Archive for the ‘Web Conferencing’ Category

Web Conferencing Software was all the Rage

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Okay, I am going to date myself a little with this post but what the heck. I spoke to someone the other day and he mentioned how he used to work for MShow and it brought back lots of fond memories. MShow was one of the first web conferencing providers and like the others at the time the way it all worked was with web conferencing software. You see back then, sounds like a long time ago but it was only the late 1990s, the Internet was still in its infancy and everyone didn’t have a broadband connection. Many of the things we now take for granted just did not exist. And in this environment someone had the brilliant idea that it would be great if people could share their computer screens across a network or do presentations and so web conferencing software was invented. And MShow was one of the leaders.

The way web conferencing software worked back then was every computer that you wanted to do a web conference with had to have the software installed prior to the conference call. And at the time downloading software on the Internet was not commonplace either. So you literally had to have the CD ahead of time and install web conferencing software. Once you had the web conferencing software installed you still needed a little help doing a web conference with more than one other computer. The company I worked for at the time actually built one of the first web conferencing bridges we had ever heard about. We rigged up a computer with a network hub attached to it because you literally needed a network connection for each participant. Pretty laughable now but we were able to get 5 computers on a web conference at a time, amazing! MShow ended up being acquired by a large conferencing service provider and Webex came along and the rest as they say is history.

Today, conferencing service providers like Zip Conferencing provide web conferencing services that accomodate over 100 participants and there is not even a need to download any web conferencing software. Zip Conferencing uses Flash which is already installed in everyone’s PC to enable the web conference. Everyone has a broadband connection to the Internet and it is easier than ever to do a web conference where you can share your computer screen, do a presentation and even share video from your desktop. Amazing. Like I said I am going to date myself a little bit but it was only 14 years ago that we were trying to figure out how to get 5 computers on a web conference at the same time. I wonder what the next 14 years will hold.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing Services should be Easy to Use

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Web Conferencing Services have helped companies save millions of dollars and are here to stay.  The use of web conferencing services is expected to continue to grow rapidly over the next 5 years as more and more people adopt them for their own use.  And the inclination of many of the web conferencing services providers is to add more and more features to try and attract customers.  But the one thing that you really need to have in your web conferencing services is their ease of use.  Zip Conferencing has gone to great lengths to create a web conferencing service that is powerful and yet easy to use.  Here are some of the features that make our web conferencing service one of the easiest to use services in the market.

  • Outlook Integrated Invitations- One of the complications of getting a web conference meeting going is inviting your participants.  Different web conferencing services do this in a variety of ways but all offer some type of email confirmation or a web page you can send your participants to in order to join the meeting.  These methods certainly work but why should you have to cut and paste and try to pull together the information for your participants.  With Zip Conferencing you can use our Outlook scheduling tool and integrate your web conference details right within Outlook.  That way you are able to put out a meeting request just like you would any other meeting, from within Outlook.  Invite participants and have them accept the meeting and have the meeting appear on your calendar all using the same steps you would take to schedule any meeting.  Now that is Easy!
  • Intuitive Control Panel – The actual functionality of a web conference is not that different across providers but what is different is that way that you access the functions from within the service.  With all of the different features now packed within the web conferencing services out there you sometimes have to navigate a maze of controls to find what you are looking for.  Zip Conferencing has put the most widely used features front and center using intuitive controls available with the touch of a button.
  • No Software Downloads – One of the hardest things to overcome with a web conference is getting on the meeting.  Many times participants who have not used the web conferencing services before will have to download software in order to join the meeting.  Many times adding software to a computer is prohibited by companies and participants are unable to join.  With Zip Conferencing there are no software downloads for the participants.  Our web conference service uses Flash which is already widely installed on people’s computers so there is no waiting for participants to download software. 

If it isn’t easy to use you probably won’t use it.  So if you are just starting out doing web meetings or you have struggled in the past to have a successful web conference give Zip Conferencing a try.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

The Right Web Conferencing Solution for You

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Web Conferencing has come a long way since its invention in the mid 1990′s and today there are a lot of different solutions available.  So what is the right web conferencing solution for you?  First you need to familiarize yourself with the different features and options available and then look for the right solution.  Here are a few of the most popular options available with a web conferencing solution.

