free webinar – video audio meeting

Max Kazen asked:




One of my favorite quotes on timing is from someone named Stacey Charter: “Life is all about timing…the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable becomes available, the unattainable…attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It’s all about timing.”

It rings true.

Similarly, successful e-mail marketing is all about timing, and timing your e-mails with an appropriate sequence and message will help you “reach the unreachable; make the unavailable…available, and the unattainable…attainable” in delivering your message in a way designed to affect the maximum response.

In the period your e-mail campaign encompasses, your messages should sequence the following:
Asking what your prospects want. Ask for comments on your blog, or send out a survey. Start accumulating data to determine what is needed…what are your prospects or customers frustrated by, what do they fear, what do they desire? In a 30-day period, start with an e-mail query on a Wednesday, then repeat it on the Monday of the following week, or something in a similar sequence. Once you’ve gathered some data, toward the end of that week, send an e-mail message indicating you’ve received the data, and that you’re putting the information together to determine the best way to address the needs. Send another e-mail confirming this is what you’re doing four to five days later. Determine the method you’re going to use to address the need identified. This could be a free webinar or some type of on-line event. Or, it could be an e-book or PDF outline. Whatever you have determined will best fill the need within the resources you have available, send an e-mail, within the next three to five days, to your list to let them know what’s next. If it’s an on-line event of some kind, send the registration information. Follow through with whatever you have promised to share. This needs to be information you provide for free…even if there is a selling component at the end. And…if you are selling something…the offer must be at the end. The purpose of collecting the “problem” data and preparing a solution to the need is to build rapport and trust. You may, in fact, have a more in-depth and longer-lasting solution that your prospects or customers choose to purchase from you. It is, however, important to provide immediate “pain relief” without a price tag. After all, you’re here to help. Follow up on attendance or downloads. For all those who registered to get the free information, regardless of your delivery format, check to see how many actually showed up, or downloaded the information you provided. For anyone who didn’t, send a follow-up e-mail to tell them how to get the information…with a deadline. Do a deadline countdown e-mail series to impress the urgency of getting the information while it’s still available, generally something like: 72 hours, 48 hours, 24 hours, and “the final 12 hours.” Keep your offer for “additional paid assistance” at the end of your “solution program”; whether you decided on a live video broadcast, a power point with audio presentation, or e-book/PDF format. Leave this out of your deadline e-mail series. If your prospects or customers really want help, they’ll find your offer much more enticing by discovering it for themselves at the end of your helpful free information. Avoid the average marketer’s e-mail barrage that simply says “I have something to sell” for 30 days in a row. With a maximum of 10 to 12 e-mails in the month, beginning with several “How can I help?” messages, and then providing both immediate relief, along with potential long-term relief through your product, you will build relationship, trust, and potential with perfect timing.

Lorraine

Johnson Paul asked:




If you need to make your business more accomplished in less time then conference calls are best options. There are many free providers of this service. In a conference call you can talk to more than one person at a time. Have a meeting with this option no need to move around.

There are many free services, you must be wondering why are they free? The phone companies offer this service for free because they know its importance. It has a significant benefit. They know that if they won’t offer you this you might shift to some other company or another provider. These providers do not want to loose their loyal customers. So they offer as many features they can, in order to keep the customers.

Calling calls are free, but there might be charges if you are not calling locally. One of the free services is Skype, they offer free conference calls, video calls and more. There are a lot of other providers also. You can download their program and install it on your PC and start having fun with your friends, or a meeting with your business partners.

Even with small charges for long distance calls, they are quite affordable and convenient, as traveling might cost much more. Travel time can be saved. You can save a lot of time of your business partners and colleagues.

If you want to make long distance call, you will see that most of the providers offer flat rates. But still you save a lot of money making conference Calling via internet rather than any other conventional phone. The cost is much less as compared to your monthly phone bill. This is the best way to make your free calls. You will find many other free calling services that offer free conference Calling.

If you need to reduce your overhead expenses of your business, then start making Conference Calling over the internet. You can download the Skype program for free and start making free calls and free conference calls. You don’t have to pay traveling fee or staying fee to the hotels, save money use conference calls for your business matters. With conference calls your business expense is lessened a lot.

Dolores

Sonja Mishek asked:




Not all interactive web conferences are created equal. But with a little preparation and planning ahead of time, your video conference will be a huge success…every time.

1) Find an interactive web conferencing provider that’s Right for your needs

There are many different web conferencing providers, offering different services, features, prices, and extras.

Plan on at least eight weeks to choose and take a free trial of a potential provider. This will give you plenty of time to make a decision.

A good interactive web conferencing system should:

*Be easy to use

*Have the features you require and the ability to share presentations and documents

*Charge a flat monthly rate (so you won’t get dinged for running a trial test before your actual web conference or follow-up meetings)

2) Develop a really interesting, engaging agenda

This is probably the most important element to your interactive web conferencing success. If your material is boring, you’ll lose your guests – and potential sales.

Invite an industry expert, customer or partner to present or be interviewed at your web conference. This will stimulate more interest, drive participation and create synergy.

A well-known expert or guru can double or even triple your effectiveness.

Use pictures, diagrams, and live demonstrations from pre-loaded websites to keep the material fresh and entertaining.

Ask potential questions to encourage participation from your guests.

3) Be Careful When Choosing a date and time for your interactive web conference

Plan on hosting your web conference at least twice to accommodate different time zones and schedules.

Avoid Mondays or Fridays as these are peak conferencing days and attendance is also often lower.

Start at 15 minutes past the hour. Most meetings end on the hour and this gives your participants time to decompress before joining your meeting.

The best times are 10 am and 2 pm to make sure your guests are their desks and available before or after lunch.

Send a reminder of the contents and time of the webinar one week ahead of time. Send a “see you there” reminder the day before.

Choose an interactive web conferencing provider that allows you to send a private email invitation with an easy, direct link to your meeting.

4) Cap Your Participants at 10 to 25 So It’s Easier to Take Questions and Keep the Web conference More Interactive

An interactive web conference is a live video event and is supposed to be a back and forth communication between the presenter and audience. This is different from a Webcast, which broadcasts information in one direction only.

Your interactive web conference will be more successful if you keep the size small and more intimate. Participants will feel more at ease and comfortable about participating and asking questions if there isn’t hundreds of people watching.

5) Take Questions Via Chat During the Presentation

Some of your participants may be uncomfortable or unwilling to ask questions during the presentation.

A facilitator can take questions via live chat and then read them when the presenter stops to answer any questions.

6) Stick to your Agenda

If you are the moderator, be ready to start your interactive web conference 15 minutes ahead of time.

Start on time, and respect your participant’s schedules by ending on time as well.

It’s also a good idea to give more than one person a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, including a hard copy, in case of technical difficulties.

7) Run a Practice Interactive Web Conference before the actual presentation

Practice makes perfect. Web conferences aren’t difficult, but they are different from running a meeting or a conference call. Take a test run, especially if you’ve never run one before.

This gives you the opportunity to fine tune your material and catch any potential problems with the system.

Don’t forget to ask two people from sites that will be participating to help you by signing on and asking questions.

If you incorporate all seven of these traits, your interactive web conference will be a huge success. And your business will reap the rewards.

Marc

Lucy P. Roberts asked:




