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For those who spend a lot of time explaining things over the phone, giving presentations or demonstrations, training, or collaborating on projects,
GoToMeeting software is a godsend. Not only does it allow business consultants, executives and clients to meet in a timely, flexible manner, but the software is conveniently easy and hassle-free.
Citrix Online has three Online Meeting solutions:
GoToMeeting, which allows for a single organizer and up to 15 attendees;
GoToWebinar, which allows for a single organizer to host up to 1000 attendees; and
GoToMeeting Corporate, which allows for multiple organizers and includes GoToWebinar.
GoToMeeting allows
participants to view and utilize applications on each other’s computers in real
time.
Essentially,
participants can watch as the meeting host edits a document (for instance) on
their own screen, while he does it on his.
GoToMeeting is perfect for training, presentations,
demonstrations, collaborations, and overall synchronizing.
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Easily Invite others to your Online Meeting
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Online Software – Getting Connected
All
of
Citrix Systems
software is online, so you don’t need to install anything to host a meeting
from any computer. The audience members and attendees don’t need to install
anything either. I’ve never come across a single person who wasn’t
able to connect to one of my meetings.
Starting or
joining a meeting is as simple as going to www.GoToMeeting.com,
clicking "Host A Meeting" or "Join A Meeting", and clicking
"yes".
Sending
someone information to connect is really easy too. Right as the meeting starts,
there is a popup with different ways to tell people how to join, such as
calling them, emailing them and
more.
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Record your meeting for future reference
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Present, Demonstrate, Collaborate and
Train
I found this to be
amazing. As an editor for
LA
Splash Magazine, I could meet with journalists and demonstrate how
to post articles and teach them to edit their own articles. One
moment I’m demonstrating something on my computer, then I give keyboard and
mouse control away so a member of the audience can demonstrate that they
understand what I just did by doing it themselves. A lot of people
are shocked at how awesome it is to be able to see and control each other’s
computers during a meeting. I even used this software to provide technical
support for one journalist’s software.
This
software is a must have for any corporation that deals with people and
computers. Instead of mailing a power point presentation for them to read
through, or flying all the way out to visit a client, you can have a compromise
of pointing out everything live over the
internet.
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Give your keyboard and mouse to other attendees
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Software
Usability
Hands down this
software is the easiest to install and setup. There are some things
that make it harder to use, but they can easily can be overcome. The user
interface that pops up sometimes gets in users' way, it’s hard to explain to
someone new to the software where the minimize panel button is since the
control panels are invisible except to the user so you can’t point to it with
the
GoToMeeting
software.
After using
GoToMeeting, I
realized how much I need this software. It has defiantly spoiled me, since
explaining things over the phone is so much more frustrating and this software
is so simple for clients and affiliates to join your meeting.
Features
There
are some really cool features that make this easy to use software even more
awesome. There are drawing tools that allow you to draw on each other’s screen
to help with your presentation. By default they are off, but can be enabled
to allow attendees to highlight, draw, point with an arrow, and play
tic-tac-toe with each other. The Highlight tool is a little frustrating, it
shows a red clear highlight around the mouse pointer but doesn’t allow you to
click so you have to change back to the normal cruiser, meaning you’ll have to
use the keyboard instead of clicking through
presentations.
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Draw on each other's screens
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Free
Voice Conferencing Service is also included with
GoToMeeting and
GoToWebinar. This makes it
very convenient for spontaneous internet meetings with many people. When a user
joins a meeting, the voice conferencing number is provided to you immediately.
The phone number and access code are generated for each meeting and can also be
configured to be your own phone number if you want. It could use a built-in
VOIP feature but this free conference service is simpler to use then having to
configure a microphone.
GoToMeeting also has a
built-in recording function. This allows you to add a recording bar to your
control panel that lets you record, pause, and continue recording your meeting
for future reference. Using
GoToWebinar, you can upload it immediately
afterwards to send out and allow others to stream. To save it to a
windows media video file, it has to process the video after the meeting ends.
This means your computer is slowed down, depending on how fast your
computer is and how long of a meeting you recorded. There’s no way to pause
this or avoid it except by saving in a special
GoToMeeting codec that
requires others to install the codec before being able to view the video, which
is a slight inconvience. The recording will also not record the voice conference
call, which is a let-down. There is a way to route your office phone, cordless
phone and even cell phone through your computer so it does record it using a
special connector, more about this at the end of the article.
The security features on
GoToMeeting are also
impressive and reassuring.
The security keeps confidential meetings
private and prevents sensitive information from leaking.
It is also firewall friendly.
GoToMeeting and
GoToWebinar have a system
tray tool that allows you to keep
GoToMeeting easily available. With a right click
and "Meet Now," you can have a meeting ready in a few seconds for
someone to join.
While
presenting, if you receive a instant message or need to check your email, you
can use the simple pause function which will freeze your screen so you can keep
your meeting going while you quickly check on other
matters.
