Making Virtual Meetings Work For You

Hal Josephson - President of MediaSense

·  A brief history -- thirty years of tele-meetings - what will meetings be like 30 years from now

·  Best practices -- developing valuable tele-skills - enhancing human communications with tele/presence

Presented by Gary Thom, President, Delta Information Systems &

Thomas Smith, Program Director, University of Wisconsin

·        The bulk of installed systems are H.323 compliant, how can H.323 work with SIP and other standards and protocols

·        How does the ITU H.323 and SIP standards support advanced audio and video features

·        What are the common problems in videoconferencing networks

For more on University of Wisconsin - Department of Engineering Professional Development Programs - click here  

This will be presented at Tele/Presence Forum Expo and is also available as a seminar, executive presentation or workshop based on a fundamental approach that the fundamental reason why tele/presence has suffered from acceptance is due to a lack of effective "driver training" resulting in too many communications crashes. The potential of teleconferencing, we believe, is limited only by people's imagination.

We like to think of teleconferencing as something old and something new. Teleconferencing is "old hat": I tele you, you tele her, she tele me. . . . What's new? Teleconferencing is instantaneous verbal, graphic, and data communications with anyone anywhere around the world. Beyond the obvious, people talk about teleconferencing as a "meeting of minds," "creating synergy of minds," "freeing the mind," and more pragmatically, as "bringing together the right people with the right information at the right time." With teleconferencing, you can "be there" without having to "go there." You can be "on the road" and still be "in touch." You can "be in more than one place at the same time" and participate in more than one meeting at a time. Or, you can "meet" with others after they have already met, that is, when it's convenient for you. Once "on-line" in the new "electronic space," you can find others with similar interests and concerns. Teleconferencing, in short, expands the options. There are now more choices about both the frequency and the form of communications.

Communication is a principal theme of this book. In order to teleconference successfully, we must communicate effectively. What is effective communication? This book addresses some of the basics of good communication as well as some of the new ideas about the role of communications in organizations. Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., authors of In Search of Excellence, note that in the best-run companies: (1) communications systems are informal; (2) communication intensity is extraordinary; (3) communication is given physical support (hardware); (4) there are "forcing devices," for example, programs that bring together people from different disciplines or different parts of the organization; and (5) the communication system acts as a remarkably tight control system. Teleconferencing, we illustrate, instill a sense of being able to "wander around" the organization, check out new ideas, and easily touch base with those only peripherally involved in a project. Teleconferencing technology is the hardware that links good ideas.

Teleconferencing, we believe, enables an organization to follow the good advice of Peters and Waterman in their "search for excellence." They advocate that an organization:

·     Take an action orientation: keep the organization fluid and emphasize small-group interactions, for example, ad hoc task forces, quality circles, temporary structures.

·     Get "close to the customer" and stay close.

·     Provide a support system for those who have innovative ideas,
"champions."

·     Create simultaneous "loose-tight" properties that foster a climate
where there is dedication to the central values of the company.

Teleconferencing, we argue, links people together who might not otherwise have the opportunity to communicate.  If designed, implemented and participants are trained (like "driver training for vehicles as simple as cars or complex as airplanes),an intense sense of "connectedness" or if you prefer a deep sense of "presence" results.  For more than thirty years the enormous numbers of failures point out that like airplane crashes its "pilot error" rather than system failure.  Psychologists have always noted how "being in touch" with others is crucial to a sense of personal self-esteem and well-being. In this respect, the purpose of teleconferencing is "high touch," even though its underpinnings are "high tech." The personal benefits of teleconferencing overflow to the professional realm, we suggest, and improve "the quality of work life." Users frequently talk about howteleconferencing improves morale and a sense of belonging to the organization.  Toyota should have used tele/conferencing-tele/presence to keep their customers, dealers, the media and most importantly, the government in a stated of "connected presence."  Instead they let the government direct public opinion resulting in a PR disaster and now it will mean billions on litigation costs and even more in lost sales.

 In this analysis of tele/presence, we beyond "stage one" of teleconferencing, the stage in which vendors dominated and tended to sell their hardware to those already familiar with electronic technology. Because the development of teleconferencing has been technology- rather than user-driven, manufacturers have also been prominent in asserting who "needs" teleconferencing. Typically, they claim that managers and executives "need" teleconferencing to eliminate travel and substitute for face-to-face meetings. Not surprisingly, these ideas have not sit well with those who already know quite well how to conduct their own business! In this book we address the concerns of management that is, how to manage time, travel, and meetings, the ongoing productivity crisis, the need to reschool workers, and how to support knowledge workers. Our focus in this book is upon people, and our aim is to show how teleconferencing technologies enable people to change the way they meet, study, organize, manage, interact, carry out projects, and do business. Teleconferencing technology, we show, has opened up the possibilities for small organizations to move into a global communications network, for long-term planning and management to become the norm rather than the exception, and for collapsing "information float" and making the "production" of information an almost instantaneous process. Called "personal tele/presence," it is possible for communications to cross barriers of hierarchy and status, thereby making possible development of human potential that has been traditionally locked into functions, roles, titles, and positions. Like the telephone, teleconferencing makes it possible for people to "connect," despite whatever "rules of the game" may be in effect.

 The Developing an Intercompany Telepresence & Visual Collaboration Program Conference and Working Group

The Human Productivity Lab will be hosting The Developing an Intercompany Telepresence & Visual Collaboration Program Conference and Working Group on April 22nd, 2010 in Reston, Virginia.  The event is for organizations looking to improve their ability to collaborate with their vendors, partners, and customers using telepresence and video conferencing and a working group where partners can get together to work out details of a joint program in a highly focused, productive environment.  Click here for details.