Business organizations of almost all the sizes aims to provide high-quality, reliable and effective productivity to all global customers. The effective business communication helps the companies to achieve the committed service. Thus, conferencing equipment have been widely adopted by many companies to enhance their business, across the world.

Conference call systems has become a routine part of day-to-day business life. The conferencing usage has resulted in lower travel costs, improved business efficiency and higher employee's productivity. Therefore, due to its rich and economic features, various corporations have been outsourcing this service for their office network and other business activities.

There are many latest technologies in the market which helps in the fast means of conferencing. In this series, video conferencing emerged as lowering the extra expenditure as well as saving time of the business enterprises. It facilitated the business delegates to conduct their internal and overseas business meets while sitting in any part of the world. Thus, it has vastly helped the companies to excel over the business activities.

Through video conferencing equipment, emerging businessmen can share their business presentations easily with the existing big enterprises. It does not even require their physical presence. Thus, in a way, it helps in promoting the young business mind to enhance and learn new market strategies.

Video conferencing equipments not only helps the corporate world but also helps state and local governments, universities and health care centers to excel in the smooth flow of their operational activities. Today, many applications including training, telemarketing, product development, customer service, board meetings, managing mergers and acquisitions, interviewing, etc largely depends upon the usage of video conferencing for their better output.

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Hosting a successful webinar takes a few steps and a bit of research but once you have the basics you can easily host any number of webinars and have them be a success for both you and your business. Each year the use of webinars grows by close to 30% as technology makes this form of information presentation more appealing and easier to use. When looking into webinars consider the following things, not all hosts are the same, a consultant may be a wise investment, consider your webinar's schedule, create superior quality content, and etiquette -often forgotten but often essential.

The host you choose is vital to the success of your webinar. No matter how great your content if you do not have the features you need or your content cannot be viewed it is not going to provide you with benefits and the results that you need. This is why it is important to research your host carefully. Things to look for are scalability, reliability, and the ability to work with a wide variety of technologies. Having the latest and greatest is great but if you cannot get your video to the people who need to see because the technology is too different your webinar may not be as successful as you may like.

Consider the benefits of a consultant. Consultants can help you to put together your webinar in a way that helps to maximize the potential of success and viability. They can help you tailor your content and presentation to make it easier to present on the web and make it more web and user friendly. They help to make the transition into using webinars easy from start to finish.

The dates and times you offer your webinar are just as important as the content provided. If you are offering your webinar to UK viewers and you set your schedule to Eastern Standard Time and set it for 4pm you may find a decided lack of viewers since this is around 9pm in the UK. The same goes for setting up a schedule with Pacific Time at 3pm this makes it 6pm in Eastern Standard Time. This is why the times and dates of your webinar are essential if you are looking to market it to individuals who would be taking it during normal business hours. If you were looking to make it available for home use you would need to consider hours outside the normal business schedule.

Content is everything in a webinar so it is important that you present information that is well researched, well organized and above all relevant to the topic being presented. You want to supply information at a speed that is going to allow retention but still allow you to get everything you want to present into the presentation.

Etiquette is something many people forget on the web. This is because the web is the world of short hand and abbreviations. However, such abbreviations should be avoided. Arrive on time to your webinar, make sure to maintain politeness such as welcome, please and thank you and as a courtesy consider supplying materials that show how to use each of the function to make it easier for people to benefit from your presentation.

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Using secure web conferencing can bring a lot of benefits to small or large businesses. Some of the benefits include the increase in productivity, no travel costs, and the ability to do business with people from all over the world.

As web conferencing becomes more and more used by people from all over the world, businesses begin to understand that if they want to be competitive they need to use it.

With the speed that decisions are taken now, secure web conferencing makes sure that the business data is secured.

Here are some of the benefits of using secure web conferencing:

It takes out the costs of traveling from the equation. Since the price of traveling and paying for gas increases all the time, meeting online is an alternative that plenty of people choose and prefer these days. Software for online meetings insures that it's cheap enough for everyone to use, even if they're on a tight budget.

The productivity is increased. Since people don't need to waste a lot of time traveling and coordinating schedules, they have more time to actually work.

Whether they're from the other side of the planet or in the same office, they can meet in virtual meetings, to talk and exchange ideas. If they want, these meetings can be scheduled, or they can be decided on the spot.

What people talk between them is secure, and that's something all the people involved want. The security is improved when you use secure web conferencing.

The best secure web conferencing software is quite versatile, as it can be used on any operating system, including Windows, Mac or Linux. You can also use it together with a number of applications, such as whiteboards that are interactive or PowerPoint presentations.

You can even let people enter the conference if they don't have an invitation, by publishing the meeting on the home page of your site.

