The pros and cons of the phone conference call

People interacting for a common goal: that's business. As such, especially in big business, the conference is a necessity. Conferences require that several employees come together in some space in an office building. If the employees are located in different buildings, each employee must travel to the conference site. Then there is the employee that must set up the conference, calling facilities management to reserve the conference room, and the employee that receives the call and makes the actual reservation. Many conferences come with coffee, even food, and then there is the janitorial service that must clean up after. All this costs money.

A phone conference call is far less expensive. Of course, you need the right kind of equipment to have a conference call, but you probably already have it. Your employees have phones at their desks. That's half the requirements. The technology to enable a phone conference call is the other half. If you have a PBX with the right features, that should work; otherwise, you may want to purchase a conferencer. A conferencer is specifically designed to enable phone conferences. These conferencers can accommodate up to 20 participants, depending on the make, model and price. A conference has the added advantage of being a central nexus for the conference. These come with speakers that can be heard by others in the room. This is useful when your conference requires the participation of employees at a great distance. You might gather all the local employees and have those at a distance call in to the conferencer. This certainly saves on travel expense.

A phone conference call is set up just as if you were setting up an in-person conference. You email or call each employee and give them the time of the conference. Instead of giving them a building address and room number for the conference, you give them a phone number to call. Some conferencers allow you to assign a unique number that is assigned to your conference alone. At the given time, your employees call the number and you answer. Call waiting cancels the busy signal your employees might receive if they happened to call at precisely the same time. The conferencer allows callers of a phone conference call to hear the other participants through their own phone. A microphone attached to the conferencer allows people on phones to hear what is said in the room. With a conferencer, each person in a phone conference call is virtually in the room with you. They may speak at the same time and be heard at the same time, although, of course, this isn't ideally what you want!

Participants in a phone conference call also have some advantages. Sitting at their desk, they have access to their computers and records. They are able to look up information that may be needed that they would not have anticipated and brought with them to an in-person conference. Because they are present in voice only, their image is not a concern. They may speak more honestly. On the other hand, you cannot see them. You cannot read their body language. They may be present on the phone, but doing other work. When reading such body language is essential for a productive conference, a phone conference call may not be appropriate. When their physical presence isn't essential and you want to reduce costs, a phone conference call may be the right answer to bringing people together to pursue your business objectives.