Webex vs. GoToMeeting

Web conferencing is quickly becoming the preferred method in business communication.  With benefits such as increased productivity and an extended customer outreach, companies are able to compete economically using inexpensive online meeting tools.  As a cost effective alternative to travel, small businesses may especially benefit from this new technology. The most difficult part is finding the service that best fits your company.
Two applications appear especially promising – Cisco’s WebEx and Citrix Online’s Go To Meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you heard about Clickmeeting? ClickMeeting provides a cost-effective, visual/audio alternative to other online conferencing products. Simple to set up and use from any web browser or platform, ClickMeeting and ClickWebinar enable businesses to enter new markets & close more deals – virtually. Users can provide video demos or presentations, or chat using up to four streams – all the while cutting out the cost of physical travel. Teams collaborate by sharing desktops, documents & applications, controlling and encouraging interaction thereby boosting productivity. Each event is supported by a nearby ClickMeeting high-availability server, ensuring 24/7 reliability. Casual users or global companies alike, ClickMeeting is the choice for full-featured conferencing solutions for less.

ClickMeeting is now offering their special (year of the) Dragon Discounts with prices starting from just $8, with savings up to 50% for the life of your account. But this special offer is available only for a limited time.

Visual aids of all types will be useful when used in the right way at the right time. Remember that visual aids are just that – aids. You should not decide upon them first and build your presentation around them. Do it the other way round – plan your sessions, ensure the structure of the entire event is balanced and only then start to assess what visual aids would enhance your presentation. The key word here is ‘enhance’ – the addition of any visual aids should improve your presentation and help towards achieving your training objectives. This principle applies whether you are conduction a web based or traditional presentation. Here are some dos and don’ts:

- Do use visual aids when they enhance your message. They will break up your presentation, helping to avoid boredom amongst your audience and also making it easier to understand.
- Do not use poor quality visual aids. Slides, for example, should be easy to read and have an obvious message. If they are difficult to read or contain too much information, revise them – they will only detract from your message. Better slides will help you to get your message across.
- Do not use visual aids when they are irrelevant – they may be full of fancy effects or technical wizardry, but if they do not help in achieving your learning objective, leave them out. And while we’re on the subject of technical wizardry, don’t get carried away because then all the attendees will see are the special effects that you have used rather than your message. Read the rest of this entry »

GoToMyPC has announced that their product is now available for the two largest mobile application markets in the world. This is a great tool to increase connectivity and productivity.

Here’s how it works for Mobile Access:

GoToMyPC Personal and Pro customers can now connect to their Mac or PC hosts using their iPhone or iPod Touch, iPad, and Honeycomb Android Tablets.
Supported operating systems include:  iOS 4.2, iOS 4.3 and the recently launched iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation, iPad and iPad 2. Also support for Android Tablets running on Android OS 3.x (3.0, 3.1, and 3.2).

The new Precision Control features an on-screen mouse that can be moved around just like the physical mouse you’re used to at your computer. Users can use it to easily left click, right click, and drag on their computer. Hovering over tabs, buttons and links to view additional information is also now available. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like almost everyone has an iPad these days. And if you don’t, you probably know someone who does. The iPad works just fine to play many types of videos, but it can’t if the video isn’t in the proper format.

Maybe you have some archived videos of seminars, meetings, demonstrations, or other business related videos you would like to view on iPad. Or any other type of video file or movie. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to view videos using non-iPad formats on your iPad?

Here are a couple of software solutions that fill the need.

ImTOO iPad Mate is a smart iPad manager to import music, movies and photos from your PC to iPad directly without iTunes. Meanwhile it also functions as an iPad backup application to transfer music, movies and photos from iPad to your PC hard drive, and even converts CD/DVD/videos/audios/ISO images/IFO folders to iPad, or copies iPad to iTunes. Managing your iPad is made easier, there are more practical features to help you including: file search, preview DVD movies/videos/audios, insert artworks, and create playlists.

There is a trial version with limited functionality.

WinAVI iPad Converter is simple to use software which enables iPad users to watch any format of video on their iPad. You can convert and transfer videos, DVD movies, music files to iPad directly without using other software.

