Online Training Conference by ASTD-GPC Saves 106,000 Pounds of Carbon Emissions

The American Society of Training and Development Greater Philadelphia Chapter (ASTD-GPC) recently held its first online conference with the help of iLinc to save on the travel costs that would have otherwise been incurred in the case of a physical conference. iLinc provides organizations with software for web conferencing as well as collaboration solutions that make online meetings, seminars and presentations cost friendly and secure.

“With travel budgets tightening even further in organizations across the U.S., now more than ever the number of companies training employees, meeting with clients, and prospecting via web conferencing is growing in record numbers,” said James Powers, President and chief executive officer of iLinc. “And now, informational full-day conferences that normally bring together groups in one place for education and professional development are going online too,” Powers added.

The online training conference held by ASTD-GPC was not just cost friendly but environment friendly too, cutting down on carbon footprint. The conference had synchronous learning expert, Jennifer Hofmann make a presentation and was followed by three concurrent tracks namely Holding Successful Webinars, Using Web 2.0 Technologies and Creating First-Rate Training. While all three tracks included three sessions each, the resulting set of ten sessions was recorded so that all attendees could review sessions while they were present during the conference as well as hear the sessions they had missed out on once the web conference was wrapped up.

“While most of our presenters and attendees were from the Philadelphia area, we had two presenters from Connecticut and one from Arizona, and attendees from as far away as Utah .If we held this conference in downtown Philadelphia, presenters and attendees would have spent hours in their cars travelling from cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware to attend the conference. And they also would have also spent money on gas, tolls, and parking,” said Frank Felsburg, president of ASTD-GPC.

Calculating carbon emissions and gallons of fuel, the embedded iLinc Green Meter revealed that the company had saved 106,000 pounds of carbon emissions and 5,300 gallons of fuel by holding an online conference rather than a physical conference.

“By holding the conference online, we were able to keep the costs low for everyone, and we felt good that we were able to do our part to help save the environment,” Felsburg added.