WebEx: Ideas in Motion

Customer Patrick Grady Offers Eight Tips for Improving Your WebEx Meetings

"Using compelling media and presentations is key to winning and keeping business with my clients," says Patrick Grady, managing partner at CMS Communications International, a marketing communications and event firm.

While face-to-face meetings will never go away, using online meetings such as WebEx is becoming a strategic asset for business people who need to do more with less. Something as simple as recording a WebEx can allow an executive to extend his or her reach with just a click.

Patrick spends a lot of time in meetings to move projects forward. To extend the life of the meeting, Patrick focuses on ways to be more effective and engaging. 

Here are his top WebEx tips:

1. Engage your audiences in the first few seconds to grab their attention or you will lose them. 

2. Don’t just rely on PowerPoint slides. Use compelling pre-recorded video and consider bringing other content and media into the meeting.

3. Use the whiteboard tool to brainstorm with participants and make them feel empowered to bring their ideas into and after the meeting.

4. Use the video option to see all participants not in the same room with you.

5. Use persuasive language, interesting examples and tell a story not just facts.

6. Record the meeting so that content be shared with others not in the meeting

7. Use the desktop sharing capability to share documents, discuss ideas, edit comments in real-time to move projects along quickly.

8. Consider location and the Internet connections to make sure the experience will not be compromised due to slow Internet connections.

Have a story you'd like to tell about your experience with WebEx, let us know. We are always interested in featuring customer doing creative things with WebEx.

WebEx in Action: Use WebEx to Build Support for Your Cause

Recently, we asked members of our Customer Research Panel to try an experiment. We wanted them to create a WebEx recording that we could use to demonstrate the value of WebEx.

We were delighted with the results.

Over the coming weeks, we will share some of these recordings with you along with some tips to help you make a great impression. Creating a WebEx recording is easy. We have put together a quick tutorial to help you get started.

Here's the WebEx recording created by Heather Stanley, one of our panel members in the UK. She introduces us to her club and shows us examples of the great work they are doing. (Watch video here.)

Have you created a WebEx recording? We'd love to know about it! We are retweeting your public (G-rated) WebEx events and your recordings (get the scoop here).

You can also try creating recording with our free beta product. You can subscribe at no charge here.

Tweet @WebExEvents: Let Us Help You Promote Your WebEx Event!

We love it when you use WebEx to do great things.

From building your business to connecting people with common interests, you are using WebEx in great ways. Now we want to help you spread the word. We have been retweeting WebEx events on our WebExEvents Twitter account to help share your good work.

Follow us on Twitter to stay informed about upcoming events.

If you want us to retweet your live or recorded event, let us know. All you need to do is send a tweet with the details and link to @WebExEvents and we'll pick it up and retweet it.

We have just a few requirements:

1. It needs to be open to interested parties.

2. It has to be G-rated content.

3. It has to be via WebEx (but it can be either live or recorded).

Here's a sample of what we've been tweeting lately - it amazing to see all the things happening with WebEx!

RT @timoelliott I'll be doing a #BI Futures Webinar on November 16th -- register here if you're interested: http://om.ly/zebF#analytics10:19 PM Nov 3rd via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @DEN: Grab your students and attend a webinar on the dangers of drug abuse, prescription and otherwise. 11/5 1pm EThttp://om.ly/zahf8:40 AM Nov 3rd via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @extweets: #StreamBase Webinar 'Trading on the News Using Real-Time Sentiment Analysis' on Nov 11: http://om.ly/zahZ#algotrading8:40 AM Nov 3rd via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @RWCOSJason: RefWorks Admin webinar - Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. EDT - http://om.ly/zYTA9:44 PM Nov 2nd via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @extweets: #StreamBase Webinar 'Trading on the News Using Real-Time Sentiment Analysis' on Nov 11: http://om.ly/zYSN#algotrading9:41 PM Nov 2nd via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @85Broads: Register for the (free) Jam Session on 11/4 to hear member Pam Slim talk about launching a business quickly!http://om.ly/zFEw9:54 AM Oct 30th via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @ibmrational: Upcoming Webcast: Announcing New Design & Development Products and Solutions from IBM Rationalhttp://om.ly/zFEM ^MS9:49 AM Oct 30th via ObjectiveMarketer

RT @Network4Good: Coming up on Tuesday: Free #nonprofitwebinar: online giving in 7 incredible hours in Decemberhttp://om.ly/yyax9:53 AM Oct 29th via ObjectiveMarketerWe look forward to hearing from you!

