My Experience Working with Honolulu SBDC
03 Aug 2009 1 Comment
Re: Honolulu Small Business Center (SBDC) Presentation with April M. Williams.
Over the past year my work with two Illinois SBDC have been mutually beneficial and well received. I am paid for my services and develop clients through my work there. I also work with a third college with good results. My speaking calendar is full with business and career presentations and classes. The Illinois SBDC recommended I contact Honolulu SBDC to arrange a session as I had a trip planned here. There has been much online and offline discussion on this session over the past few days and I wanted to to set the record straight. Here is a timeline and summary of our discussions:
* May 19, 2009: I contacted the Hawaii SBDC offering a presentation “Boost Your Bottom Line with Social Media”.
* May 21, 2009 Spoke via telephone to Caroline Kim, Director SBDC and agreed to session and dates.
* June 02, 2009 Per request, sent flyer with bio and session info to SBDC to create flyer and web registration. Agreed to a session length of 1 hour & I would donate my time.
* June 19, 2009 SBDC stated they would begin promoting event.
* June 25, 2009 Resent marketing materials and bio to SBDC.
* June 25, 2009 Requested session posted on SBDC website to direct attendees for registration.
* June 30, 2009 SBDC web registration still not posted. SBDC says to have interested attendees call center for registration or questions.
* July 22, 2009 SBDC stated they are charging attendees $25 to attend session though not paying the speaker for her time.
* July 23, Center director stated PowerPoint loaded properly and they would keep me appraised of attendance and any venue changes.
* July 25, 2009 SBDC website registration posted. My name is misspelled, length posted as 2 hours instead 1 hour.
* July 29, 2009 Session attendee notified me SBDC told him the session was on different date than posted. Called center and attendee to straighten out confusion and confirmed date. No mention of low attendance made to me at that time.
* Aug 1, 2009 Session attendee notified me he recieved a call from SBDC that session was canceled. SBDC left a message with a phone number to contact which is only manned Mon-Fri. Called SBDC and send email to find out more.
* Aug 1, Midnight SBDC sent an email saying session cancelled due to low attendance.
Aug 3, 2009 Attendee told me when he called center earlier to register then he was re-directed to register online.
The SBDC never mentioned a minimum attendee to me or as far as I know to other attendees. The session was cancelled without contacting the speaker. The SBDC never provided the speaker with promotional flyers.
This experience does not reflect well on the other SBDC’s in the nation. My past experiences with other centers have been very professional and I look forward to partnering with them in the future.
For those who registered for this SBDC session, I apologize for the confusion and disappointment. On my next visit to Honolulu I look forward to a better experience with my other partners.
April M. Williams
President CyberLife Tutors
http://www.CyberLifeTutors.com
Aug 03, 2009 @ 22:30:06
Thanks for the clarity and timeline, April. Your experience has been the same, if not better than the troublesome experience I’d had with both the Administrative Assistant in the HNL Office and for the undelivered promise of a call by their Director Caroline Kim. I explained my dismay with having to rearrange travel & schedule times related to having been told only three days (1 business day) before the event that it was indeed canceled, and at that point was served a little terse attitude by said Admin. Asst. to the effect that “I did my best to call you as early as I could…” implying I should be thankful for the effort altogether.
I resented being spoken to in that matter and explained that while I am angry at the situation and was displeased with their handling of this situation, their unapologetic stance at screwing this up completely should not be projected toward unhappy attendees. In fact, their actions should have come with the anticipation of the known territory that one if not however many, attendees would be upset with their action.
I see ZERO OWNERSHIP of the problem with the HNL SBDC and I applaud your being upfront with me about the experience you’d had with them from the get go.