Creating a successful Conference Call

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Creating a successful Conference Call

by frankbradley on August 30th, 2010
34 Comments

For the last 8 years one constant in my work schedule has been my participation, at least once a week, on a conference call. I recently came across a video which nicely sums up my experience in way too many of these meetings. It lasts approximately 5 minutes, but is well worth the view.

After watching this video I was inspired to share some tips from the perspective of a meeting organiser, that have helped me run successful conference calls.

Here are my top tips

Master the technology. This is vital if you are the presenter. So many online meetings are hampered by a poor understanding of the basic tools of the trade, specifically the phone conference call system, and the web conferencing system. In most conference calls it is easy to turn off the feature that announces the arrival/departure of a participant, however not many people do this. This isn’t such a big deal when you have a small number of attendees, however with larger groups it can really damage the flow of the meeting when a beep announces all latecomers and/or early leavers.
If the conference call is going to have quite a few presentations with people speaking at length for an exteneded period, it is always good to have all lines muted from the start of the call. This cuts out unwanted background sound e.g. from a participant who is listening while on the train, or located in a noisy office. It also is helpful for those people who work from home and might have the occassional crying baby or barking dog.
Give yourself plenty of time to get mentally and practically prepared. I like to down tools on all other tasks at least 20 minutes in advance of the meeting, start getting all my notes together, and double check the logistics. For really important meetings I will even start the the phone and web conference 15 minutes early, and invite a colleague to ensure all the technology is working correctly e.g. can they see my content when I share my screen, and hear me clearly over the phone.
If you are hosting a call in which you have a lot of detailed content, which requires your full attention, consider asking an experienced colleague to be the technical host during the meeting. They can deal with all the mechanics of the meeting such as starting the web conference, switching between presenters, hosting the chat room, and most importantly dealing with any unexpected technical issues e.g. restarting the web conference if there is a system failure. I find it easier to ad-lib for 5 minutes during an unexpected web conference failure, if I have a colleague who is dealing with the system restart. Utilising a technical host is something that definitly should be considered for meetings hosted by executives and senior management, who may not have the time to master the technical tools.
Involve your audience as you prepare your content in advance. For the last 2 years I have been using Wikis to plan and prepare for all my online meetings. I will create a Wiki with a draft agenda, and send it out to participants in advance to ask for their contribution and feedback on what they would like to see covered. I’ve found this an excellent way to streamline content, and get items off the agenda that no-one is interested in.
Make sure you structure the call with lots of opportunities for discussion and not just one way presenting. By their nature some calls will involve lots of discussion. However I’ve attended many calls in which the audience has had to listen to a lengthy presentation, with no opportunities for questions. I always aim for at least 15 minutes of Q&A during every 60 minutes of a conference call. It is extremely difficult to keep people’s attention during a phone call, so you must build in opportunities for reflective feedback from your audience.
Limit your calls to 1 hour segments. If you need extra time then schedule appropriate breaks. If my calls last longer than 60 minutes, I will usually create a 5 minute break for every extra 30 minutes of call time. So if I know that the call will last 2 hours, I will usually schedule a 10 minute break after the 1 hour mark.

I hope you find these tips useful. Are you already using some of these for your conference calls? If so do they make a difference? Do you have any other suggestions for making a conference call successful? I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

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This post is part of the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard

Category: Internal communications, Modern business, Sugartone

Tags: conference calls, meetings, productivity, videos, web conference

The Author: frankbradley

I live in Kilkenny, Ireland, and I'm married with one daughter. I was born in Derry, and came to Kilkenny via Manchester, England, and Dublin. My passion is all things Social Media, and for the last 2 years I have been working as a Social Media Evangelist for Oracle, where I have worked for the last 8 years. This role entails, promoting the use of Social Media internally for improved communication and collaboration. My other interests include sports, especially football (soccer), reading, video games, movies/tv, music and walking. http://frankbradley.tumblr.com/

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http://www.channelship.ie/blog/ Fred

Nice one Paul! Regarding your question, unfortunately I do know some people that “back horses” by pulling the trigger on the same, empty business structure and proposition. I guess they feel tat they’ll eventually make money magically while they sleep… This idea of becoming a millionaire without effort just doesn’t exist. It does for other apparently.
Anonymous

Thanks Fred and you are dead right. I know a few of these people too. This is “bungie jumping without ropes”. An addiction to hard work is a key attribute for any successful jobseeker or biz professional.
http://twitter.com/lavirtuosity Jeri Brown

Awesome post! This article basically sums up and confirms what I had determined earlier today. For the past 4 months I had been using traditional methods to find a new job with no success. What worked for me 5 years ago no longer works (in addition to the now defunct U.S economy). So, obviously, the goal is to stand out and the only way to do this is to be creative and to think out of the box!
Anonymous

Good luck with the new creative approaches to job search Jeri.

And thanks for the comments

Paul
Eva_heffernan

Hi Frank. Do you ever use an interesting image or video at the beginning of a call, as people are joining?

Also, when giving training over a conf call, I think it’s good to have a photo of the trainer smiling on screen as people join. Corny, but friendly!
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

Great tips Frank & quite obviously borne from your experience. I love you point about the wiki, I’ve never thought of it as a tool to prepare for conference calls before but now that you bring it up, it’s perfect for the job
Facundo

Nice one Frank. I’m taking in some good tips. This year we’ve started doing webinars and most of what you say applies. Specially knowing the technology inside out so as to concentrate on the content. People can tell when you are hesitant and they can become silent hecklers
http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

Hi Eva,
As a trainer I absolutely agree. When there physically, name, title and company is sufficient on a slide, but when it’s remote training, a pic says a “thousand words” and builds a sense of familiarity with the group.
Casual chatting is also beneficial as people are entering, and if a relatively small group, try and address everyone individually, trying to match a voice to a name
http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

Great post Frank and so relevant these days as conf calls, conf training, remote training and webinars become the norm.
I love the video and have watched it twice, as I often hear my husband on lenghty conf calls when he tele commutes – it sounds so sproadic from the outside, but one can clearly see there is absolute structure applied, esp the mute button
The 60 mins is a good length, and definitely a Q&A session, to allow for interation of some degree, without losing the plot of course!!