  • Application Sharing – Most web conferencing solutions offer some type of application sharing.  Application sharing is where you have the ability to show what is on your computer to the participants in your web conference.  Usually you can choose the application you want to share or just show everyone your entire desktop.  Just be careful if you choose your entire desktop all participants will see everything you have open on your computer as you move around. 
  • Whiteboarding – This is another popular feature for any web conferencing solution.  This feature mimics having a white board in your meeting.  You have the ability to draw on the white board and so do your participants.  So if you want a live interactive white board session you want to look for this feature.
  • Video Sharing – Some, but not all web conferencing solutions allow you to share your desktop video with your participants.  And some web conferencing solutions enable your participants to share their video with you and other participants as well.  Zip Conferencing has full video sharing with the host and participants.
  • Q&A and Polling – If you intend to use the web conferencing solution for any training application you may want to make sure it has some form of Q&A and Polling built into it.  These features allow you to ask the participants questions and then provide the results real time to the audience.  This interactivity helps keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation.
  • Chat – A chat function in the web conferencing solution allows you to communicate with people separately from the audio portion of the meeting.  That way you can have a private discussion with a participant during the web conference.

The best way to determine which web conferencing solution is right for you is to try them out.  Most of the services available offer some type of a free trial so there is no risk in trying out the service.  Zip Conferencing is extremely easy to use and offers a 30 day free trial to all users.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Online Web Conferencing just got Easier

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Online web conferencing has been around now for a while.  And online web conferencing of any kind is a whole lot easier than what you had to do before the proliferation of the Internet.  But one of the reasons online web conferencing has not been more widely adopted is because people are reluctant to learn a new application.  Conference calls are very easy because all you need is a telephone and everyone knows how to operate a telephone and dialing into a conference call could no be any easier.  So why does online web conferencing have to be so difficult.  Well, Zip Conferencing does not believe that a web conference should be any more difficult to run than an audio conference call.  And our new web conferencing service has taken the learning curve out of online web conferencing.  It is so easy to use you will not need any instruction whatsoever to be successful with the service right from the start.  In addition to being easy to use our online web conferencing service is packed with features that will allow you to perform amazing things.  Here is a list of some of the features that separate our online web conferencing service from all the others out there.

  • No Software Download Needed – Our online web conferencing does not require you to download any software in order to participant in the web conference.  This makes it much easier for your participants to join a web conference.  You won’t be wasting time waiting for people to connect to the your conference call and you participants won’t be frustrated trying to join either.
  • Dial Me Connections – Instead of having to figure out how to dial into online web conferencing we have made it so the system can dial out to you.  That way you don’t have to figure out a conference call and a web conference they are the same.  Just put your phone number into the system and it will connect you to the web conference.
  • Application Sharing – Like other online web conferencing solutions our web conferencing service allows you to share an application or your entire desktop with your participants.  The difference is we have an easy to find button that starts the process.  You don’t have to try to figure out how to share an application it is very evident from within the tool.
  • Polling – Many online web conferencing sites have polling but it is hard to operate.  Our web conferencing service has an easy to use polling feature that lets you share the results easily with your audience.  A polling feature helps keep your participants engaged in your web conference.
  • Video Sharing- Our online web conferencing solution even allows you to share your web cam feed with your participants.  And your participants can play too.  In fact you can have an unlimited number of web cams in your web conference.
  • Outlook Integration – To make the invitation process with your participants simple our online web conferencing service is integrated with Outlook so that you can invite participants through your email and then save the meeting as a scheduled appointment in your calendar.

The trick to successful online web conferencing is making it easy to use.  Zip Conferencing makes web conferencing as easy as can be.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Interactive Web Conferencing

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

As web conferencing has become more popular chances are that you have attended an online seminar where the presentation has been done via web conferencing.  Usually you are simply sitting in the audience on a conference call listening while watching the presentation on the web conference with little or no interaction with the speaker.  Although this is the most used method of web conferencing, the people who first came up with the idea had much bigger plans for web conferencing.

