Basically, Get Schooled in Conferencing is short but explains how companies are searching for bigger and better ways to be effective at a lower cost. This quest simplifies to a simple solution – conferencing. Conferencing is the means by which companies today are better able to communicate effectively and affordably. Yes, meeting face-to-face is great, but becoming less frequent these days with the exponential growth of technology, especially communication technology. There should be no more excuses to not use audio or web conferencing; companies with conferencing are still able to help their customers, be competitive, improve customer satisfaction, and increase sales. In fact, more sales people are finding it easier to use web conferencing to demo their product than the past techniques.

The last point I would like to mention is that the Get Schooled in Conferencing is in the Channel Partners Blog, who’s Conference and Expo is coming up on March 1-3 in Las Vegas, and Copper Conferencing will be there at Booth #1529. In the end, if you are on the fence about conferencing, interested in conferencing, or already use conferencing, then get in touch with Copper Conferencing to find the service that best suits you or your company.

You can try Copper for free to see for yourself.

Jon Burnham is a marketing assistant for Copper Conferencing. Jon works and plays in and around Atlanta, Georgia.

Carolyn Bradfield

I was one of the first people who bought an Apple iPhone when they first came out.  I had been a committed Verizon user with my Motorola Razor phone and absolutely resisted the change to a new phone and different service.  Despite equipment issues, network failings, dropped calls and a steep learning curve, I finally made the emotional commitment that I was indeed cool enough to use an iPhone….and I liked it.  The apps are fun, I can find my way with the GPS, and I like reading my email on the fly.  The phone service leaves something to be desired, but I’ve been willing to adjust.

Fortunately my husband drove the decision to move to iPhone users, so he also accepted the responsibility of engaging with AT&T for billing and service.  Things seemed to go well, so I thought I would try and get a change made to my account to accommodate my daughter’s desire to move her T-Mobile account to our family plan under AT&T in order to save some money.

For those of you who may not remember, if you have any type of phone service, you have control over your phone number and can move it to another vendor.  We had no contract with T-Mobile, and room for 5 phone numbers in our family plan.  It would seem logical that AT&T would want the additional mobile minutes from the T-Mobile number, right?

Well, you have to start with customer service to make the request.  They have to transfer you to the “port” department to move the T-Mobile number.  Another department has to look at your account and make sure that you are following your contract.  It just so happened that we had one inactive phone number that was about to expire in a month, so we didn’t meet the “guidelines,” so there was an immediate obstacle in retiring the inactive number so we had room to move the T-Mobile number.

I thought, maybe if I go to an AT&T store, this would be easier.  After all, I had been on the line with three different service departments for hours and couldn’t move the process forward.  Maybe I would be more effective in communicating my goals in person.  I met with a nice AT&T representative who assured me that this would be “no problem.”  However, the process took a long time and time ran short, so I had to come back to complete the transaction.  The paperwork went into the computer and our request WAS REJECTED.  My patience was up and I started to express my thoughts on the logic of this process.

A young manager came over with the attitude, “we’re AT&T and you need to live with it.”  Fortunately there were a number of people in the store; it was easy to hear my distress, and ultimately I got my transaction done without paying any penalty fees.  This only took multiple phone calls to three service departments and two trips to the AT&T store.

Although I was frustrated and about to slit my wrists, it reminded me of why companies like Copper Conferencing exist in the marketplace.  We’re small, but we’re responsive.  We don’t let bureaucracy, procedures and a lack of empathy for the customer make us hard to do business with.  We don’t require complex contracts with a lot of illogical legal-ease in them.  We recognize that you can’t hold customers to you with a piece of paper – that the tie comes with great service and being easy to do business with.

Let me share with you that the minute the iPhone is available on another carrier, I’m moving.  I’m going to test their customer service first and find someone who appreciates my business.  I’m even willing to pay a little more for the privilege.

There are plenty of examples in the conferencing industry where the big guy cares more about their paperwork and processes rather than the customer.  This is why companies like Copper Conferencing exist and thrive.  Take a lesson AT&T, you’re just not worth it!

To learn why Copper is worth it and how audio conferencing and web conferencing services can help you improve your business and cut costs, contact a Conference Coach today.

1. Plan ahead. Before a phone or web meeting, do an agenda and stick to it. This will help your meetings be more productive and efficient.
2. Know the phone commands. Keep a reference guide handy during a conference call so that you can easily record the call, mute or unmute your line. Check out Copper’s phone commands here.
3. Use web conferencing! Want to take your meetings to the next level? Web conferencing is a dynamic and collborative way to engage with employees or potenial customers.
4. Be interactive. Start leveraging the interactive tools that audio and web conferencing has to offer.
5. Just do it! New technology can be a little overwhelming, however there is no better way to learn something new than by jumping right in.

