Hosting an international conference call is far less expensive than arranging an in-person conference with participants located around the world. Not only that, conference call set up is easier than you may realize. Before you schedule the call, you’ll need to select a telecommunications provider that supports international conference calls as well as do a little pre-call organizing.
Start by listing the participants along their countries. For example, if your international conference calls will involve participants from countries such as China, Australia, Philippines, Canada, and the United States, you’ll need to find an international conference calling plan that supports those countries or offers “dial out” to those countries. The way international conference calling works, participants from other countries dial a toll free number for their countries in order to connect to the phone conference.
If a country is not supported, or if toll free access from that country is more expensive than expected, you can optionally dial out to those participants. For example, toll free international conference call rates in the Philippines may be higher than you’re willing to pay per minute. You may be able to get a better rate for your Filipino participants by dialing out to them directly. Ideally, you’ll want most participants to call with international toll free access. Not only is this easier for you, it’s easier for participants to dial a toll free number at the appointed time. Look for a provider with an extensive list of international countries.
Because rates do vary by country, you’ll want to research rates and make your conference call set up decisions with rates and dial out options in mind. Depending on the international conference call service provider, you may be able to pre-program dial out instructions into your account. If so, schedule your call and enter the phone numbers of the participants that you’d like to dial directly.
Another important conference call set up step involves scheduling the call. Since you’ll be teleconferencing with attendees from around the world, everyone will be in different time zones. Business hours for your teleconference may be the middle of the night for your participants. Use a time zone map to determine the time of day that works best for the majority of the people or for the key people involved in the call. Don’t forget that the International Date Line may come into play. For example, if the call takes place at 11:00 AM in Los Angeles on May 10th, your Chinese participants will be calling at 2:00 AM on May 11th. Optionally, you may be able to set up call recording so that attendees who missed the international conference call can listen to it later.
Once you’ve set up the international conference calls, you’ll need to communicate with attendees. Not only will the attendees need to know the time and date, ideally expressed in local time, they will also need to know what phone number to dial and the international conference calling conference PIN code. Because international conference calls feature different phone numbers based on the callers’ countries, a single generic mass email won’t do. You’ll need to provide participants with information relevant to them.
In addition, if the conference call set up has been set to dial out specific participants, you’ll need to let those participants know that you will be dialing them directly. Make sure to specify which phone number you will be dialing so that the attendee is available at the correct phone at the stated time.
When sending the information about the international conference call, you may also want to include an agenda. This will help attendees prepare for their roles in the teleconference as well as help you to better control the cost of international conference calls. For example, if you need your sales manager in Australia to present a ten minute presentation on the latest regional sales figures, let her know exactly what you expect and how many minutes have been allotted.
International toll free access and conference call set up aren’t overly difficult, but the more organized you are, the better. Take the time to research international conference calling rates for your call’s participants and pre-program dial out options if it makes financial sense to do so. Host the international conference calling meeting at a time that works best for the bulk of your key participants. Finally, communicate with attendees beforehand so that everyone knows which toll free number to dial and their roles during the teleconference.