“The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have.”
― Leonard Nimoy
As a global forum, GFAR truly believes in the power of communications. Be it to work with our partners, to bring our common messages to the public, or to network within our communities. We also strongly believe in the power of sharing our own experiences, including our experiences working with a diversity of technical tools and systems.
In the past, we have shared some of these experiences in a series of social media trainings, workshops (like the upcoming workshop at #CFS43) and webinars.
We are now kicking off a new series of webinars:
Webinar: Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Date: Wednesday Sept 14th at 13:00 CET (Central European Time)
Duration: 2 hours
Websites and blogs have now become our online “business card”. They are our most important public resource. While we all spend ample time in building these online media outlets, feeding it with content, and maintaining its look and feel, often we under-utilize its potential to “spread”.
While we might invest in social media, to “spread” our blog and website content, often we do not utilize the main resource of “spreading”: search engines.
In this webinar, we’ll look at some basic tools and techniques to make our websites “known” to search engines, and to ensure we feature high up on any search engine results page. Using these simple tips and tricks, we can spread our online presence MUCH faster than we can hand out business cards at conferences or network meetings. And cheaper too!
This webinar will be presented by Peter Casier, the GFAR Social Media Coordinator.
Webinar: The Art and Science of Website Revamps
Date: Tuesday Sept 27th at 13:00 CET (Central European Time)
Duration: 2 hours
We have all been there: It feels like we just launched our new website, and a few months later, we already see the need to work on a new version.
The fashion of how to visually present websites seems to change as fast as the fashion in the “haute couture” of Dior or Chanel. New website management tools or updates are released faster than we can follow. And sure enough, comes a new organization’s management, and they want us to change our precious website.
It looks like releasing new versions of our websites, and the process of “revamping” our websites, is becoming an ongoing task. But it is also a highly underestimated task, which often largely runs over budget, takes much longer than originally scheduled and sucks up valuable resources. There are ample examples of organisations who originally planned a website revamp to last three months, but end up working on it for three years.
In this webinar, we will give an overview of the different aspects involved in a structured website revamp, and how to approach, plan and execute a revamp process and project.
This webinar will be presented and moderated by Antonella Pastore, who, in our books, is one of the “grand masters” of website revamps.
Antonella Pastore PMP, is an information architect and project manager with nearly 20 years of experience in information systems design and development for the international research and development sector.
Over the last five years she has been involved in large-scale website revamp and migration projects for international clients such as CGIAR, GFAR, GS1, WFP.
Her greatest passion is troubleshooting problems and designing solutions that help people work and learn better.
Register now!
You can register for these webinars by sending a simple email to Peter Casier – peter.casier(at)fao.org
Please mention: Your name, affiliation (organisation/institute), function and which of the two webinars (or both!) you’d like to participate in.
We will send you a confirmation email. You will also get a reminder with the technical details to join the webinars, one week before each.
Register fast! Our webinars are limited to 100 participants and the available “seats” are often taken in a matter of days.
About the GFAR webinars
Our webinars are organized and funded by GFAR, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, and presented in collaboration with our partners. (if your organisation is not a GFAR partner yet, join now!)
Our webinars are open to GFAR partners as well as other nonprofit organisations or individuals working in the area of agriculture, ecosystems and sustainable development. They are often attended by scientists, students, communications staff as well as agricultural practitioners.
We do not ask for a participation fee, but we insist participants to actively engage in the webinars with feedback, questions, and sharing of their own experiences.
The webinars are moderated via BlueJeans, an online tool running within any internet browser. It requires participants to have a good and reliable Internet connection and a computer running any browser.
Past webinars included: “An introduction to social media”, “How to read updates from hundreds of websites easily”, “How to define and measure your social media performance” and “How to find and use pictures for your websites”
Blogpost by Peter Casier – peter.casier(at)fao.org – GFAR Social Media Coordinator
Pictures courtesy IntelFreePress on Flickr and CGIAR Shared Services
blog.gfar.net 