Recently in Video Conferencing Category

We all cringe at the thought of sitting through yet another weekly meeting in which we hash out the events of the seven days and discuss what each team member feels is top priority moving forward. These meetings can seem mundane and tiresome as can the time spent creating an agenda leading up to them. In “The Advantage” Patrick Lencioni addresses how to eliminate the fuss and capitalize on time to ensure your dreaded weekly meeting not only serves purpose, but makes it enjoyable.

According to Lencioni “there is no more valuable activity in any organization than the regular staff meeting of a leadership team.” He has designated weekly or bi-weekly meetings for tactical purposes. These meetings are to quickly create a real-time agenda and assess top priorities. The challenge is evaluating the importance of each priority brought up by team members while eliminating topic distractions.

Continuing our discussion on effective meetings, Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” said, “The highpoint of being a leader in an organization is wrestling with difficult decisions and situations. Truncating those high points just doesn't make sense.” Lencioni makes a strong case for the utilization of adhoc topical meetings where management digs into the critical issues that can have a long term impact on an organization or that require significant time and energy.

According to Lencioni, managers should separate their tactical conversations from their strategic ones. Combining the tactical and strategic conversations just doesn't work and leaves both set of issues inadequately addressed. He further states that if leadership goes more than a month without a strategic meeting, something is probably wrong.

In his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” author Patrick Lencioni boldly states, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.” He then makes a compelling case for the use of daily check-in meetings where management teams briefly review schedules, events and issue alerts.

Lencioni advises the team get into the habit of gathering once a day, for no more than ten minutes, to clear the air about anything administrative that would be helpful to know. He further advises that there be no agendas and no resolution of issues, just an exchange of information. Two Rivers Conferencing's toll free reservationless conference services perfectly complements this healthy organization strategy!

International business is exploding across all industries as new technology makes the world a smaller place. Although more international business opportunities exist than ever before, communicating effectively with parties in different countries can be a challenge. Different physical locations, different time zones and long travel durations combine to create strong barriers to communication. Audio and video conferencing are powerful ways for geographically distributed groups of people to collaborate effectively. They allow multiple participants to communicate as a group and create real time teamwork where it otherwise could not exist. They can also allow sharing of documents, drawings, spreadsheets and even full motion videos, which aid the communication process.

As significant as the benefits of international conferencing may be, challenges to effective communication do exist. Accents from non-native English speakers can be difficult to discern. Some words and phrases have different meanings in different countries which can lead to confusion. With that in mind here are some do's and don'ts for international audio/video conferencing:

Web conferencing is important for sharing information, effective collaboration and active communication. It is efficient and saves both time and money while bringing groups together from all over the world. An excellent collaboration tool for law firms, corporations and other organizations, web conferencing allows organizations to tap into expertise that is geographically dispersed. In the future think of web conferencing for increased interactivity, engagement and accessibility from any device (Smartphones and tablets), improving presentation tools, simplifying shared documents, and enhancing Q and A.

Web conferencing is a powerful way for geographically distributed groups of people to collaborate effectively. Not only does it allow participants to see each other onscreen if desired, it also allows sharing of documents, drawings, spreadsheets and even full motion videos. A picture is worth a thousand words and the ability to share the actual materials that are being discussed in the meeting is extremely effective. It is useful to show participants in onscreen windows because their expressions and gestures give context to their statements which could otherwise be misconstrued. Web conferencing is also commonly used to share desktops in order to demonstrate software for remote viewers, be they customers or colleagues.

Video conferencing continues to gain currency as organizations are forced to constantly wring more efficiencies out of smaller and geographically distributed staffs. Conferencing in general is an effective alternative to travel because it eliminates cost and time lost in transit. Video conferencing provides some benefits that other types of conferencing (audio and web) do not, particularly the added intimacy and sense of expression that comes from the participants actually seeing each other onscreen.

