Asma Zaineb asked:




According to Wikipedia, a webinar is a term to describe a kind of web conferencing for conducting live meetings, trainings, presentations, etc., via the Internet. The presenter or host communicates with the participants, lets them view the presentations, allows them to ask questions and engage in a discussion.

Webinars can be either one-way where the speaker speaks to the audience with limited interaction from the participant’s end or it can be a collaborative effort with polling, Q&A sessions enabling full participation between the audience and the speaker or presenter. Webinars, held via the Internet, offer the advantage to both the participant and the presenter to attend or hold sessions from the convenience of their personal location, such as their home or office.

If the company does not want its employees to spend a whole day in training, webinars can be held for short durations like an hour or two to focus on urgent training needs. The key feature of a webinar is its range of interactive elements-where one can give, receive and discuss information in contrast to other options where data transmission is one-way and a lack of interaction exists between the presenter and the audience.

The benefits of webinars are too many to be ignored. Chief among them are:

- Incredible savings for a company as its employees will not have to travel from various places to attend training sessions.
- Reduces travel time.
- Increases productivity.
- Helps the company to make decisions faster.
- Reduces unproductive time.
- Improves management communication.
- Allows for greater participation and teamwork by reaching out to a larger audience.
- Avoids administrative hassles associated with Instructor Led training.
- Accessibility to view documents, diagrams and illustrations from the comforts of one’s PC.
- Review prerecorded or archived presentations.
- Easy sign up and login.
- Real time feedback.

A webinar is also a fantastic way to interact with prospective clients, unable to meet face-to-face, that are interested in learning more about the products or services of a service company. Very much like meetings held in a conference room, webinars offer an added benefit of allowing participants to listen to informative audio about the product or service via a telephone, interact with presenter or speaker and ask questions in real-time.

Samantha

IC asked:




Audio conferencing is one of the easy ways to communicate with a group of people at the same time. Being able to balance talk time in a day would be such a great help for busy people who value every second of their waking hours.

But just like any other product or service, there are pros and cons in using audio conferencing.

Let us first take a look at the different advantages that you can get from it. Audio conferencing is a whole lot cheaper than other means of conferencing. It can reach more people since it relies mostly on telephone lines. It is easier to use since it takes advantage of a technology that is relatively familiar to all of us. Furthermore, we can enhance it by combining communication lines with other mediums such as computers. Audio conferencing has a great potential for larger groups to conference in and the technology used is fairly reliable. Audio conferencing is also very accessible and consumes lesser time to set up.

On the down side, Audio conferencing transmission may be of poor quality at times since it relies on phone lines. Noise can affect the conversation and may even cut the host out. Also, the presence of a facilitator is needed especially when a conference consists of a large number of people.

We all know that communication is not only verbal and this may also pose as a problem with the audio conferencing. This communication medium does not support visual images so the participants of the conference do not actually see each other. This kind of setting may be a little impersonal since you can not see and understand the body language and cues of the people you are talking to.

The mentioned disadvantages, only apply if such communication means is used in professional transactions or meetings. For businesses these disadvantages could make or break a deal, thus other means of conferencing would be advised. But if the nature of the conference involves people who just want to get in touch with each other and catch up, the down side of audio conferencing should not be a big problem. Especially if the people conversing are family members and friends that have a good understanding of each other since knowing someone personally means you could easily get the idea of what they are trying to say.

The visual downside of audio conferencing may be hard to solve but the quality of voice transmission is not really that much of a problem nowadays. There are tons of providers that offer high quality services and for cheaper prices too. One just needs to carefully think over which provider to choose to get the best value.



Shawn

Tomaz Mencinger asked:




With the help of communications technology, an online meeting can take place at a moments notice, for next to no expense. Meetings held online are similar to a standard, face-to-face meeting, especially when you use one of the many specially designed conference software options.

In an online environment, people can interact with a group regardless of the participants physical location; or one person can give a presentation or demonstration while the other participants become the audience. There are both visual and audio capabilities that make meetings held online a quality business experience.

Online meetings work by using conference software that offers services to participants to mimic a face-to-face meeting. You can typically use a conference program that allows for the host of the meeting to present information with various tools- similar to what you’d find in a business conference room.

