Published in the April edition of Computer Link Magazine

Web Conferencing and Web Meetings are now beginning to catch on.  The use of these tools spans corporate communications, sales, marketing, eLearning, public relations, and customer support.  Although they do not totally replace face-to-face meetings, they are very effective and they definitely save time and money. 

Two of the leaders in this newly evolving arena are Placeware and, my personal favorite, WebEx.  Both of these vendors provide their products as an “application service provider”, which means that instead of selling you their software, they provide you their service, including software, updates, hosting, communications and customer support.  Placeware and WebEx provide similar capabilities including delivering Power Point presentations, displaying the presenter’s screen remotely, surfing the net, white board and annotation capabilities, and the ability to run applications on remote computers (with appropriate access). 

The difference between Web meetings and Web conferences

Web meetings are when you work interactively with a small group of people and the communication is bi-directional between the attendees.  During Web meetings the use of a telephone connection or bridge is many times the preferred way of using voice communication.  This is due to that fact that many of the voice over the Internet technologies still do not have the superior quality of the traditional telephone system.  Or in some systems, the voice only works well over the Internet when it is broadcasting as opposed to bi-directional conversation. 

Web conferences are when there is a large group of people who meet online, similar to a conventional seminar, where the majority of the information is being presented and broadcast to this large audience.  Many times Web conferences allow for both voice questions and chat typed questions to the presenter.  Many technology and software companies have been presenting their products via Web conferences for years with a great level of effectiveness.  Just imagine, without even leaving your desk you can attend a conference anywhere!  The use of Web conferences is dramatically on the rise and will continue to rise with the technology and quality only getting better.  

The benefits of video

It’s been my experience that video makes this form of communication even more personal and effective.  After using these products I have also come to believe that the most important video is that of the presenter because it’s nice for the presenter to see the audience, but not as necessary as them seeing the person presenting.  I think that we, as an audience, naturally want to see who is presenting and what they look like.  When using these tools in the past I have heard comments such as; “wow… that’s you waving,” or “nice yellow sweater,” or, my favorite, “can you wait a second, I’ve got to get a couple of others to see this!”.  In any dialog where you can reach out personally, it always works better. 

I believe WebEx does the best job of using video capabilities, which is why I currently believe WebEx has a slight advantage over other similar companies.  I believe there will be new products available continually and advantages in products will continue to change as this market and competition continues to unfold.  I recommend thinking of these technologies as just tools to improving your current business and because it is just a service, it’s easy to switch when a better one comes along. 

Cost benefits of online meetings

We initially began using Web meetings in our business for our more remote customers since it can reduce airline travel and other travel expenses.  We have effectively conducted not only brief communication sessions, but also complete remote consulting projects over the Internet using these tools.  The result was positive for both our firm and our client because of the reduced travel expenses.  Now, because we don’t have the need to travel to reach new clients, this type of communication dramatically expands our effective reach geographically. We have effectively sold projects and consulted to new remote clients with these systems with great success. 

An interesting development for us at dockside was that after we began to get comfortable with this technology and had showed it to some of our local clients they began requesting using Web meetings because they saved a 20-minute car ride to our office. It turns out that a short 20-minute commute can save a person over an hour in total when considering traveling both directions and preparation time to depart. 

In corporate communications these tools provide some great advantages when there are distributed audiences and an announcement needs to be conveyed company wide.  It’s like your company having it’s own television station.  The president can go online and make an announcement simultaneously across the country or world while the audience can remain at their desk.  In addition, these sessions can be recorded and downloaded later for others who may have missed it because of time zones or absences.  This download feature has the added benefit that allows for people to get the information when they are ready for it as well in eLearning applications.  

Web meetings and conferencing technologies do not provide video as robustly as high-end video teleconferencing systems such as a Picture Tel system, but they can cost significantly less.  Another great advantage is that they also can be used without special equipment and are easily used by anyone with an Internet connection and a Web browser. 

Try it yourself

Placeware (www.placeware.com) and WebEx (www.webex.com) both have free limited online demo capabilities so that you can begin to use the products before you commit to any service.  These free sessions allow you to conduct a one on one meeting with another party, but typically not to larger groups.  So, get yourself a low cost video camera and learn to use one of these systems.  I promise that it will change how you think about communications over the Internet. 

For additional information on these technologies, view a video segment from WROC TV 8 - Web Smart by Melissa Long and dockside.net at www.dockside.net/onvideo.htm.