Five reasons why Ashraf Chaudhry’s Power of Social Media Seminar was not effective

Ashraf Chaudhry’s Power of Social Media seminar held at Carlton Hotel Karachi in collaboration with Management Association of Pakistan (MAP)  was quite an entertaining one. However it did have its share of flaws. Here are the top five ones:

Five reasons why Ashraf Chaudhry’s Power of Social Media Seminar was not effective

1. It was less than a half day seminar – starting at almost 3pm and ending at 5pm.
2. Two hours are not enough to teach an audience about the power of social media, especially when people with varying levels of knowledge about social media are participating in it.
   

   power of social media by ashraf chaudhry

3. It was expensive and disproportionate. Charging about Rs.6,000 for a mere two- hour seminar that includes just one hi-tea and no lunch is way too much. This effectively eliminates many prospective customers, especially those belonging to small organizations who need to justify the cost. A better way would have been to keep it for the entire day with all the standard bells and whistles of a seminar, and charge more for it, about Rs.8,000-12,000. That would make sense for most organizations.
4. The visuals for a lot of queries were not prepared beforehand. Since Ashraf Chaudhry has been giving talks on social media, he ought to know that the question of how to advertise on Facebook invariably crops up. And you can’t really explain concepts like CPM and CPC especially to newbies without actually showing them. A few slides to answer the standard questions should suffice.
5. The seminar started in the 2^nd half of the day after lunch. Now innumerable researches has shown that the energy levels are the highest in the morning and the lowest in the afternoon right after lunch. Hence your capacity to learn something new is largely diminished. It would have been better to hold the seminar in the morning and wrap it up by lunch.

What do you think? Were you there at Ashraf Chaudhry’s Power of Social Media seminar? Can you think of any other reasons?