Scheduling a meeting Before you start a meeting at the office you need to schedule a meeting room, find a conference phone and get some donuts on your way to work. You also have to do a few things to set up an online meeting. It only takes a few minutes and I’ll walk you through the options. This article will be reference WebEx’s MeetMeNow software because it’s what I use, but the tips apply to most online meeting software.

Choose date and time

Choose a meeting date and time. Most control panels offer this is as the beginning of the online meeting process. By default your local time zone is displayed but can be changed if needed. You also want to schedule an estimated meeting duration. Don’t forget to select email reminders and the default reminder time on most meeting applications is fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes before the meeting the attendee will receive a reminder email. Is the meeting a recurrence? You can set up the meeting to recur each week at this time if applicable.

Types of invitations

Most online meeting applications offer several different ways to send meeting invitations. WebEx offers three types of meeting invitations. The most popular way is to log into the meeting application and choose the option “schedule a meeting “. The most popular applications offer toolbar integration into applications such as Internet Explorer®, MS Office® and Excel®. I find this to be the most convenient feature that MeetMeNow has to offer. If you’re meeting attendees are already using instant messengers you may have the option to schedule a meeting directly from your instant messenger. MeetMeNow has built in Instant Messenger functionality.

Choosing options

Not all meetings are like, some are interactive and others require a one way presentation. Here’s some of the options that you may want to consider when setting up your next online meeting. Chat allows people to use text messaging features to communicate during the meeting. Attendees can text the meeting organizer or each other. Video option allow attendees to either view your web cam or vice versa. The notes feature can be set up to either allow just the meeting organizer or all attendees use a built-in notes feature. Notes can later be printed out at the end of the meeting. File transfer is a popular choice to allow the presenter to publish documents and files to attendees. WebEx MeetMeNow has a unique feature to send feedback to the host. When the meeting ends a feedback form appears to allow meeting attendees to give feedback on the meeting experience.

Privileges

After selecting your options you may want to set up some privileges for your attendees some of these are selected by default and others aren’t. You can allow attendees to save shared documents or perhaps print only. Attendees may have the option to view the attendee list, thumbnails or control applications or desktop remotely. You can also select detailed chat options allowing participants to only chat with you or all attendees.

Conclusion

The options and settings reviewed above will depend upon the type of meeting you are having. Obviously a sales presentation or training demonstration will be different than any brainstorming meeting. But now you know some of the choices you have and the flexibility that online meeting software has to offer. I have written detailed reviews of the webs top online meeting software. Please visit my independent reviews and see how they compare in features and functionality.

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Today’s online meetings are collaborative affairs. You can share applications and documents, send messages, and even work on the whiteboard. Online meetings are definitely revolutionizing the way people interact. No longer just a business tool, you’ll find religious groups, addiction support groups, and civic groups meeting online.

Several web sites have emerged that allow participants of online business meetings to exchange graphic files and images while eliminating the need for a video cam or web cam. An added bonus is there is no need for you and/or your meeting partners to download cumbersome software before the meeting.

Business meetings online, used appropriately, can save small business owners, and their clients, time and money. Note that I’m not advocating using an online meeting to cold-call or prospect with. First time meetings with potential clients are probably still best held face-to-face. But a follow-up meeting to answer questions? Definitely think about doing it online. Where a phone conference is a “tell” method of selling, the online meeting takes it to the “show-and-tell “method.

Other solid benefits of online business meetings are reduced expenses, higher productivity and increased time. These are mainly accomplished by eliminating travel time and expense. Rather than have the meeting attendees gather in one physical location, the World Wide Web is used to create a virtual meeting place that can be accessed with the proper login credentials.

Online meetings are a secure way to interact with your clients, business partners and team members. This makes them ideal for sales pitches, performance reporting or providing training for other members of your organization. Online meetings make audio communication possible by using VoIP (voice over IP) applications.

Online meetings are idea for organizing small impromptu meetings of fewer than 8 participants. This particularly benefits small businesses where interactions tend to be spur-of-the-moment and include fewer participants than in larger companies.

I have been a small business owner for over 20 years. During that time a few “killer apps” have come along that really take my business to the next level. The ability to host and attend business meetings online is one of those playing-field-levelers that I can’t do without. You should do yourself a favor and try doing business meetings online. Take advantage of one (or more) of the FREE TRIALS you’ll find at the Online Meeting Review Site.

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With recent advances in PC and Internet technology, even small businesses can save large portions of their travel expenses. And those savings can start today.

If doing business involves frequent meetings with small groups of co-workers, customers, prospects, or vendors, and if travel expenses are often part of the picture, then it’s time for you to learn how you can cancel those expensive hotel reservations, tear up the plane tickets, and keep the car in the garage.

Here’s how: online conferencing. Yes, it’s here, it’s practical, it’s secure, and it’s very inexpensive.

