The over-arching rule is: Don’t waste people’s time.
Don’t invite everyone in the known universe, unless they’re all genuinely needed on the phone at once. Talk to them individually if possible; it’s often more efficient.
If plans change and some people aren’t needed after all, let them know.
If you have people in different states/cities, use a service with a frecall 1800 number dialin, or at least a local 1300 dialin. People dialling in from home don’t want to incur a long distance bill just to sit on the phone for an hour to say their ten words.
Start the conference on time. If you intended to kick things off at 10 past, schedule the damn meeting for 10 past.
5 replies on “Daniel’s rules for phone conferences”
hm, I wonder were you work, Daniel? ;-)
Meanwhile completely unrelated (though I’m sure you’ll blog about it eventually), from the looks of all the traffic on Eastlink yesterday for a Sunday drive, Petrol isn’t nearly expensive enough.
Yes, I looked over the edge of an Eastlink overpass yesterday and presumed there had been an accident, traffic was so heavy.
Lots of choppers flying around too – I presume they were news crews and we wont have that many traffic choppers!!
A mention for you in a freelance article for the Age, Daniel.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/up-close-and-way-too-personal-on-the-daily-trip-to-work-20080629-2yto.html
Or you could cancel the phone conference and tell everyone to get back to work and file the phone garbage under F for forget :P
Indeed is the word, Daniel.
In relation to the Eastlink comments, why is there no rail line down the median strip from Frankston linking to Mitcham station? There could have been stations at every major exit. This should be the FINAL freeway built in Australia!