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In this issue:
Welcome to the third issue of the ConferencingNews™. We've created it especially to help you, our valued customer, have more effective virtual meetings. Each edition offers news and tips for better communications and keeps you informed about the latest phone & web conferencing features. Why use operators? Reservationless (automated, 24x7 on-demand) conference calls are great for your everyday needs - they're easy-to-use, affordable, and require no advance setup. There are times, however, when using operators adds a professional polish and functionality that is unavailable through an automated service. Large conference calls tend to be more formal and having an operator introduce your speaker(s), moderate a Question & Answer (Q&A) session, announce the end of the conference, etc., is likely to make for better discussion flow and leave your audience more impressed. Live operators can greet every caller to welcome them and gather their contact information, connect them to conference, and provide a participant report afterwards. Q&A sessions are generally held after the speaker(s) have finished with prepared statements, or lecture (all audience members lines are muted). The operators facilitate the Q&A by announcing the start of the session and giving the audience members instructions on how to queue up through a touchtone command on their phone. The operators then introduce the audience member by name and unmute their line when their turn comes. Operator services are also highly recommended for complex conference calls, those with custom needs. Here are just a few of the enhanced services that can be provided: event registration services, transcription of conference call dialogue, audio streaming over the internet, participant polling, break-out sessions through sub-conferencing, post conference reporting, re-broadcasting of conference recording, and compact disc with conference recording. To learn more about Operator-Assisted conferencing click here or call us today at 1.888.203.7900. Reservations are required in advance. Web Conferencing - computer (application/desktop) sharing The latest release of WebInterpoint (what's this?) has even more options for application and desktop sharing - great for software demos, training, and troubleshooting. Audience views your computer - Click the [Share] button and in the pop-up window either a) choose the application(s) you wish for them to see, or click "Share All" for them to view your entire desktop. Participants now see everything you do in near real-time. Audience member controls your computer - Follow instructions above to enter Sharing mode. In the Attendee list right-click on the name of the participant and click "Give Control" from pop-up menu. That participant will now control the mouse movements and keyboard typing on your computer (your can override them at any time, or turn it off). You (and audience) view another participants computer - Promote the participant to "Presenter" by right-clicking their name in the Attendee List and selecting [Make Presenter]. That Presenter must now click the [Share] button on their toolbar. You control audience members computer - Right-click on participants name in the Attendee List and select [Remote Control] from the pop-up menu. That participant will then be presented with a pop-up window where they can grant you control of one or more applications, or they can "Share All". Webinars - Thinking of hosting a web seminar? First let's define a webinar; a virtual meeting in which multiple, geographically-dispersed people participate and receive relevant media via the internet in real-time. Why host a meeting in this fashion? For most people the answer is either to reach a larger audience, or to reduce travel costs. Webinars always have audio and one or more visual components - video, slideshow, animation, etc. AUDIO: The audio can be streamed (listen-only through the computer's speakers), or it can be interactive. Most webinars that require interactive audio (conversation) utilize traditional conference calling services because voice-over-IP is not ubiquitous and still suffers from quality issues when it is available over the public internet. Sometimes webinars allow a portion of the audience to join via conference call; those that will potentially participate in the discussion. The rest just listen via the audio stream. VISUAL: Depending upon what you want to show your audience, there are many tools and services available for your webinar. If you plan to stream audio it will generally be integrated into the same "play window" through which the audience will view the visuals. Having video, live or pre-recorded, streamed during your webinar makes the event much more complex and costly. The quality of the video stream will also be dependent upon the bandwidth of the recipient (most service providers use variable bit rate streams - the video quality scales up or down automatically depending upon the recipients bandwidth). Requirements for other visuals such as PowerPoint slideshows, text Q&A and polling will also impact your costs and tool/service selection. To learn more about our webinar services click here or call us today at 1.888.203.7900. Reservations are required in advance. Tips & Tricks for better Reservationless/automated conference calls The
Basics: Once you have recorded your call it is available for playback for 90 days, unless you overwrite it with a new recording (you can have only one stored at a time). Should you need to record a new conference and don't want to lose the previous recording we can either a) post a WAV file for you to download, or b) send you a compact disc of your recording. There is no charge for recording a conference, but there is a small fee for "a" or "b". Advanced: ConferencingNews™ will be published several times a year. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing, please follow the opt-out instructions below. Thank you for choosing Infinite! © 2003 Infinite Conferencing, LLC. All Rights Reserved. |
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