For a free 30-day trial of web conferencing, just visit Try Copper Conferencing!

Amanda Kubicek is part of marketing at Copper Conferencing and loves to rock climb in and around our corporate headquarters in Broomfield, CO.

Carolyn Bradfield

I always watch the State of the Union address even though I am a Republican and am a little disappointed in the 2009 results.  Aside from Mr. Obama’s considerable oratory skills, I enjoyed the subtle drama of watching who stands up and sits down, who sits on the aisle as he walks in, the symbolism of purple as the new Washington color and watching the Supreme Court and Joint Chiefs react to statements they disagree with.

In the spirit of national tradition and as the President of Copper Conferencing, here is my State of the Union address.  Despite the faltering economy, 2009 was a good year for Copper.  We invested in our infrastructure and technology creating ways for customers to engage with us on-line and gain control of their account management.  We grew our company by 10%, despite having less people to be on a conference call based on the growing layoffs and unemployment.

We created jobs.  In 2009, a number of college graduates got their first business job with Copper Conferencing.  We trained, mentored and coached them so they could be outstanding business people at Copper and beyond.  We helped our employees buy their first homes by providing interest free loans to help them with the down payment needed for the first time home buyer’s tax credit.  2009 was a good year for us, but it’s nothing compared to our plans for 2010.

I had planned to invest in the business anyway, but Mr. President, if you give me the tax incentives you spoke about, I’ll return the favor by investing more in the business.  I’ll add more jobs, employ contractors, pay for services and increase the tax base.   With or without your tax incentives, here is what to expect in 2010 at Copper Conferencing.

We’re expanding our web conferencing capabilities by partnering with the largest and most utilized web conferencing services in the country – Adobe® Acrobat® Connect, Microsoft® Live Meeting and Cisco WebEx®.   You can try before you buy and have them integrated with Copper’s On Demand audio conferencing.  Copper will add levels of support, service and training to help customers know what to use and how to get the right business results.

We will continue to launch enhancements to Connect To Copper’s customer portal.  The portal will be the key place to get account information, but also information about your conference call.  It emails post-conference summaries and contains usage reports.  We’re adding the capability to download or listen to conference recordings.  You can go to the Portal, add billing codes to a call and make sure the cost is allocated to the right cost center or customer number.

We’re going to transform how you can connect to an On Demand conference call.  Pick any major city in the United States and we will have a local dial in number for participants in that city.  Voice Over IP technology will deliver that call to the conferencing bridge and significantly reduce the cost of conferencing.  Local numbers will never change and can be delivered via the web, iPhone or Blackberry.

We’re upgrading our audio conferencing capabilities so you can have even more control over your conference call.  You can add subconferences, control line or call volume, add call security and even record a personal greeting for your conference call.  You can bring pre-registered participants in to an operator assisted call with a personalized PIN so their name and information is already captured before the call starts.  We’ll have more ways to connect your international participants and reduce the cost of coming into a call from overseas dramatically.

Mr. President, fellow citizens and customers, Copper Conferencing will invest more, create more jobs, save our customers money, increase their productivity and at the same time help with Global Warming. (We might even tackle healthcare if we have time!) The State of the Union is looking bright for Copper Conferencing in 2010!

To learn more about what’s new at Copper and how audio conferencing and web conferencing services can help you improve your business and cut costs, contact a Conference Coach today.

Carolyn Bradfield

Most people remember Winston Churchill as one of the world’s greatest leaders, galvanizing Great Britain to stand up to the Nazi onslaught during World War II.  However, it was his love of the written word and his eloquence with language that people often remember.  His quotes have relevance in our times as much as they did 55 years ago.  “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”  “If you are going through hell, keep going.”  “Never, never, never give up.”  He lived his words and they inspired his country and the world.

I love quotes and tend to use them a lot to make a point.  They become part of my vocabulary, how I communicate with people and a reflection of who I am.  I steal them as often as I make them up, but anyone who knows me remembers these little sayings and the message I want people to remember when I use them.

One of my favorite sayings is that “anxiety comes from un-met expectations.”   Here is what that means to me.  First, people that are inconsistent are hard for me to relate to.   I don’t like surprises and when people behave in a way that is inconsistent with what I have come to expect, it raises my level of anxiety.    In both my business and personal life, I try not to surprise people, to be clear about what I expect, and to respond in a way that doesn’t surprise people.