When web conferencing was first invented a lot of effort was made to make the service a collaborative tool where people could work on a document together from great distance.  This ability to collaborate was seen as the the killer application.  The adoption of web conferencing services is more and more widespread but interactive web conferencing is still lagging in its use overall.  Here are some of the features that allow for interactive web conferencing.

  • Application Sharing – Application sharing provides users the ability to share their desktop with the other participants on the web conference and permits any participant to control another computer.  This means that participants can actually control a document or spreadsheet and input or edit data on it.  Much like you would pass around a piece of paper in an in person meeting for people to mark up, you can actually change the document on the fly while on the web conference.
  • Whiteboarding- This application permits participants to mark up a virtual whiteboard seen by all participants while on an interactive web conference.  Much like someone would go up to a whiteboard to discuss things while in a conference room, participants can easily do the same on the web conference.
  • Polling/Q&A – Even a presentation can be an interactive web conference through the use of polling and Q&A features.  By engaging the audience you will have a more stimulating meeting and have better retention of the material.  Polling permits you to survey your audience during an interactive web conference and the Q&A feature allows you to conduct an orderly Q&A session for the presentation.

It seems that maybe people don’t work in a collaborative manner and allowing someone to control your PC is a little scary to some people as well.  But even if you are only doing a presentation using a web conferencing service you can make it an interactive web conference by adding polling and Q&A to your web conference.  You will find that the more you can make it an interactive web conference the more your participants will stay engaged with your presentation.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Free Web Conferencing

Monday, March 8th, 2010

One of the surest ways to get traffic to your web site is to give something away for free.  But how is it that a service that a lot of people are willing to pay for can be offered by another company for free.  Well, I have gone through free conference calls before and explained how that can happen, but what about free web conferencing? 

A conference call service company that provides web conferencing to its customers has to pay for a number of things in order to provide the service.  Some of those cost items include the following.

  • Software development – If the conference call service company has developed the service themselves then they had to pay to have the software developed in the first place.  And like any software you develop the development doesn’t end there.  There are on going improvements, bug fixes and so forth to fund.
  • Reseller fees- Some conference call services don’t develop their own software, they simply resell someone elses technology.  In this case there is always a cost to the company who is reselling the service.
  • Hosting environment – If you are supporting your own software you need to have a server or servers depending on the number of users to host the software and make it available to your customers. 
  • Internet Connectivity- If you are hosting your own web conferencing service you need to connect it to the internet and the connection needs to allow many users fast access so you will also need a very good and potentially expensive connection.
  • Support Costs – And like any other conference call service you will need to support your web conferencing service with sales and service personnel.

So, if there are all these costs, how does anyone provide free web conferencing?  Well, some conference call service companies will offer a dumbed down version for free hoping you will upgrade because the free version doesn’t do much.  Or the web conferencing service they offer for free is an old version they no longer support and instead of retiring it they simply give it away so you will come to their site and but the other version.  Either way, if you investigate the free web conferencing versions out there you will see that they are not a full version, current representative of what web conferencing can do.  And it just may not have the reliability and capacity you would expect with a service you pay for.  After all it is free so how hard can you complain?

If you really need a good web conferencing service don’t use a free one.  For a low monthly fee you can have access to a web conferencing service that save you time and money wihtout breaking the bank.

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing for Remote Support

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Web conferencing has been adopted by sales organizations around the world as a way to do a presentation for a prospect from your desktop,  greatly reducing travel expenses and increasing productivity.  It is also widely recognized for its remote training abilities which allows participants to take a training class without the costly need to travel to a central location.  But another application for web conferencing that is being used, but maybe not as widely known is for the support of customers and employees remotely to troubleshoot software on their desktops.

