I’ve been really into “attending” webinars recently.

I never did teleseminars because I’m phone-phobic. Even if I was not expected to speak, I wanted nothing to do with any learning opportunity that involved the phone.

But now that learning options are available that just require my laptop, the Web, and a headset, I’m all over it. Especially if it’s free or cheap. I can even do teleseminars and conference calls now as long as I use Skype, my computer, and my headset. Yes, I am a very quirky person.

I participated on June 25 in an excellent webinar put on by organizational story guru Terrence Gargiulo. Here’s what made it so great:

• He used the wonderful GotoMeeting platform that enables participants to see the presenter’s desktop and use interactivity tools.
• He opened with two fun trivia questions (both of which I answered correctly I might add).
• I had heard Terrence is an excellent presenter — and it’s true.
• He’s also a great storyteller.
• He had great visuals with cool highlighter and mouseover effects.
• He respected his audience’s time. In contrast, I attended a webinar the night before that went way over time.
• He wasn’t trying to sell anything. Again in contrast to the weak webinar the night before.
• He gave a shoutout to A Storied Career. Woo-hoo!
• He provided copious handouts.
• He gave a prize. Random drawing. I didn’t win.

The only slight downside was some audio funkiness resulting from unclear instructions about muting and unmuting. Pretty minor.

I was amazed when Terrence said this was the first webinar he’d done because he did a great job with it. He says he hopes to do more, and I hope he does. He’s looking for topic suggestions. E-mail him here if you have any thoughts.