Fred Friendly Seminars produces uniquely stimulating - and entertaining - customized events that can serve as a dynamic conference centerpiece, a focused educational experience for a select audience, or a flexible training tool. Tailor-made Seminars have helped trade associations to probe industry challenges, corporate management to drill down on specialized topics, and public policy groups to consider the multiple dimensions of complex issues. The unique format of the Fred Friendly Seminar facilitates the exchange of ideas and opens new avenues of communication, collaboration and problem solving.

Leveraging the possibilities of digital technology, Fred Friendly Seminars customized events can be videotaped for multiplatform distribution via DVD, live web-cast, or archived as streaming content to reach audiences far beyond the confines of the event.

Here is a sampling of clients who have commissioned a customized Seminar :

• Kaiser Permanente has worked with the Fred Friendly Seminars on numerous occasions. The most recent project is a moderated panel discussion on race in America to be part of their 32nd annual National Diversity Conference. The audience will include over 750 Kaiser executives, board members, physicians, human resources professionals, and front line staff. In addition, employees at Kaiser's offices as well as offices of selected Kaiser corporate partners will be able to watch the live web cast. This provocative program will continue to be accessible as streaming video on the Kaiser Permanente web site.
• The World Bank commissioned a series of three Seminars as part of their 50th anniversary commemoration. The first two Seminars - on rural policy and urban policy - took place at their Washington, D.C. headquarters and were videotaped for world-wide distribution. The third and final program in the series was produced for an audience of over 1,000 government leaders, bankers, and economists as the centerpiece of the Bank's 50th anniversary conference in Madrid.
• National Association of Homebuilders selected the Fred Friendly Seminars as the ideal format to explore issues of critical interest to their membership as well as the public. They commissioned three Seminars that probed the potential for conflict between private property rights and community values, the challenge of urban sprawl, and the impact of environmental sustainability policies on economic development. Handsomely packaged with collateral educational materials, these videotaped programs were used for public education and legislative outreach.
• 11th U.S. Circuit Court brought together high-level judges at their annual meeting to wrestle with the judge's role as gatekeeper of scientific evidence in the courtroom, an issue that is both urgent and complex as sophisticated forensic evidence becomes an increasingly important part of many cases. This event for federal judges followed a series of approximately 30 events on the same critical issue at state judicial conferences from Maine to Alaska.
• Accenture tackled a global corporate issue on employee retention and promotion with a Seminar to explore effective people management strategies. A customized Seminar program was videotaped and edited into training modules to create an online management education program that has been utilized by over 11,000 Accenture employees.

To produce a customized event, the Fred Friendly Seminars production team employs the same rigorous approach that underlies its broadcast projects. At its heart is a compelling hypothetical scenario to galvanize the discussion. The producers work closely with client leadership to define the goals of the project and identify key issues for the hypothetical. Then the process expands to include interviews with external authorities and sophisticated issue research. The program panel is recruited in consultation with the client and an experienced Fred Friendly Seminars moderator is selected for the project. The production team is available to manage all aspects of the event, video production, multimedia extensions, and the creation of collateral training materials or viewer guides.

See a sample
View the customized seminar produced as an educational tool for Kaiser Permanente. It is a probing look at the challenge of the epidemic of HIV/AIDS among black Americans.

For more information, contact Richard Kilberg at 212-854-8965 or rkilberg@fredfriendly.org.