Effective Conference Calls - Going the Distance Effectively

In the days since the United States’ Nine Eleven terrorist disaster, effective conference calls have gone beyond important time and money saving business meetings to one of the many ways a business can remain intact during disaster and a means of keeping its employees safe.

Effective conference calls have always been a way for firms with scattered facilities or a need to speak with clients, vendors or other business associates to do so remotely. Effective conference calls enable remote business people to talk with each other and make major or minor business decisions without the need for costly and time consuming vehicle or plane trips. That’s a rather obvious advantage for effective business conference calls.

Many improvements in services, conference call software, hardware and other products have helped the advance of effective conference calls. After Nine Eleven the importance of firms’ being able to conduct business as usual with employees in remote locations spurred the introduction of numerous advances and the general use of others already in existence. For effective conference calls as well as effective business telecommuting in general companies increasingly turned to telecommunications and other advanced vendors.

Effective conference calls turned into video conference or Webinar calls, either through a firm’s purchase of video conferencing equipment, its use of a vendor, or its lease of temporary office space that included video conferencing equipment.

There are numerous Webinar vendors available but their quality, customer service, features, services and pricing vary considerably. If a firm is new to Webinars the best provider, at least early on, is one that offers free consultation. There are more than 50 different conference call software technologies for Webinars at the present time. Probably the two best known and most reputable are PlaceWare and WebEx.

A good Webinar vendor should be much help to the effectiveness of these Web-based conference calls, offering help on promotion before the event, notification to attendees, follow up, and even surveys or polls.

Event management can be a real plus, though it seems to be the service that is most difficult to find. An event manager can train you, help you rehearse your Web-based conference calls so they’re effective, coordinate the Web, the audio, the IP stream and the support for the live event. She or he can also set up the reporting program for after the show. Event management is generally going to cost an additional $500 minimum beyond the general conference call software and Webinar service contract, but when you’re new to conference calls by Web and you need them to be effective, the money is well spent.

Effective Webinar conference calls require vendors that offer event registration, archiving, speaker’s bios on the Webinar registration page and perhaps the ability to provide a white paper as well. You’ll also want to find a vendor that lets you display your logo and offer a sign-up for your firm’s newsletter.

If your firm is new or small and your need for effective conference calls is sporadic, you may not want to invest in state of the art conference call software or video conference equipment. You can still have a full service conference call that is quite effective through leasing of the room for the event, the equipment and perhaps even catering for those present at your location.

A number of executive suite firms offer these services and more - by month, week, day or even hour. One of the biggest of these temporary and virtual workplaces offers 750 facilities in 60 different countries. Not only can you rent office space, and even a receptionist or answering service should you wish, you can add on to that or purchase on its own a meeting room for effective audio conference calls, video conference calls or Web conference calls. All equipment and furnishings are provided, as well as catering should you wish it. There is generally a kitchen on site as well. Many have concierge services for your local attendees and nearly all offer fax, copying, collating and delivery services as well.

These executive suites are especially helpful to small business entrepreneurs who need to hold effective conference calls with a professional look, many of whom may work as road warriors or from their homes.