The world today is getting smaller, thanks to the development of communication technologies. It is no longer a challenge to connect with people across the globe. Organizations are taking advantage of this progress to eliminate geographic disparities and improve teleworking/telecommuting.
With the advent of innovative audio conference solutions, digital meetings have become the order of the day.
In this article, we shall guide you through the process of effectively managing large teleconferences.
Also Read: Reasons To Switch To A VoIP Call Service!
How Does Audio Conferencing Work?
Teleconferencing or audio conferencing enables meetings where people from different remote locations can join at the same time. Such conferences usually have up to 50 participants, but modern audio conference solutions provide the ability to connect more than 1000 participants at a time.
Usually, organizations signup with a conferencing provider to create a conference bridge, to which participants get hosted as they dial-in.
Some of the best conference call apps such as Voicesnap can enable audio conferences to be set up either interactively where people get to participate in discussions over a live call or as a one-way communication where participants only get to listen to a speaker.
Benefits of Teleconferencing
Enterprises across the world are adopting teleconferencing as the preferred method of mass communication, and large conference calls have become an absolute necessity.
Businesses are using large conference calls as a collaboration medium for sales presentations, project updates, product rollouts, corporate training, etc. Some of the known benefits of large conference calls are as below:
- They are cost-effective as it cuts down several logistical expenses such as accommodation, food & travel costs, local commuting charges, etc.
- Employees save on travel time and instead spend quality time on more productive activities
- Networking through mails or phone calls alone can be a challenge for virtual teams. Regular conference calling can foster team-building efforts and can help overcome remote working issues.
- Business leaders have a chance to communicate important announcements and updates directly to the employees, making it more personal.
- Audio conference solutions today have the provision for recording conferences. This enables participants to be attentive to the discussion and provides a means to share the details of the meeting with absentees.
How to Host Large Conferences
Hosting large conferences is not really a challenge and can be managed with a little preparation. Let us begin by understanding the technical requirements for a good conference call.
- Callers may use a good mobile phone to call into the conference.
- Moderators and organizers may need a touch-tone phone to perform various functions while the call is in progress.
- Participants may opt for a good quality headset to enhance audio quality and cut down external noise.
- Good reception is of paramount importance for a productive audio conference.
The next step is to choose a reliable conference provider.
- Select a provider whose services are tried and tested.
- Review the security features offered by the provider that provides restricted use of the facility using passcodes.
- Look for standard conferencing features such as mute/unmute, recording, polling, etc. and other premium features such as call reports, participant attendance logs, etc.
- Digital meetings place several limitations on hosts and moderators, and it often becomes challenging to conduct large meetings. Let us now look at some of the strategies to host large conferences effectively.
- Get familiar with the conferencing service. Understand the controls and features. Include a custom greeting to welcome participants, which also helps them know that they have indeed joined the right call.
- Create an online registration form for participants to sign-up for the conference. This also helps track attendees.
- Prepare an agenda and a conference outline to be distributed to the participants in advance
Have the conference recorded. This will help in sending out meeting minutes to participants and creates a medium for follow-ups. - You can opt for operator-assisted calls. This kind of assistance streamlines daunting tasks such as registration, debriefing, etc.
Cost-effective Conferencing Solutions
Large conference calls have become an integral part of businesses across industries. Organizations view these as cost-effective alternatives to expensive business travels and logistical hurdles. Conferencing solution providers such as Voicesnap can provide organizations with the best conference call app armed with robust, yet easy to use features and 24×7 technical support.