Since web conferencing allows participants to see each other’s computer screens regardless of the application that is running.  It allows a technical support person to view the PC of a customer or employee which assists them in more easily diagnosing an issue.  A remote participant does not need to try to describe the issue they are having because the technician will be able to see exactly what they are talking about on the web conference.  And if the participant allows it, the technician can even take control of the remote user’s PC and fix the problem while the participant sits back and watches them do the work.

Needless to say, this application for web conferencing is a win-win for the company supporting the product and the customer, since the problem is fixed easily and quickly and any interpretation errors on exactly what the issue is are avoided because the technician is actually viewing the PC themselves.  Like all of the conference call services, the web conferencing in this application saves any travel costs that may have been associated with the service and makes the technician that much more productive since they can handle many of these types of service calls using web conferencing instead of travelling to customer locations.  In many cases, if you are selling your product across the country or around the world, travelling to customer locations to support your product is not even practical.  Especially for a small business that is trying to support their product, web conferencing offers a way to provide their customers an excellent level of service without spending a lot of money.  Supporting your customers using web conferencing just makes good business sense.

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

I Resolve to do more Web Conferencing

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Its that time of year again.  Everyone sets expectations for themselves in the new year.  Many of the resolutions we commit to we do not stick with and some we don’t even attempt.  Maybe this is the year to set some realistic goals for ourselves that will benefit us personally and also help in our own little way the world around us.  Why not resolve to do more web conferencing?  I am going to add it to my list.  Because I am as guilty as the next person.  It is easier to stick with the familiar than to try something new and if you have never conducted a web conference before it can be a little intimidating.  But the benefits to you and the world are real!

  • Save Time – A web conference can save you time on the front end by simply eliminating the need to travel to a meeting.  Even if the meeting is in the same building with people you work with you still have to get up off your seat and go to a meeting room.  You have to remember to bring all the materials you will need or you may need to return to your desk to get additional materials or reschedule another meeting so you can bring other things, etc.  You can instantly attend your meeting right from your desk and have all of your materials at your fingertips to share with everyone at the meeting if you do a web conference.
  • Save Money – The cost to travel to your meeting locally or at a great distance is saved if you do it from your desk using a web conference.  If you have to travel across the country all of the travel costs will be saved which can add up to thousands of dollars.
  • Increase Productivity – You will find that by doing a web conference you are better prepared for your meeting and can extend the discussion since you have access to everything you need.  You also will be able to work during the time you would otherwise have to travel.
  • Save the Environment – By using a web conference instead of travelling to a meeting you are being very eco-friendly.  Think of all the carbon emissions you are avoiding during the travel you have avoided.  And all of the participants in the web conference also have avoided all of the travel and associated emissions.

So, for your benefits and in a small part, all of mankind, it is time to resolve to do more web conferencing.  And unlike the resolutions you are unlikely to stick to you will find this one is easy to keep once you feel the benefits.

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing System Compatibility

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

In the early days of web conferencing you actually had to install software on the PCs that you were going to connect so that they would be compatible with each other and be able to share screens.  Then, along came services that required you to do the same thing, but only handled it a little more elegantly by doing a quick download onto your machine.  The web conferencing industry leader, who shall remain nameless, still does it this way.  Most of the other providers, Zip Conferencing included, have designed their web conferencing software using an open platform mentality using software that exists on most PCs already, Java.  By using this philosophy the users do not need to download any software, unless they are missing Java, in order to join a web conference.  And the system requirements for someone to participate in a web conference for Zip Conferencing’s service is pretty basic.  The system requirements are as follow:

  • Hardware: Pentium III+, 256 MB RAM, DSL or cable modem
  • Operating System:
    Presenters: Microsoft Windows 2000®, Windows XP®, Windows Server 2003®, Windows Vista ® , or Windows 7 ®
    Attendees: Microsoft Windows 2000®, Windows XP®, Windows Server 2003®, Windows Vista®, Windows 7 ®, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0
  • Browser:Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0, Firefox 3.01 or later
  • Java: Sun Java 1.4.2_06, 1.5.0_06, 1.5.0_10, 1.6.0_01 or later
  • Download FREE http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
  • JavaScript and Cookies: Must be enabled.
  • Flash: Version 9.0 or higher. 
  • PresenterAppSharing test:To use the Appshare annotation feature, Presenters must be using Microsoft Windows 2000®, Windows XP®, Windows Vista® or Windows Server 2003®, with a color depth of 16-bit or higher.

