Clinching a business deal depends a lot on a person's presentation skills.But even the best speaker can experience difficulties when using call conferencing services such as screen sharing.The medium is very different from the usual presentation tools and the lack of visual cues adds to the challenge.Utilizing presentations during conference calls has become common practice for many businesses these past few years, as companies have started using the technology to meet with distant clients or coordinate with remote offices.Some conference call services offer screen sharing capabilities which can alleviate the difficulties in conducting presentations.However, there are a few things to understand about the technology to make the process easier and more convenient for users.Screen sharing allows call hosts to their share computer or application screens with other conference call participants.This allows others to see images, charts, and texts on their own screens, which can supplement the information directly being discussed by the speaker.While phone conferencing services have been around for a long time, screen sharing is a relatively new functionality offered by a few conference call providers.Before attempting to use screen sharing, call hosts should check to see if all those participating in the call have compatible systems and install any software required by the system.Depending on the service, screen sharing may work only on specific platforms and devices.Call hosts should also inform all the participants about the optimum screen size for the presentation.This is particularly important if some of the session participants are using handheld devices or ultraportable netbooks with small screens.If users are unable to view the shared screens, it might prevent them from fully viewing the content being shared.One important thing to remember is that screen sharing may show all the items on the presenter's computer.Call hosts should arrange the desktop beforehand, even if the only thing they plan to demonstrate on the screen is a full screen PowerPoint presentation.Having organized folders or desktop items can make it easier to find information needed during the presentation.Lastly, presenters shouldn't use excessive visuals.While voice conferencing services use conventional phone lines for audio clarity, screen sharing will also rely on the viewers' local Internet speeds.A slow Internet connection can cause longer screen loading times and unsynchronized visuals, which can affect the effectiveness of the presentation, and prevent conference call participants from fully understanding the message being delivered.

Audio video conferencing is a shorthand way of describing a virtual conference where no one has to leave her office to meet up with the rest of the group.A virtual conference may use telephones, televisions, computers, conferencing software, collaborative software, file sharing, headsets, the Internet, or any combination of these equipments and tools.Slide presentation, streaming audio, and document sharing are some of the extras you can incorporate into this conferencing method.The ultimate goal is to make the meeting as realistic as possible, where everyone can see each other, hear each other, view and modify projects, and so on - all at a cost that eventually pays for itself in travel savings.The audio video industry has yet to work out all of the kinks.As you can imagine, there can sometimes be technical difficulties in which lines can get torn down in a storm, computers and other equipment can malfunction, and so on.Furthermore, audio video conferencing doesn't work very well for complicated communication techniques, such as those used in closing a sales deal.Audio video conferencing lends a rather impersonal air to meetings, and socializing and bonding don't take place as they would in the real world.You can set up for audio video conferencing in a number of different ways.The older method, still great for a wide variety of teleconferencing purposes, is to have one group in one room, another group in another room (perhaps in another city or country), and have them talk to each other.Each of the two groups utilizes a television, a video camera mounted on the television, a speakerphone, and perhaps some file sharing software for collaboration on computer projects.The newer style is online audio video conferencing, wherein each participant has her very own station in her very own office.This utilizes a computer, the Internet, a web cam, a headset, and file sharing software.This new method allows for even greater ease of planning and attendance, applicability to collaboration, and mobility.You could attend a web conference on the beach while the other attendees are on a train, at home, in a restaurant, or anywhere else.

