The Effective Admin™

Karen Porter, The Administrative Professional Job Performance and Career Success Coach™

and Founder and President

of The Effective Admin

"I specialize in serving administrative professionals like you with job performance and career management advice. With almost 24 years experience interacting with the 'real' workplace and working administrative professionals -- including holding former admin pro level positions (and higher levels) myself at multiple different employers, -- I am well aware of the substantial job you and your administrative professional colleagues perform daily."

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Web Conferencing. Find web conferencing terminology and web conferencing service providers below.

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Web Conferencing:

Web conferencing just needs an Internet connection and a browser. This means that while you're listening to a call for instance through audio conferencing (a telephone conference call), you also can see a related presentation, report or photograph on your computer screen Web browser. This is done through Web conferencing features. Web conferencing is one of the newer technology advances. And web conferencing is here to stay! It's growing in popularity. So get used to this evolving technology. And start learning some of the terminology and features associated with web conferencing. Here is some web conferencing talk:

 Web Conferencing - Web conferences are also called Web meetings. A presenter utilizes Web conferencing to show a visual to his geographically-dispersed audience. For instance, the presenter may walk the Web conference participants through training on a new software program; through a sales or contract bid proposal; through a Website tour; through a PowerPoint slide show; and more.  

To join the Web conference, participants or attendees go to an URL announced by the Web conference host, organizer or scheduler (that's you if you're in charge of the meeting) and put in their passwords or meeting code.  You (the meeting organizer) will purchase your web conferencing services from a company that will provide you with the URL and any needed set-up support. Your meeting attendees are just participating in or joining your online meeting so they do not need to have a Web conferencing account or vendor. That's your purchase. As the meeting organizer or scheduler, you will start the actual meeting by first entering your account information and logging in. Then the invited attendees can join in the online meeting by entering their passwords.

Obviously, all of the Web conferencing participants need an Internet connection and Web browser. You're probably using one of the popular Web browsers now such as Internet Explorer.  And while you don't have to use Web conferencing with audio conferencing (a telephone conference call), people often do. Some Web conferencing service vendors offer an audio conference call optional feature as part of their sales package. The benefit of the audio portion is it's a way you can talk about what you're seeing too (though you can write notes or chat in Web conferencing).

 Some of the things you can do through Web conferencing include that you can...

...collaborate on documents in real time, including actual editing.

...share ideas in real time (and securely through encryption security).

...perform live product demonstrations and/or sales pitches.

...hold online meetings, presentations and training.

...show any application on your computer to the participants.

...share applications.

...do web tours.

...have chat amongst participants or Q&A sessions.

...have interactive meetings live amongst geographically dispersed field offices or teams.

...meet one-on-one with someone or have many participants in the meeting.

It doesn't take much, if any, training to host or participate in a Web conference.  Your Web conferencing service provider will tell you what little you need to know to get started, including any minimum computer hardware requirements. There are many Web conferencing services vendors such as WebEx.com and GoToMeeting.com. Search the Web for others; or ask colleagues what Web conferencing service they use.  

Look at several Web conferencing service providers (also called online meeting service vendors). Perhaps make a spreadsheet of the vendor prices and features before choosing one in particular to try first. And try another the next time if you're not completely satisfied with your first choice. Or better yet, take advantage of any trial offers to give Web conferencing a test run before the actual purchase and before the actual real meeting you'll organize and/or host.

The big benefit of Web conferencing is everyone with a computer browser can do it from their desk without traveling to a meeting room or even to the next office. And it's an affordable option for most companies that takes very little know-how or computer savvy from participants.

(c) Karen Porter

Also, try:   Tip Sheet #10:  An Overview of Web Conferences, Audio Conferences and Video Conferences (Including When to use Them) Tip Sheet #11:  How to Plan & Implement Web Conferences (Plus Participation Tips Too) Tip Sheet #12:  How to Plan & Implement Audio Conferences (Plus Participation Tips Too) Tip Sheet #13:  How to Plan & Implement Video Conferences (Plus Participation Tips Too) available from The Effective Admin Store.   Click here: Web conferencing, audio conferencing and video conferencing. If your boss or company is not utilizing any of these meeting formats he or she will soon. Count on it! This technology is not going away! Get an overview of all three tech meeting formats and learn the basics about them so you'll have a good foundation of what everyone is talking about.