Insights

Building healthy sustainable American Indian Communities is the theme of a broadcast here in Fairfield, Iowa beginning Friday morning September 25th. President Clinton will make introductory remarks at the conference. For more information and to register  go to http://www.americanindiansustainableconference.org/

Last week I travelled to a streaming media conference and exhibits in New York City. The costs of the four day trip for  lodging, travel, taxis and extraordinarily expensive cuisine came to $1800.  I came in over budget because the flights into OHare had been cancelled and delayed my return one day.

It would have tallied over $3000 if I had elected to do more than see the exhibits i.e. attend the seminars. There was a webinar available online of the entire conference for $400.

There is always a value in going to a conference and seminar.Road warriors can receive more value through the rapid exchange of information, meeting vendors face to face, and networking opportunities. The main objective of this conference actually could have been achieved through the webinar.

With these high costs and the advances in webinar technology, road warriors seem to  be on the decline and the webinar warrior is now rising.

Eventspan is for webinar warriors. If you or your employees need more training or you want to promote your products or services through a webinar,  Eventspan can do it for you. With EventSpan, marketers can promote their webinars through event listings to increase attendance. Site users can easily find webcasts and webinars. And expert speakers, industry professionals, and organizations can put up profile pages to network and connect with other professionals and possible clients.

By summer AirTran will offer WiFi on all of its flights. What does this mean for the traveller? Obviously, research on the web can be done. From the conference call and web conference perspective the question arises will the service be consistent enough that you can join conference calls via Skype, attend web conferences while in the air or drop in on scheduled webinars. It would also include videoconferencing in the air, but the videoconferencing aspirant may need better lighting than provided on the plane.

If the answer turns out positive this opens up a new realm of doing business in the air.

You have just joined a conference call, the chairperson/host has not arrived and you are on hold to music. How do you make the best use of your time while waiting for the chairperson to arrive. Here are some great ideas for your next conference call.

Enjoy!

Screen sharing is a great tool to use during a webconference, but you need to  clear the decks of open programs. They may slow down your computer unless you have a real muscle machine. Plus if you have other programs open, websites, or whatever displayed on your screen than the screen sharing function will pick it all up, show it to everyone. The consolation is they can all see the closing documents de-digitize and fade away–a great start to a webconference!

Also prepare your desktop in advance. Have the documents ready to go. And be sure to check for stray documents on your desktop that may provide a window into your company that you would prefer private.

So remember to Clear the Decks!

“Oh God-here they come act green.” -A husband and wife speaking to each other as another couple approaches them at a cocktail party. Cartoon in The New Yorker, August 20, 2007

In 2007 “Green was the most trademarked term made at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The conferencing industry too has joined the green club. One of our conferencing colleagues has installed a green meter on their webconferencing services to let participants know how much has been saved in carbon through a web conference. We haven’t gone that far but with the millions of minutes our customers do here at Conference Calls Unlimited we  have helped customers reduce their carbon footprint through much less travel .

Businesses have begun making plans to address the swine flu situation. This Washington Post article addresses this hot topic.

Conrad Hilton’s message to America?

“Please put your shower curtaino  inside the bath tub.” This must have been born of many years experience seeing how water spreads and leaks to the floor below.

Our company, Conference Calls Unlimited, also has a message for America. Please mute your conference line when not speaking. This message is born of how much sound leaks unintentionally into a conference call. It can be anything from pots and pans falling to the floor, background restaurant noises, colleagues at work talking, to road noise from a driving cellphone warrior.

Noise can also come from VOIP phones, speaker phones, cell phone static, etc. Fortunately if noisy participants are clueless the host can mute everyone out. Some of  our services  have a web page where the host can monitor the lines and mute out a specific offending line.

So please America put your curtains inside the bath tub and mute your line on conference calls.

When you do a video conference you may not be getting the full picture. This one you really do!