Posts Tagged ‘Cell Phones’

Audio Conference Calling is the Simplest Way to Meet

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

I have been in the teleconferencing industry for over 15 years and audio conference calling just keeps getting easier and easier.  You can’t argue with the fact that audio conference calling is the simplest way to have a meeting whether you are across the hall or around the wall.  And no one makes it simpler than Zip Conferencing.

When I first started in this industry it was mostly dial out conference calls.  That means that to do audio conference calling an operator would contact you at a pre-designated phone number and connect you to the conference call.  Needless to say this was not a very convenient method of getting on a conference call.  Especially since most people did not have cell phones back then.  The biggest development in audio conference calling came with the invention of the dial in reservationless conference call.  This is the type of conference call most people are familiar with at this point.  You are given an access number and a pass code.  At the time you choose to do audio conference calling you dial the access number and input the pass code.  Everyone that does that will end up on the same conference call together.  After this audio conference calling boomed.  That is because the industry made it super simple to get on a conference call.

 As time has gone on there have been many developments in audio conference calling.  None of which have had the kind of impact that development has had but things have continued to get easier.  And the proliferation of cell phones has helped as well.  Now to get on a conference call you can dial in from anywhere there is a signal to your mobile phone.  I am sure people have attended a conference call from some pretty bizarre places.  And you can too!  Because audio conference calling can be done from virtually anywhere. 

When you compare audio conference calling to other ways to meet it is easy to understand why conference calling continues to grow faster than any other way to meet.  At this point everyone pretty much has been on a conference call.  So there is no need to train your participants on how to get on a conference call.  And no one needs any special equipment.  All you need is a phone and everyone has or has access to a telephone.  Dial a number and input a code and you are on your conference call.  No need to drive to a meeting.  No need to fly to a meeting.  Just pick up your telephone.

Zip Conferencing makes audio conference calling as easy as it can be.  From the process before the conference call to looking at reports after the call you can not find a simpler way to meet.

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An Audio Conference is Easy and Affordable

Monday, July 11th, 2011

I still get people who ask me about the basics of an audio conference so I thought I would spend today describing just how easy and affordable a conference call can be. 

  • Ease of Use- An audio conference was not always as easy to use as they are today.  It used to be that you had to get the names and numbers of the people you wanted on an audio conference to an operator who would schedule the conference call and when the time came call out to all the parties.  There was work up front for the moderator to assemble this information and then call a conference call service and relay that information to them so the audio conference could begin.  And then for the participants on the conference call you had to be at the phone number you supplied at the time of the call or you were not going to get on the audio conference.  Of course this was before cell phones were real prevalent and most people had to stay at their desks a little more than today anyway but still I can tell you that many calls were missing participants because people just were not always where they were supposed to be when the audio conference began.  As a conference call service provider we spent a lot of time chasing people down or putting them into the correct conference calls when they called back into our service center.  Now it is much easier for everyone.  Zip Conferencing provides you with a toll free dial in number that never changes and pass codes for you and your participants that never change.  There is no need to schedule your audio conference now.  You simply tell your participants when you want to meet and supply them with the toll free dial in number and pass code.  At the time of the conference call you and your participants simply dial the access number and put in the pass code and you are joined in the conference call.
  • Affordable- Over time just as the audio conference has gotten a lot easier to use it has also become more affordable.  The average rate per minute of a toll free conference call in 1995 was $.50 per minute.  Today Zip Conferencing has toll free conference call rates as low as $.024 per minute.  The combination of ease of use and price has resulted in explosive growth for conference calls.  You can meet with a large group of people for a small amount of money and it cost nothing for your participants to join. 

An audio conference is the easiest and most affordable way to meet with a group of people.

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Why a Regular Telephone Conference Call still makes Sense

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

When I tell people what I do for a living I am still amazed that people don’t know that companies like Zip Conferencing exist. Most people do a telephone conference call on a regular basis or have certainly been on one recently but don’t know where they come from. I guess many of these people are in a company where the buying decision for conference call services is made by someone else and they just know how easy it is to get on a telephone conference call. And that is why a regular telephone conference call still makes the most sense.

Let’s face it, technology has come a long way in the past 15 years since I started my career in teleconferencing so why is the regular telephone conference call still growing in use? Well, in the past 15 years I have heard the prediction of the demise of the telephone conference call with the invention of every new group communication technology that has come along. But there are several reasons why the regular telephone conference call is still the easiest, most convenient and least expensive way for a group of people to get together.

  • Universal Connectivity- A telephone conference call uses a device that everyone is familiar with, the telephone.  You don’t have to teach people how to use a telephone and these days most people know how to connect to a conference call as well.  And with a telephone conference call all you need is a telephone.  And any telephone will do.  When I started in 1995 we still had to help people who had rotary phones onto conference calls that require you to enter a pass code but that is no longer the case.  And cell phones were not as reliable as they are today and would cause issues on conference calls as well.  But today any telephone can connect to a conference call with ease.
  • Easy to Use- With the invention of reservationless pass code entry telephone conference calls the usage in conference calls skyrocketed.  That’s because the industry made the service easy to use.  And over the years it has exposed just about everyone to a universal method of joining a telephone conference call.  Everyone pretty much knows that you have to dial an access number and then put in a pass code to connect to a conference call.  There is no need to get participants to learn a new technology or download something onto their computers.
  • Convenient- Today you can access a telephone conference call from anywhere in the world from any telephone.  You don’t have to worry if you can get an Internet connection or anything.  All you need to do is make a telephone call and you can connect to a telephone conference call.  So, you can be travelling, at home or in the office and connect to the conference call.  So it is convenient to the host and participants alike.

