Conduct a Great Conference
By Getting the Right Tools for the Job
By Sarah Smith
With a fistful of hot leads in hand, Joe Jones felt flushed on the edge of success. He seemed only hours away from locking up one of the largest deals in his company’s history. However, there was a daunting catch: He had to rally his far-flung sales team, confer with hard-to-reach technicians and catch prospects on the road – armed with only a notebook computer and a cell phone in a trade show booth.
Tense and stressed for time, Jones rifled through his briefcase desperate to find the contact information he needed to initiate the impromptu, but critical, conference call. Odd scraps of paper and worn business cards yielded some of the information he needed, but not all. The window of opportunity was closing fast; there had to be a better way to quickly organize a conference call.
There is--with a new offering from Infinite Conferencing that integrates Infinite Conferencing’s audio and Web conferencing technology with ACT!, a leading customer and contact management system from Sage Software.
With the ACT! plug-in, Infinite Conferencing customers will no longer have to search for the scraps of paper and old emails where codes and phone numbers were written--it’s all in one place. “That’s the beauty of it; it’s all done for you,” says Chris Kieff, Infinite Conferencing’s Director of Marketing. “It makes it very simple.”
Joe Jones is a fictional character, but his predicament rings true for many a business road warrior. Business schedules have become increasingly complex while demands on professionals’ times have grown. Without the right tools, experts say, arranging meetings may become an arduous, frustrating task.
Infinite Conferencing has a number of unique tools, including tie-ins to applications such as Microsoft Outlook and ACT!, designed to take the pain out of organizing and running a conference, say officials for the Millburn, N.J., company.
“It’s all about facilitating the most successful meetings possible,” Kieff says.
Take a look at the tools designed to reduce the complications conference set-up, scheduling and operation.
• ACT! by Sage Software
• Microsoft Outlook
• Yahoo! Instant Messaging
• Web Conference Recording
ACT! by Sage Software
ACT!, a customer and contact management system, is the leading software of its kind. It helps users cover many business responsibilities, from managing calendars and tasks, to tracking sales, to emailing potential business prospects.
Where ACT! can benefit Infinite Conferencing’s customers most, however, is in its scheduling capabilities, and this month, Infinite Conference will begin offering a new ACT! plug-in. Here are the key features:
• Through the software’s main screen, clients can click on the Infinite Conferencing logo to set up a meeting.
• Clients can pick a time and date, simply put together a list of invitees by clicking on names within the contact list and adding other names outside of it, create an automatic or custom email invitation, and send it to all desired participants for the conference.
• A real plus is the new plug-in automatically fills in the scheduling form for the organizer with the chairperson’s and participants’ entry codes, the telephone number and the URL for joining the conference.
• It also automatically puts all of this necessary information in the emails sent to participants.
This way, users will no longer have to look for the scraps of paper and old emails where codes and phone numbers were written—it’s all in one place. “That’s the beauty of it; it’s all done for you,” says Kieff. “It makes it very simple.”
Infinite Conferencing, Kieff adds, is the first conferencing company to offer such a plug-in for ACT!.
Microsoft Outlook
Outlook, from Microsoft Office, is another popular integrated application for managing email, schedules and activities. The Infinite Conferencing plug-in for Outlook is already available, and it, too, is a flexible, easy way to schedule meetings.
As with ACT!, users in Outlook click on the Infinite Conferencing icon and are given easy forms to create a list of invitees to a conference, schedule a time and date and send out invitations and reminders.
“It’s consistent with our motto of ease of use,” says Dave Kott, Infinite Conferencing’s Vice President of Sales. “We want to not only make it easy for people to schedule a conference, but to make the whole conference experience easier.”
Yahoo! Instant Messaging
While these other applications help a great deal in the planning of a meeting, Yahoo! comes into play during a meeting. “Say you’re in the middle of a conference and you decide you need someone else to join,” Kieff explains. “You can just send an email or use your Yahoo! buddy list, and you can send a link to the conference.”
The new invitee who receives the message can then simply click on the link, bypassing the standard log-in page for participants.
“It’s a very handy tool,” Kieff adds. “It gives you the capability of communicating with people on the fly.”
Web Conference Recording
Infinite Conferencing also offers a tool to customers that lets them record a Web conference either on-demand or ahead of time. While the full-service option means making a pre-conference reservation, the on-demand feature allows users to click a button and begin recording a meeting any time during the session. Either way, people who were unable to participate in a conference can easily access it later and see what they missed.
“For a company that’s trying to grab a dozen salespeople for a conference, it can be tough to get them all on the phone or Web at the same time,” says Kieff. “In that case, they can make a recording of the meeting and the people who missed it can see it any time. It helps companies cover all the bases.”
In short, all of these tools can take away the drudgery of organizing a meeting, Kieff says. ACT! and Outlook can simplify much of the pre-conference work, and then, when changes need to be made on the spur of the moment, tools like Yahoo! and recording options help make the meetings more accessible to more people.
“All of these tools are helpful,” says Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, Inc., an Arden Hills, Minn., company that assists businesses with lead generation and marketing. “And they’re great because they don’t require people to spend much more money. Most people already have these tools readily available.”
For Infinite Conferencing, Kieff says, it’s all about doing everything it can to open communication channels. “And basically,” he adds, “if it’s easy to invite people to a meeting and it’s easy for them to accept, you have a better chance of getting more participants.”
About the Author
Sarah Smith is a contributor to ConferencingNews. Based in Los Angeles, Sarah has reported and written for leading telecommunications and technology publications. She may be reached at sarah.s@betuitive.com.
