We recently held another of our Web Executive Seminars in Washington, DC -- our fourth this year. This one was titled Six Steps to a Successful Online Strategy. As usual, slides, photos, and (soon) audio are available on the event's page.

To extend the reach of the great stories and ideas presented in these sessions, we're trying something new. We've invited two of the speakers to participate live interviews online. Our first one was with Chase Offutt of American Rivers last month. Our next live interview will be with Jon Platner, Director of Online Operations for Planned Parenthood Federation of America on Thursday, October 11 at 2-3 p.m. EDT.

On the interview page, you can submit a question in advance, follow the interview in real time during the designated time, or read the transcript afterwards. We find that following the interview in real time is one of the most engaging ways to participate since you can introduce new questions and steer the conversation as the interview unfolds. (By the way, the interview is free and only requires a web browser.)

During his highly-rated presentation, Jon talked about how Planned Parenthood translated their vision of unifying the diverse federation of 110 independent affiliates with over 860 health centers into a single online destination for all the information and localized services desired by Planned Parenthood's patients, activists, and supporters. One of the biggest challenges was selling the plan to affiliates, which they accomplished through various methods including usability studies and old fashioned face-to-face meetings.

If you weren't at the physical event, Jon's slides are below.

We truly welcome feedback on our online interview series. How valuable is this sort of format compared to a physical event or even a simple online question and answer? Does your organization have a topic or expert that would be a good focus of an online interview? Please leave a comment here, or email me at acohen@forumone.com.