Ever attended a webinar and stayed for the Q&A? The first question is always: “Can I get a copy of the slides?” Usually the answer is something similar to: “The slide deck will be available at [Web address].” Or “Email me at [email address] to request a copy of this slide deck.”

iLinc 10 File Transfer is a built-in feature that allows the presenter or meeting leader to send a single file or multiple files to anyone during the same session. With File Transfer, there is no need to make someone go to a website or send an email to receive a copy of the data. You can upload one or more files during your session. At any time, you can select one or more people in your session and send off the files. Instant grati-file-cation!

With the increases in data storage requirements over the last few years, storing data is becoming a big deal for even small businesses. Whether sending by email, posting to a corporate intranet or network, or uploading to a FTP site or Web server, we are all looking at ways to transfer information from one place to another quickly, easily and, in many cases, securely. With iLinc 10, you get immediate transfer, securely through encrypted data transfer, and you don’t need to find server space or attach large files to emails.

Yet another convenience of the iLinc technology that solves a bunch of problems - Christine

We’ve all been to school — the desk, chair, textbook, #2 pencil, and a teacher at the chalkboard. I remember a handful of classes (even in college) where the instructor would break the class into smaller groups. Small groups serve a great purpose in formal training programs – brainstorming, activities, sharing of personal stories, and more. 

How do we take this concept into the online learning world? iLinc 10 has been built around formal learning strategies to support many collaborative aspects of communication: demonstration, description, practice, interaction, etc. The Breakout Groups feature is a key component when building any successful blended learning program. 

With iLinc 10, the instructor or an assistant, can set up groups based on the people that have joined their session. Study materials can be distributed to the group so that they may review them and accomplish the goals set forth for the group. 

And Breakout Groups aren’t limited to learning. I’ve used Breakout Groups even in my internal brainstorming meetings with coworkers and have seen increases in ideas shared with the small groups and the full session. 

So next time you are planning a program for blended learning, consider small group activities to build on the concepts and topics you are teaching. — Christine

“Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin’ is the life for me…”

Wasn’t life simpler then? We didn’t have these crazy high gas prices or all this air pollution. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all move out of the city and onto a farm and “get back to nature”?

Why couldn’t we? With the Internet available anywhere now, iLinc 10 is the perfect tool for the job. Similar to the rake for gathering leaves into a compost pile, using iLinc helps the environment in many ways… as well as the “green” in my pocket.

The iLinc Green Meter is “sweet” (to paraphrase a guy I was in session with this week) – just like sweet corn on the cob! Who would have thought I could see at a glance where people are (i.e. what city, country, etc.) and the savings (CO2 and travel) they have individually and collectively accumulated by checking the Green Meter during one of my sessions. Just last week, I was in a session with someone from England (yes, the United Kingdom).  The savings were astonishing! And not just the CO2 or travel savings… the MONEY! Using average expense costs, having this one-hour meeting in iLinc saved $886.

And I’m all for saving that kind of “green.”   Till next time – Christine, Product Manager

I’m starting a mini-series of posts to talk about why iLinc 10 is worth talking about. Talking about why it’s worth talking about? Yes, you heard me.

My personal #1 reason is our ability to stream unlimited videos at the same time in the same session. I think this is a great replacement for video conferencing or traditional meetings. Now, I’m no analyst and maybe those guys would argue that the ability to cut costs (travel reduction, operational, etc.) is the biggest trend in Web conferencing. But, unlimited multi-point video is cool to me (as the product manager) because it gives you a real face-to-face meeting experience without the hassle of an in-person meeting.

Let me give you an example. When I’m invited to a meeting at the office, it usually is in a conference room. If I need to take notes or work on something during the meeting, I have to take my laptop, power cord (since my battery doesn’t hold a long charge anymore) and my separate mouse. I usually have a bottle of water, so I grab that too. I lug all that stuff to the conference room, find a seat, set down my stuff, try to find a plug for my power cord, and then get ready to start the meeting. At the end, I have to grab everything I brought and anything else that was passed out during the meeting. Phew, I’m tired just thinking of all that. (And that’s when we’re all in the same building. Just think if I’d have to drive or fly to the meeting.) 

