Remote Meeting Tools
- Board Meetings can now be held from anywhere in the world, connecting us all together.conference image by Salem Alforaih from Fotolia.com
Leading technology today keeps us more connected than ever. Companies can have meetings with participants located halfway around the world. Not only does this cut travel costs, but businesses can schedule meetings in a short time frame instead of well in advance. This allows for fewer interruptions and less scheduling conflicts on the attendees' part. - A conference call is a method in which two or more people may converse over a phone line. It is much different from a three-way calling because many more people can be involved. There are two types of conference calls. The first is MeetMe. In a MeetMe call, attendees dial the number of the phone server and are instantly connected to everyone. The other type is an Ad Hoc, in which a single operator dials all of the participants' phone numbers. The actual phone servers are controlled by software, in either a VoIP or PBX format. Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is an Internet-based phone connection that is assigned an IP address, which allows the transfer of digital information such as voice. Private branch exchange, or PBX, is a device that allows multiple connections of phones while still being under one line.
- Meeting through video is second best to meeting in person. You can see everything the other person is doing without actually being there. This has an advantage over teleconferencing as attendees can present visuals if they were part of the agenda. The only disadvantage is that it can be quite a bit more expensive to set up and maintain. The actual equipment required ranges from a simple $30 webcam all the way to the high-end $2,000 projector with attached Internet server. Depending on the expected quality of the meeting a business wishes, it will either be paying for poorer quality but cost-effective calls or those that are very expensive but with high-end quality.
- Although the idea is somewhat old, the features and benefits have had a huge remodel. While online meetings can still retain simple practices like instant messaging and webcam chat, now software and Internet companies have combined document editing and presentations. Attendees can now edit a form or contract in real time. Furthermore, contracts and agreements can be printed out, signed and then uploaded back into the meeting for the other party to download. Foreign investors and businesspeople no longer need to venture out of their country of origin.