We look forward to hearing from you!
   

How to Pitch a Potential Investor: Use WebEx to Record Your Product Demo!

On Tuesday, we hosted a WebEx event watching entrepreneur Tim Carlock pitch his business to two angel investors - Jeff Weber and David Culver (get the recording here). It happened real-time and we got to see the different parts of a good pitch. Of course a key portion was "the demo."

I remember spending weeks prepping our demo when I was pitching a new business. Getting everything to work properly and making sure things looked good was so much work. And no matter how much we planned, doing it live was always slightly death-defying! Would it work? Would I remember to make all the key points?

But what if I could control the variables?

It turns out, it's possible! You can use WebEx to record your demo. And you can do it absolutely free if you use our beta version of WebEx.

When there's no stress and it's perfectly quiet, you can fire up a WebEx and record yourself giving your product demo. Then you can save the file as a .wmv and edit it.

Here are a few tips to make it a success:

1. Turn off everything running on your computer that might interrupt your desktop sharing session (you don't want emails popping up or IMs).

2. You have to record until you are ready. So set everything up and make sure you slides are ready to go before you hit "share".

3. You must use WebEx audio - our recommendation is calling from a landline into the dial-in numbers provided.

4. Speak like you are talking to an audience. Sometimes I actually stand up to record a WebEx because I want to sound energized and enthusiastic. At a minimum, sit on the edge of your chair and smile! It really makes a difference.

5. Convert the recording as you see fit. You can save the file as a .wmv and we have lots of tips about converting recordings here.

Good luck! We hope you give it a try. 

Up Close and Personal with Simon Spurr: The Conversation Recording is Available

On September 9th, as Fashion Week NYC kicked off, fabulous designer Simon Spurr had a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation with folks from around the world via WebEx.

Watch the recording now.

Later that day Simon opened his temporary retail installment, known as "Pop-Up Retail" and then debuted his new collection on Sunday. It was an amazing week and he talked about all the excitement during the WebEx.

While we were hosting the event, we also tweeted and found out a ROP class of asirpiring design students were watching from Manteca, California. Simon greeted them during the event  - which thrilled them all! They were also surprised to learn there was a free WebEx product they could use to do just what Simon was doing - to help the design, share and collaborate.

Get WebEx free now.

You can watch the recording of Simon Spurr and others at PasstheBall.com. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook page to learn more about upcoming events.
  

Wow! Convert WebEx Recordings into Podcasts - Here's How

This guest post was written by, Alex Kah at Question Defense. He works as a technical consultant and is interested in helping people extend the life of their WebEx meetings. You can use this tutorial with recordings from Meeting Center and the new, free WebEx Meet beta.

This is the last in a series of three articles written to describe how to export a WebEx webcast to ARF/WRF format, convert to WMV format, then convert to MP4 format, and finally generating a podcast to be shared on iTunes.

This is a great way to share your WebEx webcast content with others via a podcast subscription. Follow the directions below to first sign up for a PodBean  account to publish your MP4 as a podcast and then submit that podcast to iTunes to be included in the iTunes Store Podcast section under whatever category you specify.

Create PodBean Account & Upload MP4 File(s) For iTunes Podcast

1.  Visit PodBean: First visit the PodBean.com signup page by clicking here. Initially I suggest signing up for the free account to make sure PodBean.com will accomplish your goals so click on the Basic account which is the far left column on the signup page. Once you click on Basic, fill out various account information and click the “Sign Up Now” button to complete registration.

