Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
I have spent a lot of time talking about how to host an effective conference call. But what should you do if you are a participant? In order to have a godd conference call it takes a well prepared host and it also takes participants who know how to behave on a conference call. Here are a few tips if you are a participant on a conference call that will help you get the most out of the conference call.
- Be On Time - The first thing you can do as a participant is show up for the conference call on time. When you don’t show up on time you are showing a lack of consideration for the Host and the other participants alike. Because even if the Host starts the conference call on time wihtout you or not you are causing a delay and/or an interruption to the meeting. And you have to assume you were invited to the conference call because you are recognized as a valuable contributor to the conference call. Given that assumption you need to be on time to the meeting and ready to participate.
- Be Prepared - Hopefully the Host sent out an agenda for the conference call ahead of time. At the very least you should have an idea of what the conference call is meant to address and you have a responsibility to be prepared for the meeting. That could mean reviewing related documents or actually being prepared to present during the conference call.
- Mute Your Phone - This is not always necessary, but all participants should be aware that even if you are being quiet the other people on the conference call can hear you. Our conference call service equipment produces a very clear audio connection so even just the typing on your computer is easily picked up by the microphone on your phone and is transmitted across the conference call to all participants. It is always the best idea to simply mute your phone unless you are speaking. Most phones these days have a mute button and if not the conference call service should have a way to enter a command through the phone to mute your line.
- Identify Yourself - On a conference call there is no way for the Host or other participants to identify you unless you do it. The best practice is to state your name when you are going to speak so people know who is spoeaking.
- Participate - It is easy to get distracted on a conference cll because you are usually at your desk and still have access to computers, papers, etc. But you were invited to the meeting because your participation was deemed important and if you were in a face to face meeting you would not even consider answering emails while in the meeting. So on a conference call participate just like you would in a face to face meeting.
If you treat your participation on a conference call just like you would an in person meeting then your conference call participation will be a success.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Address, Agenda, Ahead, Assumption, Conference Call Service, Contributor, Interruption, Lot, Microphone, Mute Button, Participant, Participants, People, Typing
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
One of the best reasons to use a conference call service instead of trying to do it yourself is the quality of the connections. A conference call service company uses equipment that provides full duplex transmission between all of the parties on the conference call. That means that more than one person can talk at the same time and all of the voices will be heard equally the same across the conference call. It is just like being in the same room together. What people experience when they are on a conference call, however, may not be the same thing. That is because many times the terminal equipment or telephone the participants are using are not full duplex. So you see, the conference call is only as good as the telephones that are connected to it.
For many years there have been a handful of manufacturers of high end telephone equipment that uses similar technology as conference call equipment and provides a full duplex transmission through the speakerphone. If you have ever been in a conference room you have probably noticed one of these funny shaped telephones sitting on the conference table. The telephone is designed to pick up voices from around the conference table so many times they have a triangular or star shape to them. And sometimes the conference speakerphone has been installed in such a manner to allow a separate microphone at each station at the table to allow individual participants to mute themselves at their seat. The main mission of these funny looking telephones is to provide a full duplex speakerphone for the conference room. That way the participants who connect to the conference call can hear everyone in the conference room and the conference room participants can talk freely without interruption and converse with conference call participants just like they are in the room together.
Without a full duplex speakerphone, once a participant has taken the talk path no one else can talk until that person stops talking. This can make for a very frustrating experience on a conference call. If you are unable to add discussion points while someone is talking the whole concept of being able to interact at a distance using a conference call has been lost.
There are a number of manufacturers of these types of telephones. The one manufacturer that everyone is familiar with is the Polycom. They were the first to develop and manufacturer this type of specialized conference call phone and have become the Kleenex of the full duplex speakerphone. Many times people will simply refer to the telephone as a Polycom regardless of the manufacturer. As long you make sure that the speakerphone has full duplex capabilities you will have a good experience using a speakerphone for your conference calls.
www.zipconferencing.com
Tags: Conference Call Service, Conference Speakerphone, Converse, Full Duplex Speakerphone, Full Duplex Transmission, Funny, Handful, Interruption, Microphone, Participant, Room Participants, Star Shape, Technology Conference, Telephone Equipment, Telephones, Terminal Equipment, Voices
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