So, despite all of the predictions about its early death, telephone conference calls still make the most sense if you want to hold a group meeting with people in disparate locations.  And until they replace the telephone it will continue to be the group meeting method of choice.

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Are Conference Calls Too Convenient?

Friday, January 8th, 2010

We are more connected than ever before.  Between the email, voice mail and BlackBerry or other PDA it is difficult to escape the endless stream of information from your work and personal life.  It just seems to me we are heading to where there is no escaping work and like many of the other modern day work convenience maybe conference calls are getting too convenient.

Let’s face it, you can do a conference call from anywhere.  Just like you can talk to people from anywhere, I don’t even want to know all the places that calls are done from, conference calls are as convenient as your next cell phone call.  When cell phones first came out the conference call service industry would discourage people from using them on a cell phone because they introduced a lot of noise and the networks were such that a dropped call during the conference call was pretty much a certainty.  So, naturally our customers would call us and complain about the conference call service because they were losing participants during the call of there was a lot of noise on the call.  And inevitably when our operators would join the conference call we would identify the culprit and most times it was a participant on the conference call on a cell phone.  Well that has certainly changed.  Now most of the participants on a conference call are probably on a cell phone.  With the cell phone networks improvement and better equipment you can join and participate on a conference call from anywhere you can get a cell phone signal.  And that is just about anywhere.

And now that people can get you just about anywhere they can also get you just about anytime.  People seem to expect that since you have a cell phone than I should be able to reach anytime, anywhere.  So, before when you would schedule a conference call with Asia, for instance, the participants would schedule the conference call for a time that was good for all concerned, knowing that people needed to be in the office during normal work hours to conduct the call.  But know it seems that people just assume you can get on a call anytime.  My wife, for instance, is regularly asked to attend conference calls with other parts of the world at all hours of the night.  The other night she had three conference calls from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at night with Australia and Asia.  They just don’t seem to think that there are any boundaries since you are always accessible.

So, what do you think?  Are conference calls too convenient?

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Today’s Busy World

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

I sat down to write about how conference calls help manage your way around the crazy busy world we live in and guess what?  I got interrupted, had to handle multiple emergencies and yes, attend several conference calls.  So, it is certainly not a cure for the crazy busy lifestyle I am so familiar with but it certainly helps.  Conference calls simply provide a way to get more done in the same amount of time.  If I couldn’t attend those conference calls, I would have had to get in my car and drive, along with all the other participants to the office and find an open conference room, and have our discussion there.  That is bad enough that I have to spend the time commuting and the expense to get there, but then I would be in a location where I am limited in what I can do.  In my case I would have encountered the other emergency that happened to come up and I would have had to get back in my car and travel back to my home office again.  Again wasting time travelling, etc.

So, instead opf taking up all this time traveling I was able to jump on a conference call from wherever I am at the time, thanks to cell phones, take part in a productive meeting, simply hang up my phone and immediately return to the task I was on before the meeting, deal with the emergency, etc.  And I think that while we take many of these modern day marvels fro granted, the conference call is as important to helping us manage our busy lives as many of the other conveniences we now take for granted.  Cell phones are great but you can’t meet with ten people at the same time without the conference call.  The ability to carry around your email box on a handheld device is super, but after you get an email saying that you need to meet on a particular topic it would do you no good if you had to drop everything and come back to the office to meet instead of just jumping on a conference call. 

Maybe you appreciate the conveniences that help you manage your busy world, maybe you feel like you can’t escape from them, but one thing is for certain, conference calls help us manage today’s busy world.  www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls on Vacation

Monday, August 10th, 2009

It’s summertime!  That means vacations, family, barbecues and for the fortunate people on the coasts, the beach.  And we all take time off during the summer to enjoy the weather that only comes around for a few months a year for most of us.  But that also doesn’t mean that work totally stops.  Many people own their own business or have a job where it is simply understood that 40 hours a week punching a clock is not enough.  Today the miracle of cell phones, blackberrys and conference calls can keep you in touch without the need to cancel your entire vacation.  A conference call, like many of these modern day conveniences allows you to stay in touch with your work or family wihtout having to be there physically.  And that can be a good thing!

Some people feel that wireless devices and conference calls are a leash they would rather do without, but without them what would you have to do.  It used to be that the hotel phone or even a pay phone and a calling card was the way people stayed in touch, but now a cell phone andyou can be on a conference call, conducting a business meeting without leaving your lounge chair.  The hotel, the mountains, the lake or the beach can now be the place you are when you attend a conference call.  Of course, you may want to keep yourself on mute so that the sound of the waves does not interrupt the conference call.  That is what I did just last week.  I had a week off planned and of course at the last minute an important meeting comes up and there is no way to avoid it.  Did I cancel my vacation?  No.  Did I stay home the day of the call?  No.  All I had to do was remember that I had a conference call, put the call in number and passcode on my Blackberry and I am all set. 

So, I don’t know about you, but I sure feel that is a lot more convenient than staying home or missing the meeting which in this case was not an option.  So, the next time you are going on vacation and an important meeting comes up, simply set up a confernece call and the interuption on your well deserved time off will be minimal.   www.zipconferencing.com

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