Facilitating a Large Conference Call: Factors to Consider

Communication is detrimental to the success of any given business. It has to be consistent, strategic and must incorporate the right tools, among which is the administration of business meetings and conferences. 

Businesses today are no longer restricted to one particular geographic location. Projects may involve employees working from different parts of the globe and conference calls allow clients and contractors to connect easily and efficiently with the employees. 

Thanks to technology’s continuous innovation,  it is now possible to conduct conferences virtually where participants from all over the globe can readily access and connect to.

Conducting conference calls is a collaborative tool for bringing employees together regardless of their physical location. Businesses offering conference calls and virtual meetings seek to continuously improve their services to meet the ever-changing demands of their clients and further attract new ones. As more and more companies are taking advantage of conference calls, its users increased noticeably as well. Fortunately, there are businesses now that provide services for conference calls catering to a massive number of participants.  Conducting large scale meetings is no easy feat, which is why it is vital to get assistance from the right provider. Civicom’s large conference call service, for instance, is a unique audio platform that can cater to as much as 3,000 participants and more with notice.

Factors to Consider When Conducting Large Conference Calls

• Schedule

Whoever is scheduling a large conference call should highly consider the attendees’ locations and their time zones in order to come up with a schedule that works best for everyone. A lot of them may have other schedules or activities for the day so it is only necessary to stick to the schedule rather than extend longer than necessary.

• Location

As much as possible, participants should be critical about their surroundings or the environment they’re in during the conference call. It would be best to temporarily seclude yourself from others to prevent distractions or unwanted noise and risk missing important information.

• Brevity

Keep it clear and concise. There are inevitable instances wherein some participants are in areas with an unstable connection so it is important to speak slowly and clearly.

• Operator Assistance

It takes a lot of effort coordinating attendees for large conference calls and sometimes an inexperienced operator can mishandle the whole meeting. This is why assigning this specific task should be given to trained operators.

• Email before & after the call

Remember to send an email before and after the conference call. The pre-call email should contain the agenda and specific discussion points of the conference call so that participants would know what to expect and can prepare possible ideas that they may want to share. The email sent after the call should include a summary of what went down the call. With the number of participants involved, it is possible that some of them may have missed a few key points so it is helpful if they would be given a summary of the whole conference call that they can refer to afterward.

• Action Plan

Make sure that participants agree on actionable plans before they end the call so everyone can start on whatever it is that was laid out and planned during the call in order to better move the business forward.

Keep these factors in mind and a large conference call shouldn’t be a worry.