ConferencePlus was pleased to feature an expert on the subject of using social media to drive sales in our recent June, Ask The Expert webinar.
]]> Doug Richards, Social Business Evangelist at Centriq Training, shared with us the secrets of selling using social media. The webinar covered the "Social-to-Lead" process, a skill that every sales professional needs to survive in today's world of Web 2.0. He emphasized that the sales cycle used to be a lengthy process of dial after dial, and massive email blasts. However, with the advent of social technology sales professionals can now stop chasing sales opportunities and instead start reacting to buying signals. He emphasized that in order to create a social-to-lead machine, the social sales professional must rethink their selling methods and focus on optimizing new "pull" strategies to replace traditional "push" methods.The on-demand recording highlights several interesting tips on how to do increase your network and your selling power through social media. Below are nine things you can do today to get started. For a more in depth look at the "Social-to-Lead" process you can download the whitepaper HERE.
To listen to the full presentation or download the slides and handout please CLICK HERE.
]]>"As we expanded our continuing education program at ASCE, we saw a need for a user friendly, content management system to organize and share our training content," said John Casazza, Managing Director Continuing Education, ASCE. Conferenceplus provided us with a solution in Share Portal. Share Portal gives us a central location where we can provide members with on-demand, online access to ASCE's archived webinars. It is a great tool," Mr. Casazza added.
Share Portal offers on-demand access for audio conferences, web conferencing archives, webinars, and other multimedia files. ConferencePlus' customers can also use Share Portal to upload and store a wide range of additional files including training documents, sales presentations and videos. Once uploaded, customers can then publish their files to secure web pages to be shared and redistributed as they see fit.
"We have seen a growing trend from our customers who are now using Share Portal," said Tim Reedy, President and CEO, ConferencePlus. "As customers continue to invest in various media to educate and inform their respective audiences, they are also seeking to extend the life of their investments. Share Portal gives them a secure tool to do just that, helping to extend the life of their content and expand their reach," Mr. Reedy added.
To find out more about Share Portal please visit www.conferenceplus.com.
]]>Presenter: Doug Richards, Social Business Evangelist at Centriq Training, joined ConferencePlus on June 17, 2010, as the featured presenter to share with us strategies for using social media to drive sales.
]]> June's session is part of a series of free webinars sponsored by ConferencePlus, and it is entitled "How to Use Social Media to Automate Leads and Drive Sales." Webinar highlights include:CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR ARCHIVE
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Presenter: Nate Riggs, blogging and social business expert, joined ConferencePlus on May 25, 2010, as the featured presenter to share with us best practices when developing a social media communication strategy.
]]> May's session is part of a series of free webinars sponsored by ConferencePlus, and it is entitled "B2B Blogging 101: How to Use Your Blog to Drive Traffic to Your Online Event." Webinar highlights include:CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR ARCHIVE
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Roger Courville gave us a great answer to this question during our April Ask The Expert Webinar. What you're about to read will lend credibility and engagement to your next presentation and help you to execute a brilliant online event.
]]> I will be referencing the handout Roger shared with us, which you can download here. A glaring statistic featured in Roger's presentation indicated that a recent search for "presentation skills" in a single job search engine yielded more than 5000 hits. In the current economic client and with the growing trend in webinar and online event, it is necessary if not essential to be a skilled presenter. In this next section I will summarize the three main takeaways Roger shared with us throughout the webinar. I. Design your Presentation for Engagement
Presenter: Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter's Handbook and Principal and 1080 Group, joined ConferencePlus on April 29, 2010, as the featured presenter to kick off our Ask The Expert Webinar Series 2010.
]]> April's session is the first in a series of free webinars sponsored by ConferencePlus, and it is entitled "Virtual Presentation Skills: Online vs Face-to-Face." Webinar highlights include:CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR ARCHIVE
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When putting an ear to the conferencing industry, one question we hear time and time again from presenters is, "How do you capture the authenticity and interactive dynamics of a face-to-face meeting, and then project those same qualities into an online meeting."
]]> If this is a question you have asked yourself before, not to worry, you are not the only one. In a recent 1080 Group study, the top concern expressed by respondents was, "How do presenters deliver powerful, engaging presentations to audiences not sitting directly in front of them?" If you are simply speaking over PowerPoint slides, you are missing out on a significant opportunity to interact, collaborate and connect with your audience.
Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter's Handbook and Principal and 1080 Group, will be joining ConferencePlus on April 29, 2010, as the featured presenter to kick off our Ask The Expert Webinar Series 2010.
April's session is the first in a series of free webinars sponsored by ConferencePlus, and it is entitled "Virtual Presentation Skills: Online vs Face-to-Face."
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR ARCHIVE
Attendance Bonus: Ten attendees will win a copy of The Virtual Presenter's Handbook, and every attendee will receive a customized summary handout.
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Remember in school, when your teacher told you there is no such thing as a stupid question? We at ConferencePlus agree and have designed an ongoing webinar series to do just that - answer any and all questions you have about conferencing.
]]> Our monthly educational series will cover "how to's," tips and tricks, best practices, top trends, industry updates, and social media. We will also discuss and provide continued feedback on how you can plan and execute a successful lead generating webinar program.Join us for April's Ask The Expert Webinar featuring Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter's Handbook.