When you think of technology for meeting at a distance, you may be picturing special rooms equipped with tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialized teleconferencing equipment. That was the 20th-century solution. Some large corporations still use it. But the smaller, more nimble businesses of the 21st century choose online conferencing. It’s easy and it requires no special equipment other than the PC, Internet connection, and web browser you already have.

The new generation of online meeting tools let you meet whenever you want with anyone you wish. You can host a meeting or join one that someone else has organized. You can start an instant meeting or schedule one for a future date and time. You can even create the schedule and send the invitations directly from Microsoft Outlook.

How will you benefit? Here are just a few ways.

* Shorten the sales cycle and close more deals by scheduling instant demonstrations and presentations for qualified prospects.
* Respond quickly to changing conditions by scheduling immediate strategic planning meetings with co-workers.
* Train your customers when they’re ready instead of making them wait until you can travel to their location.

So how does it work? Simply put, you can share any window on your computer’s desktop so that all others in the meeting can see what you see. (According to a Yankee Group study, this usage accounts for 89% of all online conferences.) You can also chat via keyboard and speak over a telephone conference bridge.

What can you do with this online conferencing technology?

* You can give a PowerPoint presentation to co-workers or prospects.
* You can demonstrate a software product.
* You can train customers to use a program.
* You can collaborate with co-workers on editing a document.

The uses are only limited by your imagination.

Prices from the key players in this space cover quite a broad range:

* Microsoft Live Meeting ($375/month)
* Webex Meeting Center ($375/month)
* Macromedia Breeze ($375/month)
* Raindance Meeting Edition ($275/month)
* Citrix GoToMeeting ($49/month)

Recently CNET published an independent evaluation of these services, and the results may surprise you. The lowest priced product, Citrix GoToMeeting, scored higher than Macromedia Breeze, equal to Microsoft Live Meeting, and only a little below Raindance.

In other words, with GoToMeeting for $49 a month you can get unlimited usage of a highly rated online conferencing product that’s easy to use, highly secure, and can save you thousands of dollars. What are you waiting for?

Steve Diamond has been a small business owner for 15 years and has benefited from online conferencing in his work. For further information about this topic, and for a GoToMeeting Promo Code worth $10 plus a 30-day free trial with no obligation to continue, visit this GoToMeeting Promotion.

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If you answered yes to one of the above questions, then you are a perfect candidate for a web conferencing product. When you use a web conferencing solution, you can effectively get your point across, just as if you were in the same room with the other person.

As long as you and the other attendees of a web conference have an Internet connection, you can hold a meeting just like you were together in the same room. While you talk via the audio interface (telephone, etc.), you share what is showing on your computer and the other meeting attendees see what is happening on your computer. This allows you to give a PowerPoint presentation, show someone how to use a program, work together on a project, or do whatever you want.

Web conferences let you do just about anything you can do when you have a face-to-face meeting, without all of the hassles of traveling. Think about how much you will save in time and money if you could drastically cut back on the amount you travel, yet are still able to conduct those important meetings.

You become more efficient when you use a web conferencing product. Your efficiency increases because you spend less time traveling, and you are more efficient because you can meet with more people faster, all from the comforts of your office.

There are several companies that offer an online conference service, giving you a very affordable alternative to having to travel to distant locations. Internet meetings are as simple to use as any other piece of software, yet they allow you to meet online with anyone at a different location from you.

When you use an online conference service, you can save a lot of money and time, while being incredibly productive, all while never having to leave your home or office. The ability to meet with anybody, anywhere in the world, for as long as you want, thus eliminated the need for a lot of traveling, is what online meeting solutions are known for.

Increase your efficiency by using a web conferencing solution. After you realize how much time you have saved, and the amount of aggravation you have avoided, you will be happy you gave online meetings a chance.

Author Caressa Waechter understands how busy you get these days, which is why she promotes the use of a web conference solution Learn more about if an online meeting solution is right for you by visiting her website: Web Conference Solution

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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.

Tomaz Mencinger is an expert of current conference calling services. More detailed information about audio, video and web conferencing, web collaboration and online meeting services can be found at his website.

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In conventional business setting, designated employees would ideally travel across the world to make business deals or to attend conferences that would market the business. These business trips entail booking a hotel for accommodation, booking a meeting room, having transport arrangements to various meeting points, setting aside traveling allowances as well as organizing for meals for the traveling persons. We all agree that employees are bound to make fraudulent claims after a trip.

Some people misuse these business trips and turn them into their personal expeditions at the expense of their companies. Other employees turn the trips into a shopping spree. Monitoring the steps of your employees while they are away requires a lot of time and money thus many organizations would not think of spending funds to check on their employees whom they have sent away on business.

