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Today, there is no doubt that companies are increasingly using teleconferencing and related remote communication services to facilitate their meetings.
While teleconferencing can clearly facilitate most meetings, it definitely lacks the immediacy and excitement of face-to-face meetings and contacts.
The Technology
Teleconferencing services at its most basic level, allow a small or large group of people to join together and hold a conversation and conduct a meeting via telephone. Participants are given a telephone number to call at a designated time and date. Teleconferencing services are available in a range of advanced features that gives flexibility to groups using such services.
Types of services:
Audience polling: This is usually used to collect opinion and votes on a certain topic. E.g. During a polling session, a presenter can ask callers to push one of the numeric keys on a telephone pad in order to vote on an issue. Within seconds, the presenter can gather critical feedback about the interests of the audience.
Audio streaming: This is great for reaching a larger audience where a meeting can be conducted over the telephone and the web. Participants can call a designated telephone number to participate or connect to the web to listen in. Audio streaming is ideal for participants who would otherwise, need to have an international call.
Web-based presentations: This is a close to an ideal option where participants can watch a web-based slide show via an internet connection while listening to the presentation on a separate telephone line.
Breakouts: This is for breaking up the participants into separate groups like any physical breakout sessions, but only this time, you divert the different calls into its respective breakout groups. Participants dial into a designated number and listen to the general session. And to go to the different breakout session, participants need to push a button on their keypad that corresponds with a specific session and can participate and interact in these sessions.
When to use Teleconferencing?
Workgroups and planning sessions: For small groups of people who need to collaborate with each other on a regular basis or prepare for upcoming meetings and projects. Such meetings are usually two-way in nature and thus all attendees are able to talk to the group at any time during the teleconference.
Meetings with participants from different locations: local, regional, national and international … Teleconferencing allows remote participants to listen in and participate via a teleconferencing service. Once a connection is established between your on-site sound system and an audio conferencing service, the participants can listen and interact with your presenters and other participants.
Educational and training programs: Many companies who conduct educational and training programs are now using the teleconferencing platform to deliver their sessions. As mentioned above, combining a web-based presentation with a teleconference, web-based training are getting popular. When a company registers and pays for a seminar program, they are receiving a site license (access) for the course thus, a company can set up a speakerphone in a meeting room at their offices and project the visual component of the presentation on a screen so that all participants can see. This way, a company can have many of their employees take advantage of one program at the same time.
When an expert or a speaker cannot travel to your meeting, you don’t have to give up on the session. You can connect them relatively inexpensively via an audioconference connection. Combining with a web-based presentation (of slides, graphics and tours projected on a screen,3), the session can be smoothly delivered with minimum interruption though the expert is not physically there. Though videoconferencing may seems to be a better option, it has more set up costs and require the expert to go to a location with videoconferencing facilities.
Some tips when using teleconferencing:
Controlling the silence: For a small workgroup, you can keep all telephone lines open so that all participants can talk and listen at the same time. However, For larger sessions, you may want to choose to mute the phone lines and take off the mute of a specific participant whom you want him to speak. This helps to minimise the interruption of noises such as coughing, background noises from the participants’ locations, etc…
Facilitate the teleconference: Have a moderator to pace the conference and to keep the interest of the participants going throughout the conference. The role of the moderator is crucial to get the participants involved. Give ample time for question-and-answer sessions and for participants to share their perspectives. Remember to keep a time check on the session.
Always prepare for the conference
– In your all the communication correspondence, state clearly the time and the time-zone for your call. If your audience is international, you can state the time in Greenwich Mean Time as well as in the local time.
– List the phone numbers (and any required passwords) for your participants to call in to join the session. Say whether the phone call is free or a toll charge. If you are providing a toll-free number, make sure you indicate who has access to that telephone number. In many cases, international callers cannot use a toll-free number.
– Distribute the agenda before the meeting. Include the names and contact information of all presenters and participants. The agenda can be distributed on your website, by email or fax.
– Run tests for Web-based presentations. Advise the participants to test the presentation application prior to the start of the meeting and test all connections (phone and Internet). In some cases, applications may have to be downloaded and this should be done prior to the meeting.
– Audio quality: During a teleconference or audio connection, the participants must be able to clearly hear the presenters and sessions. Remind the presenters to conduct the session from a quiet room. Have them call in directly to the audioconference bridge so that you do not have to patch the presenter into teleconference service through your own telephone connection as this dilutes the quality of the voice.
Some providers of Teleconferencing services in Spain:
BT Telecomunicaciones
Viasolutions
