Quality Workshops Worth Time Investment

Spend a couple hundred bucks for registration, plus the even heftier cost of employee downtime, to send a worker to a weekday seminar, and that’s a substantial investment.

But area businesses routinely deploy their workers to industry workshops, professional conferences and training seminars to keep pace with the competition and changing environments.

Mary Beth Lohr, coordinator of information services for the University of Arkansas’ Division of Continuing Education, said companies don’t mind the expense for quality programs that produce a return on their investment. It’s no coincidence that Northwest Arkansas’ four largest cities have been racing to construct multimillion dollar convention halls to tap into that market.

UA Continuing Education alone hosted 945 programs attended by 26,558 participants during its fiscal year ended June 2001. Of those programs, 406 or 43 percent were held at the department’s main facility on the downtown Fayetteville square.

If Continuing Ed’s teleconferences were counted, the number served would be in the millions.

“Our technology programs are really gaining popularity,” Lohr said. “We even have a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Boot Camp coming up Nov. 5-20 that’s an intensive, comprehensive course … We have so many different programs. They’re geared for everyone from the front office person to rising executives.”

Continuing Ed offers its Office of Services to Business and Industry team, which will visit a client company and conduct an on-site assessment of training and efficiency needs. They can implement solutions, and even do follow-up evaluations to show firms the return they garnered from the effort.

Ron Goforth is general manager of Beta Rubicon Inc. of Fayetteville, which recently co-hosted a stop on the national Seed Investing As A Team Sport seminar tour at the Fayetteville Town Center. He said solidifying local sponsors — such as the Bank of Fayetteville, the law firm of Friday, Eldridge & Clark LLP and Stephens Inc. — is as crucial to hosting local events as it is to making sure they’re high quality.

More than 50 prominent business people paid $100 each to attend the seed investing workshop, and Goforth has additional seminars in the works for this winter.

“We realized the fee is only a piece of the cost to the employer,” Goforth said. “They also had to weigh the out-of-the-office time. Hosting an event like this is always a balance of cost vs. benefit because there are literally hundreds of other things going on.

“You have to be somewhat selective in choosing what you put on so that people will believe it’s a good investment of their time.”

Goforth said sending employees to seminars demonstrates an interest in upgrading their skill set, or enhancing their value. Fresh information also can be a motivator for longtime employees battling burnout or stagnation.

Al West is executive director of FORGE Inc. (Financing Ozarks Rural Growth & Economy) of Huntsville, a 12-year-old nonprofit that serves as a revolving loan fund for rural areas. He said making the 30-minute trip over for the seed investing seminar was well worth the time and expense.

“It was excellent,” West said. “It let me understand the different levels and types of investors who are out there. I had heard of ‘angel’ investors before, but this was a very valuable learning experience.

“Now I know the vernacular and believe the experience will help me find more investors for startup companies and small businesses.”