Tele-Conference Calls Vs. Live Meetings Online

Online web conferencing is a live meeting conducted in a private room from your computer between 2 or more people. It is some what like a phone conference, only better! You lose the static, background noise and the cost of phone usage by the minute. So immediately there is an upside. If your meeting is an hour long, the attendee doesn't have the additional cost. With today's global environment you can have people from all over the world in the same meeting.

You gain a visual aspect to the meeting. By visual, I mean, you can add pictures, documents from your desktop, PowerPoint presentations, use a powerful whiteboard and the added ability to pull up web pages off the Internet, with ease.

Live meetings Online is fast becoming as popular, if not more than teleconferencing. There is a huge shift from the phone to web based meetings. according to ICD Research there were 79 million users in 2003,with an increase of 107 million this year!

You need a computer and any type of Internet connection. You download a piece of software to you're computer and your set to go. Most computers have speakers and a built in microphone. If not, a simple headset will do. For those that do not have a microphone there is a text chat box.

The meeting can be open to the public or private. Access can only be gained by name and password... so you can invite all or a select few. Picture having a meeting with two people or with 100's. It's now very affordable to have small group meetings or large group meetings with people from all over the world together in real time.

If you're are the one holding the meeting you are called a moderator. You have full control of the room and a full suite of tools that are easy to use.

Everyone in the room sees whatever the moderator is showing at any given moment. It gives you the confidence of everyone being on the same page. It also allows everyone in the meeting to see, hear and focus their attention while also interacting together. This is a key element of online conferencing. Speaking from experience, that interaction is important, as it builds rapport among the group. With today's environment, communication is a must. If you"re not doing it someone else will.

Common uses for web conference rooms includes:

--> Sales Presentations
--> New Product Training
--> Staff Meetings
--> Brain Storming Sessions
--> Tutoring
--> Podcasting
--> Marketing Seminars and Live Training Classes

Can you see how the list keeps growing? Let's say a realtor can hold a private meeting with a prospective buyer. The realtor has the ability to show a client homes and discuss the client's needs while building a relationship with the client. A Tutor can teach a group of students together and never have to leave home! Think about training your business organization marketing techniques internationally. In every organization there are those that have special abilities that they can share, why not have them do training also. The ability to record these meetings and have the files for future use enable attendees to go over material again and again.

Looking into the different options on web conference rooms, I quickly found they are not all the same. Some are quite expensive, some you use a phone and a computer and some you have to have high speed internet. Ideally you want look for computer based room that has great audio along with visual. Check and see if they have training on how to use your room so you can quickly get up and running. It really isn't hard to moderate a room, but there are some unique things that you can do and having someone show you, cuts your learning curve down. You will also want to check out security features. If you're using time sensitive information, you wouldn't want someone hacking in. As for tools, check out the features of the whiteboard. Can you do power point presentations? Are you able to bring in documents off your computer? Can you pull up the Internet and bring it into your room? There are a lot of neat things you can do to customize your room, see if the interface allows you to do that. Are there recording features? Make sure you can record the sound and the visual aspects of your meeting.

If you have a large group, someone with very low memory on their computer can get bounced out. Once in a while the room can freeze up on the moderator, thus having to exit and then re-enter again. These seemingly small problems are a drop in the bucket compare to the power of the room to communicate.

If your spending hours on the phone or traveling to and fro to meetings, you owe it to yourself to check out web conferencing. Think of the hours you save...what could you do? I know what I do with mine! Holding live meetings online in a virtual room, saves you time money and your sanity.