Business meetings and conferencing happens very naturally in any serious business for development and growth. Right from the small office get together with a handful of people, all the way up to venue hosted conferences with thousands of attendees. This kind of business collaboration has been vital in business development and for simple ease will always remain.

Due to the importance of this, we have seen the birth and rise of online video conference software aiming to replicate that of an offline meeting. Fortunately with todays technology they are now finding this very easy to do. In fact, they have excelled many expectations. If you are looking to make the move over to using online conference software for your business then maybe my article will help you to understand and see why it is a great move. In fact, there are thousands of businesses who have adopted this giant of a business tool and hundreds of providers to go with it. The potential is huge, but what my article is aimed at is to help you understand and see the major benefits in doing so. I will quickly guide you through the pros and cons involved.

The main pro to adopting on online conference package is costs. As you may know it can cost a business many thousands of dollars to hold an offline meeting. Even the smaller meetings can still be in the thousands with extra expenses involved. Expenses such as, travel, accommodation, entertainment, refreshments. The list goes on. An online conference can cost you as little as $8.97 a month for a 50 seat room. To really cut these offline meeting costs to a minimal make sure you choose a conference provider who charges you per room and not per attendee. This is obviously a huge pro to moving over to online conferencing. Cutting costs in any business is vital and online conferencing software does this nicely.

Another huge pro to using online conference software as apposed to regular meetings is that your location plays no part in being able to attend. No travelling is involved and everybody who is vital to making the meeting literally needs a computer and access to the Internet. You can be anywhere in the world and still attend the conference at the click of a button. It allows for true global communication and eliminates exhaustive planning.

Another pro, is technology allows us to implement loads of tools within our conference meeting room, all of which can be toggled on and implemented via the conference meeting moderator. Tools such as PowerPoint sharing, browser sharing, video sharing, whiteboard sharing, desktop sharing. You can even record the conference to archive for later use or for attendees unable to make it to view later. I say these tools are a pro because they are all in one place at the click of a button to activate. Planning ahead is minimal and combined they make for a very engaging streamlined experience. Very much like that as an offline meeting but from anywhere in the world and at a very low cost.

There must be a con though. Of course there is, but the only con I could find is small, and with work it can be eliminated. In using online conference software you lose eye contact to a certain degree. The moderator simply has to look at what he or she is doing when using the tools. If done badly you will lose up to 90 percent of the eye contact. However, with training, you are able to eliminate a large part of this and teach yourself to use the tools while still looking into the camera. In fact your are able to maintain 90 percent of eye contact if you persist.

The only other con I could find is the general feeling of grouping together along with banter and chit chat. However, the pros really do out weigh the cons here, and using online conferencing software is the way to go for any business, large or small.

I hope my guide has helped you to understand the key differences between online conference software and the regular offline meetings.