Posts Tagged ‘Respects’

Conference Calls can Help Gauge the Economy

Friday, November 6th, 2009

I heard that it is a good thing that the Yankees won the World Series because the stock market has an average gain of 10% in the year following a win by them in the World Series.  Well, as a Red Sox fan I have a hard time feeling good about them winning it all but at least there is a fringe benefit.  And we can’t win it all every year after all.  ;) The point I wanted to talk about today was how you can get a read on the economy by the usage of conference calls as well.  And it is probably a little more reliable than the connection between a baseball game and the economy too. 

Over the eyars of being in the conference call industry I have noticed a couple of interesting things that can help indicate how my day is going to go.  The first thing I notice is the traffic on the way to work.  If it is a busy traffic morning there are going to be a lot of conference calls held that day.  Now, in some respects you would think just the opposite.  If people stay home they would need to hold meetings remotely and a conference call is a sure bet.  But actually, most of the conference calls are being attended by people in their place of business and when people are staying home they are probably on holiday and are not doing conference calls.  So, as business traffic picks up, so do the number of conference calls.

The other thing I notice is the type of businesses that sign up for a conference call service is a good indicator of the health of that segment of the business.  And when I see a greater number of sign ups than business in that area is probably picking up.  Lately I have seen a number of real estate offices and associations signing up for our service.  And after speaking to some Realtors I know it appears that the real estate market is picking up some steam after a tough couple of years.  That is good news for all of us since that is one of the leading indicators in the economy. 

Beyond the signing up for a conference call service I also notice the amount of conference calling done by my customers in general is a good indicator of the economy.  And certainly over the past year the financial sector has been especially hard hit.  So, companies that do mortgages for instance, just aren’t writing as many mortgages so they are not doing as many conference calls with their offices and vendors to talk about mortgages.  And so forth.  But again the good news is that the volume of conference calls is starting to pick up in a number of industries that have suffered over the past year or two.  It has a ways to go, but in general based on the number of conference calls being done it appears that the economy is on the mend.  Maybe we can thank the Yankees and conference calls for the good market over the next year!  

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference vs. Conference Call

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

A Web Conference versus a Conference Call, is it a fair fight?  It is hard in some respects to compare a web conference with a conference call.  A conference call is held on a telephone and has no visual element to it unless everyone looks at the same document at the same time you sent to them previously.  But then, you really don’t know if they are looking at that document do you?  A web conference on the other hand allows you to show documents, web sites, applications, etc to all of the participants on your web conference at the same time.  It even allows you to edit the document real time and can even allow the participants to edit the document on your computer.  And a web conference generally has a conference call component to it unless you are meeting with a single participant.  Then you can just call them on the phone.  So, is it really a contest.

Well, no.  It really isn’t, but most people are choosing to hold a conference call instead of a web conference so why is that.  A conference call has certainly become easy to use and most people have been exposed to the practice of dialing an access number and putting in a pass codeto enter a conference all these days that we rarely have to explain the technology anymore.  And no one is intimidated by using a telephone to access a system and provide commands to the system using a touch tone command like you do to control a conference call.  People are just used to it.  And a conference call provides the basic means needed to communicate with other people over long distance, a voice connection.  Let’s face it, the telephone has been used to communicate over great distances and has been accepted by everyone as an essential means to communicate for business and personal reasons.  On a conference call you can discuss anything and refer to documents if everyone has access to them or was distributed them prior to the meeting.

A web conference on the other hand is relatively new.  It has really only been in existence less than 15 years and only in the last five or so become widely accepted by businesses.  But web conferencing can do what a regular conference call just can’t do.  A web conference can allow the host to share visuals with the participants on a conference call.  And as the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  So adding a visual element to any meeting helps with the retention of the material and the engagement of the audience.  I think the only reason that every conference call is a web conference is that people are just not that used to communicating using their computers as they are with their telephones.  As people continue to integrate they way they use their computers with their telephones there will be a shift in the way we communicate and using visuals to help communicate will be the norm.

So, is it fair to compare a conference call and a web conference.  Not really, a web conference wins hands down.  But for now, the telephone has a 100 year head start in establishing itself as the de facto communication device and is winning the race.  For more on Web conferencing visit www.zipconferencing.com

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