I’m not very well-versed in the area of webinars and online meetings, although it seems like a lot of people are doing them lately. The increasing cost and hassle of air travel is probably the main reason for this trend. But since these virtual meetings don’t require any travel, do potential attendees really need much advance notice?

The approach that meeting planners have carried over from the days of physical meetings is to notify people months in advance, and keep hammering them with reminders until the day of the event. But I think a simplified approach can be even more effective: tell people about the meeting maybe a week in advance, and send a reminder again the day before it starts.

I recently viewed a webcast that used the just-in-time approach, and the attendance was outstanding. It’s counterintuitive, but maybe today’s short attention spans mean that less notice actually increases the chance of people showing up.