Conference calls are easy to do and can be done from anywhere.  These days it is hard to find a spot where your cell phone doesn’t work.  To attend that critical meeting remotely you simply need to dial a toll free number and put in your pass code when prompted and you are on the conference call.  I had a friend visiting us and needed to stay close to the implementation of a large customer he was responsible for in his business.  Just being on vacation was not relaxing to him because this customer was very important to him.  Once I explained how easy it was to set up a conference call, however, he was able to relax knowing he could still attend the meeting without missing out on too much fun.  He did have to go to his car in the parking lot at the beach to dial into the conference call so he could participate in the conference call without any interruptinion, but it was much better than the alternative.  He only missed about 45 minutes on the beach with his family and was able to truly relax once he was able to participate in the meeting.  Without conference calls he would have been uncomfortable all vacation or had to stay home to attend the meeting.

So, I know conference calls are an extension of work and work on vacation is something we all try to avoid.  But isn’t it better than having to attend the meeting in person?  And in a lot of cases it is worth attending that meeting remotely while on vacation so that you can relax.  So, relax.  Go on vacation.  And if you really need to, do a conference call.

And why wait for a volcanic eruption to discover how conference calls can save you time, money and increase your productivity?  Businesses have discovered for a long time that using conference calls and web conferencing to replace some of your in person meetings is not just he practical thing to do but simply a good business decision.  Let’s face it, most meetings we have are not necessary to have in person.  You are simply communicating with people you know and sharing ideas, advancing a project or doing a presentation.  Unless you need to do something physically with the participants or desire to shake hands all of this can be done remotely.  And even as a staunch promoter of conference calls I understand that sometimes you need to get together with the other participants to build a relationship.  And doing that remotely is difficult if not impossible.  So, have your initial meeting in person, break some bread but then have the next meeting by way of a conference call or web conference.  All of the participants will be thankful of the time saved in getting together physically.

So, don’t wait for the volcano to make you try a conference call or a web conference.  It is time to incorporate distance meetings into your regular way of doing business.  And then if something happens that prevents your next inperson meeting you will not feel the impact.  You and your participants will be thankful for the conference calls!

Conference calls and web conferences can truly offer a reliable substitute for in person meetings.  I certainly agree that there is no substitute for sitting around a conference table together

In person meetings are great.  You get to shake hands, look people in the eye and connect with others the way you can’t when you are on a remote meeting.  But every meeting doesn’t need to be in person.  If you know the people you are meeting with and have met before you don’t really need to meet in person every time.  And by doing some of your meetings by way of conference calls and web conferencing you can hold just as effective a meeting as if you were in person without the travel expense and do your part to reduce your carbon footprint.  Holding a conference call or web conference has never been easier.  Services are widely available, affordable and very easy to use.  At this point just about everyone has been on a conference call that utilizes a toll free number and a pass code.  You simply dial the access number and put in your code and you are connected to the other people that did the same.  You can meet with hundreds of people at once if you like and you can meet any time you like.  A web conference is just as easy and allows you to share your desktop or do a presentation from your PC as easily as if the people were in the same room.  You can even use a camera and send participants your own video feed if you really want to add that in person feeling.   And while you are being a good steward of the Earth you also will be saving a good amount of money and time using conference call services as an alternative.

If only a fraction of meetings today were replaced with conference calls and web conferencing we would save millions of tons of carbon emissions.  And lets face it, there are a lot of meetings that are not worth the gas to get there. 

And using a conference call instead of driving to an appointment is many times just a matter of thinking to do it.  So on Earth Day it gives us one more reason to think to do a conference call benefiting everyone concerned, even the Earth.

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.

Conference calls have become an important piece of business services that is now used around the world to help people communicate.  A conference call provider plays a role in each of its customers’ businesses that it cannot ignore.  Vital communications are being done everyday via conference calls and the responsibility to provide a reliable, high quality conference call service cannot be taken lightly.  There are many different options for conference call equipment and the way the telecommunications network that is set up on the equipment.  The level of service provided its customers is as varied as the equipment and the pricing options available can be confusing as well.  When selecting a conference call provider you should consider the following points.

• Conference Call Equipment - Is the equipment the latest equipment available?  Are there back up systems available in case of an outage?  How much capacity does the conference call provider have?
• Service Availability - Does the conference call provider have personnel available 24/7 to assist you in case there is a question or issue?  Can you easily reach someone from within the conference call?
• Features - Does the conference call provider have the features you expect?  Can you customize the way your conference call works?
• Support - Does the conference call provider have adequate support documentation?  Do they offer personal service representatives?

A conference call provider should be considered your partner in your business and provide a service that you are proud of because the conference calls you hold for your business are a reflection on you.  You cannot afford to have an issue in the middle of an important business discussion.  The conference call service needs to be available and provide a clear reliable connection.  And if there is ever any kind of an issue you need to be able to get assistance easily from the provider.  So, taking a little time up front to investigate the provider will pay dividends for a long time to come.

Zip Conferencing provides reliable, high quality conference calls for less.  If you spend the time to compare Zip Conferencing to other conference call providers you will see that Zip Conferencing is hard to beat.  The latest conference call equipment, installed directly on carrier networks provide feature rich conference calls.  Dedicated 24/7 support insures that you will be supported regardless of your needs.

