The last year brought about a paradigm shift in how business was conducted. In medical education, virtual programs became the norm as live events were not being held. Compared to just a year ago, there’s far less apprehension about using virtual tools of communication because Speakers and Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) are more comfortable using the technology. Of course, these tools have existed for years, but never before have we seen such a massive adoption over such a short period of time.
As far as speaker training is concerned, companies now have several options as they coordinate these programs during the rest of the pandemic and beyond. The traditional live and in-person training remains the gold standard, and organizations will move back to this format. However, Virtual Live in which attendees participate online in real-time has provided the industry a cost-effective alternative that had been successfully introduced before but not widely embraced before the pandemic. This format is not new but has really gained prominence in the last year due to necessity and advancement in technology. Finally, there is on-demand training, in which participants log into a platform and view pre-recorded training sessions on their own time and attest completion. Now with virtual and on-demand training more ubiquitous in the industry, companies have many different schools of thought as how to best implement speaker training in the future. Some may go all in on virtual because of it’s cost-effectiveness and efficiency, while others may heavily consider the inherent benefits that come from face-to-face interaction. In reality, there is no “one size fits all” formula for conducting speaker training. Each brand is in a unique situation and has specific needs to be met in order to maximize their training’s effectiveness that ultimately leads to more successful speaker programs and better patient care.
Now let’s break down the pros and cons of each type of speaker training. Then we will determine how to find the right mix of training for each situation. Finally, we’ll take a look at how to best implement each to its fullest potential.
Pros and Cons of Live and In-Person Training
The single biggest benefit of live, in-person speaker training is peer interaction, i.e. the ability for speakers to network and learn together in the same location. There are more opportunities for networking in a live setting, including group conversations and brainstorming sessions which can lead to greater engagement and retention of information. It’s simply easier to keep someone’s full attention when you are able to interact face-to-face. There’s a sense of connectivity and camaraderie that is difficult to replicate in a virtual environment.
The cons of live and in-person training center around cost and convenience. There’s always going to be an increased cost when you include a venue, travel, lodging, food logistics management and honoraria. And, of course, some speakers may have less interest in traveling to attend the training due to time away from the office, health, and weather-related concerns.
The benefits of peer engagement over several days almost always outweigh many of the other obstacles and costs.
Pros and Cons of Virtual Live Training
As 2020 taught us, the single biggest advantage of virtual live training is its ability to adapt to almost any situation. Virtual live training will always allow for training to take place in case of an unpredictable event such as weather and, yes, pandemics.
It’s the most flexible option for training available, even allowing for training to take place over multiple sessions, perhaps throughout the course of a week. The increased honoraria costs that normally exist for in-person events are no longer a concern when training virtually, resulting in lower speaker fees. There’s no limit to how many can attend and it takes less time than a live event because travel isn’t involved. Cost is another major factor that makes virtual live speaker training very attractive. Aside from eliminating travel, lodging, meals, and several other expenses that come with a live, in-person event no longer need to be considered.
The Cons of virtual live training, of course, is the absence of the personal interaction found in live, in-person training. Tech issues will also inevitably arise from time to time. However, these issues can usually be mitigated with proper management from an experienced medical communications partner.
Pros and Cons of On-Demand Training
On the other end, there’s always going to be a percentage of speakers that can’t make it to an event, whether it be live or virtual. Having an on-demand platform for training has become an invaluable tool that organizations are using more and more. The biggest advantage of on-demand training is that it allows for speakers to complete the training on their time. Speakers are busier than ever before. Giving them the option to fit training in around their schedule, rather than asking them to adjust their schedule, results in a higher percentage of speakers being trained on time.
Utilizing an on-demand training platform also allows for versatility whenever new material is released or existing material is updated. Organizations can add new modules anytime along with read and attest requirements, completion tracking, and knowledge checks to ensure that speakers are understanding and acknowledging content changes. Plus, educational modules and content can be deployed quickly allowing the entire bureau to stay up to date without the logistics challenges of coordinating another in-person or virtual training event.
Conversely, with on-demand, your speakers will miss out on live, real-time interaction found in the other two options, including the ability to ask questions and engage in dialogue with peers. Modules can tend to be dry and non-interactive which may make the session less engaging for the participant. On-demand is often best used as a supplemental training in combination with other live options or as a quick adjunct to introduce small content changes via a “read and attest process”.
Which Type of Training is Right for Your Bureau?
When determining the right mix of training for each product, one would want to look at the product, the complexity of the data being presented, size of the bureau, budgets and time constraints as a few of the key decision drivers. For a new product or speaker’s bureau a live and in-person event, whenever conditions allow for in-person events, is our recommended strategy for kicking everything off. The ability to keep your audience’s full attention is important with any new product which is exactly what you’ll find in a live in-person event. Bringing people together, and in a collaborative and collegial fashion, is a very beneficial part of the entire training process.
Ideally, you should incorporate some form of live, in-person training, and as mentioned other factors such as budget, how many speakers need to be trained, and the number of slide decks they need to be trained on will likely require a mix of different training formats to ensure you complete the training process on time with a high percentage of trained speakers. In a smaller bureau, it’s easier to coordinate in-person training more frequently, but a large bureau is where virtual live and on-demand options are most likely going to become utilized more due to budgets logistics and speaker caps.
On-demand training is the most cost-effective training option available but can also be used as a supplemental tool to train any speakers who haven’t been able to attend an in-person or virtual training session. The flexibility and easy tracking and attestation offered by an on-demand training platform makes it a natural choice for most brands to combine with in-person training, virtual training or in many cases, both.
In reality, there is no “one size fits all” formula for conducting speaker training. Each brand is in a unique situation and has specific needs to be met in order to maximize their training’s effectiveness and ultimately lead to more successful speaker programs and better patient care. Now with the shift to virtual programs caused by the pandemic there is an opportunity to reset and refine speaker training now and in the future.
Vision2Voice Healthcare communications specializes in Speaker Training and has the solutions you need to make your training programs engaging and successful. Our experienced team can assist with everything from Speaker justification and KOL identification, to event planning, content creation, program execution, and developing custom online training platforms. To learn more, we invite you to contact Howard Drazner at 773-993-0393 x 2130 or email hdrazner@vision2voice.com or simply fill out our contact form and we will be in touch!
