Great America Networks Conferencing Blog

The Swine Flu outbreak and the Conferencing Industry

News about the Swine Flu is spreading all over the Internet at an incredible pace. The social networking site Twitter at one point even seemed overrun with it. It is important news of course, but with the easy spread of information on the Internet, it is easy for false rumors and unwarranted fears to spread as well.

It doesn't take a deep knowledge of the WebConferencing industry to realize that anything that reduces travel actually benefits our industry. This fact did not go unnoticed as I have seen a half-dozen posts from conferencing companies pointing out the benefits of using their service to help prevent the spread of swine flu or something to that effect.

I refused to do the same. I as an alternative want to commend and join Ken Molay from The Webinar Wire in telling people not to panic or sensationalize such a potentially dangerous event in an effort to drive more business to your own website and service.

The benefits of WebConferencing are easily apparent and don't need to be spelled out in this particular post. Reducing travel is always good for many reasons, but as of now the complete removal of travel is not required to prevent the spread of disease. Let's all hope the usage of conferencing services remains a choice for business, and not a necessity.

I hope when you choose, you choose Great America Networks Conferencing of course, but hopefully it will always remain a choice for all and this terrible event will fall to the wayside so business can continue as usual.

 Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso

Happy Earth Day 2009! Are you doing your part?

April 22nd is Earth Day every year. A day to show your interest in caring for the environment and reducing your effect on climate change. This is obviously an area that Great America Networks Conferencing can help you greatly by reducing your business travel.

Use today as the chance to make that consideration each time you schedule a meeting that would require travel.

Is this trip really necessary? Can I do this over a WebConference?

The big worry on this is usually in the area of "Will it work?" and "Will my attendee have a simple time of joining the meeting?" Don't worry. This is the area that Great America Networks Conferencing specializes in.

With QuickVisuals, there is no trepidation to joining a WebConference or VideoConference. Nobody has to call the IT department or download any program to their computer just to meet with you. It is all simple and seamless.

So make the move to make a difference. Save the trip. Save the money. Save the time. but most of all, help save the earth!

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso

President Obama uses VideoConferencing to cut nation's budget. You should too!

A country's government is run very similar to a business. There are different goals and agendas, but there are many facets that run in line with each other. The United States is feeling a tremendous crunch in it's available budget, and like any business, it's CEO needs to do something.

President Barack Obama challenges Cabinet to cut $100 million in expenses to relieve some of the pressure on the country. This is all well and good,  but what is important to us is the overall theme of where the savings is going to come from:   

Business Travel!

• The Department of Veterans Affairs will cancel or delay 26 conferences, saving nearly $17.8 million. The department also will use video-conferencing to cut costs.
• The Department of Agriculture's effort to consolidate 1,500 employees from seven locations into a single facility in 2011. Such a move has been estimated to save $62 million over a 15-year lease.

That is a lot of money saved just by reducing travel of your staff. This is no surprise to us at Great America Networks Conferencing and to readers of this blog. We've been saving companies money and increasing productivity by working with them to implement our Audio, Web, and Video Conferencing services into their daily work flow.

All businesses large and small will have expenses. There is no denying that. But when times get tough, one of the biggest places to save money is to reduce travel. You still have to conduct business and meet with those all around the area or the world. Conferencing services from Great America Networks Conferencing allow this.

President Obama knows conferencing services are one of the best ways to reduce expenses for his 'company'. You should use it for yours. Contact us today!

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso

QuickRegister - Our Pre-Registration package for your Webinars.

Great America Networks Conferencing is committed to your webinars being the best possible experience for all involved. This includes your attendees, presenters, and even your administrative staff. You know, the people who work to setup and organize everything for you.

It takes a lot of preparation to pull off a webinar beyond the marketing of it. Once you start marketing, there are a lot of parts to come together. You need to know how many will show up, capture information into a database about your audience, send invitations with all the correct info, send out a few reminders to make sure they show up, make sure they get in smoothly with all the correct info, and then have a way to monitor all this in real-time. Whew!

Luckily Great America Networks Conferencing offers QuickRegister.

This Pre-Registration package that we can create for you is highly recommended for larger meetings where you want to know how many people will attend. People will pre-register and you can capture valuable data from them as they are attending. This package enables a fully automated system that includes:

• Data capture in highly customizable webform
• Automated confirmation page and email sent
• Invitation information included in the confirmation
• 48-hour and 24-hour E-mail reminders
• Database creation of all captured information
• Process payments as neccesary
• Provide real-time status of registrants with a simple link
  

We handle the entire process of getting your interested attendees into your meeting. This has a one-time creation fee of for the creation of the webform, confirmation, invitation, and database, and it will be yours for life to use over and over again.

QuickRegister is an add-on for your QuickVisuals Webinar service. Ask your account representative about it.

You concentrate on your content. Let us worry about the logistics.

Contact us today!

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso

The 'Real' goal of a true conferencing company.

I have many companies come to me for conferencing services. They all have similar needs and requests, and that is to be able to get their communication across in the most professional, simplest, and cost-effective way that they can. We provide that.

None of them ask me to create an extravagant type of flashy interface for them. None ask to make it look like they spent a million bucks to provide this medium of communication. The true communicator knows that it isn't the medium that is to be remembered, but the message. We provide that.

At Great America Networks Conferencing we want to provide the best experience possible for all involved. What that usually means is one thing:

Simple access to information. Nothing more. Nothing less.

When your audience has to jump through hoops of installing conferencing software, dialing a toll based number, dealing with low-quality audio, or just any number of inconveniences, these become the things that are remembered about your meeting. Your information that you present gets pushed further and further from the forefront of their minds because they are too caught up in the technology to pay attention to it.

By utilizing the Great America Networks Conferencing suite of conferencing services, you are insuring that your audience has the easiest time to receive your information. This insures that your information is what they remember, and not the technology used to receive it.

The real goal of a true conferencing company is to be taken for granted at the end of a meeting by the audience, and when that happens, we know we have done our job well.

Peace of mind? We provide that.

Contact us today for your own communication needs.

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso