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Joe Schurman

Swine Flu + Recession = Microsoft Office Live Meeting

By jschurman on Thu, 04/30/09 - 1:15pm.
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With budgets strapped tight and a widespread fear of an integrated pig cold, this should be an extreme wake-up call to organizations across the globe. We can no longer, from a training, marketing, or meeting perspective, require human beings to travel. This process of flying in for meetings, in my mind, has become so antiquated anyway, that we have to be smarter in how we present and meet in a virtual environment. When I mean smarter, I mean really putting some time into fixing audio and video quality issues, providing intelligent meeting lobbies, and creating an interactive and post-session on-demand experience. We, as a human race, have now conquered the art of multi-tasking and while we appear to have completed more work, our attention spans are that of my seven year-old. Keeping sessions exciting and functional is extremely important as if we are truly going to compete with face to face, in-person interaction, the virtual experience has to triumph with HD quality video, faster frame rates, integrated telephony and VoIP audio that moves with the video unlike the Chinese/English movie experience, and data that is vibrant, to the point, and downloadable, and a recording feature to promote on-demand service.

So far, Microsoft Office Live Meeting provides this functionality, with the only problem being that there is no current ability for non-Windows users to schedule or present during Live Meeting sessions. The main problem, and this goes for WebEx and Live Meeting, is that we have to start promoting this interaction and stop defaulting to "old school", in-person required meetings and events. I don't recall any in-person meetings in Star Wars, do you? So, why, when we have the technology now, do we not promote this ability?

Nobody in today's age appreciates a Time Vampire!

I'm interested in seeing some responses here to ensure I'm not the only person who feels this way.

For more info on how freaking cool Microsoft Office Live Meeting is, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/livemeeting.

-Joe

Next Generation Virtual Events

By Katherine Elliott (not verified) on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 3:48pm.

Couldn't have said it better myself! Additionally, there is the "green" aspect and the cost savings of an event being online. Actually, the next generation of these events is already here. vConferenceOnline already films/produces your content in HD quality and broadcasts the events with best quality output to enhance the attendee's experience. This is not your parents' web meeting. Visit this site: www.vconferenceonline.com

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About Joe Schurman: Microsoft Voice and UC
Joe Schurman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Evangelyze Communications. Joe has provided consulting and research within the Information Technology industry and with Microsoft for the past 15 years and is a six-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Joe has been quoted, interviewed, and published in international press including Wall Street Journal, CNBC, MSN Money, and through international webcasts, industry events, and hundreds of speaking engagements on every continent. Joe has published three books, including the technology best seller, Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications , published by Pearson/Addison Wesley in 2009 with aforeword by Gurdeep Singh Pall, Vice President of Microsoft and XD Huang, Microsoft Research Director of the Communications Innovation Center. Joe is a Microsoft TechNet Gold Presenter Award winner and is a leader in the Microsoft technical community. Joe is also a correspondent of the “World According to Garf” NBC Radio Broadcast focused on voice and unified communications technologies. Joe began his career at Compaq Computer Corporation and became the youngest managing consultant at Accenture in 2001 after which time, Joe became a private consultant to Microsoft for eight years with 2 1/2 years spent with Microsoft Research. Joe resides in Houston, Texas with his wife and three children and is a member of the Holland Society and the National Sons of the American Revolution. Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications was selected as the April, 2009, book-of-the-month by Microsoft Subnet. To enter to win one of 15 copies of the monthly book-of-the-month giveaway, visit the Microsoft Subnet home page fordetails.