InterCall Blog: Losing Control of Your Conference Calls?

Last week, I was attending an important quarterly conference call with several of my co-workers. I was trying to listen closely and take notes, but the sound of heavy breathing was coming through one of the audio lines. I couldn’t concentrate and my frustration started to quickly grow. I could tell I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, as I could also hear the tension in the speaker’s voice. Luckily for us, we were using our proprietary web conferencing platform, InterCall Unified Meeting® to host the call. Audio integration with InterCall Unified Meeting allowed the moderator to easily identify the culpri t and quickly mute his line via the active speaker icon. The call continued to move forward with no further interruptions.

Whether it’s the heavy breather, the food chewer, the barking dog, the screaming child, of the fire truck driving by, these annoying distractions can quickly spiral a conference call out of control. Unproductive conference calls, such as this hilarious video depicts, can waste a significant amount of time getting everyone's attention and making sure they're all on the same page. Most times, the trick is just a matter of showing someone what you are talking about so there's less confusion, less distraction and everyone is following along with you. Had the star of the video, Dave Grady, been using InterCall's easy-to-use online meeting solutions, he could have controlled the flow of his meeting from the very beginning.

Control your audio conference calls

Dial-out to participants and even mute lines to keep Sparky and the kids at bay and other distractions away.

Share, present and collaborate

Show presentations, applications or your entire desktop and keep all eyes on the same page for faster decision making.

Run meetings from the road

Free mobile apps for your Android^TM phone, Blackberry® or iPhone® allow you to run your online conferences anytime, from anywhere so you can see and share key documents - even on the go.

Schedule and start meetings in just a few clicks

Starting and running meetings have never been easier with our free Outlook® and Lotus Notes® plug-ins. Just click to schedule, click to start and click to have InterCall Unified Meeting dial you.

I want to hear about your most annoying conference call distractions. Share them at www.intercall.com/beenthere.

Sara Steele is an associate marketing manager at InterCall responsible for various corporate communication initiatives; including social media and channel marketing efforts. Sara began working with InterCall after graduating from the University of Colorado in 2006. In her free time, she enjoys running, skiing, and spending time with family and friends.