With iLinc, I can sit at my desk, keep my laptop on the docking station, use my ergo keyboard (that I love!), my normal mouse and my water… I join my iLinc session and, boom, I can see anyone’s video with a click of my mouse. And to think I didn’t even have to leave my desk with all my worldly possessions to see everyone as if we were all in the same room. Ah convenience…  this is what technology is all about. — Christine Kucik, iLinc Product Manager

Quick report on what’s going on at iLinc this week. I’m not a regular blogger here, but this is worth posting about. We’re all getting ready for the release of iLinc 10. This is no small upgrade, people.

The new iLinc has a completely overhauled interface (look / feel), which is seriously slick. I was in a meeting yesterday in 10 (beta) and let me tell you firsthand — that is the best looking, easiest Web conferencing environment available. Sure I’m biased, but you just tell me I’m wrong next week when you see it. Sleek, I tell you, sleek.

iLinc 10 also includes an updated iLinc Green Meter (my fave feature to rave about). The new Green Meter not only tracks CO2 savings from meeting online, but also tracks cost and distance savings. You can do this at the individual or site level, by the way, which a lot of organizations (especially some of our government users) are thrilled about for Sustainability reporting.

More next week on the new and improved stuff in iLinc 10. I think I’ll make one of our Product Managers blog about it because they know a lot more geeky, detailed stuff on it than I do.  Until then… - Samantha, iLinc Marketing

There’s a good buzz at iLinc today! It’s Earth Day and our technology is getting some extra attention. Just this morning, iLinc was named by PC Magazine as one of the 10 Ways to Save the Planet as well as a viable method for Getting Green About Work Meetings and Calculating ROI for Green IT.

Why all this Earth Day attention? The iLinc Green Meter, of course – our unique feature that enables iLinc Web conferencing users to track the collective CO2 emissions saved by meeting online rather than traveling.

Also, since it’s Earth Day, I wanted to thank and congratulate our customers for doing their part to help the environment. By meeting online with iLinc instead of traveling, iLinc users make every day an “earth day” and contribute to the ever-increasing CO2 savings of iLinc customers, which already totals more than two billion pounds. 

Thanks to you all and happy Earth Day!

With all the news about airlines and airports, many a professional is thinking, “what’s a weary business traveler to do?” There are safety issues, airlines going bankrupt, airlines merging, and unfortunately, up until somewhat recently, you didn’t have a viable alternative to a long flight (and potentially an even longer trek through the security line, ticket counter maze, parking lot labyrinth, etc.).

To those of us in the Web conferencing business, the answer to this dilemma is a no-brainer. Fire up an iLinc session. For those of you who might experience airport withdrawal: stop off at a Starbucks, jump onto the new, free WiFi, and fire up an iLinc session. It’s just like traveling, but without the egregiously marked up coffee.

This whole airline/airport debacle has gotten me thinking that it’s high time for professionals to take back control of their time and their schedules. We’ve got the technology to transcend the old way of losing an entire day (or two) just to meet for an hour with a non-local client. Sometimes it’s necessary to do business in person, but let’s face it; most of the time, it’s not. Not to sound like a broken record, but fire up an iLinc session and call it a day.

Even in cases where you do succumb to air travel and get stuck somewhere mid-trip, don’t forget that you can set up a Web meeting in minutes (from the airport bar, no less). Simply invite the folks you were en route to see and proceed with the meeting. You’ll be hailed as a problem solver instead of a victim and you may save a client, close a sale, or impress a prospect. You may not be able to avoid business travel altogether. You may even get stuck sometimes and miss your scheduled in-person meeting. But, if you remember that your Web conferencing solution is as near as your laptop, you just might save the day.

Never has the saying, “you snooze, you lose” been more prevalent than in today’s fast-paced world of service. Remember, your customers have a number of choices these days…and most of these choices are only a click of the mouse away.

Regardless of the industry, service still sells…period! The challenge is, “How do we offer excellent service in a timely manner while doing so in a cost-effective way?”

We recognize that when it comes to service, there is no “One Size Fits All” solution. iLinc has always had a great reputation for our service. But as we’ve grown, so has our need to expand the ways in which we support our customers.

Because our customers tend to be pretty tech-savvy - we would fail greatly if we only offered support by phone. Here at iLinc, we offer a number of support options through a well-managed knowledge base, a frequently asked questions section, online helpful tips in our user guide, email support and of course a toll-free technical support line. We also offer free training to our customers through our training resource center where a customer can attend a live training session or access a library of recordings and tutorials on a number of topics. We also believe that if we are to be successful, it all starts with a strong adoption process during the initial implementation stage. Seriously, this is where an ounce of prevention is worth ten pounds of cure.

