With the vast proliferation of webinars occurring in business and industry across the board — and particularly in security — perhaps it’s time for you as a manager to develop a training program module for your employees that consists entirely of webinar-based education and a requirement for participating in X hours of webinar training each month.

The level of webinars being hosted in the security industry has reached a point where a very wide variety of content is being offered. I’ve seen webinars on sales/product training, vertical market expertise, industry trends, installation and service, and management/business strategy.

According to an article posted by Chris Lee at www.EZtalks.com, webinars for online education have six significant benefits: flexibility; a better selection of fields or subject matter; students can learn on their own timetable; cost-effective since traveling costs and other expenses are excluded; interactivity with webinar presenters; and better understanding of content.

Let’s make sure you know about the webinars being offered by SDM Magazine. 

SDM recently expanded its rich monthly content into a new video roundtable webinar series called SDM Deep Dive Live — the business behind the stories, hosted by John Hunepohl. This series features the same great content as in the printed magazine, but with a deeper dive into the content through Q&A with experts and behind-the-scenes looks into their businesses. The series is free and live attendees have the ability to earn CEU credit and a certificate of completion.

To date, SDM has hosted the following three Deep Dive Live webinars, which are now available on-demand, but only for one year following the date of air — so please work them into your webinar training plan before they become unavailable in 2018. (Sign up here: http://bit.ly/2xvylMw.) 

• SDM 100 Talks Opportunities, Obstructions & the Technical Labor Issue

• Apps Are Everywhere

• Top Systems Integrators Share How You, Too, Can Achieve Big Gains

Live webinars are held the third Thursday of each month, with the next, “State of the Connected Home Market: The Opportunities and Challenges Ahead” scheduled for Wednesday, September 20, 2017, at 2 p.m. EDT.

So, what will you learn? Why bother spending an hour each month with SDM’s webinar speakers? “Our Deep Dive Live mission is to make sure your investment of 60 minutes in each of these sessions provides you with information and action items that will help you be more successful in your business and with your job,” explained host John Hunepohl.

For example, the latest webinar features Joey Rao-Russell, president and CEO of Kimberlite Corp., the largest Sonitrol franchise in the U.S., and Brent Franklin, president of Unlimited Technology Inc., a company which ranks No. 12 on SDM’s Top Systems Integrators Report. In this high-level webinar, Rao-Russell and Franklin look at what the real meaning of integration is today — are systems requiring a higher level of engineering now than in the past? What are the many demands on integrators that are increasing their labor and other costs? How has the role of project managers changed in recent years? What skill sets do these integrators look for when hiring today — college degrees, certifications such as NICET, network skills, and computer skills? The integrators speak openly about customer deliverables such as knowledge of standards, the scope of project drawings, competitive service plans, when to outsource services and more. 

Where else could you hear such prominent speakers such as these integrators talk about trends in the integration market — without paying for and traveling to an industry conference — for absolutely no charge to your company? And this is just one of the many webinars offered.

Laura E. Stepanek