2.  Login To PodBean: Once registration is complete, you will be redirected to the PodBean login. Your password will be sent to the email address you registered with and should arrive quickly so check your email for your password and then login with the username you selected and the password that was emailed to you.

3.  PodBean General Options: Once logged in, make your way to the PodBean Dashboard - this is where you will configure settings, upload podcasts, modify podcasts, and much more.

I recommend you first configure the PodBean General Settings which can be done by clicking the Settings link above the Dashboard content on the right side of the page. When you click this link the PodBean General Options page will display similar to the below example image.

 

Here you will configure the name of your podcast channel, a description for your podcast, channel tags, and much more. You will want to have all of this configured before you sync with iTunes.

4.  PodBean Feed/iTunes Settings: Next to the General link in the sub menu below Settings will be the Feed/iTunes settings link which you should click on next. This is where iTunes specific settings will be entered. An example of what will display on iTunes displays at the top of the screen as shown below while the actual settings are entered below the example. 

 

Enter all of the settings for iTunes and then click the Update Options button in the lower right corner to save the Feed/iTunes settings. Make sure to note the URL of your PodBean account as this will be required when syncing your PodBean account to iTunes.

5.  Publish A Podcast: This is where you will take the ARF/WRF file that has been converted to an MP4 and publish the video along with a title and description to be included on iTunes. Click the Publish link underneath your account name to display the episode creation page.

Once you have selected the MP4 file that was generated from the initial WebEx ARF/WRF file and filled in all of the necessary title/description/etc. fields click the Publish button to publish your WebEx video.

6.  Link PodBean To iTunes: Now open iTunes on your computer and click on the iTunes Store. Once the iTunes Store is open click on Podcast in the iTunes Store navigation menu. This will display the iTunes Podcast sub menu on the upper right hand side of the page which will include links such as Audio Podcasts, Video Podcasts, New Releases, iTunes Picks, Staff Favorites, Language Learning, etc.

Near the bottom of this set of links will be Submit A Podcast which when clicked upon will display the below window within iTunes.

 Enter your PodBean feed URL that was noted in step four into the Podcast Feed URL window and click Continue.

After clicking the Continue button you will be required to login to iTunes and then the PodBean feed will be validated. Once validated you will be taken to a screen within iTunes that allows you to verify the information that will display in the Podcast section of the iTunes Store. If everything looks OK submit the podcast.

The message on the confirmation screen lets you know that your podcast will not show immediately in the iTunes store and that the podcast must be approved. Once approved you will receive an email letting you know that the podcast has been approved and it will begin to display in the Podcast section of the iTunes Store.

The podcast feed I created for this article and then submitted to iTunes took 48 hours to be approved but once I received the email I was able to see the podcast immediately in the iTunes Store.

Congratulations - you are now a podcaster!
  

Fan vs. Wild: Talking with Bear Grylls About Motivation

Today's blog was written by David Goad who facilitated the discussion with Bear Grylls on July 29th.

I love the show Man vs Wild. 

The extreme host, Bear Grylls, gets dropped into some desert, jungle or icy mountain range in each episode and shows us on video that survival is not pretty. This includes squeezing moisture from elephant dung, swimming in a peat bog and climbing trees with your shoelaces.

I had the privilege of meeting Bear via WebEx. (Yep - that's him in the photo via web cam in his house.)

I was in my office in California connected to his small town in Wales and I asked him questions submitted by nearly 2000 viewers from around the world. 

Yes, I have a cool job.  

It felt like a private conversation as he shared photos and his personal story of motivation, from a long hospital stay with a broken back to the top of Mount Everest.

As I scrolled through the audience questions, I was struck by the specificity – what do you eat for breakfast, what’s the single best tool you need to survive, what motivational phrase do you say to yourself each morning… and what do live scorpions really taste like?

