Provide Post Training Event Support

By: Justin Ferriman • February 22, 2017
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I often write about how much time is involved with creating a good online course.

Well, the same is true for live training events.

Multiple day workshops take an immense amount of preparation. Not only do you have content to worry about but now you also have to factor in the various logistics that are necessary for in-person training.

Things like the physical space where the training will take place, equipment (projectors and hookups), the amount of sessions necessary to deliver training to everyone, accommodations, printed materials, and so on.

It is no small task. I remember putting on a training event for a client in Texas. We had three days to deliver six workshops. We spent five months alone just creating the training content. Then, we had to coordinate all the logistics as well as communications.

The people attending the event had no idea the amount of work that went into it, and it was over in a flash.

You Have Delivered The Training – Now What?

What I came to realize during that time is that we put a lot of emphasis on the actual training event. However, there was very little post-training support in place.

Now, this was probably because our contract didn’t stipulate this requirement. We may have even tried to sell the client on post-training but that of course means additional money.

The point is that live training events are often more effective if you can follow-up your training with additional learning opportunities.

There are a few ways to do this but my preferred methods are with a virtual instructor-led training and also elearning (not necessarily in that order). Two extra checkpoints can go a long way.

For example, after the event you can send a follow-up communication instructing attendees to take an hour online course that reiterates the key concepts. Include a quiz at the end and the ability for the learners to ask questions. A few weeks later you can hold a virtual instructor-led session to address these questions.

If you are in the process of putting together a live training workshop or event, consider incorporating some form of follow-up training to help improve learning retention.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter