WebConferencing - Current State of Play

Where it's reached

From a commercial standpoint it all seemed to start a while back with Video Conferencing which was exhorbitantly expensive and favoured by large corporations and academia. Now, whilst relatively speaking, a little more affordable that world is morphing into something called Telepresence and promoted by serious blue chip providers such as Cisco and Vidyo.

That need to differentiate is necessitated by the fact that a newer kid-on-the-block caled Web & Desktop Conferencing has moved in at a more affordable price, enabled by the all proliferating world of Broadband Internet, and generating a revolution in uptake offering Audio, Web and an altogether more attainable variety of affordable Video conferencing solutions.

Audio Conferencing: also known as Teleconferencing and widely available from a wide range of providers offers multi-participant voice meetings over any combination of landline, mobile and internet connectivity. Some of these services are chargeable (on top of service connection charges) and some are arguably "no cost" ........ Skype being a well known such service with millions of worldwide users but with limited features compared to other solutions.

Audio Conferencing offers an effective solution to "virtual" meetings and is a comfortable and low-tech application that business becomes increasingly accustomed to using.

Web & Video Conferencing: a newer phenomena currently coming to the fore and increasingly driven by the need to cut operating costs, the need to work smarter and more effciently, and the undoubted need to embrace a green working culture.

Web Conferencing promotes online meetings by offering effective audio & video presentation. Integrated work tools enable users to effectively collaborate by sharing each other's desktop resources. The result offrers a High Return on Investment.

Face to Face Meetings will always be an essential element of business culture and will continue to be so but the drivers offered by Web & Video Conferencing mean that we can use the technology to achieve so much more. As is always the case improvements in technology will continue and improved quality will drive things forward. Where we are today allows us to consider the particular strength of Web & Video Conferencing as an enabler to uptake and success.

It's generally understood that we retain 20% of what we hear ...... offering something of a low return from the effort put into organising an Audio Conference type service. It's believed too that we retain some 20% of what we see. However, combine the two and retension levels increase to something in excess of 50%. Add audience participation & interaction into the equation and retension levels rise even further. This is where Web & Video Conferencing offers measurable success.

By adding Web Conference techniques to the accepted success of Audi & TeleConferencing you should be able to measure the increased return. Try adding some poling or survey questions, ask participants to show what they mean on an integrated whiteboard or by sharing their desktop resources. Meeting interaction can be used to measure particpant attentiveness and to judge when a meeting needs a break. Thought needs to be put in to planning a successful meeting and, of course, user etiquette is a major consideration.

If you're already using Audio or TeleConferencing it may well be worth taking a trial with a Web Conferencing service to see what might be achieved. The results will vary depending upon whom your audience is and what the subject matter might be. You just need to look around at the some of the solutions available and judge which best meets your needs. They all vary but you need to make your decision from an informed point of view.