News Update

Quality Webinar Series in July

Since April 20th of this year, the WVU Industrial Extension’s 18 webinars have attracted nearly 500 registrants. The webinars have covered a wide range of topics including automation, continuous improvement, industrial hygiene, and more. Most of the webinars have relied on the expertise of the WVU Industrial Extension team for content, but some, like Coaching Facilitation (The Performance Group), Geometric Dimensioning, & Tolerancing Training (Zeis), Manufacturer’s Roundtable (AEP), and Augmented Reality (XrconnectED), have included partner organizations.
COVID-19 and social distancing has introduced more manufacturers to Zoom and the value of webinars. By early spring there were many webinar offerings from a variety of sources competing for a manufacturer’s time. Staci Miller, the WVU Industrial Extension director, said, “We’ve been thrilled with the successful turnout for our webinars, but it’s been more about quality over quantity. Having five manufacturers take away something that will improve their business, is better than having 50 people who won’t benefit from the topic.” The WVU Industrial Extension quality webinars are paying off in quantity, realizing a steady increase in attendees since the programs began.

John Frazer Ph.D., CSP, Manager, Industrial Hygiene & Occupational Safety-Health at the WVU Industrial Extension, has presented multiple webinars since April. “Our goal is to present information that works for manufacturers with a basic understanding of the concept and manufacturers with fairly deep knowledge on the topic,” said John. “We can’t teach everything you need to know about controlling infectious disease in the workplace in 30 minutes. What we can do is show you how important it is and provide resources that will guide you in the right direction.”

The theme of the Industrial Extension’s webinars in July is “Quality”. One of the new additions to the Industrial Extension team, Mark Henline, Manager, Management Systems, will be leading the webinars. The lineup includes:

July 14 – Management of Change
July 21 – Management Review
July 28 – Problem Solving

Each webinar begins at 11:00 AM EST and is free to the public. Registration in advance is required. To register for these and other WVU Industrial Extension webinars, please visit www.wvmep.com/webinars.