Attention to detail can make a world of difference. In a conference call, looking after the little details before and during can turn a good conference great, or at least keep it from going bad. There’s a list of 33 conference call tips from Corbin Ball that I recently read. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Call Waiting - On certain phones, the call waiting beep can be heard by the audience. And it’s especially annoying to the rest of the participants if you’re popular. Find out if your phone does this--usually the older landline models--and learn how to temporarily turn it off.

Identify Yourself - You can’t see your participants and they can’t see you--unless you’ve integrated the call with a video conference of course. Encourage everyone to say their name before speaking.

Identify Them - You’ve said your name, now say who you’re addressing. In a conversational or meeting type of conference call, it’s usually better to address a person than the group at large. So say your name, then say their name, then speak your piece.

Help Hotline - Unless you’re out-dialing, you have to distribute the dial-in number and conference code before a conference call. And even with out-dialing, you should make sure all participants have an external way to reach you--phone, fax, email, chat, carrier pigeon, etc--in case of any connection issues.

Rules at the Front - Even with old pros, it’s good to announce rules and basic etiquette at the beginning of a conference call. Some things to cover include identifying yourself and others, muting policy, time limits, pausing for rebuttals, no interrupting, and nice things like that.

Plus, it’s more genteel to do it at the beginning than to correct transgressions as they happen. So those are the tips that I thought were important enough to highlight. Which ones are your favorites? Have any tips you think should be on the list?

Everything in moderation, and this includes words. When we speak, there are silences, breaks, and pauses that many people fill with filler words. I myself once had a problem with “in any case.” I don’t know how long it was until I noticed I was saying it a lot, but once I did, it was maddening. I can only imagine how it bugged other people.

A huge filler word used primarily by teens is “like”. They can pepper a simple sentence with “like”, sometimes where it’s more than half the words used. “Actually” is another filler starting to gain widespread usage, and there’s always a “you know” lurking nearby.

“But uh” is relatively new to the word filler scene, and it’s gaining strength. Out of the blue last week, I found myself filling up a conversation with “but uh”. So just like “in any case”, I made sure to stop. If you’ve noticed a particular word or phrase filling your sentences, you might be curious about how I managed to banish the space fillers.

Now if you’ve already identified a filler, you’re doing great. But if unsure, ask a friend or record a conversation. Even better is downloading and reviewing the recordings of your last few conference calls. Once you’ve spotted the filler, a) take notice of each time you use it, and b) try to choose a different word when you’re about to say the filler.

The best habit to form, however, is one of silence. When pauses occur that normally you would have filled, just let silence happen. Not only will it vastly decrease the use of fillers, but your words as a whole will have more gravitas and power.

Tell us your filler word in a comment.

I talk a lot about public speaking and how you can get yourself prepared as well as the approach you’re going to take. One of the things I am the most vocal about is how getting up “in front” of a crowd is no different than standing on the other side of a conference call. You’re still being heard by a large group of people and you’re still being listened to intently, with your audience members hoping that you will add some value to their current plans.

Being on a conference call doesn’t always take the pressure off – sometimes, it can put more pressure on. Gone are the non verbal cues you can give people to let them know that you’re enthused or excited and say goodbye to making eye contact with people in your audience to engage them in the conversation.

The way your audience processes your information is going to be different and the way you deliver the information has to adapt, but most of the time, the stages leading up to the presentation are always the same. I read this great post from Michael Hyatt called “The 10 Psychological Stages of Public Speaking” about how his brain processes the emotions leading up to a presentation.

Take a look at these, it’s pretty interesting and I very easily relate, especially to number 5. I feel a bit like everything is going to be horrible, like I’m going to get completely tongue tied or have one of my strange moments where my brain just completely stops working. (Usually, my main focus is to not do this horrible awkward laugh thing that I do.)

The point is that no matter what you’re about to do, most of us are naturally nervous when con something like public speaking, and there’s no major difference between planning for a live conference or for a conference call.. It’s not just you. Maybe the way Michael puts himself out there will be a way that can help you get over those jitters.

Thanks for the honesty Michael!

When conferencing from your desk, there are a lot of things that can be in your way or on your mind, even though you’re trying to conduct some business, and when you’re lost in your full-steam-ahead mindset, you could be bothering the others trying to work beside you. Here are a couple of ways to be polite the next time you have to take a conference call from your desk.