Second, I would rather hear the truth than for someone to try and “sugar-coat” a situation just to make me happy or to satisfy me.  If things are bad; if you can’t meet your obligations; if there is going to be a gap in what you promised and what you can deliver, I really would you tell me that e vs. have to find out later.  That way, I can reset my expectations, deal with reality and create a plan to move forward based on what is, not what isn’t.  Make sense?

At Copper, not only do I live that philosophy every day, but I expect others that work here to do the same thing.  People know what their job is and how to benchmark whether they are doing a good or bad job.  They know what to expect and should be able to hold a mirror up to themselves that reflects reality.  I encourage our people, our partners, and our vendors to be up front about where we are in any given situation.  I reward that behavior and react poorly when I’m in the dark or things have been misrepresented.

I work hard to set expectations of who Copper is in the marketplace.  We focus and serve the small to medium sized business customer.  Sorry IBM, but we probably aren’t the best vendor for you.  We do audio and web conferencing and we aren’t the company you need when you want to connect expensive camera equipment in a video conferencing room for a satellite uplink.  Our online Connect To Copper™ system will set up or make any changes to a moderator within 15 minutes. You will get a post-conference summary email for your usage every day.  If we make a mistake, you’ll hear from us before we will hear from you.

We want our customers to never have anxiety about what to expect from Copper.  You’ll have great conference calls; we’ll answer your phone call and do what we say we’ll do; and keep giving you technology and service that makes your entire conferencing experience the best.  IBM, I’m sure you’ve got your conferencing situation figured out, but if you want to call me, I’m happy to set your expectations in the right direction.

To learn more about what’s new at Copper and how audio conferencing and web conferencing services can help you improve your business and cut costs, contact a Conference Coach today.

Spring and Summer are some of the most gorgeous days I have ever seen. The mountain side full of trees and wildlife, that is one thing that does take my breath away. Being able to drive less then an hour away and get out of the business of the city and to be surrounded by the comeliness of nature; is definitely an advantage to living here. The flowing of the streams, listening to the  chirping of wild birds, being enclosed by natural beauty.   And to top it off, I can still be apart of the weekly meeting at work by utilizing conference calling.

Fall and Winter are two other months that do not go un-noticed either. When fall arrives you can see it everywhere. The changing of the leaves, the rush of the birds flying south and just that faint chill in the air that reassures that winter is approaching. Georgia is not known for getting a lot of snow or getting a lot of bad weather period, but when it does snow it can cause people to go into a panic. The simple fact of us just not being use to it as other states are or even being completely prepared for that type of weather. Telecommuting is a very good commodity for the bad weather days when getting out of your drive way is just not an option.

Copper Conferencing can help put your mind at ease; knowing that you will be able to attend any meeting no matter of the weather situation. Feel free to contact a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521 to help you get prepared.

What you should know is that an increasing number of companies recognized this solution and have survived this sour economy by using such tools as audio, web, and video conferencing. These collaborate tools have been helpful in managing clients outside of geographical boundaries and managing employees within the company. The question is, what has Copper Conferencing done to differentiate itself from the other conferencing companies to prove it is an even better solution for those companies in search of cost saving maneuvers?

The answer is, Copper Conferencing has the most user-friendly conferencing services. Copper’s collaboration tools include:

• On-Demand reservationless audio conferencing
• An online customer portal Connect To Copper that lets the customer control his/her conferencing
• A learning center with one-minute skill builders
• Free assistance from an excellent customer service team
• A range of webcast and web meeting options
• And these services come with no contract and no usage fees

It’s no wonder why companies have made the switch to Copper during the weak economy.  You can try Copper for free to see for yourself.

Jon Burnham is a marketing assistant for Copper Conferencing.  Jon works and plays in and around Atlanta, Georgia.

If you’re not a fan of bacon, and really I’m not sure there is such a person, then you might want to skip to another article.  If, however, you understand how scrumptious bacon can be, then by all means, read on.

Frying your bacon to perfection is easy using a pan since you constantly monitor its progress. Oh sure, anyone who has ever cooked bacon in a frying pan or on a grill knows about the splatter factor and sometimes it’s down right messy.  For those who have less time to monitor bacon to perfection or just don’t like the splatter factor of a frying pan may have used the standard bacon tray for a microwave.  This is good too but is harder to get bacon to a perfect point be that floppy or crispy or somewhere in between.

