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A multi-geo conference call service for me!

January 23rd, 2009 | by ka edong |

Have you had the need to do a conference call where the meeting participants are from different parts of the globe?

In my former company, we had an in-house self-service online panel where we could schedule multi-geo conference calls. Everybody dials into the bridge, and each country had their own local dial-in numbers.

In my line of work now, I need to have the ability to arrange for my own multi-geo conference calls. And I found an online service that does exactly that!

(drum roll please….)

I used www.freeconference.com this morning and I’m happy with it.

I used an online-scheduled meeting today. I got organizer access, and my meeting participants from ortigas and the US were able to dial into the US dial-in number.

I haven’t figured out how to use the reservationless bridge. That service supposedly allows me to just give out a generic dial-in number and access code, then anybody dialled in at the same time gets to talk to each other. BUT, I tried it last week and all we heard was music.

The service is highly customizable. I can make it a free-for-all conference (everybody can talk and hear each other), or a seminar (just one or a few people can talk). I can start the meeting when the organizer (me) dials-in, or I can start the meeting as soon as any two people are in.

A summary of the call is sent via email. Here’s a transcript of my most recent call:

Thank you for using FreeConference.com, a service of Global Conference Partners.  Here is a summary of your most recent Web-Scheduled conference call to assist you in tracking your business productivity.
Conference Summary
Conference Type:     Web-Scheduled Standard
Conference Date:     Friday, January 23, 2009
Reservation Start Time:     09:00 AM Philippines Time
Reservation End Time:     10:55 AM Philippines Time
Dial-in Number:     1-518-825-xxx
Access Code:     673xxx

Conference Details
#     Start Time     End Time     Caller Number     Mins.
1     01/23/2009 09:00 AM     09:02 AM                                        3
2     01/23/2009 09:01 AM     09:02 AM     xxx-894-xxxx     1
3     01/23/2009 09:02 AM     09:06 AM                                       4
4     01/23/2009 09:55 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-894-xxxx     45
5     01/23/2009 10:01 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-543-xxxx     39
6     01/23/2009 10:11 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-092-xxxx     29
Total Calls:     6

Peak number of active lines:     3
Lines reserved:     5

You can access a complete summary of all your Web-Scheduled conferences from the Conference Manager tab at www.freeconference.com.

Do you use www.freeconference.com or similar? What’s your experience?

I could use Skype in the future. But not everybody uses Skype, so I’ll need to verify with other parties before I use Skype.

Nice! Calling calling, nano nano …

ka edong
like a bridge conference call over troubled water

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