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This December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host a three-part webcast series on communications strategies and methods that state and local governments can use to ensure the ongoing success of climate and clean energy programs. The structure of the three webcasts will parallel the general phases of program development and implementation: attracting stakeholder support and participation, sustaining change, and gaining momentum from program successes. Participants will learn how to design communications strategies to engage and empower stakeholders, use communications methods to instigate and sustain behavior change and foster individual and community solutions, and effectively communicate their programs’ successes and resulting benefits to diverse audiences.
        EPA Webcast: Gaining Support and Attracting Participation through Communication
December 4, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 1 will explore how to gain support from partners and attract participation in climate and clean energy programs. The webcast will address the importance of developing a communications plan and using it as a framework throughout the course of the initiative and cover tactics that engage, empower, and transform community-level participation into actionable results. The importance of understanding intended audiences and tailoring strategies to their needs will be emphasized. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: The Role of Communication in Ensuring Sustained Behavior Change
December 11, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 2 will address how communications tools can be used throughout the implementation of climate and clean energy programs to achieve behavior change and ensure sustained, lasting impacts. Speakers will discuss the role of behavior change in the success of a program; the value of communicating program results and successes in sustaining change; and how to assess behavior change. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: Using Effective Communication to Showcase Program Successes
December 18, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 3 will focus on how communities can effectively showcase the benefits and successes of a clean energy initiative to ensure additional funding opportunities, continued engagement, and sustained behavior change. Speakers will also cover how to encourage replication of success. Register now.

This December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host a three-part webcast series on communications strategies and methods that state and local governments can use to ensure the ongoing success of climate and clean energy programs. The structure of the three webcasts will parallel the general phases of program development and implementation: attracting stakeholder support and participation, sustaining change, and gaining momentum from program successes. Participants will learn how to design communications strategies to engage and empower stakeholders, use communications methods to instigate and sustain behavior change and foster individual and community solutions, and effectively communicate their programs’ successes and resulting benefits to diverse audiences.
        EPA Webcast: Gaining Support and Attracting Participation through Communication
December 4, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 1 will explore how to gain support from partners and attract participation in climate and clean energy programs. The webcast will address the importance of developing a communications plan and using it as a framework throughout the course of the initiative and cover tactics that engage, empower, and transform community-level participation into actionable results. The importance of understanding intended audiences and tailoring strategies to their needs will be emphasized. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: The Role of Communication in Ensuring Sustained Behavior Change
December 11, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 2 will address how communications tools can be used throughout the implementation of climate and clean energy programs to achieve behavior change and ensure sustained, lasting impacts. Speakers will discuss the role of behavior change in the success of a program; the value of communicating program results and successes in sustaining change; and how to assess behavior change. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: Using Effective Communication to Showcase Program Successes
December 18, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 3 will focus on how communities can effectively showcase the benefits and successes of a clean energy initiative to ensure additional funding opportunities, continued engagement, and sustained behavior change. Speakers will also cover how to encourage replication of success. Register now.

This December, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host a three-part webcast series on communications strategies and methods that state and local governments can use to ensure the ongoing success of climate and clean energy programs. The structure of the three webcasts will parallel the general phases of program development and implementation: attracting stakeholder support and participation, sustaining change, and gaining momentum from program successes. Participants will learn how to design communications strategies to engage and empower stakeholders, use communications methods to instigate and sustain behavior change and foster individual and community solutions, and effectively communicate their programs’ successes and resulting benefits to diverse audiences.
        EPA Webcast: Gaining Support and Attracting Participation through Communication
December 4, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 1 will explore how to gain support from partners and attract participation in climate and clean energy programs. The webcast will address the importance of developing a communications plan and using it as a framework throughout the course of the initiative and cover tactics that engage, empower, and transform community-level participation into actionable results. The importance of understanding intended audiences and tailoring strategies to their needs will be emphasized. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: The Role of Communication in Ensuring Sustained Behavior Change
December 11, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 2 will address how communications tools can be used throughout the implementation of climate and clean energy programs to achieve behavior change and ensure sustained, lasting impacts. Speakers will discuss the role of behavior change in the success of a program; the value of communicating program results and successes in sustaining change; and how to assess behavior change. Register now.
        EPA Webcast: Using Effective Communication to Showcase Program Successes
December 18, 2013; 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Part 3 will focus on how communities can effectively showcase the benefits and successes of a clean energy initiative to ensure additional funding opportunities, continued engagement, and sustained behavior change. Speakers will also cover how to encourage replication of success. Register now.

I'd be thrilled to find a place here where small, independent businesses are actually thriving, but one doesn't exist.

Maybe where you live small businesses may be hard to find but not where I am. My sister runs her own business as do others I know or knew. I'm hoping to start my own small business. Now I know it's hard in some places, like Europe, but not in the US. Here's the small business stats from the US Census Bureau. The stats are a bit out of date, the latest numbers are from 2004 but I doubt the numbers have changed that much since then. One thing I find revealing is where it says "Since 1997, however, nonemployers have grown faster than employer firms." Nonemployers are the self-employed.

Also remember the vast majority of air travel is for business purposes, and those people are under the impression that they *don't* have a choice to just not fly.

Then they aren't paying attention. There's GoToMeeting as well as other ways to hold meeting online. Why businesses don't even need permanent offices now, they can rent temporary or shared office space now. Need to meet a client? Rent an office for a day. That is if meeting in a restaurant or cafe will not work. These offices even have broadband access, heck Barnes and Noble book stores have free wifi.

Falcon

I had a contract last year where they used GoToMeeting with good results. It seemed to be a rather spiffy program, but others that have used it more extensively may have deeper thoughts on it. Generally we used it to present changes to clients via our project manager's PC. We would all also call in to a meeting number and the client app tracked who was on the phone and who was watching the project manager's presentation.

https://www.gotomeeting.com/

I have no idea if it works well or not. I just hear their ads on the radio all the time, and I figure if some people buy the product they'll ease up on the ads a bit.

The software allows you to pass screen sharing, keyboard/mouse control, etc. from participant to participant. For our customers, it's a quick download that uninstalls itself after the meeting is over - I believe it tunnels through port 80, I don't think we've run into an instance of a firewall blocking the connection. All the customer needs to know is www.gotomeeting.com and the meeting ID (a 10-digit number, easy to read over the phone, send via e-mail, etc.).

The subscription model (at least at the time we signed up, about 6 months ago now) was on a per-organizer basis ("organizer" being the person who sets up and controls the meeting), with no limits on how many meetings each organizer can hold, or how many participants can be in each meeting. We were originally looking at GoToAssist (same company again, of course), but found GoToMeeting was much more flexible.

If I had one complaint about the service, it would be the speed/latency of the connection - it's about the same as VNC, quite acceptable when everyone involved is on a broadband connection, but somewhat frustrating when working with someone on a dial-up or satellite connection.

Hope that helps.