Web 2.0 audio conferencing is your anchor; web conferencing your color.The term "web conferencing" is confusing.Most technology people know what it means, but the average user does not.Users generally understand "conferencing," but the "web" adjective is confusing because the "web" is a complex and ever-changing subject.It has gotten even more confusing with the advent of telephone over Internet, also called "voice over Internet protocol" or "VoIP." Adding further to this confusion are current good-luck-you're-on-your-own "free conference call" offers that might lead one to believe that the technology is so simple that it can be given away.This could not be further from the truth, now and into the foreseeable future.Conferencing over routers vs.Wires.Historically, all our communications tools worked independently of one another and they relied on dedicated networks.Ever so slowly, this autonomy began to change.We started sending fax messages over voice phone lines, then began interconnecting websites.Those technologies used the traditional phone networks that connected phones with wires.Eventually a different way to switch these signals emerged, one that used "data packets" and "routers." This network technology theoretically allowed any kind of data (fax, voice, files) to be transmitted over the same network.Slowly, various communications technologies are migrating to this packet approach, which opens many new possibilities for the devices that connect to the network.Convergence is the coming together of previously disconnected technologies.Phones can now take on web functions and vice versa.Data files can include voice, fax, video and images in the same transmission.This is sometimes called "convergence.".Web 2.0 audio conferencing bridges the best of phone and data.Web 2.0 conference calling describes a new generation of these converged technologies specifically associated with audio conferencing.In this brave new technology world, audio conferencing presents unique technical challenges that only a handful of companies have addressed to date.Whereas a telephone call is predictable in that two devices connect and two people talk, a conference call may have 3 people or 300 people on the same call.The technical challenges between 3 and 300 are formidable; it is exponentially easier to connect 3 people than 300.For example, 300 people have 300 different end-point devices, 300 different network connections and 300 different participants.These 300 people expect to dial a number and have the system work just the same as if they were calling their neighbors--same clarity, same quality, same reliability.Web 2.0 audio conferencing differs from same-old-same-old traditional audio conferencing by enabling numerous "cross-over" capabilities like monitoring and control of the call over the web, real-time call history and billing over the web, management of multiple PINs and multiple accounts from mobile phones, and initiating group calls instantly, to name just a few.Compare the technologies for an audio conference and a web conference.Now let's compare Web 2.0 conference calling with a 300-person "web conference." An audio conference is keeping 300 telephone devices in synch, and a "web conference" is keeping 300 web pages viewing the same thing, but the differences between a phone conference and web conference are striking.A phone conference must be "in synch," or in other words, everyone needs to hear the same thing at the same time.A web conference by contrast works to keep 300 views of the host's presentation in more or less close synch.Full synching in a web conference is impossible when one considers that one participant may be on a slow dial-up connection and another may be sitting on a high-speed broadband connection.Audio conferencing needs real-time voice synch; Web conferencing pushes sorta-synched computer screens.Most web conferencing providers are attempting voice over Internet connections to broadcast voice and video simultaneously, but the out-of-synch problems relating to those 300 web connections makes the voice part unworkable.The fact is, web conferencing providers use separate audio conferencing providers, even if that is not obvious to the customer.The real-time synching demands of voice vs.The less-critical need for such real time synching when pushing web page views of a presentation make Web 2.0 audio conferencing and web conferencing very different, but related challenges.Both technologies support "conferencing," but the underlying technology needs and expertise are apples and oranges.When users pick up the phone, they expect dial tone.When users go on the web, reliability is hit or miss.One never knows when the tech department or the local Internet Service Provider may decide to take down the network for an upgrade! When a user joins a phone conference, they expect a real time synch as if everyone is in the same room.When a user joins a web conference, the time it takes to get a particular presentation slide is not as critical as hearing what the presenter is saying and being able to respond in real time.Web 2.0 conference calling bridges voice and data without forcing the participants to get in front of a computer for every conference.We are visual creatures, so web conferencing is here to stay.That said, many, maybe even most phone conversations needn't include what is sometimes dubbed a "death by PowerPoint" presentation.Web 2.0 audio conferencing fills the gap between traditional audio conferencing and web conferencing for most applications.It brings the best of the web to audio conferencing without burdening every conference with the need to watch something online, or forcing a participant to sit in front of a video camera without moving for fear the other participants will think he is not paying rapt attention as the presenter drones on (!).Web 2.0 liberation vs.Mandatory operator assistance and good-luck-you're-on-your-own "free conference calls" .Audio conferencing, done right, should work as effortlessly as picking up your phone.The differences end there! Bridging a 300-person audio conference and making sure everyone hears the same thing at high quality requires specialized technologies managed by people who know what they are doing.Web 2.0 audio conferencing liberates the user from the need to call an operator on every call.It also enhances the user experience well beyond the same-old-same old limited features set of the past.It takes much of the technical knowledge, automates it, and puts it in the user's hands.Web designers don't have this knowledge.Software programmers building nice web pages don't have this knowledge either; neither do web conferencing providers and "free conference call" providers.Web 2.0 audio conferencing providers, by contrast, have programmed this telephone knowledge into their offerings.Anchor vs.Color commentator.Think of the two technologies this way.Web 2.0 audio conferencing is your anchorperson in sports broadcasting and web conferencing is the color commentator.Users will need both as convergence continues to bring the telephony and data worlds closer together, but of the two, Web 2.0 audio conferencing will be your anchor "must have" communications tool.To learn more, Google "Web 2.0 audio conferencing".Copyright 2011.Leader Phone and Michael McKibben.All Rights Reserved.

Audio video conferencing is a shorthand way of describing a virtual conference where no one has to leave her office to meet up with the rest of the group.A virtual conference may use telephones, televisions, computers, conferencing software, collaborative software, file sharing, headsets, the Internet, or any combination of these equipments and tools.Slide presentation, streaming audio, and document sharing are some of the extras you can incorporate into this conferencing method.The ultimate goal is to make the meeting as realistic as possible, where everyone can see each other, hear each other, view and modify projects, and so on - all at a cost that eventually pays for itself in travel savings.The audio video industry has yet to work out all of the kinks.As you can imagine, there can sometimes be technical difficulties in which lines can get torn down in a storm, computers and other equipment can malfunction, and so on.Furthermore, audio video conferencing doesn't work very well for complicated communication techniques, such as those used in closing a sales deal.Audio video conferencing lends a rather impersonal air to meetings, and socializing and bonding don't take place as they would in the real world.You can set up for audio video conferencing in a number of different ways.The older method, still great for a wide variety of teleconferencing purposes, is to have one group in one room, another group in another room (perhaps in another city or country), and have them talk to each other.Each of the two groups utilizes a television, a video camera mounted on the television, a speakerphone, and perhaps some file sharing software for collaboration on computer projects.The newer style is online audio video conferencing, wherein each participant has her very own station in her very own office.This utilizes a computer, the Internet, a web cam, a headset, and file sharing software.This new method allows for even greater ease of planning and attendance, applicability to collaboration, and mobility.You could attend a web conference on the beach while the other attendees are on a train, at home, in a restaurant, or anywhere else.