When the final seminar concluded, the last visitor exited the virtual exhibit hall, and the last white paper had been downloaded, the more than 500 attendees from 40 countries at the Virtual Workforce Management Conference declared the online event a resounding success.

In real-time over three days, contact center workforce planning professionals learned from industry experts at virtual seminars, met top vendors in the cyber exhibit hall and had access to a reference room filled with white papers, case studies and press releases.

For a single low-cost corporate registration fee -- and no expensive travel or time lost out of the office -- planning professionals attended the sessions that best met their needs, either together or individually on different session tracks. All sessions were recorded and were available on demand for 30 days following the conference, giving those who could not attend the opportunity to view missed sessions.

"This was an excellent forum for introducing a group of materials, without having to spend a fortune in travel and accommodation arrangements...let's do more," said Earl Wilde of Alltel.

"I am glad that I suggested this series…to our leadership team," said Sharon Brown of Comcast. "I feel that it had high value for the range of experience in our growing group. I know that we have a list of action items resulting from this."

The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals, an organization designed specifically to facilitate education and networking among workforce planners and managers, and CRMXchange, the premier information resource for contact center information and pioneers in the hosting and marketing of online events for professionals in this industry, mounted this unique industry event from October 31st through November 2nd. The online symposium featured a keynote address by Penny Reynolds, founding partner of The Call Center School, who discussed today's top five workforce management trends and offered valuable tips on getting and keeping bodies in seats.

"The topics were very timely. I work on defining goals for schedule adherence, and I think the most useful seminars are those that keep you advised about where the industry is heading, with metrics, and show you how you can ensure your organization is staying current and following industry best practices," said Yvonne Bishop of D Services.

Commenting on the roundtable, Tracy Charlton of TD Bank Financial Group said, "This was a great session. Some very valuable topics were discussed that I found to be relevant to our current practices. I enjoyed the fact that it was just not one person, but a panel discussing their practices and what they found to work and what didn't work."

Added Debra Phillips of Convergys: "This was a Best Value -- It was suddenly easy to find nine others (from my company) who were interested in the event. And if they were not available, they were later able to listen to the recordings. It was wonderful."

As an extra bonus, all registered attendees were given full access to MyCRMexchange.com, a members-only Web site that allows professionals within the CRM community to network with other contact center professionals -- anywhere, anytime.