Conference calling has found it’s way from the corporate board meeting to the small business or home based business and even to local volunteer organizations. With easy-to-use low-cost – even free – options now available, even the most frugal and tech challenged among us can host or participate in a conference call.
What is a conference call?
Basically, a conference call is a phone based meeting. Participants usually call in to a pre-set phone number, dial in a code and can then hear and talk to the other participants in the call. The call is usually hosted by one administrator who can set certain perimeters to the call. Some of the settings a host might make use of are opening/closing the conference room, recording the call, muting out all participants except for the main speaker, or opening lines for questions. In a typical call, all participants can chat with each other before and after the meeting but during the meeting, the lines will usually be muted so that the only one heard is the main speaker. Sometimes, there will be a question and answer period where participants can either un-mute their lines individually or this may be done by the host in order for questions to be asked of the speaker.
Why use conference calling?
There are two words to answer this question – time and money. With today’s hectic schedules, conference calling is a great way to slip in a meeting without having to worry about travel time to and from the meeting location. Conferencing also allows people from a wide geographical area to attend the same meeting without incurring travel expenses. Not to mention, you can attend one of these meetings wearing your fuzzy house slippers and pink pajamas if you want to. I wouldn’t recommend this if it is a video conference, but that’s another topic. 
Not just for business any more.
Work at home parents, volunteer organization leaders and even hobby clubs and special interest groups are all benefiting from using conference services. Girl Scout adult volunteer meetings, groups of internet marketers, direct sales teams, writing groups, school buddies, etc. are all using telephone or internet conferencing services to stay in touch, share ideas, or even work on group projects – all without ever being in the same room.
Your options
If you would like to set up a conference call for a group, these are some things you will want to consider.
- Try to participate in a tele-conference ahead of time so you can see how it is run
- How many people will be calling in and how long will your meeting last? Some services have limits to these.
- Will people be willing to call in to a long distance number or do you need a toll-free number?
- Set a day and time just like you would for any meeting
- Make sure you let others know how to participate inh the call
- Make sure you are familiar with the host controls for the call ahead of time
Suggested Resources
There are many types of conferencing services out there but for the sake of this article, I will focus on resources that offer telephone based services. No internet connection is required for these types of calls; however, you may initially need to set up the call details online. Either land lines or mobile phones can be used to host or participate in these calls. If you use your cell phone, i do recommend using a bluetooth or even a wired earpiece as the phone can get rather hot on your face if you are on the call for a long period of time. Plus, if you have your hands free, you can fold laundry or wash dishes while you are on the call.
All of the services I list here are currently free to use. The call-in numbers may be long distance calls from your area though so you will need to check on that. You don’t want any surprises when you get your monthly bill. Each of these services has different offrerings and different controls. They each have instructions to help guide you through the process of using their service so make sure you read over their information carefully.
I have personally used Free Conference Call.com many times and have found it to be very user friendly and satisfactory for most conference needs. I hope this information will be helpful to you. Please let me know if you have other conference services you can recommend or if you have any questions about telephone conferencing in general.
photo credit: louis.ian.riley
Written on October 27th, 2009 at 6:00 pm by Nikki Brown
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