Posts Tagged ‘Person Meetings’

A Conference Call Makes More Sense All The Time

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

A conference call has been a good option for businesses for many years because of the expense savings and increased productivity.  And as time has gone on the lowly conference call just keeps making more sense than ever.  In fact I can not think of a time since I have been in the business that a conference call has made more sense than right now.  Here are just a few thoughts on why a conference call should be the preferred method of communication for any business.

  • Travel Costs – Okay, so you have to meet with a customer or internally and they are in Texas and you are in New Jersey.  The natural reaction is to schedule a trip to Texas for the meeting.  Have you seen the cost of air travel these days?  If you book 30 days in advance you might be able to get there for less than $500 but if it is in the next 2 weeks it will cost you over $1,000.  And that doesn’t include all the crazy fees they charge these days.  Once you get to Texas you will need a car, a room, dinners…you get the idea.  It is so expensive to travel these days you can save enough in travel costs to hold a conference call every day with the participants and still save money.
  • Travel Hassle – On top of the costs to go to Texas you get to put up with all the convenience of air travel these days.  Travel to and from the airport, the security lines, baggage checks and on and on.  I have had more fun on days I was sick than what they are putting you through these days.
  • Lost Productivity – How many hours of useful work are you going to lose by travelling to Texas.  The flight time is only a few hours but you need to get to the airport and then to the office on the other end.  And what are the chances the plane takes off and lands on time.  That conference call keeps getting more and more attractive.

I know you can’t do away with all in person meetings for conference calls.  It is just not possible.  But if I were you I would think long and hard about using conference call services whenever you can.  You will be happier and so will your budget.

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Business Conference Calling in any Economy

Monday, November 15th, 2010

I get asked all the time “How’s Business?” and since I became involved int he conference calling business in 1995 the answer has remained the same, “Business is Great!”.  That is because business conference calling makes good sense in any economy.  Certainly since 1995 I have been through growth economies and recessions and the growth of business conference calling has not really changed.  Why is that?  Well, let’s examine what is going on for businesses in a growth economy and a down economy ans see why business conference calling continues to grow in either economic condition.

Downturn in the Economy - Over the past couple of years during the recession business conference calling has continued to grow.  That is because businesses are trying to save time and money.  Saving money is easy to understand when the economy is bad.  Businesses are generally selling less and trying to conserve cash until sales pick up.  But most businesses still have to continue to sell what they can and spend less doing it.  Because business conference calling saves a lot of money compared to conducting in person meetings businesses are happy to spend money on conference calls.  When you think about the cost of getting people together, especially when they are located a great distance apart you can see why spending money on conference calls makes sense.  And in addition to saving money on travel, business conference calling save a great amount of time as well.  In a down economy businesses are trying to do with less resources because sales are off and they can’t afford to carry the same staff.  But they still have work to do and meetings to attend with customers and prospects.  Business conference calling really helps businesses to put what resources they have on the job and spread those resources over more responsibilities.  Someone can sit at their desk and through business conference calling attend meetings across the country all day.

Growing Economy – In a growing economy companies are trying everything they can think of to get the most out of the situation.  And many times the growth in the economy follows a period of downturn in the economy.  During the downturn businesses have laid people off and now they are trying to keep up with the growth with the resources they have so business conference calling can really help.  Someone can get more work done than if they attempted to attend all of the business meetings in person.  Sales can get to more prospects in a day using business conference calling than if they tried to attend all meetings in person.  And even in a growing economy saving money is always welcome.  So if your business is trying to get more done with less resources and save money doing it business conference calling makes all the sense in the world.

So it really doesn’t matter what the economy is doing.  Business conference calling continues to grow because it makes a lot of sense to businesses of all sizes.

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Conference calls because of a volcano?