We are pleased to kick off our series with Roger Courville. Roger is author of The Virtual Presenter's Handbook, principal at the 1080 Group, and recent inductee into the National Speaker's Association. Roger will be discussing the challenges many of us face when presenting online, versus presenting in-person. Our April session entitled, "Virtual Presentation Skills: Online vs Face-to-Face," will be taking place Thursday, April 29, 2009, Time: 12:00 pm CDT.
Webinar highlights include:
Some of you have already registered, but for those of you who haven't and want to - just click on the link below to sign up!
THE LIVE EVENT HAS ENDED.The major differentiator that sets a webcast apart from webinars or web conferencing is video. A lot of our clients use a webcast for high profile, public events such as Investor Relations calls or large online events. Webcasts will almost always be sold at a higher price point than web conferencing and webinars, due to the cost accrued when working with streaming, internet bandwidth and video quality. Webcasts typically have fewer dichotomies and usually are more of a one-way monologue. Webcasts works great for large events since the presentation model doesn't accommodate much interaction between the audience and the presenter.
True web conferences are designed to allow a presenter to show an audience their desktop and collaborate through a variety of methods. Web conferences are suited more for day-to-day business meetings and events. Most web conferences use a combination of web and phone, phone audio has proven to be more reliable and a higher quality than VoIP. A web conference allows real-time interaction among participants in the event. Typically, web conferences are more of a cross channel conversation with multiple parties, and are more interactive. Web conferences give customers the ability to share presentation rights and control of applications. Web conferences are a perfect solution for presentations, sales demos and training.
Last but not least, webinars. Webinar and web conferences have more similarities, and have a tendency to be interchangeable. A webinar is still a form of a web conference, but the main difference between the two is that a webinar is a more formal event that is usually promoted as an online or web Seminar. Webinars offer more collaborative technologies but it is typically a one-way dialogue, from the speaker to the audience with interaction limited to a question and answer session at the close of the webinar. As mentioned, we suggested that your webinars are collaborative and include polling and/or question & answer sessions to allow for a more dynamic audience experience.
To find out more about ConferencePlus' web conferencing and webcasts solutions click here.
]]>"We constantly solicit feedback from our customer base to ensure the online tools we offer are on target," said Greg Doerr, COO, ConferencePlus. "Repeatedly we see positive feedback on how essential our Account Dashboard console has become to our customers' day-to-day operations. This assessment helped spur the development of the new Mobile Connect application, where we made it a top priority to most closely replicate the Account Dashboard user experience for our customers," Mr. Doerr added.
In addition to moderating their teleconferencing accounts and calls, customers can also launch audio conference calls from the Mobile Connect application. This functionality includes the ability to dial out directly to anyone in their iPhone address book.
"Our goal as a conferencing services provider is to give our customers the conferencing tools they need to be more productive and flexible in their daily communications," said Greg Doerr. "In today's business environment, more customers have a need to easily and safely conduct meetings from their mobile phones. We believe our new Mobile Connect application helps to fill that need," Mr. Doerr added.
For more information about ConferencePlus Mobile Connect visit ConferencePlus mobile audio teleconferencing. To learn more about ConferencePlus' products and services visit www.conferenceplus.com.
]]>SCHAUMBURG, IL JANUARY 7, 2010 - Conference Plus, Inc. (ConferencePlus™), a subsidiary of Westell Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTL) and a leading global provider of audio, web, webcasting and video conferencing services, and TeleSpan Publishing Corporation (www.telespan.com) today announced that ConferencePlus will host the TeleSpan Publishing Corporation web conference on Friday, January 15, 2010 at 1:00 PM EST to deliver TeleSpan's 2010 predictions for the conferencing industry.
]]> The web conference event will occur prior to their release in the annual Predictions Edition of Electronic TeleSpan the industry's foremost newsletter. Predictions will be made by Elliot M. Gold, President of TeleSpan, and will cover trends in voice, video, and web conferencing, as well as TeleSpan's pick of companies that will "hit the wall" or be picked up in consolidations in the next 24-36 months.Gold has had unparalleled accuracy in making predictions. Since 1996, Gold has made 140 predictions (10 each year) with a running accuracy score of 72% (101 accurate predictions out of 140). This achievement gives him perhaps the highest batting average in the industry (other analyst groups and Wall Street firms typically have accuracies well below 50%). As a result, many analysts on Wall Street have considered TeleSpan "the authoritative source in teleconferencing" for more than a quarter of a century.
Gold will also review his predictions from 2009, giving them a thumbs-up or -down. Attendees to the web conference will be invited to raise questions about TeleSpan's forecasts as well as other questions they have about the conferencing market overall.
Hosted by ConferencePlus, attendance to the event will be limited, but an archived version will be available after January 18, 2010.
Attendees can register for the web conference through ConferencePlus at https://www.conferenceplus.com/confcenter/PinCode/Pin_Code.aspx?100046&o=70542602486226
For further information, please contact Shirley Gold, Vice President of Production, TeleSpan Publishing Corporation, +1 626 797 5482, shirley@telespan.com, or Roger Rosenquist, Director of Marketing, ConferencePlus +1 847 413 3431, rrosenquist@conferenceplus.com.
