Hints & tips

Learn the habits and methods of effective conference leaders to successfully conduct your Office Live Meeting 2007 conferences.

Interact with your attendees, and keep them involved and focused on your presentation.

1. Test and experiment

Before you go host a meeting using Office Live Meeting, be sure to run a test. Make sure your presentation loads as expected and you become familiar with the flow of your meeting within the console. Practice using the tools you will utilize within the meeting, i.e. annotation tools.

2. Share a website, application, video or your desktop

Sharing a website, application or your desktop is more interactive than using screenshots in your presentation, and you can turn over control of the application to other participants. Allows you to demonstrate dynamic content and break up the monotony of slide pushing.

3. Record your presentation

Capture your presentation, in its entirety, to include the audio and video for later viewing by participants or colleagues who may have missed the live version or wish to review a historical meeting. You have the added option to save the recording locally to your PC for ease of access and to share with others.

4. Make chat an integral part of your presentation

Tap into your audience by asking questions through chat. It's a more informal way than Polling to ask participants for feedback.

5. Use all annotation tools

Add energy to your presentation by using a variety of annotation tools. Highlight key points and information as you talk about them. Be careful not to give everyone annotation privileges, as it can easily become confusing.

6. Use full-screen mode for content viewing

Help keep your participants focused on your message by setting your attendees Live Meeting console into full screen mode. You can do this easily using the meeting tools.

7. Share your file

Transfer files, documents, or the presentation to your participants immediately. Stay top-of-mind with your participants by leaving them with something concrete.

8. Poll your audience

Provides your audience with a chance to share ideas and allows you to collect valuable information from them. Create your poll questions in advance and insert them into the presentation before your participants join the meeting. Use the circle if you only want participants to check one answer. Use the square if you want to allow for multiple selections or answers. To get an accurate participant count, be sure to ask participants how many people are in the room with them.

9. Mute

To avoid disruptions, tell your participants to mute their phone. If you are using BT MeetMe, the chairperson can press to mute all participants. If you are on a BT Event Call, press and ask your conference coordinator to mute all the participants.

10. Move slowly

When hosting a web conference call, move slowly between applications to allow for a smooth transition for your users. Application sharing uses more bandwidth; smooth movement within the meeting improves the user experience.

11. Video adds variety

If you and your participants have access to webcams, use this at the beginning of your meeting to connect with your participants.

12. Training

When conducting training sessions you can use breakout rooms to create separate meeting spaces to allow for smaller group exercises and discussions. You can divide attendees among the rooms, either manually or automatically, and allow each group to meet separately. After the breakout sessions are over, you can bring everyone back to the main meeting. Breakout rooms are a feature of the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Professional Edition.

Note: Computer Audio & Audio conferencing is currently not available for breakout rooms.

Attendees can use the non-verbal communication tools to communicate with each other for example online chat, Q&A, white board, text screens and content sharing or have the option to set up separate audio calls for each breakout room.

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Techniques, hints & tips

1. Train with an additional PC

As a host, it is suggested you have an additional PC in the room with you. The second PC should have a user logged in so you can see what your users are viewing. If your meeting includes Mac users, as second system will show you what Mac users are viewing.

2. Mac users

Mac users are able to participate in web conference calls by using the web access version of Office Live Meeting 2007. Go to the Office Live Meeting 2007 web access user guide to find out how.

3. Technical support

For audio or web conferencing support during a call or for any technical issues, please press on your phone, and a conferencing coordinator will assist you.