No new technology develops smoothly, and video conferencing had more than its share of bumps along the way before becoming the widely used communications staple it is today. The history of video conferencing in its earliest form goes back to the 1960′s, when AT&T introduced the Picturephone at the World’s Fair in New York. While viewed as a fascinating curiosity, it never became popular and was too expensive to be practical for most consumers when it was offered for $160 a month in 1970. Commercial use of real video conferencing was first realized with Ericsson’s demonstration of the first trans-Atlantic LME video telephone call. Soon other companies began refining video conferencing technologies, including such advancements as network video protocol (NVP) in 1976 and packet video protocol (PVP) in 1981. None of these were put into commercial use, however, and stayed in the laboratory or private company use. In 1976, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone established video conferencing (VC) between Tokyo and Osaka for company use. IBM Japan followed suit in 1982 by establishing VC running at 48000bps to link up with already established internal IBM video conferencing links in the United States so that they could have weekly meetings. The 1980′s introduce commercial video conferencing In 1982, Compression Labs introduces their VC system to the world for $250,000 with lines for $1,000 an hour. The system was huge and used enormous resources capable of tripping 15 amp circuit breakers. It was, however, the only working VC system available until PictureTel’s VC hit the market in 1986 with their substantially cheaper $80,000 system with $100 per hour lines. In the time in between these two commercially offered systems, there were other video conferencing systems developed that were never offered commercially. The history of video conferencing isn’t complete without mentioning these systems that were either prototypes or systems developed specifically for in-house use by a variety of corporations or organizations, including the military. Around 1984, Datapoint was using the Datapoint MINX system on their Texas campus, and had provided the system to the military. In the late 1980′s, Mitsubishi began selling a still-picture phone that was basically a flop in the market place. They dropped the line two years after introducing it. In 1991, the first PC based video conferencing system was introduced by IBM – PicTel. It was a black and white system using what was at the time an incredibly inexpensive $30 per hour for the lines, while the system itself was $20,000. In June of the same year, DARTnet had successfully connected a transcontinental IP network of over a dozen research sites in the United States and Great Britain using T1 trunks. Today, DARTnet has evolved into the CAIRN system, which connects dozens of institutions. CU-SeeMe revolutionizes video conferencing One of the most famous systems in the history of video conferencing was the CU-SeeMe developed for the MacIntosh system in 1992. Although the first version didn’t have audio, it was the best video system developed to that point. By 1993, the MAC program had multipoint capability, and in 1994, CU-SeeMe MAC was true video conferencing with audio. Recognizing the limitations of MAC compatibility in a Windows world, developers worked diligently to roll out the April 1994 CU-SeeME for Windows (no audio), followed closely by the audio version, CU-SeeMe v0.66b1 for Windows in August of 1995. In 1992, AT&T rolled out their own $1,500 video phone for the home market. It was a borderline success. That same year, the world’s first MBone audio/video broadcast took place and in July INRIA’s video conferencing system was introduced. This is the year that saw the first real explosion in video conferencing for businesses around the globe and eventually led to the standards developed by the ITU. International Telecommunications Union develops coding standards The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) began developing standards for video conferencing coding in 1996, when they established Standard H.263 to reduce bandwidth for transmission for low bit rate communication. Other standards were developed, including H.323 for packet-based multi-media communications. These are a variety of other telecommunications standards were revised and updated in 1998. In 1999, Standard MPEG-4 was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group as an ISO standard for multimedia content. In 1993, VocalChat Novell IPX networks introduced their video conferencing system, but it was doomed from the start and didn’t last. Microsoft finally came on board the video conferencing bandwagon with NetMeeting, a descendent of PictureTel’s Liveshare Plus, in August of 1996 (although it didn’t have video in this release). By December of the same year, Microsoft NetMeeting v2.0b2 with video had been released. That same month, VocalTec’s Internet Phone v4.0 for Windows was introduced. VRVS links global research centers The Virtual Room Videoconferencing System (VRVS) project at Caltech-CERN kicked off in July of 1997. They developed the VRVS specifically to provide video conferencing to researchers on the Large Hadron Collider Project and scientists in the High Energy and Nuclear Physics Community in the U.S. and Europe. It has been so successful that seed money has been allotted for phase two, CalREN-2, to improve and expand on the already in-place VRVS system in order to expand it to encompass geneticists, doctors, and a host of other scientists in the video conferencing network around the world. Cornell University’s development team released CU-SeeMe v1.0 in 1998. This color video version was compatible with both Windows and MacIntosh, and huge step forward in pc video conferencing. By May of that year, the team has moved on to other projects. In February of 1999, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was launched by MMUSIC. The platform showed some advantages over H.323 that user appreciated and soon made it almost as popular. 1999 was a very busy year, with NetMeeting v3.0b coming out, followed quickly by version three of the ITU standard H.323. Then came the release of iVisit v2.3b5 for both Windows and Mac, followed by Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), version 1. In December, Microsoft released a service pack for NetMeeting v3.01 (4.4.3388) and an ISO standard MPEG-4 version two was released. Finally, PSInet was the first company to launch H.323 automated multipoint services. Like we said, 1999 was a very busy year. SIP entered version 1.30 in November of 2000, the same year that standard H.323 hit version 4, and Samsung released their MPEG-4 streaming 3G video cell phone, the first of its kind. It was a hit, particularly in Japan. Rather predictably, Microsoft NetMeeting had to release another service pack for version 3.01. In 2001, Windows XP messenger announced that it would now support Session Initiation Protocol. This was the same year the world’s first transatlantic tele-surgery took place utilizing video conferencing. In this instance, video conferencing was instrumental in allowing a surgeon in the U.S. to use a robot overseas to perform gall bladder surgery on a patient. It was one of the most compelling non-business uses in the history of video conferencing, and brought the technology to the attention of the medical profession and the general public. In October of 2001, television reporters began using a portable satellite and a videophone to broadcast live from Afghanistan during the war. It was the first use of video conferencing technology to converse live with video with someone in a war zone, again bringing video conferencing to the forefront of people’s imaginations. Founded in December of 2001, the Joint Video Team completed basic research leading to ITU-T H.264 by December of 2002. This protocol standardized video compression technology for both MPEG-4 and ITU-T over a broad range of application areas, making it more versatile than its predecessors. In March of 2003, the new technology was ready for launch to the industry. New uses for video conferencing technologies 2003 also saw the rise in use of video conferencing for off-campus classrooms. Interactive classrooms became more popular as the quality of streaming video increased and the delay decreased. Companies such as VBrick provided various MPEG-4 systems to colleges across the country. Desktop video conferencing is also on the rise and gaining popularity. Companies newer to the market are now refining the details of performance in addition to the nuts and bolts of transmission. In April of 2004, Applied Global Technologies developed a voice-activated camera for use in video conferencing that tracks the voice of various speakers in order to focus on whoever is speaking during a conference call. In March 2004, Linux announced the release of GnomeMeeting, an H.323 compliant, free video conferencing platform that is NetMeeting compatible. With the constant advances in video conferencing systems, it seems obvious that the technology will continue to evolve and become an integral part of business and personal life. As new advances are made and systems become more reasonably priced, keep in mind that choices are still determined by network type, system requirements and what your particular conferencing needs are. This article on the “The History of Video Conferencing” reprinted with permission.

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