The best way to curb problems arising from traveling far to have meetings is to invest in a good online meeting room, with a powerful computer which can transmit multimedia. Have a web-cam, headsets if needed and install necessary software to support communication as the meeting goes on. It is also important to have a standby generator that ensures the meeting is not affected by power blackouts. With technology, you can link to your customers, suppliers and business partners at the comfort of your office.

In the long run, if you compare the money used to set up an online business meeting and that used to send staff to a physical meeting point, you will definitely settle for online meetings.

Belsheba is a business management expert. She researches and studies on big and small business organizational strategies. Website: Business Management Solutions for efficient business operation.

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Such online conferencing software can be used by people to present information to other people just like they would in a normal meeting, in a real world conference room.

A voice component that lets people speak to each other by using a microphone or a telephone, a whiteboard that lets you draw objects or to illustrate points and in some cases a chat feature with text. Some software versions can even support video.

Advantages

When you compare them, you will see that an online meeting is preferable to renting an entire conference room from a hotel or meeting in an office.

The first reason why online meetings are preferable is that they’re much cheaper than meeting face to face, especially when people have to travel in order to meet. Another expense is paying for booking of the conference, if it’s organized in a central location.

When you need to rent either a conference room or large hall for a meeting, the prices can be too large. If you do it online, the costs are much lower. They might include the price of getting a membership with an online conferencing service, and sometimes the cost of a phone call, if you don’t use a computer microphone for voice.

Another point in favour of using online meeting services is that you can have them while on vacation in Hawaii. There is no need to be in the same room to have meetings in your company.

Ok, so maybe you’re not in Hawaii, but you’re working from home. You can still save money on gas, by talking with your co-workers from home instead of driving to the office.

Even if you need to travel in another part of the country on some urgent matter, you can meet with your employees or co-workers, without missing important staff meetings or losing track of what’s happening in the company.

A good side effect of having online meetings is that you also improve your time management. Getting the meeting going, with everyone in the room and settled down can take more time than the online version would.

With the online conference, all the people log in at the time that is specified. You don’t need a lot of time to plan an online meeting and you also don’t need to prepare a room for it.

You can put online meetings to good use by doing hands-on training with clients or giving demonstrations. An online meeting lets you show your clients how to use the software you’re developing for example.

Another good use for online conferences is the training of employees, including new procedures or policies. It doesn’t matter if that employee is in another country or in the same building.

Discover which are the best online meeting service available on the market. Learn how web conferencing internet solutions can help save your business cost and increase efficiency.

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Clearly, the primary benefit of conducting virtual meetings with web meeting software is that it enables the conducting of effective meetings with people from anywhere in the world without the expenses of travel, hotel accommodations and meeting facilities. Today, web meeting software is powerful, yet very low cost, and very easily used.

Another benefit is that a broad variety of information can be shared in real time with each participant. The only requirements for participation are that each guest have access to a PC or Mac, and an internet connection. Typically, all one needs to do to connect to the meeting is to click on an access URL and enter a username and password. More recent web meeting software designs are server based and utilize flash technology which eliminates the need for application downloads at each PC.

Here is a listing of key features and benefits that are available from the latest releases of web meeting software:

* Combined video and audio over the internet connection eliminates the need for costly telephone bridge connections that are required for video only web conference software.

* Webcam enabled real time views of the speaker establish a much stronger personal “in the same room” feeling among the participants.

* Easily and directly uploaded Powerpoint files for onscreen viewing make your presentations, coupled with the projection of you speaking at the side give the attendees virtually the same feeling and personalization they would get if they were actually in the same meeting room with you.

* Desktop sharing applications allow your audience to follow along with virtually any operation you are conducting on your screen. This is truly great for training, review of documents, etc.

* Most web meeting software enable “pushing” of websites that you can lead your participants through, or they can interact on their own with the sites.

* Whiteboard features enable drawing and/or typing onscreen to enable sketch type illustrations of ideas and capture of notes.

* Text chatting features enable easy Q&A, surveys and polls, sharing of website addresses and other information in real time.

* The best video conference software also enables easy recording of your webinars for future reference and sharing with those unable to attend the actual real time session.

The possible applications and uses for online meeting software are many, ranging from business meetings with your colleagues, to training sessions with your employees and business partners, to document reviews, to client interactions and sales presentations. While face to face interactions are of great value, the new web conferencing software applications available today make such meetings and their requirements for excessive travel, time and expense much less necessary.

Based on several years of personal experience with the use of online meeting software, we recommend GVO Conference as preferred solution. For more detailed information on the types and uses of web conference software, visit http://www.VideoConferenceSoftware.Org

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1. Do you need to make a Powerpoint or other presentation during your conference?

If you answered “yes” to this question, then you will be glad to know that current web and video conferencing services allow the host of a conference to present a slide show or power point demonstration that will be visible on the screens of all the participants of a conference. Similarly, hosts can also open and show other document formats to their attendees. If you need this kind of capability, make sure that your conference provider can give this to you.

