Posts Tagged ‘Cell Phone’
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
There was a time when you would not even think about running an automated conference call for 20 or more participants. If you were going to run a conference call of that size you would run the conference call with the assistance of an operator. And even today, an Operator Assisted call might be the right conference call solution depending on your application, but the conference call technology has gotten to where running a large automated conference call is manageable if you know a few tricks.
The main problem with running a large conference call is the noise the audience can introduce during the call. It is bad enough when there are just 4 or 5 participants and one of them introduces noise because they are on a cell phone, rustling papers on their desk, talking to people in their room, etc. Just imagine having 100 people on the call. The odds that someone is going to make noise during the conference call are pretty good. In fact, virtually certain. So, what can you do to hold an orderly conference call with a large audience? Here are a few tips to make for a successful large conference call.
- Turn Off any Tones - Most conference call service companies provide tones on the conference clal so you know when a participant joins the call. This is fine when you have 5 people on the conference call, but can be more than a distraction when there are 20 or more.
- Mute All - The conference calling service should provide a way to mute all participants as the Moderator of the conference call.
- Use an online interface if offered - Some conference call service companies offer an online conference call interface that allows you to see the callers and control the audio portion of the conference call. This can be very helpful, especially if you intend to open up to questions from the audience. That way you can see the callers and manage the call easier.
- Use Web Conferencing - In addition to enhancing your conference call with visual presentations, a web conference can allow you to manage a Q&A session better than just using an audio conference. With a Web Conference you are giving your participants a way to raise their hand for questions and a way for you to open up an individual line to allow them to ask their question.
- Practice - The best thing you can do to insure your success with a large conference call is to run a practice session to make sure you are familiiar with all of the conference call controls and how to use them.
If you follow these tips you can run a large conference call successfully without the need to use an expensive Operator Assisted Conference Call.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Audience, Audio Portion, Call Interface, Cell Phone, Conference Call Service, Conference Calling Service, Desk, Distraction, Odds, Operator Assisted Call, Participant, Participants, People, Running, Technology, Visual Presentations, Web Conferencing
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Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
If you are the organizer of a meeting, you are responsible for the meeting’s success. When the meeting is a conference call there are a few things you can do to make sure you have an effective meeting. Just like in a face to face meeting you need to establish control of the meeting right up front so that everyone knows you are in charge and what the ground rules are going to be. Here are some ways to take control of the conference call if you are the host.
- Be on Time - Especially as the Host of the conference call it is important that you are on time and that the participants know that the meeting will start on time. This is respectful of the time of your participants and you will find that over time you will get better participation if they know the conference call will start and end on time.
- Have an Agenda - Even if it is a skeletal outline of what is to be discussed, an agenda distributed ahead of the conference call will give the participants an opportunity to prepare for the meeting. Participants are much more likely to participate if they are comfortable with the material being discussed and are ready for the topics.
- Establish and Hold to a time frame - Make sure that you end the conference call on time. Many times participants have back to back meetings and ending on time or ahead of schedule will encourage ongoing participation on the conference call.
- Eliminate or reduce any noise - With so many conference call participants joining the conference call by using a cell phone these days it is almost impossible for someone to not introduce noise into the conference call. As a conference call Host you can mute all of the participants if there is no need for active participation in the beginning of your conference call and then open up all of the lines for discussion later in the conference call. This will eliminate the introduction of any noise into the conference call. Or you should make sure that participants know to mute themselves unless they are speaking in order to eliminate any introduction of noise into the conference call.
- Encourage orderly participation - Ask your participants to introduce themselves when they are speaking so that all of the participants on the conference call know who is speaking. And, as Host it is your job to act as gate keeper for who is speaking as well.
- Review the Action Items and Next Steps - At the end of the call you should review what was discussed, review any actions items and who is responsible for them and then make sure everyone knows when the next conference call is if necessary.
As Host of the conference call you can ensure your success by taking charge of your meetings.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Agenda, Ahead, Cell Phone, Conference Call, Control, Effective Meeting, Hosting, Organizer, Participants, Participation, Skeletal Outline, Time Frame
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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
I have had the fortune to be involved in a few industries as they have gone from the early adoption phase to the accepted norm stage. I was in the telecommunications industry shortly after the divestiture of AT&T. I was in the paging industry as it grew wildly and then died just as quickly with the adoption of the cell phone. And then I joined the conference call industry and over the past 14+ years I have seen the conference call service industry go from a niche application mostly used by the legal industry to a widely used business tool. Conference calling has truly reached the level of mainstream acceptance.
I am not sure how an expert would judge whether conference calling has reached mainstream acceptance, but I am sure the growth of the industry is certainly one of the factors. And no one can deny that the conference calling industry has been fortunate to realize exponential growth over the past 14 years. One of the biggest factors for the growth in the conference calling industry is the change to a reservationless system where you don’t need an operator or schedule a conference call with anyone. The ease of use of conference call technology has also contributed to the growth.
