The Transcender Team Weblog

Rebirth of the Webinar

As a technology professional, it is not uncommon to find yourself attending product training and demonstrations. Luckily, many of these events no longer require expensive face-to-face time. Unfortunately, the term webinar leaves a bad taste in many people’s mouths. That’s because often these events boil down to a poorly organized sales meeting led by a person that likes the sound of their own voice. Don’t judge….you know what I’m talking about.

So, when I attended the Oracle Virtual Developer Days for WebLogic Server 12c and Java 7, I was not expecting anything beyond the standard webinar. I could not have been more wrong! Their functional presentation and depth of information blew me away.  Besides the requisite keynote session, there were breakout tracks that included a focused Q/A and hands-on labs and even a networking lounge to chat with other attendees. Overall, the experience was engaging, easy-to-navigate and best of all, educational.

Virtual Campus

Virtual Sessions

I had only minor hiccups with the video streaming, and those were quickly addressed using the chat, where moderators helped to resolve this (among many, I’m sure) issue. All of the presentations were pre-recorded, so I could pause and rewind as needed. The hands-on-labs required me to download and install software prior, but this was a lot less buggy than working in virtual cloud.

Having used this dynamic Oracle Developer Day platform, I am now spoiled. We can only hope other vendors take a page from Oracle and up their virtual education game to this level. I’ll keep you posted on any other webinar gems, and if you’ve attended one that you loved be sure to share the new here.

–Josh Hester