Insects Limited sees success with virtual learning

By

July 24, 2020

Tom Mueller

Tom Mueller

Editor’s Note: Westfield, Ind.-based Insects Limited, which manufactures and distributes pheromones and trapping systems for stored product pests (SPP), recently hosted a free virtual educational series. Find more information about the episodes here. Tom Mueller, VP of Insects Limited, shares the success of the virtual learning in a recent edition of the company’s newsletter, “Fumigants & Pheromones.” Sign up for the mailing list here.


“Professionals are starved for information.”

At first, that sentence read, “People are starved for information.” But, there is a difference between people and professionals. This was discovered during our June series virtual webinars on stored product insects, hosted by Insects Limited. People who look to improve their situations to better their company, as well as their customers, are professionals.

After interacting with individuals who attended the virtual seminars, I discovered they all had one similar mindset which was, “Never miss an opportunity to learn.” That phrase was spoken to me by Mark Sheppard, director at Pest Australia Pty Ltd. Our seminars were conducted live at 2 p.m. EST and recorded each time. But Mark took the opportunity to listen to the series live. When it is 2 p.m. in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., it is 2 a.m. in Western Australia. Some would say he is crazy.

Mark is not alone; I was joined by individuals from 19 different countries all coming together to listen to a wide range of topics within the stored product industry. After learning this, a certain pressure started building: If these professionals are going to sacrifice personal time to learn, then I must share information they do not already know and can use throughout their days.

LOGO: INSECTS LIMITED

LOGO: INSECTS LIMITED

A survey revealed that the most-sought-after topics included:

  • General and Facility-specific IPM
  • The Pros and Cons of New Monitoring Technology
  • A Deep Dive into the Indianmeal Moth
  • A Deep Dive into the Warehouse Beetle
  • Mating Disruption

Each episode took three-and-a-half days to prepare, only leaving me about a day-and-a-half to catch up on my other job responsibilities. Throughout this series, we had roughly 650 registrants with a 60 percent attendance rate.

The reason we started these virtual seminars was due to canceled or postponed conferences most of us were affected by throughout the last few months. As the world started to open back up, we saw a slight decrease in attendance. But we constantly received requests for the individual episode recordings, which we are happy to provide at www.insectslimited.com/conferences.

I am proud to have pulled together the information so that we “never miss an opportunity to learn.” Stay tuned for future episodes.

Leave A Comment

Comments are closed.