I spent the weekend with a wonderful group of entrepreneurs who took my Online Media Success Workshop. I was amazed by their eagerness to not only learn about new media, but apply all the techniques they learned over the 2-days.

Running a workshop without being able to hide behind technology is new for me. For the past 3-years, I ran workshops and classes over the phone. It’s cheaper to do, can be set up instantly on very little notice and I don’t have to travel.

Yet over the past year, I’ve attended alot of conferences. Podcasters Across Borders, Corporate Podcasting Summit, Podcamp, New Media Expo, Coaching Super Summit, you name it, I went.

I met so many interesting people and my friends in my Facebook account come from a variety of different places, all reflective of the global networking I’ve done over the past 12-months. And after entering so many other communities around the world, I now craved meeting the very people who were in my own.

So, in August, I started promoting the workshop to my database, faceless names of individuals who added themselves to my ezine list over the past year. As I continued promoting, my community started to emerge. No longer were these individuals just an email and a first name, they now had a voice. And finally, I met 8 of them at the workshop this past weekend.

By the end of Day 2, the attendees were exhausted, yet pumped. While the feedback about what they learned was diverse, they all agreed on just one thing – that meeting in person with other motivated entrepreneurs made all the difference.

The energy in the room was electric and each person inspired me with their uniqueness. The attendees helped each other. If someone couldn’t grasp a concept, another attendee would explain in his or her way.

The attendees helped me as well with their take on a concept I was explaining. It was wonderful to truly be a facilitator and I made room in the schedule to account for discussions. While I planned the content, I remembered not to be too rigid. A valuable lesson learned from Podcamps.

No matter how many webinars I do, no matter how many podcasts I release, this weekend taught me that the human touch can never be replaced. Sure, we get used to voices and we fall in love with brands without ever seeing the face of the person who created it. Yet meeting in person helps to enrich everything we do online.

While online tools help to break the ice, offline connections at workshops, conferences and networking events help to foster lasting relationships. I’m looking forward to connecting with this community again – in person.

Photo courtesy Peter Wood