Screen-to-Screen Meetings

By: Talia Salem
Issue: Smart Meetings October 2009

Case Study

Software giant Adobe offers virtual meetings with ease

If we had to name this year something (in the spirit of Chinese New Year), it would be dubbed the year of the Tightening Belt, the ferocious creature plaguing our financial lives. Your meeting budget has undoubtedly been cinched in tight by the leathery grip of the faltering economy. And although your resources may have dwindled, your job responsibilities have not. How are you supposed to get your work done with less money? Thankfully, technology has stepped in to fill in the gap by way of virtual meetings. Not only do virtual meetings save money, they are also green and have a much lower carbon footprint than face-to-face meetings.

Not all software is created equal, however. We explored many options in May’s article “The V Word”, but there is another to take a look at: Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro 7. The easy-to-use, seven-year old product has garnered numerous accolades, including PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice Award.

It is not always easy to make the transition from face-to-face to screen-to-screen, but Adobe’s gamut of “meeting” offerings smooths the transition. Peter Ryce, senior marketing manger for Adobe Connect Pro, says that one of his clients conducted their entire annual, three-day international sales conference via Connect. It saved them a lot of money in travel expenses and was well-received. Ryce also adds that many of his clients blend both types of meetings when it comes to communications. Clients may kick off their project with a more social face-to-face meeting to establish rapport and forge a relationship, then meet virtually throughout the course of the project multiple times, possibly concluding with an in-person final presentation. “Even though I am the spokesperson for this product, I still travel and meet with customers on-site,” Ryce says.

First and foremost, you don’t need any special plug-ins to run Connect Pro other an Adobe Flash Player, which is complimentary and most likely already on your computer, as it delivers about 80% of the video content online today. Ryce says the ease of access gives hosts confidence in their presentation, as many other products require plug-ins that the IT department needs to install in advance. They don’t have to worry that a video didn’t load or a screen did not show.  Last minute techno-panic by your attendees as they struggle to enter complicated virtual meetings and webinars just as they go live is virtually non-existent. “The experience is all the same, no matter what operating system you are on. This assurance that it will work everywhere has gained a lot of ground in the marketplace,” Ryce says.



In fact, this interview was held via Connect Pro. I dialed in, entered a conference code, and clicked a link on my computer, and I was live. It was very easy, the connection was clear, and there were no delays or glitches in the presentation. I could see Ryce talking to me on-screen and demonstrating the features of the product concurrently. One of the great features of the product, Ryce says, is it acts like your personal meeting room. Your meeting has a URL and things are as you left them on-screen. You can reconvene at a later date, share the meeting with a colleague and duplicate the presentation for someone else. Plus, the product offers detailed recording options, allowing presentations and meetings to be easily shared via a link. “The recording is playing back what took place just like in a live meeting. It allows you to print and do all the things that were possible in the live meeting,” Ryce says.

There are myriad options for crafting your own meeting and making an engaging and memorable presentation. You can conduct polls, create games and stream video. You can even pause the video and whiteboard on videos John Madden-style. Switch it up and pass the controls to someone else in the “room,” or add a few more video camera screens to view multiple people presenting. You can also add an application to realize the positive impact your meeting had on the environment. The application calculates the distances of the attendees, the travel costs and carbon footprint of a face-to-face meeting. You can store this data and track it by department to find out how much money you are saving.
 

• Before you try out your own “click and run” meetings online, Ryce offers a few tips for more effective and engaging virtual meetings:
• Keep People Engaged: You can offer a variety of mediums throughout the presentation, switch off the controls to someone else in the room and much more.
• Leverage the Gamut of the Product Options: Integrate sounds, ask how you are doing, use multiple video screens, create games and more.
• Use Video: Video is very powerful, and it can make your meetings more exciting and more interesting. There are a variety of different video sources, many built into your lap top.
• Leverage Polls: Ask questions to break the ice, field data and keep people engaged.
• Keep the Content Interesting and Pertinent: Share relevant and rich information with them.

Planners interested in trying out the software can download a free trial on Adobe’s website.