Nuts and Bolts of Virtual Meetings and Conferences: Professional Development for the 21st Century

1

• Nuts and Bolts of Virtual Meetings and
  Conferences Professional Development for the
  21st Century
• Presented to MBEA Executive Board
• June 15, 2007
• By
• Eileen Dittmar
• MBEA member and board member 1996-1999

2

Nuts and Bolts of Virtual Meetings and
Conferences Professional Development for the
21st Century

• Technologies for Virtual Meetings
• Webinars/Virtual Conferences
• Wiki Technology
• Web Groups
• Web Surveys

3

• Conference Calls
• www.freeconference.com
• Create a free account can setup meetings right
  up to the last minute can decline the additional
  fee items with no interference or pushing from
  the vendor the free services work well to have
  conference calls.
• Hint Have a five digit to use for all your
  meetings rather than have their system
  automatically assign a number

4

• VoIP Messenger Programs
• www.skype.com 
•  
• Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Windows, Skype, and others have
  free messenger programs. Skype is currently the
  best for virtual conversations 11 or with a
  small group best in ease of use and clarity.
  Amazingly easy to do in three short steps 1.
  Download the software. 2. Plug in your headset.
  3. Do a small amount of getting acquainted and
  you are good to go.

5

• Web Meetings
• More sophisticated, more money.
• Knowing what features you need can help with the
  decision.
• Sign up for the free trials and experiment.

6

• Web Meetings
• Breeze (now Acrobat Connect Professional)
• www.adobe.com/products/breeze/index.html
• 15 participants 39 per month
• http//www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnect/compa
  re/

7

• Web Meetings
• WebEx Meet Me Now
•  http//meetmenow.webex.com/
• install activeX software, then setup meeting. 49
  per month no contract 39 with contract limit
  10 participants.

8

• Web Meetings
• WebEx Meeting Center
• http//www.webex.com/smb/web-meeting-center.html
• free trial more than 10 participants web
  meeting has more administrative options.
  Webinars. Audio. Pay per use is available.
• http//www.webex.com/smb/payperuse-conferencing.ht
  ml

9

• Web Meetings
• Not currently as attractive as Acrobat or WebEx
• Microsoft Live Meeting
• http//office.microsoft.com/en-us/livemeeting/FX10
  1729061033.aspx
• GoTo Meeting
•  
• https//www.gotomeeting.com/m/g2m_10offLMlp.tmpl
•  

10

• Wiki ideas
• Wiki technology is an asynchronized collaborative
  tool which efficiently brings groups together to
  develop documents.
• Confluence
• http//www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
• pbwiki
• http//pbwiki.com
• wikispaces
• http//www.wikispaces.com/

11

• Additional ideas Group Technologies
• Yahoo Groups
• Google Groups
• Can have membership in one group and board
  members in another
• Can increase communications among members to
  focus future planning effectively

12

• Additional ideas Survey technologies
• websurveyor.net
• Can do surveys to obtain membership feedback and
  ideas
• Can increase communications among members to
  focus future planning effectively