LotusLive® or MegaMeeting®? Part 1

One of the questions I am receiving more and more today is “what is the difference between LotusLive® and MegaMeeting®?” This week, I thought it would be a good idea to go over LotusLive®’s web conferencing. The cool thing about LotusLive® and our audio platform is that you don’t have to remember any separate codes. Your audio conference Leader Code “is” your LotusLive® Leader Code. So what does LotusLive® look like?



As the host, you will sign in using your Leader Code and Participant Code. LotusLive® provides you an attendance summary report via email. In order to get this, simply provide your email information when initiating a web conference:

LotusLive® is an easy web product to navigate through. Some of the features are: upload and publish PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. You can also conduct polls, annotate the presentation and highlight key points. LotusLive® comes with a recording feature which enables your clients to record a presentation and sync it with our audio conferencing. They can then send it out via email OR publish the link to their website for clients to review in the future.

Here are a couple of screen shots on the above features:






The best way to learn about LotusLive® is to demo it. As mentioned in my March 2nd blog, all agents who are producing receive a $50.00 credit off their bill. This credit can be used for LotusLive® demos! Give me a call to see how you can earn this credit, or better yet give me a call telling me you have a client who needs a web conferencing product and I will demo it for you!  Stay tuned for Part 2 of my LotusLive® or MegaMeeting® blog and you decide!  Which one will you choose??... May the 4th be with you!  :)

Contact Caroline Rogers @ caroline.rogers@conferencegroup.com or 877-716-8255 x78253 for a demo for yourself or for your potential clients.

Hello Vidyo!

The Conference Group is taking Video Conferencing to a whole new level that really Rocks!

You probably heard about the Channel Partners Expo and how TCG gave away a Fender guitar to promote its newest product-Vidyo, right? Well for those of you that did not attend, I wanted to provide you with some highlights on this new product and how it is different from our other great video conferencing product, MegaMeeting.

Vidyo is a HD video conferencing product that works over existing IP infrastructure. It is supported by both PCs and Macs. Vidyo has an intuitive graphical Interface which allows for high performance telepresence without requiring special hardware downloads.

When you first login - this is what you will see. The screen shot below shows your rooms (it’s set up so you can have multiple rooms, meaning one for Finance, one for HR., etc)

Recommendations are to have your room locked until time of conference.  Unlocking the room is very easy:

Adding participants to Vidyo is simple.

Managing a call is simple.  Click on the settings “wheel” and you have all the controls at your fingertips.

The best feature of Vidyo is the quality of the conference.  Vidyo is equipped to handle up to 100 subscribers and displays up to 8 simultaneous cameras.  Typically the first 8 subscribers are the ones that are on the screen, however the leader can control what cameras are seen and can push his view out to all of the subscribers.  Below is a screen shot of two subscribers:

Contact Caroline Rogers @ caroline.rogers@conferencegroup.com or 877-716-8255 x78253 for a demo for yourself or potential clients.  For more information on our partner program, please visit www.conferencegroup.com/partners.

What Happens in Vegas Does Not Always Stay in Vegas...

The stage was set this year for a great show at CPEXPO and it did not over promise or under deliver!! Team TCG worked hard on creating a new display with awesome marketing that showed our agents and the channel just what we have to offer!

As with any trip to Vegas, you do have to come back with some stories, so I will keep this G-rated. It’s been two years since I’ve been out to Vegas and I was excited to see new faces along with all of my dear friends and business partners. Harry from NBC Solutions stopped by to say hello.  Harry’s company has had the opportunity to demo our Vidyo product and agrees that VIDYO really does ROCK! (Although, he was hoping to win our cherry apple red Fender guitar) The turn out this year seemed to be up from years before and excitement was definitely in the air! TCG’s booth stayed busy and of course, everyone enjoyed flirting with the “girls in the box” while offering them tasty beverages!

So, the one question you all want to know and I won’t delay it any further is, “WHO WON THE FENDER?”…. This story is a fun story- Mark Anderson from Complete Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah won….  But I loved the conversation I had with him just the day before. Mark doesn’t do conferencing and doesn’t have a conference provider in his portfolio. His exact words were “because it’s a pain” That is a common thought when you mention the word “Conferencing”. TCG makes conferencing easy - From our online card ordering form, to the emailed welcome letter with detailed instructions, user guides, web-based conference manager, 24x7 customer service, Outlook Plug-in invites, and simplified billing all completed in house! You will never get a contracted customer service agent at TCG. Now Mark, that can’t be a pain! :)

For those of you that were unable to attend; this Friday I will do a tutorial on VIDYO and how it’s going to take video conferencing to the next level!! Stay tuned………

There's an App for That! Vegas Style

Well, the clock is ticking and we are down to “Final Countdown” for Vegas!

1) Laptop/tablet-check

2) Business cards-check

3) Business attire-check

4) Party wear-check

5) Wallet full of $$- check

6) Aspirin-check

7) How to find the Conference Group?!... Don't worry, there’s an app for that!

For the first time ever there will be a Channel Partners App to help you find exhibitors like us and navigate the floor! Click here to download the mobile app for BlackBerry, Android, or iPhone!
Stop by Booth #539! I look forward to seeing all of you there!

What Are You Doing For Conferencing?

In my previous “life”, I never asked the client this one simple question, “What are you doing for conferencing”? It is something that we leave on the table 90% of the time and it’s something that I assure you one of your competitors is asking. As budgets grew tighter around 2009, 2010- many companies switched to audio conferencing. This kept the travel expenses down helping overall operating costs. Now, we have come to a point where Video Conferencing has become cost effective for medium and small size businesses.

Present day video conferencing is simply software that is a browser based and can be easily installed on the PC. After installing the software and getting connected to the internet, a user can participate in a video conference by using a username and password. The Conference Group has two options for you. MegaMeeting® is 100% browser based and cross platform; meaning it will work on MAC®, LINUX® and WINDOWS®. It is compatible with all major internet browsers. It allows for multi- languages so international and global meetings are easy. Our latest product is Vidyo®…. Vidyo is an HD based application that will take the distortions, delays and dropped calls off the agenda. Both products are equally superb and have different price points to help the customer’s budget. Don’t leave conferencing on the table in 2012; make it a part of your portfolio, a part of your sales pitch and a part of your revenue stream!

 - Caroline T. Rogers

Follow us on Twitter @tcgchannel!

Do You Have a Demo Account?

The Conference Group provides our agents with a monthly credit up to $50 on a demo account to offset any costs associated with demonstrating our services to your prospects.  This credit can be applied to Reservationless, Event, LotusLive^® and even MegaMeeting^® Video conferencing services!!

There are some qualifications to receive this credit, so for more information on your agent demo account with a monthly $50 credit, please contact Caroline at 877-716-8255 x8253 or Caroline.rogers@conferencegroup.com!

It's Vegas Baby!

What a fabulous time of the year it is! Every March, I start to get excited thinking about Vegas! I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Channel Partner’s show for 12 years now. Vegas is always the one that gets people pumped and business flowing!

This year will be my first year with a whole new attitude and a whole new flavor. I’m so excited to tell you about Vidyo®… our new high-definition Video Conferencing that really ROCKS! And to show you how much it rocks, I am going to be looking for those of you with an inner Rockstar. Why? Because the Conference Group will be giving away a new Fender Electric Guitar!! Click here to check it out!


So stop by booth #539 to see our new Video Conferencing product; Vidyo and register to win!! Hope to see you all there!

P.S. Jam sessions welcome.  :-)