Getting on Board With Online Meetings

This article was written by Ramon Ray of Entrepreneur.com

During the course of doing business, there will come a time when you need to meet with customers, employees, partners or advisors but don't have the time or resources to meet with them face to face.

Your schedule is already jam packed -- do you really have time for a meeting with your sales rep in Nebraska? Or time to stop in on a client in Boston? What about meeting with a potential partner or investor from Seattle who needs to talk with you in the next week? And that doesn't even take into account your routine business operations and the day-to-day aspects of working with your customers and employees.

So what's a smart business owner to do? Here's one solution: Consider setting up your office (mobile or otherwise) for remote online meetings. Although online meetings may never take the place of a firm handshake and face-to-face eye contact, they're a good substitute, especially if you and the other party are technically and psychologically ready for it.

Two weeks ago, I lead an online meeting about email marketing. I was near New York City, the moderator was in Australia, and the participants, about 15 of them, were scattered throughout the United States. With the service we were using, they were able to see the presentation (and whatever else I put on the screen), use instant messaging to chat with me and use their computer's microphone, if they had one, to talk to me -- and I could talk back. For all of us involved, it was a very productive time.

Getting Started

Before considering any of the available options, the key is to make sure you have a fast Internet connection. If your connection is slow or frequently drops, your online meeting experience won't be that good.

There are many companies that provide online meeting services (also known as Web conferencing), and they all work in a similar fashion. After choosing a vendor, you sign up for the service online, then download the Web conferencing software. This software will enable you to manage the entire meeting, see who's online and manage polling, and provides other features that vary depending on the service used, such as allowing you to have audio or video conversations with your participants.