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Okay, I have been in the conference call industry since 1995 and I have seen a lot of applications for conference calls.  There have also been events that have triggered the use of conference calls like 9/11, but I have to admit this is the first time I have seen an increase in conference calls because of a volcano.  But then the volcano in Iceland obviously caused a lot more interruptions than any other volcano in recent history.  And when travel is interrupted the use of conference calls goes up.  And it always seems that when people are forced to use conference calls and web conferencing because of an event they realize how easy the services are to use and how effective they can be at allowing you to have a distance meeting.

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

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Conference Calls for Earth Day

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Earth Day reminds us to do whatever we can to help save our environment because its resources are limited and fragile.  And one of the things we now understand is reducing our “carbon footprint”.  This means to reduce our emissions and use of resources and one of the easiest ways to do this is to reduce our travel whether it is by car, train or plane.  There is no easier way to reduce your business travel then to replace your in person meetings with a conference call or a web conference.

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.

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Conference Calls help you Go Green

Friday, October 30th, 2009

I have addressed the money saving opportunities a number of times on this blog, but another great benefit that conference calls provide is the environmental benefits.  Yes, conference calls can help you go green!

Conference calls do offer a number of benefits to it users in saving money and increasing productivity.  Conference calls also give its users the ability to conduct their meetings without travel which is where the opportunity to help save the environment comes in.  I am not aware of any study that has come up with but if you just use the numbers we know you come up with some staggering statistics.  In 2009 it is estimated that there will be about 50 Billion minutes of audio conferencing alone done in just the US.  If you use an average conference call of 5 people for 45 minutes you get approximately 225,000,000 conference calls being held with an average of 5 people.  If the 5 participants in these conference calls only had to travel an average of five miles to get together face to face they would have to travel a total of 5.5 billion miles.  And if you use an average of 18 miles per gallon of fuel you will see that they used a total of 300 million gallons of gasoline to travel to these meetings.  That is the total amount of gasoline the US burns in a single day.

And I think if you think about the calculation you quickly realize that I used some pretty soft numbers, like the 5 miles average travel distance.  I would bet that it is closer to 100 miles or more considering that people are doing conference calls on a global basis and most people would not even be able to drive to a meeting that has been replaced by a conference call.  If you include flights and taxis and rental cars that would be involved in all these meetings I would not be surprised to hear that replacing 225 million conference calls with in-person meetings would save over a billion gallons of gasoline.

So, as you can see, using conference calls instead of doing in-person meetings doesn’t just save you money and time, but it also helps save the environment.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Education

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Its that time of year again.  Back to School.  And with everyone getting back to school come applications for conference calls within the educational system, because just like many other areas, education derives many benefits from using conference calls in place of in person meetings.

Conference calls in education applications come in many forms.  Probably the first conference call application you can think of is in the teacher/student relationship.  There are many teachers that teach in multiple campuses because they may have an expertise that is more rare than your standard English or geography discipline.  So, in some cases, instead of being in person for all of the classes the teacher will use a conference call to teach a class instead of being in person for all of the classes.  In fact, there are examples where a class is conducted completely virtual using conference calls and web conferencing to lecture to students from a distance.  With the advent of conference call and web conferencing technology this is entirely possible and the students do not miss anything by attending the class remotely with the use of conference calls and web conferencing.  Entire educational programs are now offered to students without attending any campus at all.  An example of this is the programs of the University of Phoenix.  Their curriculum is meant to be attended remotely by students. 

Another area where conference calls are used in education is in the administration area.  Colleges and Universities in particular are really just another form of business and have many of the same needs.  The administration needs to stay in touch with its board of trustees so they do regular conference calls.  Alumni associations need to organize events and solicit donations through conference calls.  And faculty members need to stay in touch with their unions and associations via conference calls.

We also see a lot of use by the student body with the organization of events using conference calls, student organizations having remote meetings via conference calls and off campus organizations like fraternities staying in touch with national agendas by way of the conference call.

So, as you can see, education also is able to save time and money by using conference calls in place of in person meetings.

 

www.zipconferencing.com

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