It converts to iPad directly from various video formats like AVI, WMV, RM, RMVB, SWF, MOV, HD etc. Even if you don’t know any formatting knowledge, you can also convert video and watch movies on an iPad directly. Besides, it also supports merging several videos into one file.

We’ve previously looked a bit at how you can tell if your attendees/trainees are getting bored, but what else can we tell from body language? Recognizing certain signals can be a tremendous help, regardless if you are in a live or video conference setting.

Like verbal communication and feedback, body language works two ways. If you are able to control your own body language and, at the same time, read the body language of your audience, then your communication skills will improve, making it easier to get your message across. It has been said that over half of our understanding comes from non-verbal communication, so we do need to be aware of body language – even if we have designed a perfect set of course materials and have an ideal set of trainees!

To explore the use of body language to any great extent would be the subject of another article, but there are undoubtedly a few simple things that you can do to gain some benefit from being aware of body language:

The attendees’ body language
Reading the body language of your trainees can be helpful in directing your presentation and dealing with possible problems. It can also form part of your strategy to evaluate their performance during your training sessions. Let’s look at some of the aspects you may notice and what they might mean in terms of how they are receiving the information you are giving them:

- Attendees leaning forward in their seats – lucky you! You’ve got some attendees who are paying attention and are eager to learn.
- Attendees slouching in their seats – this could mean problems. It could signify a variety of negative responses to your presentation or it could just mean that they are tired or uninterested. It could also mean that the delegate in question is unable to cope with the material so be aware of this possibility. In any event you will have to work hard to get their attention and to ensure that you meet your learning objectives.
- Attendees not making eye contact – this could just be shyness or it could signify a lack of empathy. If they are, instead, looking around the room then this almost certainly signifies boredom. Maybe they are wishing they weren’t there.
- Facial expression – this is very important. It is usually easy to discern boredom or interest, or to see if Attendees look distressed or display a lack of understanding.
- Open or closed bodies – if attendees are sitting with their arms crossed in front of their bodies, or have their hands on their faces or over their mouths, then they are displaying closed behaviour; this means that they will be unlikely to take in everything you are saying. Open behaviour, on the other hand, with their faces towards you, perhaps nodding to show their understanding, and their arms by their sides or on the desks, will show that they are open to what you are saying and are willing to learn. Read the rest of this entry »

Nobody really likes traveling for work-meetings very much. Four hour plane rides and then more travel to get to the actual meeting. Why not streamline the meeting process with Gotomeeting? With only one click, Gotomeeting lets you conduct online meetings from anywhere. Hold unlimited online meetings including integrated phone and VOIP conferencing. It’s easy to save days worth of travel, and thousands of dollars worth of expenses. Now with HD functionality, this is one tool no business should ignore. Gotomeeting is easy and you can try it free for 30 days plus a 15 day extension if you use the promo code ‘45‘. Visit GoToMeeting Free Trial and enter promo code ‘45‘.

Imagine this. On the golf course with a client or colleague, trying to explain something visual like a spreadsheet or a PowerPoint presentation, but they’re getting frustrated because they can’t see what you’re talking about. Well, good news. Now they can! Just use gotomeeting.com to schedule an online meeting. It’s simple. You can set up a meeting in advance or start one on the fly. Everybody simply logs onto Gotomeeting.com. Now they see your computer desktop on their computer screens. So now you can show them visually what you’re talking about.

Gotomeeting is a product of Citrex.

Even though English is sometimes thought of as the ‘universal business language’, it really isn’t. Fact is, most of the world doesn’t speak English. And the United States is not really known as a country with a multilingual and culturally aware population. This can make communication a problem.

Whether communication takes part in person, over the phone, or in an web conference, It’s essential for modern businesses that want to compete globally to understand the need to be able to communicate effectively with their overseas business partners and customers. But a bad translator or interpreter can be worse than no translator or interpreter!

Translator or Interpreter?

Translation generally means taking a completed text or speech and painstakingly translating it into the target language. The document must be absolutely clear and as close to the original meaning as possible. Especially since there can sometimes be legal ramifications to using a bad translation.

Interpreting, on the other hand, is much more of a real-time process. In a live setting, the words and thoughts of the speaker need to be understandable to another person or persons who do not speak the language. Interpreting can be one-way or two-way. Read the rest of this entry »