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Clean away your desktop icons and others to keep a clean look when presenting on your computer
|
Just
as much as you don’t want to give a demonstration in a messy house, nobody
wants to give a demonstration with a dirty and messy computer desktop and start
menu.
GoToMeeting
has a very convient Screen Clean feature that hides all icons, background and
toolbars before sharing your desktop.
The
software is very complex and has many more features like Multiple Monitor
Support, Attendance Reporting, Specific Application Sharing instead of the
entire desktop.
Pricing
GoToMeeting and
GoToWebinar are all
available at one flat fee per month for unlimited use. $49.00/month for an
unlimited
GoToMeeting
account, or get an Annual Plan and save 20%.
Recording Audio with DynaMetric
Recording
is a great feature in
GoToMeeting and
GoToWebinar, so you can provide attendees something
to refer back to. To be able to record sound using their built-in software, you
need a device that will route your phone conversation through your computer to
record. DynaMetric has many wonderful solutions for this.
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|
DynaMetrics makes devices to route your conference call to your PC for video and audio recording
|
Definatly
give
GoToMeeting
and
GoToWebinar a
try right now for free:
www.GoToMeeting.com
www.GoToWebinar.com
Get
a device to record web conferences form
DynaMetric:
www.dynametric.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=5
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|
GoToMeeting
|
GoToWebinar
|
GoToMeeting Corporate
|
|
Host GoToMeeting online meetings for up to 15 attendees.
|
X
|
X
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Easily try or buy a single-organizer account online.
|
X
|
X
|
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Deliver unlimited GoToWebinar Webinars to up to 1,000
attendees.
|
|
X
|
X |
|
Host larger
GoToMeeting online meetings (up to 25 attendees)
|
|
|
X
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|
Use robust reporting features to track Webinar, meeting
and usage statistics.
|
|
|
X
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Rapidly
deploy and centrally administer multiple organizer accounts.
|
|
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X
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FEATURES
• Intuitive User Interface: Easy-to-understand controls enable you to start and
join meetings in seconds without training
• Share Keyboard and
Mouse Control: Securely collaborate on documents in real
time
• Instantly Change Presenters: Enable any participant to
present to the entire group
• Drawing Tools: Draw,
highlight and point to items of interest right on the screen
• Desktop Recording and Playback: Record meetings to review or share
later
• Specific Application Sharing: For added privacy, share
only the application you choose
• Integration: Access GoToMeeting
through Microsoft® Office®, email or instant-messaging
applications
• Macintosh® Attendee Support: Macintosh users can join
and view GoToMeeting sessions
• Reporting: Get detailed
reports for trend analysis and ROI validation
|
Features
|
Description
|
|
Easy Online Webinar Planning
|
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|
Automated Email
Templates
|
Using your Webinar description, GoToWebinar will
craft automated email invitations, confirmations and
reminders.
|
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Customized
Branding
|
Upload your company logo and a custom image to
show your brand on all Webinar communications.
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Full-Service
Registration
|
GoToWebinar will host your registration page and send you weekly
registration reports.
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Free Voice Conferencing Service or Toll-Free
Option
|
Choose between a free voice conferencing
service and a toll-free conference call option.
|
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Pre-Webinar Practice
Sessions
|
Practice your presentation before your event begins to ensure
everything goes as
planned.
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Interactive Presentation Tools
|
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Webinar
Dashboard
|
Monitor Webinar attendance, interest and satisfaction using
at-a-glance Dashboard charts.
|
|
Desktop/Application
Sharing
|
Broadcast a view of either your PC desktop or
a specific application to Webinar attendees.
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Change Presenters or
Panelists
|
Use multiple presenters and panelists at your
Webinar to boost audience interest.
|
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Staff Chat
|
Staff Chat allows organizers, presenters and
panelists to secretly communicate with each other during a
Webinar.
|
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Annotation
Tools
|
Annotation Tools enable presenters to draw
attention to a specific item or emphasize information.
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|
Audience View Monitor
|
Organizers and presenters can see what their audience is
seeing.
|
|
Polling &
Survey
|
Get audience feedback by launching polls and
surveys.
|
|
Simple
Attendee Interface
|
|
|
Webinar
Dashboard
|
Monitor Webinar attendance, interest and
satisfaction using at-a-glance Dashboard charts.
|
|
Desktop/Application
Sharing
|
Broadcast a view of either your PC desktop or
a specific application to Webinar attendees.
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|
Change Presenters or
Panelists
|
Use multiple presenters and panelists at your
Webinar to boost audience interest.
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Webinar
Analysis and Follow-Up
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Attendee Profile with Interest
Rating
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Get a ranked list of qualified attendees that
you can import into your CRM system for follow-up.
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Webinar
Reports
|
Use Webinar reports to identify your most
effective Webinars and replicate successful efforts.
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Desktop Recording/Webinar
Playback
|
Record your Webinar – including audio – and
play it back later for additional audiences.
|
|
Automated Follow-up
Emails
|
GoToWebinar
sends follow-up emails to all registrants after the Webinar is
over.
|
Discuss
this article in the Readers' Forum
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on Quang Bui
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