When I started in the conference calling industry we received many calls from people at businesses who were trying to understand how to get multiple parties on the conference call and they really were not familiar with the technology. Now we receive calls from people who have inevitably been on a conference call but maybe they have never hosted a conference call before, but now plan to use the service. The method of conference calling has become somewhat standardized and everyone seems to know what the experience will be like on a conference call. So, now we spend a lot more time telling customers about the benefits of our service over others and educating them on the small differences between conference call service companies instead of educating them on how a conference call works.
But probably one of the biggest indicators I have seen in the past few years that conference calling has hit the mainstream is the use of conference calls for personal use. Because so many people have been exposed at work to conference calls, they are now finding applications in their personal lives to use conference calling. The wide availability and lower costs of conference calling have really helped this new area of applications. We have had people use conference calling for wedding and event planning like family reunions where the participants are not able to meet physically. Recently we even had a family use a conference call so that the missing family members could attend a grave side service because they all could not attend the service in person. I think that the conference call industry will continue to grow with the advent of new applications as more and more people think up new ways that they can use conference calling to their benefit.
www.zipconferencing.com
that is widely used
Tags: Adoption, Amp, Business Conference, Business Tool, Cell Phone, Conference Call Service, Divestiture, Exponential Growth, Fortune, Mainstream Acceptance, Niche Application, Norm, Technology, Telecommunications Industry
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
Sitting here on Columbus Day and working, as I always have, has made me think about all the holidays I have had to work and how conference calls have helped make them happen. It seems over the past ten years especially, the pressure to produce more with less in the American work place has made it normal to work on holidays. And it seems there are fewer and fewer holidays that we celebrate. So how do you keep up with work expectations and still make time for family and friends on the holidays. It isn’t the only answer certainly, but conference calls have save more than one holiday for me.
Here you are, it is Columbus Day and you have planned to take a personal day or floating holiday to spend with your family because the company you work for doesn’t recognize Columbus Day as a paid company holiday. And just as you are heading out of the door on the Friday before the holiday you are asked to hold a meeting to discuss a very important topic that is time sensitive and must happen on Monday, your day off. How can you manage to keep everyone happy and still keep your day off? Why a conference call of course! The beauty of technology world we live in is the ability to conduct business from just about anywhere. As long as you can get a signal on your cell phone and an internet connection, most people can continue to do all of their job functions without missing a beat. And a conference call allows you to put that technology to work and conduct a group meeting from a distance without sacrificing anything. With a conference call you can meeting with your group just as you would in person and use a web conference to further enhance your meeting with pictures as well.
So, enjoy your holidays. Even when something comes up that requires you to meeting with a group of people you can still have your meeting without physically having the need to go to your office by using a conference call.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: American Work, Cell Phone, Columbus Day, Company Holiday, Conference Call, Family And Friends, Holidays, Internet Connection, Job, Personal Day, Phone Internet, Technology World, Web Conference, Work Expectations
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Friday, September 11th, 2009
The majority of conference calls are with less than five people and last around 45 minutes. With a small group like that you can simply get on the conference call and talk amongst yourselves like you are in a room together and manage to keep the conversation orderly. With this many participants the only thing you really have to worry about is when one of the participants is introducing outside noise to the conference call like if they are driving in their car with a headset on or outside on a cell phone. And that participant usually knows enough that they will mute themselves during the conference call unless they need to speak and then they can simply un-mute themselves using controls on their cell phone or from within the conference call. But the dynamic changes when you need to have 20, 30 or even 100 people on a conference call at the same time. How do you keep control of the conference call and keep the intrusion to a minimum?
It used to be that if you wanted more than a few people on a conference call at the same time you would need to have an operator help you run the call and you still can do that, but it can get rather expensive. So here are some ideas on how to best manage a large conference call using only a standard conference call.
First, as the Host you need to be extra organized. The planning before the conference call should include an agenda that you follow although you might not distribute to the participants in advance it will keep you on track. You will need to adjust your conference call options to make sure they are set correctly for this type of call. If you normally have tones sound when participants join the call you will want to turn that off as it will interrupt your call when participants join the conference call late. You will also want to have your participants join the conference call and listen to music prior to the Host joining. If participants are allowed to talk before you join there may be noise and confusion among the participants. And you will want to mute all participants when you join the call to make sure that extra noise does not enter the conference call. All of these controls are available to you as host of a conference call with Zip Conferencing through your phone or a web interface whichever you prefer.
Once you are all set you can present your materials or have a discussion with the other hosts on the call and then open it up for comments or questions at the end of the call. If you are going to open up the lines on a large conference call you should instruct participants to mute themselves unless they have something to add as this will also keep any interruptions to a minimum. When the conference call has ended you can set the call to disconnect when the host hangs up which will make sure that all participants are disconnected and you will not incur any charges beyond what you expected during the conference call.
Today it is possible to run a large conference call without the assistance of an operator and much more cost effective too.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: 100 People, Audience, Call Options, Cell Phone, Conference Call, Control, Dynamic Changes, Intrusion, Large Conference, Music, Participant, Participants, Small Group, Wanted People
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