• Equipment Cost - First thing is the cost of the equipment.  The cost of conference call bridges has come down over the years but the cost of a conference call bridge like the ones used by conference call service companies is still hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
• Telecommunications Connections - You will need to dedicate telecommunications connections to the conference call bridge.  There is a cost to just maintain the connections to the conference call bridge.
• Equipment Maintenance- You will need to pay the manufacturer of the conference call bridge equipment a maintenance fee to keep the hardware and software up to date.
• Support Cost - You will need to pay for support on the conference call bridge equipment in case there is an issue.  Typically this may be included for the first year in your maintenance cost.
• Internal Support - You will need someone in your organization to maintain the conference call bridge.  No matter how self serving the equipment is you will need someone to play administrator for the conference call bridge.
• Long Distance Cost - There is a variable telecommunications cost for having toll free access and you will need to pay the long distance connection per minute charges for your participants to get to the conference call bridge.

So when you add up all of the cost to run your own conference call bridge you may find that the cost per minute to operate your own equipment may be higher than if you use a conference call service.  Especially now that the conference call rates are as low as they are it really is hard to justify having your own conference call bridge.

• Family Party Planning - Many times you may want to have a party with your family and you need to work on logistics like during the holidays.  If you have a dispersed family and you need to get everyone on the same page a conference call will allow you to get all of the family members on the same page.
• Family Emergencies- If you have a family emergency you need to deal with such as a death or hospitalization of a family member and you need to coordinate with the other family members you can do a conference call to get together more easily.
• Birth of a child - A new family member is a great excuse to get everyone on the phone so you can celebrate with everyone in the family.
• Local Organization - If you have a local club or organization that you organize you can use a conference call to coordinate your efforts with the other members of the organization.

Basically, anything you can think of where you need to get multiple parties together to discuss something you can coordinate with a conference call.  Conference call rates have gotten low enough where even for residential conference calls it makes sense rather than an in person meeting if you would like to save money and time.

When the first free conference call service was introduced everyone in the conference call industry kind of shrugged and figured everyone would understand the deficiencies with the service and steer clear of them.  Well, free conference call services have survived because everyone likes something “free” so its attraction can not be underestimated.  But, is it truly free?  And what is the difference between free conference call services and paid conference call services?  Here are the details behind free conference call services.

• Free Doesn’t mean No Cost- True, after the conference call is over you may not owe the free conference call service provider anything, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t cost you anything.  That is because all free conference call service providers give you a local number to access your conference call.  That “local” number is usually not local for anyone on the conference call which means you and you participants have to make a long distance call to connect to your conference.  Do you want your customer or prospect to get long distance charges on their phone bill for attending your conference call?
• Will it be available when you dial in - The way a free conference call service company makes money is by getting the termination fee for having you call into a location where long distance providers pay the local telephone company to terminate the call.  The amount they are paid is very small so they can’t afford the best conference call equipment and have a limitation on capacity.  There is no guarantee that when you call in for your conference call that the capacity will be there for you.  Do you want to chance having the conference call available?
• Toll Free at a Price - You can usually get a toll free access number for your conference call, but you will pay for it.  And if you find that if you shopped around the competition you could find a better toll free conference call rate from a company with better features and more reliable conference call equipment.
• Support is Not Free - And if you need any support, how much support do you expect if the service is free? 

So, if you want to make sure your conference call is there when you need and not get hit with hidden charges you may want to examine what it means to be a free conference call service.

Audio conferencing is just another way of saying conference call and specifically is describing a conference call on a telephone whose main communication method is using sound/speech over the telephone.  An audio conference today has become a fairly standard offering as far as the way it works and many of its features.  Generally, an audio conference is held by dialing an access number and then putting in a pass code when you are connected to the conference call service equipment.  The conference call service equipment then places you in the appropriate conference call based on the pass code you input.  Basically all of the participants that enter that code will be placed into the same conference call.  Most conference call services will provide a separate pass code for the Host of the call so they can access certain features within the conference call.

The most common features available to the Host on a conference call are the ability to mute all participants, raise and lower the volume and disconnect some or all of the participants.  Some conference call service companies will offer additional features like the ability to conduct a roll call and even record the conference call.  Zip Conferencing offers these features and more.

So, if you hear of someone referring to an Audio Conference you know it is just a plain old conference call.

• Local US Number - Since the international participant cannot dial a US toll free number, most conference call service companies also provide a local US number to dial in order to access the conference call.  Since it is a local US number the international conference call participant can dial it from anywhere in the world and access the conference call.  The only catch with this method of access is that the international participant is going to pay long distance toll charges to dial a US number and will pay those charges to their long distance phone company for the entire time they are on the conference call.  If the participant is an employee and has a good calling plan to dial the US this may be the least expensive option.  Usually the cost to the Host of the conference call is the same or less than the toll free access for US participants.
• Local In-Country Number - Some conference call service companies have set up local access in foreign countries where the international participant can dial in to a US conference call by dialing a local number where they are located.  So, if the participant was in London, for example, they would dial a local London phone number and the conference call service company then transports the caller to the US conference call via their network.  The international participant usually doesn’t have to pay any charges to access a local number and the Host of the conference call in the US usually pays a little more than the local US number access but less than an international toll free number.
• International Toll Free Number - An international toll free number is by the far the most convenient, but also the most expensive option for access to an international conference call.  There is no universal toll free access available so you need to dial a specific toll free number from a particular country.  But you can dial the number anywhere in that country and the participant will pay nothing to access the US conference call.  But this type of access is the most expensive for the Host of the conference call.  If the participant for the conference call is a customer or a prospective customer and you want to make sure they do not spend anything to access your conference call then this might be the best option for you.

International conference calls are now widely used and there are a variety of ways to connect to the call from around the world.  Zip Conferencing offers all three types of access with over 40 local numbers and 40 toll free numbers around the world providing access throughout all major markets around the world.