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Is Conference Calling Replacing Face-to-face Meetings?
By Amy Linley
Conference calling and web application sharing conference calling are the rage right now and becoming the new technology of choice for many businesses. Businesses who are either focused on going “green” or those who are trying to leverage profit to the bottom-line by saving on travel expenses are flocking to use these services, but can and will conference calling ever actually replace face-to-face meetings?
Our business is conference calling and web conferencing. We’re technology experts at helping you to use and implement teleconferencing and web conferencing in your daily business strategies effectively. You could say that we’re “bullish” on conference calling, but even we realize that face-to-face meetings will never be totally replaced by these exciting new technologies.
Why won’t conference calling replace face-to-face meetings? Sometimes the deal is all about people, the nuances of bargaining, negotiation, and deal brokering, is based on a subtle give and take, psychology, non-verbal cues, sometimes even demeanor, and your own presence and personality. Although conference calling and even web conferencing with video can do many things to move selling, a deal, or the negotiation process forward, the culmination of these efforts will most likely still be done with a final face-to-face meeting.
So why use conference calling at all? Conference calling can definitely replace many of the initial meetings and conversations held to nail down important aspects of a deal, saving a business time and money. Conference calling can still bind a geographically separated team together that is working on a project, and enhance communications between team member and clients. But most importantly, the use of conference calling can save money typically spent on travel expenses for these preliminary meetings making a deal or project much more lucrative in the long run.
So when should you use conference calling? Here are some of the times that you may want to consider using conference calling instead of a business trip to a client or prospect:
1. Team and member meeting introduction. Early contact with a client can certainly be done with conference calling. Having your team member hear from the client themselves what is important on a project can be done on the telephone effectively and can be highly valuable to all members providing support and services on a project. This can help everyone to keep and maintain the proper focus when working on the project.
2. Selling presentations using PowerPoint slide shows and even software demos can easily be done with web conferencing; a new twist on phone conferencing that introduces the computer screen, video, and application sharing using the Internet as the exchange medium.
3. Action planning, strategic planning and follow-up meetings can be effectively done with conference calling. A spontaneous or quickly
A message about OJR from USC Annenberg's School of Journalism
By Geoffrey Baum: A message from USC Annenberg Journalism School director Geneva Overholser:
Thank you for your interest in OJR. The fast-moving changes in digital media are more compelling every day, and they remain an important area of focus for the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
We are committed to keeping the archives of OJR available online and are exploring ways to continue the School's efforts to increase understanding about the revolutionary transformation of news and info
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Goodbye
By Robert Niles: After a decade, the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication has suspended publication of OJR.
One of OJR's goals over the years has been to help mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production. I'm pleased to say that USC Annenberg will continue to provide support in that area, through the Knight Digital Media Center. I encourage OJR readers to click over to the KDMC website and its blogs,
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McClatchy Washington bureau shines as bright example for online journalism
By Robert Niles: The past decade has brought the journalism industry some of its darkest moments. On the business side, management teams that grew used to local monopolies could not react swiftly enough to protect their market share as thousands of online competitors emerged. Revenue tanked, readership declined and layoffs became a seasonal task at many newspapers.
On the editorial side, many newsrooms blew or missed one major story after another, from the Whitewater "scandal," hitting the sn
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OJR launches individual reader blogs
By Robert Niles: OJR now allows its registered members to maintain individual blogs on OJR.
Just click the "Post Blog Entry" link near the top of the right navigation rail to get started. OJR's editors and I will read all the submissions, then select ones to go on the OJR front page feed. You can find links to all the most recent reader-submitted blog entries under the "Recent Blogs" header on the right rail.
You can start a free blog just about anywhere on the Web, from Blogger.com and b
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It's a lo-o-o-ong way from Lawrence, Kan., to Loudoun County, Va.
By Tom Grubisich: The headline on the Wall Street Journal story about the Washington Post's widely watched venture in local-local journalism on the Web was unambiguous: "Big Daily's Hyperlocal Flop."
So how bad actually is LoudounExtra.com? Let's look.
On the LoudounExtra homepage, I am greeted with this above-the-fold spread:
My squinting eyes try to read the reverse-type blurb, but before I can finish, a new image/blurb is automatically rotated in the space.
After figuring out
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L.A. Times launches sharable electoral vote map
By Eric Ulken: Which campaign will get to 270 in November, and how will they do it? The L.A. Times has built an interactive map that allows readers to create and test their own electoral vote scenarios, and then embed those scenarios in their own sites.
(Sample after the jump.)
We're hoping to improve on this as the campaign heats up, perhaps adding demographic info and data on past elections by state. Would love to hear suggestions.
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Question of the week: Going to journalism school - yes or no?
By Robert Niles: For this week's discussion question, I'd like to hear about the academic preparation OJR readers had for their career.
Obviously, being housed by and paid for the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California, OJR's not exactly a neutral forum for this question. One might suspect that we'd have a larger-than-expected number of j-school folk hanging around here. But we do get a fair number of readers who did not come up through the traditional journal
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Back to basics with Flip Video
By Chris Jennewein: In architecture, less is more, and the same appears to be true for video news gathering. The simple Flip Video camcorder heralds a time when every journalist carries a video camera.I bought a Flip Video camcorder for my wife for mother's day. At under $150, it was a bargain. But the primary motivation was having a camera she sould depend upon. Our simple DV camcorder took great video, but seemed to always need charging, or a new tape, and thus wasn't available at the spur of
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Writing print's epitaph - v6.5.08 (service pack 3)
By Robert Niles: My friend Sree Sreenivasan asked members an online journalism e-mail list for reaction to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's interview with the Washington Post, published this morning. Specifically, Sree asked for reactions to this statement from Ballmer: "In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down -- my opinion. Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is
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When journalists hate journalism...
By Robert Niles: ... the industry has a problem.You'd think that journalists would be the biggest news hounds around. For the most part, you'd be right. I was talking with some of my Annenberg colleagues at a journalism conference last month, and one asked how many hours a day we each spent reading and watching the news, whether in print, online or on TV. The consensus? About four to five hours a day. But there is one exception to this potential rule: Many journalists despise TV news. They hate
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scheduled meeting is perfectly suited to the use of conference calling; helping to connect everyone on a project for a quick status check or an important change of direction.
4. There are endless other scenarios in your own personal business dealings when conference calling would save you time or money, increase employee productivity by not having to leave the office, and not hurt the deal or negotiation.
When should you not use conference calling? There are a few situations where face-to-face is crucially important and may even be demanded. These situations can change for each project but below are a few examples that illustrate when personal contact is really better than conference calling.
1. A face-to-face meeting will be best to negotiate or bargain on a deal or project or to close a deal and get the contract signed. In any meeting where there is a high give and take exchange factor, conference calling may not be the best way to handle the situation.
2. When there is a contentious problem that really must be resolved to move the selling process or project forward. When tempers have flared due to a missed deadline, missed benchmark, or change in a deliverable, a face-to-face meeting is best. Clients may actually perceive your face-to-face visit as assigning their project more “value”, in their eyes, and may actually demand this action especially if the project has a high dollar value.
The bottom-line is that conference calling can easily replace planning meetings or “feel good” visits, but conference calling will never replace the personal touch that only a face-to-face meeting can provide in hard situations or where a strong give and take between participants is expected in advance. Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com Amy Linley gives practical and usable advice regarding and meetings at AccuConference - www.accuconference.com.Find out more about our conference call, web conferencing and video conferencing services from AccuConference - www.accuconference.com/conferencecalls.
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