A little embarrassingly, I\u2019ve subjected hundreds of business people to casual conversations about conference calling over the last few years. Some, I\u2019m sure, have kindly just grinned and borne it, but the majority have seemed more than willing to vent many years\u2019 worth of conference calling annoyances and frustrations.Here\u2019s how a typical conversation might start:<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cBit of a random question, but do you do many conference calls and how do you find them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Business person (\u2018Bob\u2019): \u201cYeah, I\u2019m actually on them all the ****** time. I suppose they\u2019re necessary, but I don\u2019t know anyone who actually likes them. Perhaps I\u2019m missing something\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So, the norm is a neutral-to-negative response. Sometimes the responses are notably more negative; rarely are they more positive. Why is that? Why are only a tiny minority positive about a capability that one might expect most business professionals to really appreciate? After all, doesn\u2019t conferencing help people get more done in a day, leave the office at a decent time, or offer the welcome flexibility of remote working? Doesn\u2019t conferencing reduce the time spent in airport check-in lines and traffics jams? Surely people should like this stuff!<\/p>\n Well, they don\u2019t; that much is clear. The reasons come thick and fast as the questions get more specific. Here\u2019s how the conversation might proceed:<\/p>\n Me: \u201cSounds like you\u2019re not a huge fan, and you\u2019re definitely not alone. Lots of people I speak to seem to get frustrated by not knowing who\u2019s on the call or who\u2019s speaking\u2026 does that strike any chords with you?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Bob: \u201cTell me about it. \u2018Who just joined\u2019 must be the three most frequently spoken words in the history of conference calling. I hold a regular weekly project conference call. There are only six of us on the call, but I rarely start the agenda proper until at least 10 minutes after the hour. Bigger conference calls are even worse. I was on our weekly team call just last week, and there was somebody who must have joined from a train station or something. The background noise was impossible; we had no idea who it was and couldn\u2019t do anything about it. It was an absolute nightmare. And that\u2019s just the audio part\u2026 don\u2019t even get me started on the web conferencing part. Actually, thinking about it, I really do hate conference calls. I bet you wish you hadn\u2019t asked now!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Far from it, I was delighted that I\u2019d asked, because this is exactly why LoopUp exists. Audio conferencing and web conferencing have been around now for 15 or so years and yet, still, people dislike it with a passion. Bob still doesn\u2019t know who else is on his conference calls. He still can\u2019t do anything about the person with all the background noise and he still just \u2018emails out the slides\u2019.<\/p>\n At LoopUp, we believe in making conferencing less terrible. The host is alerted as soon as their first guest joins the meeting. With one click they know who\u2019s on the call and who\u2019s speaking, and can take care of any background noise. With another click, they\u2019re sharing a presentation with their guests. The result: conference calls that actually help aid collaboration, rather than being something people suffer through. Helping people to have more productive meetings that waste less time – now that\u2019s something I imagine we can all appreciate, and that\u2019s why LoopUp exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A little embarrassingly, I\u2019ve subjected hundreds of business people to casual conversations about conference calling over the last few years. Some, I\u2019m sure, have kindly just grinned and borne it,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":36297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-36296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-audio-conferencing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n