A whiteboard for illustrating points and drawing objects, a voice component that allows individuals to speak to one another either via a computer microphone or through a telephone conference service, and sometimes a text chat feature. In some online meetings, the software that is used can support video.

There are numerous advantages of conducting online meetings over the setting up of more traditional meetings in your office, or renting a large conference room in a hotel. First, the expense of face-to-face meetings can be costly, particularly when people are traveling great distances to meet together regularly, or when the meetings are expected to run for hours and food is brought in to feed all participants.

If you must rent a large hall or conference room, the expenses can be astronomical. The costs of conducting meetings online are minimal, and include the cost of membership to one of the conferencing online services, and maybe a long distance phone call depending on the service you use for audio capabilities.

Another advantage to having online meetings as opposed to face-to-face meetings is the ability to conduct the meeting from whatever location you may be in.

If you are working from home, for example, using the internet and conference software allows you to instantly connect with co-workers or your employees. If you must travel, you can still “sit-in” and participate in the meetings of your co-workers or employees so you aren’t missing important information while you’re conducting other business, even if you’re on the other side of the globe!

Time management is improved with the use of online meetings as opposed to traditional meetings, as well. It takes time to gather everyone into the same room, settle people down and get a meeting undergo. When you use conferencing software, everyone logs in at the same, specified time, and the meeting begins.

There is less time required to plan for an internet meeting, and no tables or chairs have to be set up for the certain number of participants.

Online meetings are also extremely useful for providing demonstrations and hands-on training to customers. If you are a company that develops software or web based programs, you can use the meetings to show your customers how to operate the programs.

Training employees can effectively occur while conferencing online. You could actually conduct online courses to train employees on new policies or procedures, whether your employees are located in the same building or in various locations around the world.

With multiple options for online meetings and internet conferencing available, how do you know which one is right for you? Before you sign up for one of the many companies that provide meeting services, you should access your needs for meeting software and figure out how you are most likely to use it.

Will you be having monthly team building meetings or a weekly conference with your sales team? Do you need to show videos or will a whiteboard be sufficient for illustration purposes? Will you want the ability to show other programs on your computer through the meeting software? A nice feature of most online providers of conferencing software is that you can try their programs before you commit to a monthly fee or to purchase the software.

This allows you to try out each of the features for free, in order to determine whether or not the program will meet your needs. Once you’ve determined your likely uses for online meetings you can determine which provider offers the solution to best meet your needs.

Ann

Tom Cruz asked:




A web conferencing solution is an application you can purchase to enable you to easily
hold conferences online. It enables you to hold conferences in cyberspace in much the
same manner that you would have a conference call via the telephone. However, these
solutions allow you to invite many people to your conference from remote locations
make presentations to them in the same way as you would if you were all meeting in an
actual conference room. With these solutions, you each person can give feedback, share
notes and work with each other through a multimedia design.

When you compare the cost of web conferencing software and applications to the travel
expense, the costs of renting a large conference room and the time away from the office,
you will see that there is no comparison. The amount of money businesses save through
this application is the reason that these solutions are now the way companies hold their
business meetings. Some of the features of the solution include a private meeting room.
real time voice communication, a chat room for the participants, interactive white-board
features and capabilities to share desktops among participants. You can do all the same
things as you can by meeting face to face with less costs.

There are so many different web conferencing applications available that you do need to
do your research to find one that is right for you and your business. Some of these
applications allow a limited number of participants, while others can accommodate
unlimited numbers. You usually pay an annual fee and you don’t need to hire a network
administrator to help you set things up. In fact you don’t have to install anything on your
computer and there is help available whenever you need it.

Tom

d-kumar-2006 asked:


I’m looking for a free phone conferencing solution which supports > 100 customers with
* recording ( nominal charge ok )
* possibly integrated with a web interface with whiteboard, powerpoint viewing by all participants etc.

* if there are local numbers outside of USA such as UK, Australia etc. are a plus

Thanks
skype type services are not valid answer
unless they support inbound calls from a POTS ( plain old telephone system ) number

Clarence