1. If at all possible, take your conference call in a private area, even if all your conference rooms are filled. Not only will this cut down on the possibility to disturbing your neighbor, you’ll also be separated from your distractions like IM, email, and even Angry Birds. Let the people around you know you’re going to be on a conference. Tell your buddy at the desk beside you that you’ll be on a conference for a little while, so you may not be as fast to respond to emails or IM.
2. Resist the urge to put the call on speaker phone. The people around you weren’t invited to your conference call, so they don’t need to hear it. If you want to be hands free, do that by a headset instead of disturbing your cubicle buddy.
3. Speak in a normal voice on the conference. Just because it’s a conference call doesn’t mean that the ability for your to be heard has decreased that much. Speak in your normal voice in order to be hear.
4. Make a funny sign to hang on your cubicle wall to let everyone know you're on a conference. Monsters and zombies are pre-approved by yours truly.

Having a conference call from your cubicle can be a bit of a distraction to your every day work environment. We’re used to getting up and going into conference rooms and being able to block out everything, but that’s not always a possibility, so we have to be able to keep ourselves focused, as well as not disturbing our buddies.

A few months ago, I let you know about the problems that some of our customers were getting when they were trying to connect to our conference services with MagicJack. The basic rundown is that we were told to simply email them to request that the phone numbers be unblocked. It has not turned out that easy and we wanted to update our customers on where we stand in the resolution.

• We contacted MagicJack via email, as per their request, to ask our numbers be activated. In response, they asked for some additional information, information that applies to VoIP providers, like an IP address. Since we are not a VoIP provider, we do not have that kind of information to give them.
• For a brief period in time, MagicJack customers attempting to dial in on one of our toll free numbers were being blocked, but those issues were resolved within 24 hours of letting our contact know.
• MagicJack has let us know that an interconnection is required in order to proceed but since we are not a VoIP provider, we’re not able to connect to them in such a manner. Their response is “Unfortunately, if we cannot interconnect there is nothing I can do”.

What does this mean for you as a MagicJack subscriber trying to use AccuConference?

Unfortunately, this means that if you’ve been experiencing this interruption in trying to connect to AccuConference, for now, you will continue to get this message. MagicJack has provided no additional information on how we can resolve this, simply stating that we can’t interconnect, therefore, we cannot resolve the issue. We are continuing, on our side, to try to work everything out, but it doesn’t seem like it’s understood we are not a VoIP provider, so we cannot give them what they want to fix the problem. There’s no other solution for us.

For the time being, our hands are tied, but that doesn’t mean yours are. If you’re a MagicJack customer, please feel free to contact their customer service department and let them know that the numbers are being blocked. You can also file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission by visiting their website and clicking on “Internet and VoIP”. This will file a complaint with the FCC for “unlawful advertising” while the FCC is continuing to work out regulations and rules for VoIP providers.

Most of the time, when it comes to ending a presentation or conference call, it’s always the same – “We’d now like to turn the floor over for questions.” Then this dreaded thing happens -- silence comes over the crowd and no one seems to have any questions. Everyone knows that the call for questions can be the quietest part of your presentation, when it should be the most collaborative moment you have. When else will you have all these great minds in a room together to pick each other’s brains and share ideas?

In my personal experience, the missing questions are usually related to it being a lot of information thrown at your audience at once, without any real time to digest things. It’s not until later; when you’re reviewing your notes that you’ll realize you have an entire list of questions.

As the presenter there are a few things you can do to help open up the possibility of getting some great questions.

• Pass out an agenda to the participant prior to the conference. This gives them time to review the information ahead of time and they might even show up with some questions.
• For long presentations, take periodic breaks for questions. The longer you give information, the more likely questions are to be forgotten. Your audience will be able to feel like they are staying “on topic” which will encourage questions.
• Give multiple ways that participants can ask questions. Don’t give them the audio only option, also provide a chat box, or email to submit their questions. A lot of people do have stage fright that that could be preventing them from asking their question.

Three little things can change the outcome of your next conference and make it the meeting of collaborative genius you had been hoping for. What are you doing to encourage questions after your conferences?

I have two cats and like cats are prone to do, they get into things they shouldn’t. I love my cats but they are naturally nosy and they get into so much. I realized the other night, as one of my little beasts poked her nose around an electrical outlet that when she turned to check and see if I was watching her, which I was, that the glare that was on my face did not do anything to dissuade her from her exploration. It wasn’t until I waved my hands in a large gesture and made a sound at her like air leaking from a tire that she paid attention to me.

The message I learned from this situation was “cats don’t understand non verbal messages.” They are animals, responding only to the sound of the cat food hitting their bowls. If I want them to listen, I have to get their attention. In a lot of ways your participants or attendees on a conference are the same way, attending, but hungry for the information you’re about to lay on them. That is what they are going to respond to. You can get more of a response if you do three things that pet owners do.

