Web Conferencing Meetings - The Virtual World
Web Conferencing – Are You Ready for Meetings in the Virtual World?
Holding more web conferencing means less time away from your workstation and less effort maneuvering around each participant’s schedule and availability. So what medium do you use for such meetings? Web conferencing services.
Web conferencing spells considerable savings in actual conference time. Tackling a meeting’s agenda in a more straightforward fashion seems easier in the virtual world because participants tend to somehow have a greater sense of urgency. (Perhaps, because deadlines for pending tasks seem more imminent when you don’t leave them to go to a meeting.)
It also saves money and what is today’s most valued workforce currency — energy.
It isn’t surprising, therefore, that various types of organizations increasingly opt for web conferencing to facilitate ‘webinars’ (seminars offered via the Internet) as well as using it to provide technical assistance.
Web Conferencing – What You Need
Software. The software market segment that enables web conferencing has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade. Driven by phenomenal demand, software manufacturers and vendors have produced conferencing products of increasingly better quality at more affordable prices.
Computer with broadband connection. And why shouldn’t the demand for web conferencing skyrocket? The savings on airfare and hotel bills alone is substantial. What’s more, web conferencing prevents lost productivity that would otherwise be eaten up by travel time. All it takes for some ‘face time’ with a person on the other side of the world is a computer connected to the Internet.
Finally Face-to-Face
More than huge savings in time, money, and energy, the demand for web conferencing has become widespread because it provides the kind of layered communication that wasn’t possible with earlier types of technology such as the telephone or e-mail.
Web conferencing allows visual, vocal, and participatory interaction in real-time. A virtual meeting has all the benefits of a face-to-face, sans the inconvenience.
Furthermore, web conferencing, much like a traditional seminar, encourages participants to join a conference designed by a presenter. Participants will be able to see a PowerPoint presentation, take a Web tour, and even interact using a ‘whiteboard’.
Other add-on features include open forum tools where participants can ask questions, as well as polls where they can vote on certain topics. It is even possible for members to share data and graphics.
When choosing tools for web conferencing, consider the following.
Price. The more features you want, the more expensive web conferencing can be for your organization so ensure that you clearly define which features are REALLY required.
Operating system. Will the software and tools you purchase be compatible with your computer’s operating system (Unix, Linux, Windows, or Mac) and deliver all the promised features for all your web conferencing?
Server access. Do you have enough access to your Web server to install the conferencing product and run your web conferencing hassle-free?
Flexibility. Will the conferencing product allow you to customize your web conference? Does it provide the full source code (very common in open source products and freeware) so you can truly personalize all your online conferencing experience?
The possibilities are endless! You can maximize the power of your web conferencing while cutting down on your cost of doing business. Sometimes, you don’t even have to spend anything—maybe, just a bit of time and effort to sift through all the choices that web conferencing can give your organization.
