We need to schedule a Conference Call! Not to long ago that
statement was only uttered in the CEO's office or in the board
room. But now, thanks to the phenomenal drop in long distance
calling costs, conference calling is affordable to almost any
group or organization that wants to get together to discuss the
important issues. While conference calling is now relatively
inexpensive there is still a per minute per participant cost.
Conference calling should only be used when the cost of the call
would be cheaper than gathering all of the participants together
on one room. For example if your entire group resides in the
same city, why make a conference call when you could just
schedule a meeting. If your group is spread Statewide, or has
members in other States or Countries then conference calling is
the way to go. Just think of the expense, time and hassles that
can be avoided. Travel time, airfare, hotel bills, rental car
fees and gas costs. Now, sometimes groups just have to meet face
to face for important events and meetings. In these instances
conference calls can be used as Gap Filler meetings to pass
along important information and updates. Lets talk about some of
the new applications that conference calling is now being used
for. Family reunions are one of the most popular, especially for
families with relatives spread all over the USA or the World. If
you have an actual reunion there are always those who can not
attend for one reason or another. So why not schedule a
conference call. You can put the main phone, where all of the
physical attendees are, on speaker phone and have all of the
remote folks call in at a designated time. This would also be
great over the holidays. Conference calling is now being used
for all kinds of reunions such as College classes, military
units or any circles of friends who are now separated
geographically. Most conference call services available today
offer two plans, flat rate and per minute. With flat rate the
subscriber can schedule as many conferences as he or she wants
and pay one monthly fee. With per minute plans all participants
call a toll free number and the subscriber pays the per minute
cost for each individual caller. There is no cost to the
participants for either of these plans, only the actual
subscriber receives a bill. For more formal or business
conference calling most providers also offer operator assisted
and operator attended conferences for an extra fee. There are
several conference call providers that offer online sign-up and
no monthly fee so you only pay when you actually use the
service. Have fun and schedule a conference call today.
About the author:
Mike is an Independent Telecom Consultant. His website,
PhoneCallWorld.com features several telecom and conference
calling solutions.
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