Several years ago my dad began looking for a better way to cook bacon.  His quest was to locate a product that better collected the bacon grease during the

Mak'n Bacon

cooking process.  He eventually purchased a Mak’n Bacon bacon cooker, which worked so well that he bought two more.  My dad loves the Mak’n Bacon because the bacon is hung on posts that allows the grease to drip into a pan as it cooks  He uses it almost daily.

Aside from grease collection, one of the best features of this particular bacon cooker is that it stores fairly flat as compared to some other models that have been tested and rejected.  The Mak’n Bacon cooker is used in any standard microwave and can cook up to a pound of bacon.  I must say that putting a pound of bacon in the microwave, setting the time, and then removing it without having to blot the excess grease off the bacon is a real bonus.

So I was seriously contemplating buying a Mak’n Bacon cooker when a Bacon Genie showed up at my house.  Apparently I needed a bacon cooker more desperately than I realized.

Bacon Genie

Nonetheless, the Bacon Genie bacon cooker is similar to the aforementioned Mak’n Bacon because it is a microwave cooker where the bacon is hung on a post and the grease collects below it.  The Bacon Genie, however, has a pour spout so that offloading the grease is actually very easy.  It’s a nice feature.  Unfortunately, there is no way you can put a pound of bacon on the Bacon Genie — a half pound maybe.

So, which one gets my vote?  Actually, I’d use either one of these products any day.  And any day that I’m working from home is a day that I try to have a big breakfast that just might include bacon.  And as for my friend Phil, well might just have to make sure he’s got a Mak’n Bacon or Bacon Genie.

Alycia Maier-Turner is the Director of Marketing for Copper Conferencing, a leading provider of webinars and conference calling services for small to medium sized businesses.  Alycia loves to try new things as trying someting often leads to great conversation.

How would a company like Copper help in my pursuit to graduate you ask? Well, it is actually a lot simpler than you might think. Basically, my senior year at Georgia State University consisted of many classes that required group work, and some weighed heavily on my grade. The problem that most students face when attending a school like Georgia State University is that a majority of fellow students live far from campus and commute to school regularly. This creates many scheduling problems for groups and teams, especially since most of the students at Georgia State also maintained working a part-time, and sometimes, full-time jobs. The solution for me became Copper Conferencing because their audio and web conferencing solutions gave me a way to solve the scheduling problems for the groups and teams in which I was involved.  I hope with the success I obtained by using conferencing that other students will learn to participate in the same fashion.

Basically, instead of trying to set a meeting place where everyone would have to squeeze in the time it takes to get there, time away from work, and time away from other personal matters, we decided to meet online. Without having to leave home, school or even work, we were able to meet online, with webcams, review our notes and discuss our options. Soon enough, meeting with the web conferencing tools that Copper Conferencing provided became the standard. We were beginning to meet almost three times a week, which we heard was three times more that the other groups. Eventually, meeting through Copper became perfunctory and we were able to hand in our work on time and with no stress concerning the outcome of the grade.

Copper Conferencing helped me accomplish what any business would be able to do in a similar situation. I believe you shouldn’t be stressed about scheduling a meeting place, traveling to a meeting place, or spending excessive amounts of money to arrange a meeting place when you have access to tools and features to meet online at anytime from practically anywhere.

You can try Copper Conferencing’s web and audio conferencing services for free.  Just fill in the Try Copper form.

Sometimes your New Year’s resolutions can be the simplest and easiest and other times they can be the most difficult decisions to make. Nonetheless, resolutions are made for a reason. In many cases they are made to better yourself as an individual or to better your surroundings. Often, the positive goal of a resolution is to simplify. There are so many areas in which to trim excess time expenditures in order to create valuable margin for other areas.

“Making life easy”: How wonderful that saying is!  Isn’t that what we strive for?  Of course, as we are all aware, life is not always that simple. If you can make certain aspects of your life easier, the rest of the daily grind may not seem as bad. One sure fire way to streamline things at work, is to utilize audio and web conferencing. There are so many reasons to use audio and web conferencing. Imagine being able to participate in a company meeting without leaving the comfort of your own home or office. All of this is made possible through conferencing. Through conference calling, there is no need for airline tickets, hotel rooms, dining out or even being away from home. One can  follow along with any presentation, be able to give feedback and  participate in a round table discussion from the location of their choice. If an employee is unable to join a meeting, another awesome advantage for using conferencing, is the ability to listen to and/or view saved conferences online.  And guess what…to top it off, you are saving money! I can almost guarantee that  is a New Year’s resolution for most people.

I work at Copper Conferencing and love that I have access to these great web meeting and phone conferencing tools.  If you want to try these tools for free, just contact Copper Conferencing at 866.903.7521 or fill out the Try Copper form.