The wikis are a great idea, but what amuses me the most, is the IM chatting going on in the background. It’s amazing, online or offline – personal or business, we are such chatterboxes and gossipers
http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairéad Kelly

Lol, Frank that video is priceless! Very effective way to get the message across. Thankfully I don’t often have to conference call, I do however see this happening with in-experienced people starting out doing webinars (note to self – hire someone to help when I get to that stage) and it really shows.

I recently did attend a conference call where the person hosting it recommended (by email) that we join 5 minutes early to introduce ourselves – lovely idea and once the conference call started she muted and unmuted as necessary.

Brilliant tips thanks for sharing them.
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http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

Hi Frank. Some very useful tips. Con-calls can be a nightmare to attend if poorly planned and executed. You can almost hear everyone working away on other things when it is not engaging.
Thanks for sharing
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

You’re in the lead Mr Bradley, well done Now hopefully that’s the last time I’ll say that to someone living in Killkenny this weekend.
Lorna Sixsmith

REally useful tips here Frank – great blog post
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Niall. Use of Wikis for organising meetings has been great. In fact I’ve started using one for our local residents association committee. We’ve an AGM in 2 weeks, and instead of organising another meeting to plan it, going to try organising it with a Wiki.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Facundo. Silent Hecklers – I like that phrase. It’s just so useful to have someone else worry about the technology, and it really comes across in the feedback from participants, especially when things go wrong technically.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Elaine. The first time I saw the video I couldn’t stop laughing. It just summed up the majority of calls I’ve attended for the last 10 years.

Structure is paramount in these types of meetings. Perhaps you might get away with a little less structure face-to-face (that’s another debate), but over the phone the meeting is in trouble if you don’t have structure.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Mairéad. What you say about newcomers to webinars is spot on. I know from experience, as the tips I’ve given have come from doing all the wrong things. I remember the first ever conference call I hosted – what a nightmare!!!

I love it when people are punctual for my meetings, although in a large organisation it is not always possible with back to back meetings. I usually spend the first 5 minutes doing introductions to give people with back to back meetings. The key thing is to build this time into your content plan.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Barney. I think if people aren’t engaged they are always going to try to multi-task. I find getting the audience involved and giving plenty of time for Q&A is helpful. With a really quiet audience I like to do spot questions to test if people are listening. Amazing the number of times the reply got is “could you repeat the question – the line is very bad”.
Anonymous

Well. so far so good. Still a lot of time to go, till the end.

As a blow in I won’t be gutted if Kilkenny don’t win, although I can’t say the same about my wife and in-laws.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Lorna. Really glad you liked the post.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Eva. I’ve used this quite often and it’s a great tip which I forgot to include. Thanks for adding it. This really adds something to call, and is a great way to start.
http://www.stress-solutions4life.com/ Catherine Connors

Super post Frank and the video really made me giggle, just last week my husband was on a conference call just to catch up with what was happening with his team but his line was muted, lucky for him as our dog chased the cat indoors, the cat jumped on the table, knocked his phone to the ground and the dog barked for a full minute with the cat hissing and spitting before order was restored…..
http://twitter.com/nimmypal nimmypal

Great post, Frank!
I’d say it all boils down to discipline, one’s interest in the contents of the meeting and ability to focus on getting things done!
Annette Kratzer

great thanks for this help
jackie

Conference calls and webconferences are a way of life for us – I’m on one right now (shhh!!!). These are great tips that we often overlook. Thanks for the reminders, Frank!
http://www.stopthinksocial.com/ David Christopher

The post is good, but I have not voted because I disagree with the principle.

I understand that by offering a prize this is bringing more people to the Bloggertone community and part of their marketing strategy, however this now becomes more about the size of your social network you can influence to vote and not about quality of the blog itself.

You tweeted this inside the company firewall “Last day to vote for my blog post “Creating a successful Conference Call”. I’m trailing by 2 votes at the moment. Voting ends at 4pm GMT”

Apart from the obvious business / personal conflict of this tweet, it’s clear this is about winning and not about sharing some really good tips and for that reason I strongly object.

But I still like the post…
Midgehand

Great video showing the frustration of people not being on time. I’m continually surprises at the late arrival of people whether it’s in meetings, vid/conferencing or phone calls. A good idea would be to ask people to arrive 10 minute early so introductions can get done and the meeting can start on time.
Anonymous

Thanks for the reply Midgehand. Sometimes late arrivals are unavoidable due to many meetings being scheduled back to back, which is quite common for a person who does lots of meetings over the phone. As an organiser I think the best way to deal with this is to turn off the beep that introduces new attendees, especially when you anticipate a large number of attendees. Also use the first 5 minutes for introductions and welcome. This will give enough time for ‘honest stragglers’.
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John Twohig

Ask for the business, the biggest failure of people because they fear rejection…Good post.
Pawel Grabowski

Thank you John
http://smartbusinessguides.net/ Pawel Grabowski

Thank you Tori, I appreciate that.
http://www.ioventuresinc.com/ Jordan

Like my mother used to tell me, the worst thing they could say is no.

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