We have also introduced iLinc’s user community called myLinc. As an iLinc user, you can participate in our online forums by communicating with other users and interacting with iLinc employees. As an example, we have a forum that focuses specifically on future product feature enhancements.

We of course also use our own product to support our customers. Using SupportLinc™, we not only get to see the customer’s problem but we get hands-on access to it. This greatly speeds up our ability to resolve issues. If you are not using a remote support tool like SupportLinc™ you are missing out on an incredible customer loyalty builder.

Finally, I will mention that all of our support mechanisms are based on feedback and suggestions from our customers. Again, we do not believe that when it comes to service “One Size Fits All” and therefore listening to our customers is paramount. To improve our channel of communication with our customer base, iLinc recently introduced a tool called CustomerVoice™ from Allegiance™ with the sole purpose of improving how we gather, respond and react to what our customers are saying. If you feel like giving us feedback now, go check it out.

Service sells! And if you don’t believe me…well, hopefully you’re a competitor.

Web Worker Daily had an interesting blog posting about outlawing laptops at meetings. Summary: if people don’t find a meeting important enough to pay attention, they shouldn’t be there. Remember the intellectually snobbish character, Martin, from Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”? This is the guy who spent most meetings 97% disengaged from the group, while pounding away at his keyboard like a concert pianist. We’ve all been there (hopefully on the other side of the laptop), but this is certainly a serious business problem that should at least be generating discussion, if not actual policies.

My point in bringing this up is as a Web conferencing provider, I think we can get to the root of the problem, which is that meetings (online or in-person) need to be more effective or people won’t pay attention. There are three ways we can help:

1. Provide Tools That Engage Meeting Participants - All conferencing technology providers should be looking for innovative ways to create more interaction in session beyond application sharing or audience polling.
2. Help Meeting Leaders Know When They Are Losing Their Audience - If online meeting participants are “off doing other things,” our technologies need to alert the leader, so he or she can re-engage the group and bring the focus back to the topic at hand.
3. Use Our Technologies to Help Make Meetings More Productive - Several common problems plague any bad meeting. Someone doesn’t show up or shows up late; there is no agenda for the meeting; or nobody takes notes for action items. All of these can be fixed by leveraging (not limiting) technology.

A laptop at a meeting is just a symptom of the real sickness. All meetings need to be relevant and productive or they just shouldn’t be. I say we can provide a cure with Web conferencing technology innovation.

I’m blogging as I return on the plane from the VoiceCon conference in Orlando and what a conference it was! If I hear “Unified Communications” (UC), “integrated solutions” and a few of the other catch phrases of today’s telecom environment again for a few days, I’ll bust. Don’t get me wrong, I love Unified Communications and I surely love integration of business processes, but I just wish more of those that talk about it could actually deliver it. iLinc doesn’t deliver UC but what we do provide is the essential component of Web conferencing and most of the vendors talking UC could really only facilitate some folks collaborating via phone calls connected/managed through their solutions.

The most enjoyable part of the conference for me was the Cisco (yes, I said the ‘C’ word) presentation on Climate Change with Al Gore, John Chambers and Fred Knight as moderator, from Nashville, San Jose and London respectively, connected via telepresence with the 2,500 audience participants in Orlando. It was a great demonstration of their telepresence product and Gore did his usual excellent job encouraging us to help our planet before it’s too late. Chambers said Cisco used 100,000 hours of telepresence internally last year and saved $150 million and 15 million cubic tons of CO2 emissions from being emitted into the atmosphere. Chambers also talked about some of their global initiatives aimed at helping the environment.

All of the talk about the environment made me even more proud of our iLinc Green Meter and its unique contribution to the environment. Our patent-pending green meter measures the amount of CO2 emissions saved by having a Web conference instead of traveling to meet face-to-face. iLinc’s customers have saved almost 2 billion pounds of CO2 emissions in the last 12 months and they are able to measure savings at the individual and company level. Our next version of the green meter which is scheduled for release in May is further enhanced with the ability to measure other savings such as gallons of fuel, dollars, miles and other variables that customers want to measure and manage.

The next VoiceCon conference is in San Francisco in November and it promises to be another worthwhile event. Maybe some of those vendors will have moved closer to delivering on the promises of Unified Communications. I sure hope so and I hope even more that iLinc is delivering part of that solution.