The Free Way of Hosting Conference Calls

And I am not new to this as I regularly use paid conference call services wherein I have to foot the substantial conference bridge fees as my office is often the one facilitating the call. Then there are the standard telephone call charges which can run quite high for long duration calls, in addition to the bridge costs and what not. All this adds up to a significant amount at the end of the day.

But recently, a client introduced me to SmarterCalls and it was then that I became aware that free conference call services do away with the conference bridge fee altogether. So there are no hosting charges whatsoever. And SmarterCalls does not impose any membership fee on its instant account members either.

So, all that each caller has to do is pay for his own local call and nothing else! All that this amounts to is 4.3p per minute when dialing into a conference from a UK landline and 5¢ if it is from the US.  This means that for a one hour conference call with four callers I can save as much as £14.40!

You don’t have to worry about the quality of a free conference call either. SmarterCalls always provides high quality conference calling solutions with crystal clear sound quality, no disturbances, secure encryption and file sharing services as well.

Do You Really Get More Done by Multitasking?

International conference calling is a regular feature of my job as a technical analyst and I have to attend at least 3-4 conference calls per week with my colleagues and project managers. 

It often happens that as many as 10 people are on the conference call and everyone is trying to put their point across to others. And then suddenly the conference call gets interrupted by some weird noises – is that crackling noise the sound of someone typing or is someone chewing on an apple while we are talking?

Well, it is obvious that the mind is bound to wander when many people are talking together or something unrelated to your own work is under discussion. Especially when you are required to only listen in and not contribute much, other pressing tasks surface in the mind. I too find myself itching to send that urgent email to my boss or finish the document that I was working on. 

But conference callers have to resist the urge to multitask while attending a call. This is because the sound of you typing, eating or even turning the pages is bound to carry across to everyone on the Free Conference Calls. And as your attention can get diverted and you lose track of the conversation, would you really want to be called up to pay attention to the call? 

How to set up conference call is getting easier by the day and many free services like SmarterCalls are also available now. But how much you actually get done and benefit from the call depends entirely on paying attention and ‘single-tasking’!