Bear took it up a level with his answers, essentially saying that achieving extraordinary heights in your life is not about a single tip or technique, it’s about guiding principles - keep moving forward, make decisions and never quit.  He said loud and clear that if you master the “never quit” part, every other little detail will fall into place. 

Think about what motivates you on your journey. 

What are your guiding principles?  What do you believe you can really achieve?  If you can muster the willpower to take on an extreme challenge in your life (and not quit in the middle), it is extremely satisfying.  Your new level of self-belief also clears the way for many smaller everyday miracles to happen.

Bear put it this way, “Rewards don’t always go to the strongest or fittest or cleverest.  Rewards go to the bold few who understand what it means to go after a dream and never quit. Never… ever…quit.”

Watch a free replay of this event.

David Goad is a Cisco Marketeer, and is changing the world one blogpost at a time. He climbed Yosemite’s Half Dome, which is not quite as high as Mount Everest.  Check out his personal blog Short Stories with a Point and read his post-event blog about Guy Kawasaki.
  

Convert WebEx Recordings To MP4 And Sync To iTunes

This guest post was written by, Alex Kah at Question Defense. He works as a technical consultant and is interested in helping people extend the life of their WebEx meetings. You can use this tutorial with recordings from Meeting Center and the new, free WebEx Meet beta.

Since many people have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and use OSX on the Mac’s, I want to show you how to take a .WMV files to .MP4 format so it can be synced to your device or simply played in QuickTime on your Macintosh computer.

The steps below require you first convert the WebEx native .ARF or .WRF file into a .WMV. You can learn how to do that here.

Convert WMV Files Generated From ARF/WRF Files To MP4 Format

1. Download Any Video Converter: First download Any Video Converter from download.com by clicking this link. The file downloaded will be avc-free.exe which is the Any Video Converter installer.

2. Install Any Video Converter: Once avc-free.exe has been completely download double click on it to begin the installation process which will launch the Any Video Converter Install Wizard.

Click the Next button to continue installation of the Any Video Converter software which will allow us to convert the WMV file generated from the ARF/WRF WebEx files to MP4 format. The next screen in the AVC install wizard will be the AVC License Agreement.

After you understand the AVC License click the radio button next to “I Accept The Agreement” and then click the Next button to proceed to the next screen in the AVC setup wizard. On this next screen, use the default Destination Location for the application to be installed. Click the Next button to proceed.

Next you will be required to verify the title of the Windows start menu addition which will be added during the installation. Again the defaults should be fine. Click the Next button to continue.

The next screen in the Any Video Converter install wizard will simply ask about a desktop icon. If you want a AVC desktop icon then do not remove the check however if you do not want a AVC desktop icon then remove the check and then click the Next button to proceed.

After deciding about the desktop icon you will be asked if you want the Bing Toolbar installed during the AVC installation. I would suggest you select the radio button next to “Do Not Install Bing bar” then click the Next button to continue.

The next screen during the AVC install process will be a settings review. If all of the configuration settings are correct click Install. Depending on the type of computer you have it could take a couple minutes. Once it is done a verification screen will display. Make sure you have “Launch Any Video Converter” checked and then click the Finish button to launch AVC.

3. Launch Any Video Converter: If AVC did not launch after installation or you already had Any Video Converter installed then please launch the application from the start menu.

4. Modify AVC Video Profile: Once the application is launched, you will need to modify the video profile. Any Video Converter comes with many different video profiles: Mobile Phone MPEG-4 Movies, Flash Video Movies, Flash SWF, DVD Video NTSC Movie, DVD Video PAL Movie, MPEG-1 Movies, MPEG-II Movie, and more. Technically you could convert the WMV file, which was originally the ARF/WRF WebEx file, to many different formats but for this example we will be converting the WMV file to MP4 using the Mobile Phone>MPEG-4 Movie profile (pick from the drop down menu in the upper right corner).

5. Add Video To AVC: Now click the Add Video button located near the top left corner which will open up a Windows Explorer window for you to locate the WMV file you want to convert to MP4. Choose the WMV file you want to convert.

