If you're like me, you’d be perfectly happy if conference calls went the way of the dodo or at least were on the highly endangered list (instead of the honey bee).However, like death and taxes, we seem to be stuck with these events. If you have to attend several of these events a week from the road (like many of us) there is an easy way to format the invite so it’s easy to one click call from an iPhone or Android device.
The key is to have two formats for the conference call information: The one click mobile-format (Conference Number/passcode): 2345678910,223345099# The human-readable format (Conference Number/passcode): 234-567-8910,223-345-099#
It should look something like this in your invite: Conference Number (Mobile-friendly): 2345678910,223345099# Conference Number (Human-friendly): 234-567-8910,223-345-099#
And if you want to include leader information, you can “one” click for that also (often a *): Conference Number (Mobile-friendly): 2345678910,223345099#, *1234
Important Tip: The comma ( , ) actually is a PAUSE for one second. Every conference call service is a little different, so you may need to add more than one comma for a longer pause. Just test it a few times BEFORE sending out the invite. For example, my company uses Startmeeting (and yes, we also sell it...so if you do use conferencing let us know) and I have to use TWO commas so the timing works correctly.
What other topics would you like to hear about?
Here’s a funny video about conference calls…(safe for work) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