Modern technology has brought about some interesting changes to the way we conduct business these days. The world is so well connected that we can use this technology to collaborate on projects without having to necessarily travel hundreds or thousands of miles. That is where a virtual meeting comes in handy.
A virtual meeting is when people use their computers, the internet and their telephones to create a meeting like atmosphere even though they are many miles apart. There are a number of ways to do this. The standard way of doing it is by using a conference call service or teleconference service.
These modern day conference call services have taken meetings to a new level. To give you an idea of how they work, just imagine everyone sitting down wherever they happen to be at that time and making a telephone call. Typically you would arrange for everyone who is to attend the meeting to call a certain telephone number at a specified date and time. The conference call service handles the job of bridging all of these connections so that it is like everyone is in the same room together.
Someone is in charge of moderating the meeting. This person has the ability to log into a web based control panel to control what kind of communication is allowed to happen. For instance, this moderator can put everyone but one person on mute if they want to. That way this one person can give a speech or explain something without interruption. In the meantime, if any of the listeners want to chime in, they just press a button on their phone. That signals the moderator that this person wants to say something that the whole group can hear. It is kind of like they are in a classroom and they are raising their hand for the teacher to call on them.
If you wanted to, you could have the meeting attendants connected through computers also. This would allow them to see a Power Point presentation or some other visual guide. Everyone could watch listen as the leading speaker explains his point in great detail.
Why would you want to do this instead of meeting face to face?
There are many reasons. One good reason is that it is very expensive to travel for face to face meetings. These virtual meetings can be conducted for a nearly negligible cost. Some places even offer free services like this, although you are probably better off paying a small amount for a service that is reliable. We all know how technology can be temperamental. It is better to use a company that has the support you need to resolve any kinks. You aren’t going to get that kind of support with a free service.
Another great reason for doing this is because it allows specific people to meet and update each other about company goals or projects on a regular basis without interrupting the rest of their business operations. You could have a team of regional sales managers meet like this once per month at the same day and time. If someone can’t make a meeting for whatever reason, the call is recorded so that the missing person can listen to the entire meeting whenever he gets a chance. You wouldn’t normally be able to do that in a face to face meeting.
Imagine a scenario where you were trying to get twenty people together to meet with two people who are making a big presentation. If one of these two people arrives hours late because of an airport delay, it is going to screw the whole thing up. If this presentation was conducted in this virtual atmosphere, that person would have been able to attend the meeting from his cell phone while he was at the airport. That is just one example.
If you travel around the country to give sales presentations, can you imagine how much more efficient you could be by using a meeting like this? You could introduce your products or services to a large number of people all at once instead of having to give fifty different one on one presentations. Then you would narrow down the people who were truly interested in buying from the people who aren’t really interested. Think of how much time you would save. There are many more examples than this. Companies, sales people, marketers, speakers and all kinds of business professionals are using these kinds of services.
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