Jannie de Jager
With nerves of apprehension, the DWR Distribution sales and training team stepped out of their comfort zone to present a joint live Facebook Q & A Session, a webinar which was held on Wednesday, 8th April at 2pm. It didn’t take long for the team to get comfortable behind their screens and were soon interacting and chatting about products, training and tackling any questions the industry had to ask.
Since the Covid-19 Lockdown in South Africa, the DWR team have shared training videos and live seminars as provided by our suppliers. That said, DWR are known for the extensive training courses hosted over the years and with this in mind decided to personally reach out to the industry, via a webinar, for a discussion that was hosted by Jannie de Jager, head of training at DWR and a panel consisting of Olebogeng Boinamo, Robert Izzett, Dylan Jones, Kyle Robson, Richard Smith, Schalk Botha and Jaco Beukes.
With a range of questions from upcoming Vectorworks and Green Hippo Training sessions, information on the wide range of products presented by DWR, and a chat on new technology and ways of running systems, the best part of the live session was bringing people together. For two hours, it almost felt like sitting together and having coffee with friends.
“I was super excited and very nervous to be on this platform,” said Jannie de Jager, who looked as if he was reporting from a space capsule! “But we were very chuffed with the response and I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to join us. I actually had so much fun. One thing that stood out about this experience is that it almost felt nostalgic, especially having the industry talk to us. The lockdown removed us from one another, and this helped me feel that we were together again.” Dylan Jones, who has already been presenting a range of webinars to clients, thanked everyone watching for inviting the team into their homes.
Now that the DWR team have found several effective streaming solutions (currently using Facebook, Zoom and MS Teams) they look forward to bringing more training sessions to the industry. Funny enough, while our lives have been put on ‘Pause’, we’ve discovered a very easy way to connect. At the same time, we can’t wait to get back to our offices to see you all again… in person.
“We are living in such uncertain times, but stay strong,” Robert Izzett concluded. “This is temporary. One day we’ll look back at this, but for the time being, keep your heads down and let’s get through it together.”