To playback a conference recording:
To view and listen to an audio recording or a Web recording you must have the following:

  1. Operating System: Windows 2000®, Windows XP®, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista®
  2. Browser:Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0, Firefox 3.01 or higher 
  3. Web Conferencing Player  Download FREE http://zipdemo.conferencinghub.com/utilities/playbacktest.aspx
  4. Windows Media Player or Real Player
    Download Windows Media Player     OR    Download Real Player
Download FREE http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/download/download.aspx
Download FREE http://www.real.com/
Two recent developments have further extended the reach of Zip Conferencing’s web conferencing platform.  Our web conferencing service is now compatible with Mac operating systems and Windows 7.  So now there is virtually no system out there that can’t join in a web conference.
www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing Saves a Company Thousands of Dollars

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

I know I have blogged about conference calls and web conferencing and how it can save you money.  But I thought it would be useful to use a real life example to illustrate just how dramatic the savings can be when you choose to conduct a meeting using a web conference instead of an in person meeting. 

A customer had an instance where they really needed to go to Hong Kong from New Jersey to have a meeting with a new customer to discuss the implementation of their services.  And under normal conditions this type of meeting in person is very typical for this customer and they would not use a web conference for the implementation phase of their service.  But in this case the customer had an issue where they wanted to have a pre-m eeting with this vendor and discuss how the implementation would work with one of their contacts before they had the actual meeting.  So, the customer requested that the vendor come out and have a meeting and then return to have the actual implementation meeting.  This meant that two employees would need to fly from New Jersey to Hong Kong which is a 16 hour flight for a four hour meeting and then return to New Jersey only to go back to Hong Kong the following week.   And for those of you who have not had to do this flight it is not only long, it is expensive.  It costs $1,800 for a coach seat and almost $9,000 for a business class seat each.  The bottom line for the vendor was that the four hour meeting was going to cost about $5,000 and several days of productivity from two employees.

In steps Web Conferencing to save the day.  The vendor convinced the customer that they could do a web conference for the pre-meeting at least and spend as much time as is necessary to go through the implementation planning.  The customer agreed and the web conference went off without a hitch and made the customer feel comfortable about the upcoming meeting.  The customer and the vendor were able to interact on the web conference just like they were in the same conference room and accomplish everything that needed to be done.  The meeting ended up lasting about 3 hours and cost the vendor $29 using Zip Conferencing’s web conference service.  Using web conferencing saved the vendor $5,000 and allowed them to conduct the meeting without any sacrifice in results and also saved a lot of time for the employees increasing the company’s productivity.

These kind of events happen all the time and is the reason that web conferencing is growing so fast.  Customers immediately experience the real life benefits of conducting a web conference instead of an in-person meeting.

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing with Video

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Maybe I am dating myself a little bit, but even young people these days have heard of the Jetsons.  When I was growing up the Jetsons were a popular cartoon on Saturday mornings and the concepts of flying cars, pushing buttons for a living and video telephones were introduced to a generation.  Certainly some of the ideas used in the cartoon may never come to pass and others already have to a degree.  But the one idea I think many people thought would have taken off by now is the video telephone.  Video conferencing has been around for a while and many people thought every business would have a video conference room at one point.  Then the concept of video conferencing was brought to the desktop and people again thought this it it, everyone will be doing it.  Well, as conference calls and web conferencing have continued to grow, video conferencing has not.

There are plenty of theories on why video conferencing has not grown much in the past ten years.  I think that several factors contribute to it, but I think mainly as a stand alone technology it is simply not as practical for businesses as web conferencing.  Just being able to see someone at distance while you talk to them is not adding much to the equation.  But now with web conferencing you can have integrated video within the web conferencing tool itself.  This marriage of steak and sizzle puts web conferencing in a position where you can have the added comfort of being able to see the presenter and focus on the materials in a presentation. 

