Economic Development Collaborative (EDC) — FREE – AI Webinar Series (July 7, 14, 21, 23, 28; Aug. 4, 11, 13, 18): Back by Popular Demand!

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WORK SMARTER, GROW STRONGER WITH AI: WEBINAR SERIES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Back by popular demand, this FREE webinar series is designed to help small business owners use AI to save time, improve marketing and grow revenue.

  • Attend one session or all
  • All sessions are practical and beginner-friendly

NO-COST AI Workshops

AI 101 for Small Business: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Use It to Save Time and Make Money

July 7 @ 10:00 am

Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming one of the most powerful tools for small business owners to increase productivity, improve marketing, and streamline daily operations. But many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by all the new terminology and tools. In this beginner-friendly webinar, you’ll learn the key terminology, how large language models and chatbots work, and real-world business use cases that can save you time and help you grow faster. We’ll also cover important topics that responsible business owners need to understand, including cultural bias in AI, ethical and legal considerations, and how to implement AI to protect your brand and your customers. This session is designed to give you a clear, practical foundation so you can start using AI in your business immediately and confidently.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Google AI Tools for Growth and Scale: The Small Business AI Toolkit

July 14 @ 10:00 am

There are powerful Google AI tools available right now that can help you research faster, create content, analyze your market, and scale your business without adding more staff. In this webinar, you’ll be introduced to tools like Gemini with Deep Research, NotebookLM, Flow, Nano Banana, Pomeli, and how each tool fits into your business workflow. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by too many AI platforms, you’ll learn how to build your own AI toolkit — knowing which tools to use for marketing, research, content creation, strategy, and automation. This session is perfect for small business owners who want to work smarter, make better decisions, and grow efficiently using AI.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Prompting for Profit™: How to Talk to AI So It Actually Helps You Make Money

July 21 @ 10:00 am

The most important AI skill you can learn is not the tool — it’s how to communicate with the tool. In this webinar, you’ll learn a structured prompt framework designed specifically to help entrepreneurs and small business owners get better results from AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. You’ll discover five revenue-generating prompts, the difference between text prompting and video prompting, common prompting mistakes that lead to poor results, and how to prevent AI hallucinations. This session will help you move from basic prompts to strategic prompts that support marketing, sales, and business growth.

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AI for Social Media Strategy and Lead Generation: Turn Content into Customers

July 23 @ 10:00 am

Many small business owners spend hours posting on social media without seeing real business results. This webinar will show you how to use AI to build a digital marketing strategy that connects your content to leads, email lists, and sales, not just likes and followers. You’ll learn how to create a 30-day content calendar in minutes, make AI-generated content sound more human and on-brand, and connect your social media to lead magnets and email marketing. If you want your content to actually grow your business, this session will give you a clear system to follow.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Custom GPTs for Small Business Operations: Build Your Own AI Assistants

July 28 @ 10:00 am

What if you could create AI assistants to help with onboarding, proposal drafting, answering FAQs, marketing, and internal systems? In this webinar, you’ll learn how to design Custom GPTs that handle repetitive tasks and help your business run more smoothly. This session is ideal for business owners who want to create systems, reduce administrative time, and increase efficiency. You’ll learn how to identify tasks that can be automated and how to build simple, task-specific AI assistants, no coding required.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

AI Graphics and Video Creation: Create Professional Marketing Content Without a Design Team

August 4 @ 10:00 am

Today’s marketing requires strong visuals and video, but hiring designers and editors can be expensive and time-consuming. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use AI tools to create graphics, edit video, and produce consistent branded content for your business. We’ll cover tools like VEED for editing, the difference between Sora and Flow for video creation, generating visuals with Nano Banana, and how to build a consistent visual brand. This session is perfect for product and service businesses that want to improve their marketing visuals quickly and affordably.

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Strategic Intelligence: Learn Anything Faster with NotebookLM

August 11 @ 10:00 am

Successful businesses make better decisions because they have better information. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use NotebookLM to conduct competitive analysis, refine pricing, accelerate SEO and AEO, and synthesize large amounts of research into simple summaries and action steps. You’ll also learn how to use AI to create executive briefs, reports, and slide decks quickly, helping you make smarter strategic decisions in less time. This session is ideal for business owners looking to leverage AI for research, planning, and strategic growth.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

ChatGPT and Canva Workflow Automation: Create 6 Months of Content in One Day

August 13 @ 10:00 am

Content creation is one of the most time-consuming parts of marketing. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use ChatGPT and Canva together to bulk create content, use CSV exports, complete Canva bulk uploads, and build a six-month content system efficiently. This session is perfect for busy entrepreneurs who want to save time while staying consistent with their marketing. You’ll walk away with a repeatable workflow that lets you quickly and easily create large volumes of content.

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AI for Revenue Systems and Offer Creation: Build Offers, Lead Magnets, and a 90-Day Growth Plan

August 18 @ 10:00 am

Many entrepreneurs struggle with revenue, not because they lack ideas, but because they don’t have clear offers or systems in place. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to use AI to design revenue pathways, create lead magnets, draft offers, write landing page copy, and map out a 90-day implementation plan. This session will help you turn your knowledge, services, or products into structured offers that generate revenue. By the end of the webinar, you’ll have a clearer plan for monetization and business growth using AI as a strategic partner.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Meet the Presenter

Deborah-Deras-Headshot image
Deborah Deras has a Masters’s in Education and Bachelors’s in Marketing. She is a business owner since 2002, providing fortune 100 companies with peak performance corporate training, and is an international speaker and author. She has served as a Marketing Consultant to various Small Business Development Centers with expertise in Digital Marketing with a specialty in content creation, social media strategy, YouTube, SEO, Facebook, Livestreaming, Podcasting, Instagram sales, and how to speak with confidence on camera. She speaks English and Spanish and has been a sought after professional speaker for over 20 years.
The Economic Development Collaborative hosts the Small Business Development Center and is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration and a grant with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
The Workforce Development Board of Ventura County is a proud partner of America’s Job Center of California network. The WDBVC and this project are an equal opportunity employer/ program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. If you have limitations hearing or speaking dial 711 to reach the California Relay Service (CRS). For federal funding disclosure information, visit https://workforce.venturacounty.gov/about-us/funding/.

ABOUT THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATIVE

The Economic Development Collaborative (EDC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit committed to enhancing regional quality of life through business development services and strategic initiatives that support the greater Ventura and Santa Barbara County area. Thanks to our countless partners, EDC’s business consulting, upskilling opportunities, low-interest lending and recovery resources are provided at NO-COST!

Get started today by calling our Business Assistance Line at 805.409.9159

Assistance is available in both English and Spanish

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