Better Conference Calls

I saw this post from Sasha Dichter by way of reading about it in Seth Godin's blog. Is that enough blog call outs? Okay!

But seriously folks, he's absolutely right. Conference calls can often turn into torture. It happens pretty easily. Add to all the sins he notes poor sound quality on any end of the call, yammerers, table thumpers and so on and so on. His tips are also right on.

I'd like to add one of my own: make EVERYONE on the call call in. You eliminate the need for the voice of "in the room" because everyone is on an even footing. Use a tool that combines screen sharing with voice conferencing (there are free tools to use with Skype, or you can use a fee tool like GoToMeeting, WebEx, or what have you to get these things done).

But there is nothing more frustrating than being the only person who is calling in from afar, so level the playing field.