One of the workshops to be held during the 2015 Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators is titled "Online Mediation - A New Frontier", and will last 2 hours.

During the first hour, participants will get a good grasp of Online Mediation. Connected via internet from my office in Hawaii, I will cover the following topics:

>> What Online Mediation means
>> How it works
>> How to integrate mediation by video, phone, email and face-to-face
>> Which cases are suitable for online mediation
>> Online mediation benefits
>> Mediation experience and online technology
>> Additional skills and techniques for Online Mediation
>> Which video collaboration software to use
>> Face-to-Face mediators: From skepticism to enthusiasm
>> How to get online mediation experience and training

The second hour of our workshop will be even more interesting.

First, participants we'll watch a 20-min video of a simulation run with 3 members of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators, who had never participated in an online mediation before. Next, all mediators in the audience can ask those 3 colleagues any questions they want about their experience; for example,

>> How did online mediation work for you?
>> What did you like - or not like - about it?
>> What did surprise you?
>> After your experience, are you now more - or less - interested in online mediation?
>> Do you plan to offer online mediation for your practice?

This "don't just tell me about online mediation - show me" approach will no doubt be appreciated by those experienced face-to-face mediators who are interested in (or perhaps just curious about) this topic.

For more information about the 2015 Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators click here http://goo.gl/6hlPd1