1. Big Gestures. Stepping in front of a crowd means you have to command their attention. People are going to do their own thing unless they have something to pay attention to. The way you get someone’s attention is by grabbing it right away. You have two minutes to make people sit up and pay attention, and then you’ve lost them to their laptops or smart phones.
2. Give them treats. When my cats do something good they get a treat, maybe some cheese or a can of wet food. Throwing your participants an added bonus is going to make them stay focused and hang on your every word, just in case they might get another one.
3. Don’t be afraid to get their attention. Most cat owners probably know the wonders and amazement of the squirt bottle of water. Cats hate water and it’s the quickest way to get their attention. While I’m not advocating pointing a Super Soaker at the crowd and going crazy (oh, God, someone please do this) I do think you need to figure out who you’re speaking to and get their attention in a way that is appropriate for those who are attending.

It may seem like a crazy way to look at your conference participants, but I don’t mean it a bad way. Hopefully your participants have the resolve not to wind themselves around your legs in excitement.

About six months ago, someone in our office sent an email to the Kindle/Amazon folks about a feature that would make their application even better on the iPad, specifically suggesting the ability to show books in two columns instead of one. The application team wrote back and said, “Thanks, we’ll look into it for you”. Today, on the new update for the Kindle application, guess what we have – two columns.

This is really cool to us, because while it may not have been solely our idea, they fixed our problem. Now, maybe there were a lot of people who were trying to decide between iBooks and Kindle for their ebooks, since both have a great reading experience. Maybe there were a number of people asking Kindle about this option. Personally, we like to think ‘you’re welcome’ when you open your update Kindle application.

Another update on the application is the integration of Shelfari.com into the books. This is really cool and finally there is an ebook app that integrates social interaction with other readers. There are several things that are shared within the app and it's just the beginning.

I think the folks over at Amazon are trying to beef up the social aspects of their e-reader application and give people the ability to share what they are reading. Not only is that good for them as a company (because many of us love to Tweet) but it’s great for authors. A very good friend of mine has his first novel available in the Amazon store and if someone new tweets about reading it, and that tweet encourages their followers to read his book, it helps him.

Since authors are, in essence, a brand, he could then find the people who are reading his book, see what they thought and engage in conversation with potential and current readers.

So check out the new Kindle update for the iPhone and iPad and when you’re enjoying the smooth and ease of that two column reading page… you’re welcome.

When I was little, the weekends that my mom did not have to work were the best weekends ever. She would cook a big meal and my dad, brother, and I would go to the local video store and pick out some movies for us to watch together. It was fun, getting to walk through these rows and rows of videos, picking out the VHS and then looking forward to fighting over the first movie to be watched.

It makes me sad to hear that Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 today. It’s really upsetting to see that some companies that are burned into my memory aren’t making it through the tough economic times. Blockbuster reports more than $900 million dollars in debt and can no longer pay interest to their lenders, and while things seem bleak for them now, it wasn’t always this way.

Blockbuster had an opportunity to battle back when they started to offer their online services. You could pay a monthly fee with Blockbuster, have DVDs shipped to you in the mail, and exchange them in the store, with no waiting for new releases—something that Netflix can’t do. Since Blockbuster has exclusive rights with many of the movie production companies they get first pick at new releases, putting them on shelves nearly a month before the competition.

This had great potential to step into the market that Netflix has the hold on, and provide some legitimate competition. This could have been the move that saved Blockbuster; this could have been what brought them up to speed with what people want – no waiting.

Where Blockbuster went wrong is they realized the potential they had with their online/in store marriage, raised the monthly rate, and then kept raising it. They were in debt, struggling to stay afloat, closing down stores, and saw a way out. So they raised rates, again and again, driving people away and into the arms of their competition.

NetFlix doesn’t really have competition for this part of the rental market and anyone who can come in and do it better; they have a chance to give NetFlix a run for their money. Blockbuster had a chance, they knew it, they got greedy, and their customers left.

What do you think has been one of Blockbusters biggest failures? Did they drive away business with high rates for the DVD to mail service, or have they just become a dinosaur in the battle of the movie business?

What do you think drove people away from Blockbuster? What do they need to do during their restructure to bounce back?

Starting November 1st, commercial airline passengers will have another security step to take before they can get on a plane. At least 72 hours before boarding, passengers will have to provide their birthdate, gender, and full name that coincides with a government document or id. Information is not readily available on the TSA or Homeland Security websites for booking or purchasing last-minute or unplanned flights same day, or within the 72 hour window.

Once given, the “Secure Flight Passenger Data” is sent to the TSA for cross-checks against watch lists and no-fly lists. All flights from November 1st on have to have the information on all passengers, but tickets purchased earlier than this date are not affected. Some airlines are calling and emailing passengers anyway to request the information.

Flyers will have to do this whether they buy their tickets online, by agent, or at the airport. If someone does not wish to give the personal information to the airline, they will not be issued a ticket, and will be unable to fly.