The business world, with its fast movement, needs web conferencing. If there is a problem that needs to be fixed quick, people can get together fast and find a solution to their problem. It doesn't matter where they are, they can communicate easily with the others.

A business that uses web conferencing makes sure that they get the most out of their possibilities. A web conference can be made between computers that are different, even if they have different bandwidth available to them.

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Many people who may be looking into webinars are also going to be looking into what it costs to make a webinar part of the offerings of the company or part of the resources for the company. Many companies have considered webinars as a way of presenting materials for training purposes. It also works well for individuals who are working through telecommuting methods and who may not be able to reach a training location. They can still have the information presented to them in an interactive and engaging manner.

It goes without saying that interactive methods such as webinars are going to be more expensive than simply putting a video on a video sharing site or posting it to a locked site to only allow people to view it with a password. There are a number of considerations that are taken into consideration with webinars, which are not necessary with standard video presentations.

The first consideration is live feed or on demand. Depending on the hosting site and the features you want you may find that live feed or on demand have considerable price differences. You may find in some instances that on demand is actually cheaper than live feed. Features may be presented as packages or may be presented as individual additions, which need to be added to the base fee for hosting. Live feed videos also require the staff to produce those live videos each time the video is viewed.

On demand videos can simply be recorded once and stored. In many cases on demand videos are going to be more cost effective since they only require a single recording session. The cost of a webinar is also going to include interactive features.

Normally a video on a video sharing site for example, will only have a comment section. They are not designed to be interactive but merely to be viewed. Even on demand videos are going to have some form of interactive aspect. They will have a chat room, a phone conference, voice over IP capabilities and in the cases of webinars there is usually someone available to answer questions during the presentation even if there is not a live presenter.

Pricing plans are also different from webinars from traditional hosting. In many cases webinars are priced based on seating and bandwidth. This means there is either a monthly flat rate for so much bandwidth and so many seats or the cost is split between the number of seats, which is usually limited to a certain number per viewing. Viewings may also be limited to a certain number a month.

There is also a pricing plan that deals with per person per minute. This means it charges a certain rate per minute per person of viewing. In these instances the number of available slots can be high per viewing and features may or may not be included. The price per minute varies.

When looking at the overall price it may seem like an expensive prospect from development to implementation. However, if you consider the benefits over the long term you may be surprised how quickly you cannot only make back your investment but how it can actually save you a considerable amount of money over the long run.

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A webinar is a fairly simple application. In fact, not only does it make a great deal of sense but also is a convenient way to present a great deal of information to a large number of people. There are a number of different ways that a webinar can work.

Normally, a webinar consists of an on demand or life feed. Webinars that are on demand are usually pre recorded. Individuals register then log on to video the video. As the business, you pay so much to host the webinar and as a viewer, they pay so much to view it.

If a phone conference is involved this also usually requires a separate log on though voice over IP options are available. Many people prefer phone conferences because of the option of speakerphone and projection technology. This means they can have several people view and participate under the same account.

Live feeds work slightly differently than on demand. While the presentation may be the same, the difference is in timing. With on demand everyone can be prepared and even ready to go prior to logging on to view the video. With live feed options, it works a little differently. There is usually a request made at the beginning to ensure everyone has logged on and is ready. Live feed usually allows for a small delay to get everything started. This delay is usually not necessary for on demand since it can be requested and viewed whenever the viewers are ready.

There are some other differences to consider between live feed and on demand. With on demand if necessary the video, which has been pre-recorded, can be paused if necessary to accommodate discussion. Live feed may or may not be willing to make such a pause. There may be a request that discussion wait until the end of the presentation for questions.

Webinars have a number of different ways that they can work. The method depends on what exactly is being presented and what is necessary in order to make a successful presentation. If you have a number of people from a number of different locations that need to view the presentation at the same time, on demand may be a better way to handle your webinars.

If however, you are making presentations to select groups that are going to be gathering at a single location then you may want to consider using a live feed. Webinars are designed to provide a way to present information in an interactive manner to a group of individuals. It allows people from any location provided they have access to the video and the necessary conferencing software or equipment, such as a phone. Webinars provide a great way to bridge the gap of distance, still allow interactions and provide you with a way to present information in a methods that is more likely to be retained by those viewing the presentations. This makes webinars an important new learning and business tool.

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Companies and organizations today use web conferencing in many aspects of their organizations-to conduct meetings, collaborate on projects, demonstrate products and services, and more. Learning to use web conferencing technology is pretty easy, but there is a lot more to training via web conference than just putting on a headset, dialing up an audio-conferencing bridge, and logging onto the application.

