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Archive for the ‘Web Seminars’ category

Things You Can Do to Get the Most Out of Your Web Conferences

May 28th, 2010

There’s a good chance that the next time you attend a class or seminar it will be online. Webinars are fast becoming the go to means for disseminating information to large groups of people quickly. Attendees love it because they can attend from the comfort of the home or office. Businesses are big on it because they can reach employees or prospective clients no matter where they are, and save big while doing so.

Attending a Web Conference

The quality or success of a web conference will be evaluated differently depending on the person. While the overall success is largely determined by the host, there are some things you can do to get the most out of your web meetings. Factors you can control that are needed for a web conference include:

Internet connection: High speed is preferable as it will enable faster downloads. It also enhances video and sound quality.
Speakers and microphone: A microphone is optional as it depends on the format of the particular conference. Speakers are essential.
Webcam: This depends on whether you are supposed to be seen in the web meeting. In many instances this is not necessary.

Making Your Contribution

contribute to a web meeting It’s true that the web conference is different from the standard meeting setting, but rules of good etiquette still apply. If you are expected to log in at a certain time, do so. Make note of any email reminders of the conference so you won’t miss the date.

If it is supposed to be an open discussion, prepare some quick points beforehand. Make notes during the session if you think it necessary. Take advantage of chat function during meeting to post questions without disrupting the presentation.

Avoid straying off topic. It might be a big money saver, but with web meetings time is still money. Using tools that enable collaboration and free flow of ideas will make for a more meaningful session. Some features you might want to look out for include:

Whiteboard
Text chat
Live video

As with face-to-face meetings, you typically get from a web conference what you are willing to put into it. Luckily, attending a web conference is not a technical issue, so you can concentrate on what is important. So before you attend your next webinar or web meeting, think about what you will contribute.

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Posted in How Tos, Web Seminars

Tags: teamwork web conference web meeting

How Web Conference Can Help During the Next Big Travel Disruption

April 29th, 2010

Eyjafjallajökull might be unheard to many of us until recently and its name may be hard to pronounce (for those who are interested, here’s a pronunciation guide from BBC) but the world has felt the effects of its eruptions over the past few weeks. None more so than airlines, carriers have taken a devastating hit as more than 100,000 flights were cancelled and passengers were left stranded. The larger business community has also felt the impact of the eruption, with workers stranded at airports around the world. using web conferencing when stranded

The Revenue Fallout

According to some reports, airlines were losing as much as $200 million a day due to cancelled flights. Business travel in the areas affected by the volcanic ash also resulted in huge losses for companies around the world. In total, the airline industry is believed to have lost $1.7 billion. This is a harsh blow for an industry struggling to get back on its feet.

How Conferencing Can Help in the Next Eruption

The halt in flights for many part of Europe left travelers stuck in airports around the world. Travelers had to pay exorbitant rates for cab and train rides to get home where possible. For others, web conferencing become a great way for stranded travelers to stay in touch with family and work. All of this means one thing; companies must explore and embrace other ways of conducting business globally, such as webinars.

As the Iceland volcano eruption has taught us, regardless of nature’s whims business has to get done. Sending employees to various destinations around the world has already lost favor with many companies. Now due to the lessons learned from Eyjafjallajökull, it has become clear that business travel is a somewhat outdated concept.

With a good web conferencing product, meetings can be easily planned and executed. File transfer, session recording, seminar with thousands of attendees are all possible with web conferencing tools.

Now that flights have resumed and special flight zones have been established, the airlines will have to dust themselves off and move on. Web conferencing companies should now be poised to further prove their worth to the modern business environment. So the next time your company outlines major travel plans, don’t hesitate to step up and save them a bundle.

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Posted in Current Event, Web Seminars

Tags: Eyjafjallajokull flight cancellation volcano web conference

Why Webinars?

September 29th, 2009

If there is one thing we are all short of these days it’s time. It is one thing to think about upgrading your skills and increasing your value in the job market. It is quite another to juggle that with work, children, community involvement and anything else you can add to this list.

Often our jobs may require that we attend seminars or training sessions of some type. Web conferencing has made the prospect of meeting and training significantly cheaper. In fact it has become such an attractive option many companies now see it as their first choice. Advantages of web seminars over traditional training seminars are many. Some of those that readily come to mind are:

A reduction in travel costs
Employees don’t need to leave the workplace to attend, so they can still be engaged at work
There is no need to print information as everything can be viewed onscreen
Webinar and conferencing sessions can be recorded and saved for later viewing
The ability to stream video or audio makes for compelling content

Webinars are made even more interesting by the use of streaming video, audio feeds, annotations, whiteboards, and video broadcasting with a webcam – all common web conferencing features. These usually help to enhance the presentations and keep participants engaged. Partner this with interactive collaboration and you a very powerful tool.