6. Convert WMV To MP4: Once the video is loaded, you can start encoding the WMV file to MP4 by clicking the Convert button. Once the conversion begins you will see the status to the right of the video.

7. View MP4 Video: When the status in the above example image gets to 100% then the WMV video has been converted to MP4 and can be picked up in the “Any Video Converter” folder in your My Documents folder. The below path would be for the user “WebEx” on Windows 7 but this may vary slightly for each version of Windows. Default Any Video Converter Converted Videos Folder Path: C:\Users\WebEx\Documents\Any Video Converter. 

Once inside the Any Video Converter folder there will be sub folders such as AVI, MPEG, or MOBILE_MP4. In this example our converted video will be located in MOBILE_MP4 so enter that folder and double click the video to verify that it plays correctly. You can always go back and modify the video profile to see if you can get a higher resolution, etc.

8. Transfer To Your iDevice: Plug in your device to the computer you converted the video on. Open iTunes on your computer and drag the video file located in step 7 into the Movies folder of your iTunes Library. Make sure that Movies are set to Sync All Movies from the iTunes Library to the iDevice. After the device has synced with the computer the video file should be available to view on your device as shown in the below image.

 You did it! Now you can view the WebEx presentation, which was an ARF/WRF file converted to WMV and then converted to MP4!

WebEx Meet: How-To Get Started with Your First-Ever Online Meeting (Free!)

The WebEx Meet beta is designed to help folks who may have never used an online meeting before. With the cost being very affordable - it's free! - you can jump on and meet with up to four other people using our most popular features including computer desktop sharing, whiteboards, recording, web cams and more!

Get the WebEx Meet beta here.

If you are new, you might want a quick how-to so you can get started quickly.

Schedule a Meeting - Invite and Send

1.    From the WebEx Meet Home page, click on Schedule

2.       Name your meeting – if you don’t, it will have a default title

3.       Set the date, time and meeting length - the actual meeting can run long.
TIP: You can manually put in any time you want for a meeting start time (e.g. 10:07am).

4.       Invite your attendees - names from your contact list will auto-populate

5.       Add a password - this is optional based on your security requirements

6.       Add an agenda - the best way to help your attendees come prepared.

Congratulations: your meeting is scheduled and an invite has been sent to your guests!

Audio Options - Use Telephone or VoIP

1.       Make sure you are in a WebEx session (the meeting has been started).
TIP: to record the meeting, everyone needs to participate using either the WebEx telephone conferencing or VoIP.

2.       To join via telephone, dial the phone number that appears in the pop-up window.

3.       To join via VoIP, click Use Computer for Audio, then Call User Computer (be sure to adjust your headset’s speaking and listening volumes).

Good work: all participants should now have audio and you can begin sharing great ideas.

 Record the Meeting - to capture the events and share with others

1.       Make sure you are in a WebEx session (the meeting has been started).
TIP: When the WebEx is over, this recording will post to your meeting link (under Recent Meetings on your Home page) and be available to all attendees (learn more here).

2.       To record, click the Record button (upper right corner).

3.       The recording window will appear in the lower right corner. You can pause, stop and restart the recording there.

Cool: you've recorded your meeting! If you are adventurous, you can convert that recording into other file formats to load on your website or even YouTube! 

One Last Thing: We Can't See You - Yet

This freaks out nearly everyone using WebEx for the first time: when the WebEx turns on, it also "turns on" your web cam - but it is NOT broadcasting. It is simply getting the camera ready should you want to broadcast. Your video will NOT be shared unless you click Send Video. So if you are brave (or simply confident!) start sending that video. Other folks will love it and it will only add to the "cool" factor of holding an online meeting!

Need more help? Let us know - feel free to post questions on our Facebook page or via Twitter.
  