This article offers some helpful tips specifically targeted to web conference training.

1. Even though you are using web conferencing to deliver training, the training content itself must still be planned and crafted just as carefully as if it were for a traditional classroom session or e-Learning course.

2. When developing PowerPoint slides to use in web conference training follow these guidelines:
- Simplify content.
- Use a large, bold, simple font like Arial.
- Have no more than 6 to 8 lines of text per page (fewer are better).
- Make no more than 4 to 5 training points per page (fewer are better).
- Use plain backgrounds that contrast well with the text without clashing.
- If possible, avoid complex animations (i.e. no spinning text, etc.).

3. Establish one person as the point of contact, (POC) for communicating with their group of attendees. Provide all information to this one person and let them communicate it to their own people.

4. Provide an outline of objectives for attendees prior to the conference.

5. Test all aspects of your presentation ahead of time. (Enlist the help of an online facilitator or a student for these tests.):
- Check your phone lines and headset, and replace weak batteries with full new sets.
- Though most web conference technologies automatically run a short program to install and test your machine, open your own test conference and run your presentation. Confirm that your machine won't freeze up because of low PC memory or connection speed.
- Check any online exercises, tests, or polling questions you have planned for the session.
- Run through the presentation twice, to both check its timing and leave ample time for questions and answers.

6. If student answers are being stored in a database or a learning management system (LMS), determine how they will be scored, saved, and accessed later.

7. Are you using an electronic whiteboard? Check to see how its images will be stored. Will your students need them later? How can they access this material? Is it something you can post in a reference area on your training LMS?

8. If you are going to demonstrate with examples, try to keep them relevant to the audience. It's easier for people to learn when material is presented through examples that make sense to them.

9. Check how much background noise your system produces. Stage the actual conference in a quiet place, where you can control any heating or air conditioning noise. Be careful about rustling papers. And never eat anything or chew gum during the conference.

10. Will a host introduce you or will you have a guest presenter during the web conference? If so, you'll need to run through all of things discussed in item 5 with the other participant.

11. Do you or your guest tend to run long? If so, you may want to use cue cards. Or use a second computer (or laptop) as a time clock, to signal when someone is running long.

12. Limit each session to 60 - 90 minutes. Longer sessions are not productive.

13. Limit your audience. When possible, keep the number of people attending small. (No more than six people are best.)

14. You might want to ask your technical people to set up a dual monitor configuration on your PC (or laptops) for you, so that your presentation appears on one display (as others are seeing it), while your delivery screens and notes appear on the other.

15. If appropriate, check time zones before scheduling the web conference. You'd be amazed how often even experienced trainers forget to do this...and end up opening a conference at the wrong time.

16. Related to item 15, check in advance to make sure that dates and times appear correctly in all meeting listings and notification messages. Confirm that the dates and times you define are communicated consistently to all participants.

17. Check ahead of time that all online links through which students can join the web conference will work... whether they are delivered to learners in an LMS message, via email, or on a web page.

18. If any learners are located in other organizations, try a test connect into their facilities well before the actual conference. Though rare, their IT departments may need to change some firewall settings before you'll be able to communicate in.

19. Have more than one Web Conference option ready to use. Then, if some participants can't connect, you can create a new conference on the spot, with different conference tools.

20. Generally, you do not want people to join a web conference until it is actually open for business. Depending on the system you use, you may be able to enforce this with a student display that says: "Cannot join until..."

21. Before starting, ask your POC if everyone is present and if it's OK to begin.

22. During the actual conference, check in periodically by asking questions of the attendees. For example: "Does that make sense? Are there any questions so far? Can you think if an example where you might use this __________." This helps to ensure the attendees are attentive, and to see if they have any questions. Silence is a sign that the information is not being understood.

23. Try to stay "on course" but allow for flexibility. Often questions asked will take you to another topic area and may require more explanation than allowed in the allotted time. Try to answer all questions and offer to follow up with more information offline, or in another conference, when time is limited.

24. When you get close to the end, if you feel like you might run over or need a few extra minutes to finish up, stop and check with all participants. Be considerate of others' schedules.

25. Provide training exercises on the topics discussed.

26. Plan ahead for how you will close the session. Thank everyone for their time and attention, leave time for any closing comments or information, discuss next steps (if any), and review how you can be contacted (if needed).

27. Follow up with your learners after their web-conference training. This could be by email or perhaps even through a test to gauge their understanding of the material.

28. Keep a log of all training and notes. It can help improve your future training.

Mary Polley-Berte is Director of Customer Support & Training at SyberWorks, Inc., in Waltham, Massachusetts. Mary is a graduate of Boston University and resides with her family in New Hampshire.

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