About TeleSpan - TeleSpan was founded in 1981 as an industry analysis firm covering the field of teleconferencing. TeleSpan publishes annual reports covering trends in the industry and a 40-times-yearly newsletter called Electronic TeleSpan. TeleSpan is the most widely quoted source in the field of teleconferencing, famous for its accuracy and for its "Here's what I think" commentaries.
]]>SCHAUMBURG, IL, December 16, 2009 - Conference Plus, Inc. (ConferencePlus™), a subsidiary of Westell Technologies, Inc. and a leading global provider of audio, web, webcasting and video conferencing services, today announced the official launch of its Managed Audio Bridge Service. This service is an enterprise-wide audio conferencing solution for bridge installations over 500 ports that connect to customer's existing VoIP or TDM networks.
]]> High-volume corporate conferencing users can gain significant optimization and security benefits with audio bridge equipment installed on-site. However, those who purchase their own conferencing bridge encounter significant service delivery and support costs that often swamp the benefits. ConferencePlus' Managed Audio Bridge Service gives customers the benefits of on-site equipment along with the advantages of being a Conferencing Service Provider (CSP) customer. This offering provides full remote management and maintenance of the on-site bridge and conferencing service by ConferencePlus' support team with multiple service integration options and dedicated account team support."Large conferencing customers traditionally receive their conferencing services from either a Conference Service Provider (CSP) like ConferencePlus, or through purchasing and managing their own conference bridge", said Greg Doerr, Chief Operating Officer for ConferencePlus. "Our Managed Audio Bridge Service provides a 'best of both worlds' solution for large enterprises who want their own on-site bridging equipment without the issues of self installation and management. With over 21 years of expertise in this area, ConferencePlus can eliminate these issues for a customer while offering a full portfolio of additional conferencing services and options," Mr. Doerr added.
All installations are available with the full integration of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting, WebEx™ Meeting Center and IBM® LotusLive™ Meeting. These integrations include provisioning, audio control, roster integration and automatic archive management. Customers also have access to their own fully branded Account Dashboard web portal. This Dashboard allows end users, Executive Administrators and Site Administrators full control over their subscriptions, scheduled conferences, usage summary and archives. Single Sign On (SSO) integration with the customers' IT infrastructure further simplifies deployment and improves adoption.
"ConferencePlus has recently completed a multiple site installation of our Managed Audio Bridge Service for a major international telecommunications equipment and services company," said Mr. Doerr. "The combined level of security and cost savings this solution offered made it a great fit for this customer. As these numerous benefits would apply to many large organizations, we foresee this segment of our business continuing to grow within this market." Mr. Doerr added.
ConferencePlus Managed Audio Bridge Service can typically be purchased for less than the total cost of ownership of a purchased bridge. ConferencePlus provides all project management and installation services as part of the package with no required up-front installation costs. ConferencePlus is Personal Card Security certified and complies with the applicable sections of ISO 7001.
]]>SCHAUMBURG, IL, October 08, 2009 - Conference Plus, Inc. (ConferencePlus™), a subsidiary of Westell Technologies, Inc. and a leading global provider of audio, web, webcasting and video conferencing services, today announced the launch of ConferencePlus One, a flat rate audio and web conferencing package featuring Microsoft® Office Live Meeting. The ConferencePlus One package provides the small and medium-sized business market with a complete audio and web conferencing solution at an affordable flat rate.
]]> ConferencePlus One gives customers unlimited use of the Microsoft Office Live Meeting web conferencing platform with up to 15 participants for one year. Offered at a flat, annual rate, ConferencePlus One includes integrated audio conferencing at no additional charge."We're very excited to offer this conferencing package and pricing model to our small and medium-sized customers," said Tim Reedy, President and CEO, ConferencePlus. "We designed this package to help simplify conferencing budgets for smaller organizations, while giving them a complete solution to fill all of their audio and web conferencing needs," Mr. Reedy added.
In addition to simplifying budgeting and eliminating billing surprises with the flat rate model, customers receive added benefit from ConferencePlus One's high-quality audio conferencing service. ConferencePlus audio is integrated directly with the Microsoft Office Live Meeting platform and gives customers a seamless solution with substantially better audio quality than similar products in the marketplace.
"One of the main differentiators of our ConferencePlus One package is the integration of our high-quality audio conferencing," said Mr. Reedy. "While similar web packages are currently being offered on the market, they typically leave customers with the unreliable nature of VoIP for their audio conferencing. Since VoIP audio relies on the host's PC resources and internet transport, the audio quality for the users can be inconsistent at best. With ConferencePlus One, our customers receive the latest audio technology available and our industry-leading customer support included in their flat annual rate. All of this combined with the robust feature set of Microsoft Office Live Meeting and ConferencePlus online account management tools gives our small and medium-sized customers an easy choice," Mr. Reedy added.
ConferencePlus is offering the ConferencePlus One web and audio conferencing package exclusively online. More information can be found at http://www.conferenceplus.com/conferencing/web/one.html.
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