2. Do you require telephone conferencing integrated with your web/video conference?

Many organizations have found telephone conferencing to be an effective way to get work done. If you are already connecting with your members and staff via telephone conferences you can expand on this by choosing a web conferencing system that integrates telephone conferencing along with the online conference. The combined service will give you the ease of phone conferencing along with the enhanced visual and presentation features of online conferencing.

Some services allow the host to pay the long distance bill of all the participants (toll free conferencing), while others require each participant to cover their long distance fees.

3. Do all of your conference participants use the same type of computer?

If your participants are going to be using a variety of computers (PC, Mac, Linux) then you will benefit most by choosing a web conferencing system that works on any platform. While earlier conferencing systems required the downloading of complex software that would work only on specified operating systems, newer conferencing formats are delivered online and are browser based. They work on any operating system and if yours in an eclectic audience, then you will get best results with this type of conferencing.

4. Will it be necessary for one of your technicians to “take-over” and operate the computers of any of your participants?

If you wish to use conferencing as a service tool and want to avoid having to send out your service team on physical visits to clients, you can save a lot of travel time and cost by selecting a web and video conferencing system that allows the host of the conference to go online and actually take control of the computer of the client or conference participant. If you are looking at web conferencing as an after-sales service tool, then this particular feature will probably give you one of the most important benefits that you could wish for.

5. Do you want to conduct an online poll or survey during the conference?

If you have a large organization and want to make a quick and accurate poll of opinion or vote on a particular issue then the new polling capabilities of the most advanced web conferencing services will be an important feature for you.

Similarly, if you need to gather demographic information about your meeting participants, obtain valuable input, or quiz and test your participants, then the new online survey capabilities of current web conferencing systems will be an important feature to look for when choosing your conference format. Data from these types of online “surveys” can typically be saved and used for future use.

6. Do you want to brainstorm online, using a “whiteboard”?

Brainstorming is a great way to tap the ideas of a group and to come up with and select new ideas. If this is what you like to do when holding physical meetings, then you will probably want to be able to do the same thing in your virtual meetings as well. This is now possible in some of the more advanced web conferencing systems by using a “group notepad” that enables meeting participants to utilize a shared workspace. The results of these brainstorming sessions can typically be saved in a storage area.

Which of these features will benefit you the most? It all depends on your particular needs. However, one thing is sure: once you experience the convenience of online meetings, you will not want to go back to the era when every meeting required you to pack up your bags and get on an airplane.

About The Author
Dan Richmond is CEO & Co-founder of http://MegaMeeting.com. MegaMeeting provides Web Conferencing & Video Conferencing services for individuals, businesses and educational institutions. For more information, or for a free live demonstration, please visit http://www.MegaMeeting.com/ or call (818) 783-4311.

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How serious are you about the money your business is spending on business trips every year? If your answer was not so much you are likely to discover how can save a lot of money conduct meetings and presentations using web conferencing.

GoToMeeting and Meetmenow are two of the big ones in the field. They keep adding features every day and one of the best features GoToMeeting has presented lately is the ability to add videoconferencing to the meetings. It gives them a large advantage against the competition. Another notable product that features videoconferencing is FUZE Meeting. They also include many features to have interactive presentations that are better than the other web conferencing tools.

Universities, hospital, lawyers and many other professionals are hosting virtual meetings or classroom all the time. It can be a time and money saver. Imagine how amazing is doctors from United States be able to watch a live surgery in Japan and also be able to interact. How about professors that can give lectures for a large number of students spread around the globe. The examples are many but you can see what web conferencing can do to help your business.

How many hours a week does your employees spend on business trips a month? If you answer was many hours, you are definitely wasting a lot of money and labor hours. With web conferencing you can keep your employees in the office being more productive and effective. Plus, they can be closer to their families what is going to make them happier and eventually help your business to grow.

Many business owner didn’t adopt web conferencing because they thing is too expensive and they won’t be using to make it worth. Almost every single one of the softwares offers a period to try it before buy. GoToMeeting for example gives 30 days risk free trial to anyone how wants to test it. If after the trial you want to buy it the price is very good you will have an affordable cost of only $39 a month with no contract. That mean you can cancel your plan with them at any time without any problem, extra fees or question asked.

All of the softwares offer a very good training to learn how to use it properly. To setup an affordable web conferencing is much easier than you think. FUZE Meeting for example doesn’t even need to be installed in the machine to be used, that means you can attend to an online meeting even in a rented computer or in an internet cafe.

Stop wasting money on business trips and give it a try to one of the softwares in the market. After reading the article if you still need help choosing the best software that will fit the needs of your business take a look the web conferencing comparison page to a better decision. In my personal opinion I would go with GoToMeeting due to they have much more features than the competition. You can also give FUZE Meeting a try since they let you download it without having to put your credit card information.