Tutorial: Let the Dogs Out -- Convert WebEx Recordings to .WMV

This guest post was written by, Alex Kah at Question Defense. He works as a technical consultant and is often asked about converting WebEx .arf files into other file types. He put together this great tutorial and we wanted to share it with all of you! Note, right now, this is only available for Meeting Center recordings. This also works with the new, free WebEx Meet beta -check out this blog for instructions on how to download recordings.

UPDATE: if you need more information, you can check out this page for help.

Someone sent me a WebEx webcast they wanted me to watch. The file had a .WRF file ending which stands for WebEx Recording Format which is one of two file formats you can "save as" in WebEx. The other format is the .ARF or WebEx Advanced Recording Format.

If you just want to watch, you could simply download the WebEx Player available by clicking here. But, if you don't want your viewers to "require" the WebEx Player, you may want to convert the WebEx file - this allows them to view the WebEx without having to install an application.

To do it, you'll need to download Version 3 of the WebEx Recording Editor which allowed me to convert to WMV format and from that I was able to convert to any other video format including AVI, MP4, XVID, and MPEG. Follow the directions below to first convert the .WRF to .WMV and then the second set of directions if you want to convert to another video format.

Convert WebEx .WRF Files To .WMV Format

 

1. Download WebEx Editor
   Download the WebEx Recording Editor Version 3.0 here (it's a .zip file and might take a minute to download). 
2. Uncompress ATEditor
   Right click on the ateditor-version-3.0.zip file and extract its contents. The file contains a single file which is ateditor-version-3.0.msi; a Windows Installation file.
3. WebEx Editor Installation
   Now double click on the ateditor-version-3.0.msi file to begin the WebEx Editor installation. When you first click on the .MSI file you may get an “Open File – Security Warning” so if you do just click on the Run button to execute the installer. The first screen of the WebEx InstallShield Wizard is displayed below. [You can see a screen shot tutorial by click on the images here.]
4. WebEx Editor License
   After clicking the Next button from the WebEx Editor InstallShield screen above you will be required to agree to the WebEx Editor License Agreement displayed in the example image below. Click the radio button next to “I accept the terms in this license agreement” followed by the Next button to continue.
5. WebEx Editor Setup Type
   After agreeing to the license above you will need to select Complete for the WebEx Editor setup type. Complete is the default option; simply click the Next button to continue.
6. WebEx Destination Location
   Now verify the WebEx Editor destination location is where you want the application to be installed. Typically the default location is where the WebEx Editor should be installed.
7. Install WebEx Editor
   The next screen in the WebEx Editor InstallShield Wizard is verification you want to proceed with installing the application as shown below. Click the Install button to install the WebEx Editor. The installation process should only take a short amount of time and will display a progress screen. After a short amount of time the WebEx Editor will be installed and display the InstallShield Wizard Complete screen.
8. Launch WebEx Editor
   The WebEx Editor installation process will put a couple shortcuts on your desktop including shortcuts to WebEx Player, WebEx Recorder, and WebEx Recording Editor. Click on the shortcut to the WebEx Recording Editor to launch the application.
9. Open .WRF File
   Now click File in the top navigation menu of WebEx Recording Editor and browse to open the .WRF file you want to convert to .WMV. Once the file is open it will display in the WebEx Editor.
10. Convert WRF To WMV
    Once the WRF file is opened click on File in the top navigation menu again but this time select Export To which will open a Windows Explorer window that lets you navigate to the location you want the converted WRF file or WMV file to be saved. You will also need to name the file and then click the Save button which will open the WMV Options window as displayed below. Unless you are familiar with the WMV conversion option you should leave the default options and then click the OK button to begin the WRF file conversion.
11. Complete WRF Conversion
    Once the OK button is clicked the WRF file conversion will begin. When the conversion is complete the window will disappear and the WMV file should be ready to play.
12. Verify WMV File
    Make sure to test the new WMV file to verify that it converted properly. You should also verify the sound in case you are missing a codec on your computer that is required by the conversion process.

 

 

 

To learn how to convert WebEx files to other formats including AVI, MP4, MPEG or XVID, visit Alex's blog.