In our web conferencing service is an integrated desktop video conferencing tool that is simple to use and provides the ability to see multiple parties as part of your conference call.  If you have a laptop with a camera integrated into the system or have added a camera to your laptop or desktop, you can now share your live image with the participants on your web conference by simply clicking a button.  As presenter on the conference call you can decide if the participants can also share their images with the other participants during the web conferencing.  A scroll bar allows you to look across multiple video feeds at once and have some control over the picture as well.

As an integrated part of a web conference, video helps connect you with your audience and yet keeps the focus where it should be, on the materials.

 

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing makes the Meeting Room

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The mass adoption of web conferencing hasn’t really happened yet, but it is surely well along the adoption path lifecycle.  Don’t get me wrong, web conferencing is growing like a weed and is today almost a $1B business in North America.  But when you look at the sheer number of conference calls going on today and the number of them that contain a web conferencing element to them it is a drop in the bucket.  What we ahve seen in the industry so far is the adoption of web conferencing for the killer applications and those users love it and use it extensively.  That segment continues to grow as more and more people discover that they can conduct online seminars, sales presentations and training sessions remotely using web conferencing services.  What hasn’t quite happened yet is the use of the web conferencing element on an everyday conference call.  Conference call moderators don’t think “Maybe I should start a web conference with this conference call just in case we want to share something.”

This use of web conferencing as an integrated part of the conference call is the next step in getting web conferencing to be a part of the online meeting experience.  The technology certainly is there.  Web conferencing is easy to use and can actually enhance the conference call without even sharing any visuals.  When you have a web conference up and with it an integrated audio conference call you can actually see the participants talking and know who is talking and as a moderator you can control the audio element of the call through online controls in the web conference.  And the pricing is certainly there.  Most web conferencing service providers today offer an unlimited seat package.  That means there is no additional cost to having a web conference up during every conference call.

If you happen to have a web conference up during every conference call someone might share something they otherwise would not be able to since they can share the visual element that was missing before.  Have you ever been in a meeting room that does not have a white board or flip chart for use?  Most have them there because during any meeting it is sometimes much easier to explain something using visual cues than simply trying to talk through the issue.  And the same hold true for the virtual meeting room on a conference call.  If the capability exists to share something visually and participants are used to having those tools available, they will begin to use the tools more often.  This will encourage more participation from the people attending the conference call and improve the communication in the meeting.

So, what are you waiting for?  Try using web conferencing with every conference call and see if it doesn’t start a better conversation in your next meeting.  www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

An Introduction to Web Conferencing

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

It may be hard to imagine, but there are still a good amount of potential customers that don’t understand the basics of holding a conference call.  We frequently get questions about how it works, how many people can you have on a call at once and what they need to do to host a conference call.  So, it is no wonder that many people out here have not have not been on a web conference and in fact don’t even know what it means to hold a web conference.  Today, I would like to talk about the general principles of web conferencing and what it means to hold a web conference.

When the industry first invented the web conference it struggled with what to call it.  Is it an online meeting, a web conference, a webinar or just a conference call?  Well, you will still hear it called a variety of things but a web conference has kind of stuck as a term to refer to any conference call that has a visual element you view over the internet.  Web conferencing has also become somewhat standardized in the functions that you can perform on a web conference no matter what brand you choose to use.  Basically, a web conference allows you to share what is on your computer with the participants on the conference call in addition to being able to speak to them.  And, just like any in person presentation, the ability to share images during your web conference has a positive impact in engaging your audience and improving their retention of the materials.

The web conferencing services have gotten pretty sophisticated in their feature set, but most people are still just using about 10% – 20% of the software’s ability.  This is not unlike any piece of “software” and you can still hold successful web conferences jus tusing the basics.  In fact, I know many users that have always simply used the application sharing abilities of the web conference alone no matter what they are doing.  This feature simply shows everyone what is on your computer screen as you see it.  Since the concept is simple and the web conferencing service does this with a single button it is understandable why people have gravitated to using this function.

