Web Conference Hosts Get More Control, Polling and Scheduling Enhancements
Poll audience members and display immediate results. Schedule Web conferences and send invitations via Microsoft Outlook software. Bar unwanted participants from an active Web conference.
These are several of the new features offered by Infinite Conferencing. The Short Hills, N.J. company plans to offer a major upgrade to WebInterpoint, its Web conferencing service, beginning Monday August 9, 2004. WebInterpoint Version 6.4 provides all the benefits of previous versions of the professional and affordable service, plus a set of desired enhancements, company officials say.
The upgrade will give customers more of what they desire to run effective Web conferences, online meetings and presentations without sacrificing ease-of-use or reliability, says Deb Jackson, CTO and co-founder of Infinite Conferencing.
Here are more details on the new features:
- Polling - Presenters can create polls (questions and answer combinations) on-the-fly or in advance of their sessions. During the conference, poll results are gathered in real-time and may be shared with all attendees in the form of a graph.
The polling feature is perfect for large Web conferences or Webinars in which the host wants to quickly have the audience weigh-in on a relevant issue, and then provide immediate results back to the audience.
- Microsoft Outlook(tm) Integration - An optional Outlook add-on allows users to schedule, invite, start or join WebInterpoint conferences from within the Microsoft Outlook application.
- Yahoo! IM Integration - With the optional Yahoo! Add-On, conference hosts can easily invite active users from their Yahoo! Messenger list.
The Yahoo IM invitation add-on offers another convenient way to start meetings on-the-fly. The Outlook add-on offers better advanced scheduling functionality. Both of these add-ons are completely optional. They may remain hidden for customers who dont want or need them, keeping the interface clean and uncluttered.
- Conference Lock - Conference hosts can "lock" conferences to prevent unwanted participants from joining once a conference has started.
The conference lock feature may appeal to clients with more sensitive or confidential content. Those customers dont have to worry about an uninvited guest showing up. Once all the invitees are present, the host simply locks the conference with a click of a button.
- Improved Chat - The WebInterpoint Text Chat feature has been improved to enhance interactive conferences. Incoming chat messages no longer cause the chat window to "pop-up" and interrupt the presenter. Incoming messages are indicated visually in the attendee roster, and the chat history persists throughout the conference. Presenters may chose to save the chat history to a local file.
The text chat now works much better during application or desktop sharing. Previously, if the host received a text chat (in one of these modes,) a pop-up window would appear on the hosts computer for all audience members to see. With the upgrade, the chat is less intrusive. An indicator simply notifies the host that a text message has been sent.
Jackson says the enhancement will contribute to Infinite Conferencings winning edge: Its our unique combination of features, ease-of-use, reliability, price and service that makes us superior.
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CONTACT:
Dave Kott, President
973.218.0937
dkott@infiniteconferencing.com