Video conferences are an extremely effective form of communication when they are conducted well. Conversely, they can be an unintelligible mess of distraction and garbled communication if best practices are not followed. There are several forms of video conferencing available in the marketplace today including handheld and desktop device based methods as well as room-based video conferencing. The best practices below are intended for room-based video conferencing although many of them apply to the other forms as well.

Best practices are as follows:

Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC's management team has over 25 years of conferencing expertise, specializing in our country's premiere law firms of all sizes and legal specialties. We know how important conference calls are to legal professionals and we provide superior quality audio, video and web conferencing that is easy to use while backed by personal real-time assistance. Our clients value us most for our ability to improve the profitability, increase the security and enhance the image of their law firm's conference events.

Profitability is improved by our advanced invoice and billing system that allows every conference event to be associated with the correct client matter number. Further improvements are realized by reducing the amount of staff time taken to process the information provided on each invoice into its most usable format for the firm's data tracking requirements.

Improved profitability starts at the beginning of each conference call. Our clients have the option of being prompted to input the client matter number assigned to the conference event. Our system then confirms the number prior to launching the conference call to eliminate the possibility of number entry errors. These assigned numbers are carried forward onto our monthly billing statements sent electronically as email attachments. The same information can be provided more quickly via conference reports sent to designated administrators within moments after the conclusion of each conference call!

It is often said that word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC has realized consistent and substantial growth since its founding as a result of the positive word of mouth advertising shared by its clients and our well connected network of Dealers and Independent Sales Representatives. We enhance this important strategy through the use of an Affinity Program that rewards our loyal clients on the revenues generated by the new customers they refer to us. Each month TRC issues commission payments equaling ten percent (10%) of the revenues collected from its newer customers to the customer or sales channel partner that referred those clients to us! Participation in this program is easily accomplished and can yield substantial benefits to those who value the creation of long term recurring revenue streams for their business or organization.

Surprising your conference call participants with questions can result in embarrassing delays as they search for an appropriate response. Fortunately, these awkward moments can be prevented entirely and for all time by having conference event moderators adopt the practice of alerting participants in advance of their required contribution to the group's discussion. Like all good habits, adopting this practice requires discipline and practice. One respected approach identifies seven basic steps that we have applied to the circumstances of a conference event moderator:

The importance of receiving a detailed invoice when using conference calling services is an often over-looked and undervalued aspect of the Conference Service Provider's (CSP) capabilities. The complexity of conference call detail records can pose serious challenges to accounting specialists charged with the responsibility of assuring the legitimacy of the charges billed by the CSP and allocating those costs to specific individuals or departments within the client organization. At Two Rivers Conferencing LLC we place considerable importance on our process for providing our customers with timely, accurate invoices that provide all our customers with a well-organized invoice that allows for easy verification and assignment of conference service related costs.

Prior to launching its Conference Service Provider business, the founding executives at Two Rivers Conferencing conducted a substantial number of interviews among a wide variety of other service providers' customers. The information gained from these interviews guided us in almost every aspect of our operating technology and service provisioning processes. We took special note of the almost unanimous dissatisfaction expressed about recurring monthly fees and hidden costs that appeared in every new CSP invoice! These included:

We at TRC made it our mission to address these concerns by delivering all of our services on a price per minute basis without requiring the use of additional charges for features and services that were already an integral part of our operating service platform. As a result, our customers use our services with the confidence of knowing their monthly invoice will contain only those charges that are directly based upon the actual number of minutes of usage for our audio and web conference services with no frills and no hidden charges.

Meetings held on audio, web and video conference calls are one of the common ways that many of us get work done on the job. We may discuss issues, share new information and make important decisions in meetings. However, conference calls can also be one of the ways that time is wasted in the workplace. A timed agenda can be a great way of keeping meetings on track and making sure that meetings not only begin and end on time, but that each topic also gets its just allotted time. We believe that the use of a timed agenda can also serve as a helpful training and recognition opportunity that can remove the burden placed upon the conference call moderator or host for developing and managing the conference meeting's timed agenda. These opportunities are highlighted in bold print below.

