Ok, it’s time for Campus Crusade (and other ministries for that matter) to start thinking more about using video conferencing and webinars.
Skype has changed the way I keep in touch with our staff around the world and we’ve been using free conference calling services for regional meetings for a while. But now it’s time to start utilizing technology, specifically video conferencing for regional meetings and national meetings. 
My wife just purchased a $440 airplane ticket to go to a conference at our national headquarters on reviewing staff applications. Could we figure out how to do the same content online? Obviously online meetings won’t ever completely replace face to face meetings, but the potential to cut costs is huge. If Leadership 2.0 is about collaboration and cross communication we need to master this medium.
I haven’t used any of these yet, but I’m starting to do my homework. These video conference services look promising:
- Tokbox: Free online video chat with up to 20 people. You can also send video messages.
- Oovoo: Free two-way video chat and pay per month service. Looks solid but requires some software download…ala Skype.
- gotomeeting.com: Pay per month service. This seems to a popular option in the business world. Screen sharing is available.
- Adobe Connect Now: Free for up to 3 people and then a pay service. Screen sharing and whiteboard service.
Does anyone have any success stories in their use video conferencing? Am I missing a killer service out there?
Other LTI posts kinda like this one:
I have used Adobe Connect Pro at my university job … pretty user friendly. The audio seems to come through very clear. Screen sharing is pretty simple. Downside … the images you can share are limited to .jpegs, etc … no sharing of documents or excel sheets so everyone can edit them real time. But, you can have documents or excel sheets or ppts “pre-loaded” into the meeting room so that others can download them and view them when the log into the meeting.
Russ, Thanks for your input. Glad to hear we’re pursuing options nationally. I had no idea. It would be interesting to see if National begins to help local staff utilize these resources.
Awesome to hear about your use of dimdim and skype too. I love the idea of “bringing” in staff to influence our team via tech. Sounds like a great option for smaller group meetings at the local and regional level.
dude thanks for writing on this. i was just talking with someone about ibs: it would have cost my family $10,000 to do it in Florida, so instead i went by myself.
learning, training, and conferences are prime for renovation.
i’ve used ovoo–not a huge fan, but pretty cool.
josh mentioned adobe–definitely legit. this stuff seems to be getting better and more user-friendly by the minute.
also going to use dimdim for a webinar i’m hosting soon.
Josh, thanks for your input. I’d love to know more what people in the corporate world are experiencing when it comes to this stuff.
Brian, yeah the potential for cost savings is huuuuggge! Maybe instead of two local leaders meetings a year, we have one face to face and a number of online meetings. Think of the cash savings for our campuses…more money to fund innovative evangelistic strategies. I’ll check out dimdim too.
Totally agree – we need to get better at this.
1. Leadership is thinking about this. Check out what US CCC CIO Trey has to say.
http://treylewis.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/video-conferencing/
2. Last week I brought my operations team together for a (physical) huddle. (I don’t like the word retreat). We work virtually exclusively. However, as you mentioned there are some things that are better done in person. We used the time to align to the strategic plan and get familiar with each other, relationship building etc… because there was new people on the team. The really cool part was that using the technology you mentioned we have global and national leaders join us to share from the Word, present vision and help us in accomplishing our mission. We used Skype for audio and dimdim.com to share slides and presentations during the webinars. Dimdim can be laggy on audio, but works great for screen sharing / slides.