The Virtual Meeting Coach

SB104, a bill authorizing the use of virtual meetings for parts of state governance, passed the Delaware House today by unanimous vote, June 29, 2009, paving the way for virtual meetings to support broader participation in the democratic process across the “First State.” The bill passed the Delaware Senate earlier this month by a healthy margin.

Co-sponsored by Representative Greg Lavelle, and Senator Liane Sorenson, SB104 allows governmental bodies, including boards and commissions, to set up videoconferencing locations to facilitate participation in meetings via teleconference. If the bill is signed by Delaware Governor Markell, video locations will also be opened to the public, allowing residents who live downstate from Wilmington to participate in meetings without having to drive to the capitol.

Delaware Governor Markell calls SB104, “a good government bill.” According to Markell, ” this legislation will make it easier for members of boards and commissions to attend meetings and for the public to view the meetings without having to drive a long distance. Expanding the use of teleconferencing will help our environment by taking cars off the road, save taxpayer money and make government more transparent.”  More details on SB104 can be found here.

Some pretty exciting stuff coming our way this week from Google Voice. I’m still looking and reading, but it looks like Google Voice will allow us to package up all our “voice meeting points,” including land phones, cell phones, and VOIP phones and integrate them in one interface that manages voicemail, SMS, transcription, and conference callilng, too. How about that package?

It’s still a by-invitation-only service that requires you to be a Grand Central user. Even if you’re not one, it’s worth learning about now because the service will be open to new users in weeks.

Here’s a review at PC Mag that’s making me more curious by the second! Google Voice won’t be perfect. But it looks like it’s going to offer some terrific time-saving and confusion-reducing benefits. Take a look. Let’s talk!

What do you think?

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Still working out the kinks with Blip.tv and embedding the show here in the blog. Sorry for any confusion this last week!

This is episode 2 of 4 conversations I’ll be having with Matt Sweet and Rene Fabre, two wild and crazy guys who work for Ticor Title Company up here in the Pacific NW.

Our conversation this time focuses on the seriously important topic of online reputation management and how we can all help make Google smarter and smarter about us and our businesses so that Google can make it easier and easier for the people who need us to FIND us online. Matt and Rene are helping Realtors make sense of how they can optimize their social media participation so that “search-savvy” home buyers can find them easily when they need them.

You don’t have to be a Realtor to make great use of the tips and tricks these guys are sharing. Any independent business person needs to know how to do these things now. So, listen up!

We had this conversation in a vYew room again and we’re all hoping the graphics help make the things we talking about clearer for you. This is an experimental format for all of us and we’d love to hear your thoughts about how it works.

Take a look/listen and let us know what you think.

Before people are willing to heed your advice,  buy your products, or use your services, they need to trust  you. And building trust online is a bit of a tricky process.

Over the course of 20+ years learning and working online, I’ve been studying what kinds of things enhance trust when we’re working with others at a distance – and what kinds of things tear trust apart. I’ve spoken all over North America and Europe on this and other topics related to achieving high performance when people are working on teams.

This year I decided to make a course  to  share with web-workers and other people looking to learn more about trust-building, in particular.  It’s a topic of vital importance to most of us as people are searching for new ways to contribute in this volatile economy, isn’t it?

So, I’ve just published a new 10-day e-course at Virtual Meeting Startup that teaches “21 Sure-Fire Ways To Build Trust Working With Others Online.” I’m offering it free, as part the Pre-Grand-Opening festivities for Virtual Meeting Startup.

If you’d like to spend 30 or 45 minutes a day over the next 10 days considering three tips a day and doing a little homework to integrate the tips to your online meeting and online relationship strategies, please pop over and sign up.

Instead of pushing advice, I’ve made this course interactive. As you go through the daily lessons, there will always be an invitation for you to take time to do a short exercise at the end.  Day by day, as you do the “Your Turn” exercises, you will be building yourself a custom action plan that can turn you into a much more effective leader/facilitator of online meetings.

Helping people build trust as they work across differences – and distances – is a lifelong passion for me! I’m truly interested receiving feedback from people who decide to take the course.  So if you sign up, please feel free to share your honest thoughts, feelings and questions about any of the lessons.  I’ll do my best to address them here in the blog, whenever possible!

Enjoy!