that attracts large audiences. “Modernization and digital transformation are paramount—making information available and in ready-to-use formats on remote devices, like mobile phones, iPads and laptops and being able to do business just as if you were in the office is the rule, not the exception,” Donnelly explains. Working from home and new steps to modernization have also fueled interest in security topics. Cyberthreats such as malware and phishing have increased significantly during the pandemic and to counterattack it, many companies recognize the imperativeness of taking the necessary precautions to protect systems and educate employees on preventative measures. “Our webinars are a great resource to help companies stay on top of what’s out there and the necessary steps to prevent a breach,” Donnelly says.
Looking to the Future of Webinar Programming
As remote work continues into 2022, TechChannel’s webinar program continues to grow. TechChannel is committed to providing important and relevant webinars while serving as a leader in tech information and education.
If you’re interested in attending one of TechChannel’s webinars, all webinars can be found on the Webinar Event Center and accessed for free with a one-time registration.