"Live" Teleseminars: the New Infomercial

Recently, I have participated in several telephone conference calls referred to as Teleseminars. When I signed up for these "live" events I used multiple email accounts to attend three different times for each "live" conference call. As these things go, each call might reveal something the previous either lightly touched on or left out. After all, they are billed as "live" and there is the human element to consider. What I discovered is my dictionary is so far out of date the meanings of certain words no longer apply.

What is a teleseminar?

In short is it a re-imagining of what we used to call a conference call. I once sat in a Black's Guide conference call held by the then, vice president and general manager. The flow of that call is similar the template for the present day teleseminar. The organizer or central speaker gives his overview and tabs different specialist to make his points. Each specialist gets to answer questions and a chance to do his or her own point of view pitch. The format is a telephone version of those tacky "make a million in real estate" infomercials in the paid programming slots on cable. All these "so-called everyday people talk about their wonderful experiences with the method programs. There are also household products, workout equipment, etc advertised in these infomercials everyday. I am kind of fond of the newer ones that are just now released on the market, but people are lining up to endorse the product they have been using for a year or so. Now, you know what these teleseminars are a good old "sales shilling Americana style."

The preamble ramble