We often describe Two Rivers Conferencing LLC as a Conference Service Provider that is, “large enough to serve you but small enough to care!” Recent survey responses show one hundred percent (100%) of our respondents report they are “highly satisfied” with our services in the past year with a substantial percentage (87%) indicating they are “very likely” to continue using our services in the future. The combination of these positive responses confirms TRC's service capacity and range of service features meet our customers' needs.

Why such high customer satisfaction? We believe it's because we provide our customers with direct access to a knowledgeable staff of conference service professionals having substantial backgrounds in telephony and/or conference calling since TRC's founding in 2005:

Few things are more annoying during a conference call than service disruption, dropped calls and poor call quality. Once participants experience disruption during a call, it can be very difficult to regain the momentum needed for an important meeting.

Businesses routinely utilize the services of a Conference Service Provider (CSP) to maintain and support “mission critical” functions in their day-to-day operations. They require the CSP to provide abundant capacity so that conference calls can take place regardless of harsh weather conditions or other disruptive local / regional events. Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC meets this challenge by provisioning all of our conference services on very large technology platforms that meet the following criteria:

Many business people believe that phone, web and video based conference solutions offered by Service Providers like Two Rivers Conferencing only benefit larger businesses and organizations. They are not aware how conferencing provides significant value to small business customers with ten or fewer employees. In reality, over one third of TRC's clients are small business owners and managers who routinely use our services to achieve significant savings and operating efficiencies in travel costs, utilization of time and improved business profit margins!

Let's begin with travel savings. Travel industry experts report that the cost for a businessperson traveling to attend meetings now averages $949 per trip in the case of domestic business travel and $2,600 per trip in the case of international business travel! These cost estimates include coach airfare, hotel, meals and local transportation expenses. In comparison, experts in the Conference Service Provider industry report the use of conference calling services average just $100 per month for small business users!! These significant cost savings take on even greater importance when considering the way conference calls can improve one of the most important business resources; that of the utilization of time. I also want to point out that conference calls do not consume fossil fuels or create harmful emissions making it the most environmentally friendly way to conduct business meetings!

Today, most very large businesses take advantage of high quality video teleconferencing to securely reach beyond the enterprise (as well as between remote locations within the enterprise) for effective face-to-face online business meetings. This typically requires those organizations to acquire premise-based video conference equipment, a high capacity data network infrastructure (in the cloud or on-premise), and video conferencing services that can support business partners and a mobile workforce.

Such enterprise level video conference users also require readily available - if not 24/7 - skilled and responsive technical support service to ensure that video collaboration works when it's needed. Although video teleconference equipment has become much easier to use, room based video conferencing services still requires some technical know-how to avoid delays and glitches.

Some companies and organizations are stuck in the past, and as a result, avoid considering video conferencing as a viable option for effective business meetings that require gathering together multiple work groups from distant locations.

Using video conferencing “in the past” effectively meant a large investment in expensive premise-based equipment and facilities (video codecs, dedicated conference rooms) and high capacity network connectivity (ISDN, T1s), and internal resources (Telecom and IT support). Even after all that investment, there was a risk that the quality of your video conference call, or the ability of other participants to successfully join your long-distance meeting (or both) could be an issue, causing the productivity of your business meeting to plummet.

We encountered an interesting perspective on how one IT consulting firm uses video conferencing or more specifically, how it determines when to use a video conference versus a traditional teleconference call or web conference.

Earth Day is an annual event that has been observed on April 22 every year since 1970 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Don't worry, that isn't a setup to preach about the importance of doing your individual part in observance of Earth Day, although there's nothing wrong with that.

Earth Day is one of those events that most of us have heard about, but find easy to forget until someone or something brings it to our attention again. Let's face it — every day we all have to prioritize the competing demands for our attention and energy. And lately, there certainly hasn't been a lack of important challenges and issues confronting every person and every business.