Virtual Meeting Rooms, Web/Video/Audio Conferencing, and Telepresence

Originally published on April 25, 2017

31st in a series of 50 Knowledge Management Components (Slides 41–42 in KM 102)

Virtual meeting rooms and web conferencing: online, real-time tools designed to allow teams to share presentations, applications, and white boards during meetings

Videoconferencing: Technology that allows two or more locations to communicate by simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions

Telepresence: Technology that allows a person to feel as if they were present, and to give the appearance of being present, at a place other than their true location

Virtual teams have become widespread. In the past, teams were often located in the same location and could meet in person whenever they wanted. Now they are often widely distributed across geographies, may never have met the other team members in person, and communicate primarily through email, instant messaging, and telephone calls.

Conference calls are typically used for virtual teams to meet regularly. To enhance the sharing that can be done during a conference all, virtual meeting rooms allow participants to view common presentations, share applications, write on virtual white boards, conduct polls, engage in group chats, and see one another on video.

Team spaces can be used effectively for typical presentations by posting slides in the meeting space prior to the conference call, asking participants to download the files, and having presenters regularly refer to the current slide number. This avoids the need for a virtual meeting room. This can also be done on the Internet using a free conference call provider (see below) for audio, a cloud drive for slides, and Twitter for group chat. See How to Avoid Webinar Failures for more on this approach.

Web Conferencing

When a live demonstration will be performed, when notes will be taken that need to be shared in real time, or when there is a need for video or other dynamic visual content, then a virtual meeting room or video conference is required.

Web conferencing tools include:

1. Adobe Connect
2. BlueJeans by Verizon
3. Dialpad Meetings
4. Google Meet
5. GoTo Meeting
6. HCL Sametime
7. LoopUp
8. Microsoft Skype
9. Microsoft Teams
10. RingCentral Video
11. Slack Huddles
12. WebEx by Cisco
13. Zoom

Telepresence

Advances in video conferencing technology allow more closely approximating face-to-face meetings. Participants actually feel as though they are in the same room despite being in different locations.

The major telepresence providers are:

1. BlueJeans Rooms by Verizon
2. Cisco
3. Lifesize
4. Polycom
5. Vidyo

Free Conference Calls

These started out for audio dial-in only. Some providers of free conference call services have expanded their offerings to include web conferencing. Of these, the one I recommend is the first one listed below. It offers the most features for free.

• Recommended: FreeConferenceCall.com
• Other alternatives with extended features

1. FreeConference.com
2. RingCentral

• Audio only

1. Free Conference Calling
2. Free Conference USA

Resources

1. Web Conferencing Software by Capterra
2. The Best Video Conferencing Software by PCMag
3. Best Video Conferencing Software by G2
4. Gartner Meeting Solutions Reviews and Ratings
5. Telepresence by TKO VideoConferencing
6. The enterprise guide to video conferencing
7. 7 Platforms for Free Conference Calls by Alex Ivanovs
8. 8 awesome (and sometimes free) conference call services by Ed Tittel and Kim Lindros
9. Virtual Meetings by Nancy Settle-Murphy
10. Recording Conference Calls on a Budget by Andrew Gent
11. The Conference Call by David Grady
12. Whiteboard Collaboration
13. Best Online Whiteboards for Real-time Collaboration

Books

1. Virtual Meetings
2. Web Conferencing
3. Video Conferencing
4. Skype
5. No More Lame Conference Calls: The 6 Principles You Need to Lead Great Meetings by Bernice Ross and Byron Van Arsdale
6. Effectively Managing Conference Calls with Virtual Team by Jay Jung and Niki Jung
7. Using Adobe Connect 9.5 by Todd McCall
8. WebEx Web Meetings For Dummies by Nancy Stevenson
9. Zoom for Dummies by Phil Simon
10. Microsoft Teams for Dummies by Rosemarie Withee
11. Google Meet Made Easy: Video Conferencing the Easy Way by James Bernstein
12. Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals by Tim Szigeti, Kevin McMenamy, Roland Saville, and Alan Glowacki