Use Webinar Software to Run a Virtual Job Fair

A great article from Bryan Lundeen over at the Workforce Developments blog on running a virtual job fair using a webinar platform like GoToMeeting. In case you aren't able to visit the blog because it's blocked at your location, here's the key info:

A quick tutorial on seting up GoToMeeting as your career fair venue 

Set up your GoToMeeting space and invite employers to register. As in any brick-and-morter job fair, you have to pre-register your employers and make sure that they understand the venue that you are promoting.

You'll need to decide in advance how long each employer will get to present their company and the jobs they want to fill. Let's say you have 12 employers from one industry and you give them 10 minutes each to describe the company and the positions they want to fill. This gives you a two hour industry-specific career fair in this example.

Attendees can either view this presentation on their computers, or to call in to a special phone number that GoToMeeting will give you to listen to the presentation. After the virtual career fair is completed, attendees will be able to view the entire presentation again as a streaming broadcast on their media player. Each employer presentation should include contact and application information.

The employers can use any programs on their computer including the internet as part of their presentations. By setting each employer as "organizer" during his or her allotted time, everyone who is watching from a computer can view the desktop of the organizer along with the presentation they are giving.

Here's a basic rundown of the process you'll need to set up your virtual career fair:

1. Visit GoToMeeting and sign up.
2. Setup your meeting space.
3. Invite employers to register for the event.
4. Advertise your career fair allowing attendees to pre-register.
5. Send invitations to career fair attendees.
6. Have your job seekers download the GoToMeeting software.
7. Host your virtual fair on GoToMeeting.
8. Post the link to download/view the career fair on your website.

Check out some of these links for more detailed tutorials and ideas for virtual job fairs. I especially recommend the ebook from Ramesh Sambasivan.

• Watch this video playlist on how to use GoToMeeting.
• See the citrix quickrefs at the NTAP website for helpful resources.
• View this really informative 27 page ebook on designing virtual career fairs by Ramesh Sambasivan 

Keep in mind that GoToMeeting can only accomodate up to 15 participants, so you may need to use Citrix's GoToWebinar. You may also want to explore DimDim (free for up to 20 participants), WebX or ZohoMeeting. And if your One Stop doesn't have webinar software, you may be able to partner with one of your businesses or with a local association or organization that does have it.

You may also want to set up a wiki to support your virtual job fair. You can set up a page for each of your employers where you provide contact info, links to their company website and applications, a description of the application process, etc. You can also include a link to your recorded webinar and links to resources on applications, resumes, etc. for your job seekers to access to improve the quality of their submissions. Lots of possibilities with this one and a great way to provide a career fair to higher level job seekers who may be happy to access it from their home computers. Some nice free wiki tools to try include Wikispaces and Wetpaint.