A couple of the other standard features available are the ability to share a whiteboard on your computer with your participants while on a web conference, and the other feature used by most people is the ability to share a Powerpoint presentation.  Again, this functionality is familiar to anyone who does a presentation and once you start the web conference, showing your Powerpoint slides is as easy as doing it in person.  It is no wonder that web conferencing is expected to grow dramatically over the next five years.   www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing Features Make Remote Meetings Easy

Friday, July 24th, 2009

When Web Conferencing was first introduced it included a number of features that still exist in the web conference service business today.  But over time, conference call service providers and web conferencing companies have enhanced web conferencing to allow anyone to quickly and easily conduct a web conference without the need for a lot of training or experience.

The features that have always existed with web conferencing include:

  • Whiteboarding
  • Share Powerpoint presentations
  • Share Applications

The ability to whiteboard on a web conference allows participants on the conference call to participate on a virtual whiteboard by using their mouse and tools to annotate and collaborate with other participants.  The ability to share a Powerpoint presentation gives you the ability to broadcast your Powerpoint to the entire audience and the ability to share applications allows you to share virutally anything that is on your desktop with the other participants.

Over time additional functionality has been added to web conferencing including:

  • A Chat feature
  • Video conferencing
  • A Recording function
  • Q&A
  • Polling
  • Participant Registration Info
  • Exit Surveys

A chat feature was added to allow participants to chat with each other or the Moderator on a web conference.  The ability to share a video of yourself as the Moderator on the web conference gives the participants a face with the name on the conference call.  A recording function has existed for a while, but only recently has the full integration of voice and visual presentation recorded without the need for extra equipment become available.   A Q&A and Polling element on a web conference has also been available for a while but the tools provided to build the questions and tally the results have become much easier to implement and use.  And one fo the favorite tools of the Sales and Marketing users is the ability to create a registration process to capture participant informaiton on the front end of the web conference and a exit survey process to give the participants the ability to provide feedback after the web conference has been completed.

Even though the features available on a web conference have grown and enhanced, the inuitiveness of the interface has also improved to where anyone can conduct a web conference and look like a pro in a very short time.  Zip Conferencing like some other conference call service providers gives a 30 day free trial of the service to allow users to become familiar with the web confernecing service at no cost before they do a live presentation.

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off

Web Conferencing changes Everything

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Web Conferencing started out as something you did on your company’s network and only if you and the person you wanted to web conference with had the same software installed on their machine.  The internet was still coming of age so many of the things we now take for granted did not exist.  In fact, I remember in 1995 taking some of the available software, buying a card for a computer that allowed multiple network connections and building a web conference bridge you could dial into so that up to 5 people could get on the same web conference.  As long as the 5 people had a good connection to the internet.

When I think about that now I laugh.  In the past 10 years the technology has come a long way.  Today you can easily hold a web conference with up to 100 people and you don’t even have to download any software.  High speed internet connections are taken for granted and conference calls are completed integrated into the experience to add voice and visual communications on a conference call. 

With the advent of web conferencing, you can easily add a visual element to your conference calls.  This makes your confernece call more compelling, encourages audience participation and helps with retention.  The applications are wide spread and more and more people are utilizing web conferencing services to help sell, train and inform to internal and external clients throughout the world. 

I don’ t know if anyone has attempted to calculate the savings in hours of productivity, travel costs and fossil fuels, but it must be enormous. The amount spent on web conferencing in 2007 was over $700,000,000 in the US alone and even as the service continues to be more affordable, it is expected that the amount spent in five years will be almost double what it is today.  That is because web conferencing services make sense to such a wide range of industries and applications.  Just like conference call volume has seen a tremendous amount of growth in the past 15 years, web conferencing is now enjoying that same growth.  That is because it is truly easy to use and affordable to everyone.

So the next time you register for that online “webinar” think about how what you would have to do to get that same seminar without web conferencing.  because web confernecing changes everything.

www.zipconferencing.com

Posted in Web Conferencing | Comments Off