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Second Life has created a professional, easy-to-use method on-line meeting space that participants can attend from the comfort of their office, home or even their yacht!

Virtual meetings not only cut travel expenses and environmental impact, but provide the flexibility to work with people in a real-time environment regardless of their location.

Practical Matters

For a fraction of the cost, virtual functions like meetings, training events, product releases and seminars can all be conducted on-line. From major companies like IBM to small enterprises expanding their territory, smart businesses are using Second Life to find innovative solutions to the challenge of communicating simultaneously  with participants all over the globe.

A Second Life meeting contains many of the fundamental elements of a face-to-face meeting, a factor that can be hard to recreate using video or conference calls. For one thing, all the avatars for participants are visible, making it easy to tell just who is present at the meeting and who is currently speaking.

Conference Rooms

The virtual meeting room contains many features of a regular conference room. Services include a sound system for amplyfying speakers and a viewing screen where you can run videos, slide shows or power point presentations that everyone in attendence can view.

Translations

One of the big attractions of Second Life for international business meetings is the many translation programs that are offered to make the kind of important real-time translations that cut down on confusion and misunderstandings.

These services use instant text translation programs that  allow you to read the on-going dialog and save the verbatim transcripts for later consideration.

InWorld

The ability to invite interested parties to panel discussions, affiliation meetings and informative lectures is greatly expanded because it is fairly simple for attendees to sign on with Second Life and create their avatars.

To assist anyone having issues with attending a Second Life event, many businesses have a help desk avatar available outside the meeting rooms to help troubleshoot individual issues so the whole meeting is not interrupted and can stay productive.

Another advantage of virtual meetings is that they can be recorded in their entirety and replayed later for the benefit of those who had timing conflicts with the original presentation.

Mixing

Participants in a virtual meeting can ask questions of each other, request clarification on a topic or participate in panel discussions. They can also chat together before and after the meeting, which creates opportunities for members to virtually meet for the first time or “run into” previous acquaintances and renew relationships.

After the meeting, notes can be posted on a virtual bulletin board to announce similar events, related information or post invitations to discuss the topics brought up at the virtual meeting.

The following are the top 5 tips for arranging a successful meeting, regardless of the specific topic or specific business. Following these tips will help to ensure the most productive and fruitful meetings possible.

1. Arrange the meeting early. When setting up a meeting, giving all of the potential attendees as much advance notice as possible will increase the likelihood that the meeting will be well attended. In addition, should one of the key participants find the initially suggested meeting time inconvenient, having arranged the meeting early gives other attendees the greatest amount of time possible to find alternate meeting times that are workable. Since the most successful meetings are those at which all of the critical participants attend, planning ahead is integral to success.
2. Provide attendees with a written agenda ahead of the meeting. Giving participants a written agenda increases the probability that attendees will come to the meeting prepared to discuss the topics that the meeting’s organizer has defined as being the primary discussion points. This practice will help to avoid confusion as to the purpose of the meeting and can help to steer the meeting to the critical points as the meeting progresses. Providing the agenda ahead of time allows attendees to comment on the agenda and to bring a written copy with them. Giving participants the ability to voice any concerns about the agenda prior to the meeting means that should these concerns surface during the meeting, they are more easily dismissed. In addition, because written copies are available both before and during the meeting (bringing additional copies of the agenda to the meeting is a good practice), attendees can take notes directly on the agenda and have prepared issues.
3. Schedule meetings with the schedules of attendees in mind. If the participants in the meeting tend to be busiest early in the day, scheduling a meeting before noon, will have two effects: it may ensure that the meeting will not run past its scheduled time (a benefit) and it may result in participants who are not thoroughly engaged (a detriment). Conversely, meetings scheduled later in the day may be freer to run their course, but participants may be tired and less engaged than they would be earlier. Having a good sense of the schedules of the attendees can lead to a more successful meeting.
4. Use electronic scheduling whenever possible. In the internet age, more and more systems allow meeting organizers to invite attendees electronically. As systems become more integrated, w-mail programs and linked to cell phone and planners, and each communicate with each other. The advantage of using such a system for organizing a meeting is that, in most cases, the meeting will be automatically added to the invitees’ schedules, reminders will be set, and full attendance will become more likely. Furthermore, because of the ease involved in using such systems, attendees will have an easier time participating ahead of the meeting which may have a subtle or dramatic impact on their attitudes upon attending the meeting.
5. Be prepared for changes. The single most important characteristic to be emulated by individuals in all types of commercial endeavors is to be adaptable. As the pace of business continues to accelerate, those with a penchant for change and an ability to seamlessly integrate new methodologies and approaches into their repertoires will have the highest likelihood to succeed. For example, if one has arranged to have an in-person meeting, having a contingency plan to allow some, or all, of the attendees to participate remotely can make the difference between a successful meeting and one that must be rescheduled.

Following these top tips for arranging a meeting can have a dramatic impact of the level of success of a meeting.

The world is at our fingertips! Yes, literally. No longer are we bound by the need to hop on a plane, rent a car or drive cross-country to plan. We can now conduct everything by phone. Or just about! We now have the ability to let our fingers do the ‘Talking’.

Politicians, government officials, heck even the head of the country is aware of the convenience of a conference call. Pick up the phone and gather hundreds of your crucial committee members together in a split second. Those with whom you need to discuss issues of concern.

National disasters have been circumvented within the blink of an eye by simply picking up a phone. Conferencing with crucial executives required to divert or intercept disasters has alleviated time wasted by traveling.

President Bush handled a few national disasters by picking up the phone and conferencing with a few of his top executive.

In a conference call held by President Barack Obama with Jewish leaders on April 14, the president was able to provide details regarding reengaging negotiations over the charter of the United Nations World Conference on Racism.

In January, James Carville held what has been described as the “Most Powerful Call In Politics”. He picked up his phone and called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel then dials in ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos dials in CNN commentator Paul Begala. And so began the emergence of a call that lasted for several hours.

Even when an agreement may turn into a major disagreement, with conferencing by phone rather than in person, you have the option of just muting the phone. You can relieve the stress and calm yourself with no one being the wiser.

Conference calls are one of the best ideas short of the World Wide Web. For a few of the major reasons why a conference call can be the best way to meet and communicate in politics, consider these reasons and options. Heck you might just find yourself picking up the phone more often:

Conference Calls Save Money

Executive team members come from across the world. Politicians must meet and plan. Members of the team must come together almost daily to discuss issues of concern. In the past, the meetings would have to take place in one city, centrally located. Most team members would have to pack up, leave their family and travel for days at a time. Sometimes the meeting would take place for a few hours. Sometimes even a few days. The trips cost time and money. With today’s ability to conference through phone lines, time and money issues are a thing of the past. An email is sent informing members of the date and time to meet. Everyone gets ready to sit by their phone for a couple of hours. There you have it, a few minutes or even a couple of hours vs. days and even weeks of valuable time and money wasted.

More Time with Family

In the past, politicians knew one of the disadvantages to being in the position was time away from family. Time vested in becoming a politician in addition to the time required to work with members of the team and other politicians. No longer is this a major issue. With the ability to conduct brainstorming meetings by phone, the more time each person has left to enjoy family.