Speaker phones are one of the greatest things ever to someone who holds a lot of conference calls. Even if you don’t conference much, there are still times when you are eternally grateful for your speaker phone. However, as convenient as a speaker phone can be there are times when it can cause a bit of distraction. Rather than spend an entire post telling you what you shouldn’t do, let’s talk a little about some good speaker phone etiquette on your next conference call.

• Sound check. Think of it like this – you’re standing in a conference room and speaking in front of a crowd of people. You sound great, but if you were to take a megaphone, press your mouth against it, and speak in the exact same tone your voice would sound distorted.  Megaphones amplify the sound of your voice and a speaker phone works the same way. Little things can affect the sound quality of your speaker phone.  Call into your conference line with a co-worker and do a sound check. Adjust your volume levels and distance from the microphone to get the best sound possible.

• Location, location, location.  It can’t be stressed enough that using a speaker phone is going to pick up everything around you. It’s even going to pick up your own voice bouncing back into the speaker. Be mindful of the place you’ve chosen to join your conference. The smaller the room, the closer the walls, and the louder your voice will reverb into your speaker, and it could cause problems with feedback or echoing.

• Enable speakerphone after you’ve successfully joined your conference. Remember when you were a kid and put your face by a fan and said “Luke, I am your father”? The movement of the air by the blades distorted your voice, and a speakerphone will pick up the most subtle of movements in the air. Like your voice blowing through the fan the sounds of the buttons you’re pressing can get distorted. Enter the digits for your conference call before putting your call into speaker mode.  

So there you go. Three very simple “do’s” for using your speaker phone on a conference call.  Do you use a speaker phone on your conference?

The current temp outside is 68 degrees! Considering the fact that at the beginning of Feburary, we had a foot of snow, I must say that it's very welcome around here to have some Spring time weather.

The first day of Spring is on March 20th so it's just around the corner. Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time Begins on March 14th! Spring forward everyone. 

Have you ever watched a press conference? All of the journalists are sitting in neatly filed rows, crowding around clusters of microphones, notebooks and smart phones at the ready to catch every moment. The press conference begins, they listen patiently, waiting for the most wonderful words in the world – “We will now take a few questions.”

Everyone wants to be first. What happens when everyone is trying to get that first position? It turns a press conference into a bit of a circus. The same thing can happen on your conference calls. When the presentation finishes, most of the time, there’s an opportunity to make a comment or ask a question. Even on a conference call with three or four people, when you drop the green flag, everyone takes off at once.

A lot of people skip the queued Q&A session on a small conference, but I would suggest that you take advantage of it.  Not because you have too many questions or because it’s too “formal” but simply because you’ve seen Robert Gibb’s face when he opens the floor for questions. There’s a little bit of fear there. He knows he’s about to be standing in the middle of the raceway when the flag comes down for lap one.

Don’t be that guy. Use the queued Q&A features for your next call and take one question at a time. It’s still first come, first serve, but you don’t have to pick who got their hand up a split second before. It’s a race to see who can raise their hand faster than the person beside him.

That's right, it's National Pistachio Day and in celebration of this nutty holiday (Haha, I love the pun) Amber brings you a drawing in celebration.

First, here are some fun facts about the pistachio.

California is the major US producer of the pistachio. 

Red or green dye is only added to the nut because the consumers like the coloring - it doesn't affect the flavor. 

According to legend, the pistachio adorned the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Pistacho's are related to mango fruit and the spice sumac.

In the blogging world, we talk a lot about engaging our audience (Twitter, fan pages, comment threads) and how that’s going to make for a more rewarding experience for both you and the reader. How can you take the ideas of reaching out to an audience with written words, and make them feel the same closeness with spoken word?

Many times when you’re dealing with a conference call, you’re going to be speaking to people who may not necessarily want to be there, but have to be there. How do you engage an audience that isn’t really keen to listening to you right now?

Games. Conferences that involve training are easy. Anything can be more fun if competition is thrown into the mix so set up a contest for your teams and include it as part of the invitation. It can be a simple game, but it’s best to make it tie into your conference topic somehow. There’s always a way to start a game and have some fun, even if it is business. For example, if your conference is a safety meeting, find or take a picture that has a lot of unsafe situations, and have your different participants figure out the things in the picture that are unsafe. The person who gets the most, gets to leave an hour early on a Friday.

Ask Questions. If you’re having a recurring conference, you should always leave your participants with something to think about between the last conference and the one now. It can be any kind of question that will help to lead you into the next conference. Any time you can make people think at the very end, you’ll keep them wanting more.

Be passionate. You’re a part of the company you are with for a reason. No matter what the conference topic is about, you should believe in it with your full heart, no hesitation or second guessing allowed. When you speak, speak emphatically. Explain to your participants why this is an important topic and how it affects them. If you want your team to get behind what you’re talking about, you will first have to prove to them that you are.

Humor, passion, and questions are used on many blogs to keep the audience excited about the topic at hand.

How do you keep your audience engaged on a conference?  

So this is my desk.

Yes it’s a different desk than around Christmas time. I had enough of that tiny little corner and I like being out in the office. The drawback of my new desk is that it’s a glass top, so every time I turn around there is another smear smudge. For most people, this is no big deal; but for me it might as well be a punch in the face.

Today I decided to do a test. I spilled something on my desk that smeared when I wiped it up. I am now going on thirty minutes of this big nasty smudge staring at me. If I’m completely honest with myself I will admit that it is driving me a bit insane. I was going to clean it up right away, but as a self proclaimed clean freak, I decided to test myself.

How long can I allow this smudge to sit here, unanswered? I am completely out of my comfort zone and I keep staring at it like it has eyes and we could have a stare off contest. The point of this is that I’m breaking my boundaries, getting out of my comfort zone and learning how much I really can take.

Maybe I don’t need the desk as clean as I thought. So far, it’s going on two hours and I haven’t had an anxiety attack yet. If I hadn’t pushed myself, I never would have known.

Will you push yourself today?

Happy Friday to you all. Amber took a little spin on the board today with her rendition of the flaming tomato.