Dashboard Magic #1: How to bring someone into a conference

The ZipDX dashboard is a web-based tool that provides a powerful suite of features to manage a conference in progress.

These tools let conference organizers moderate their own conferences, achieving all the benefits of operator assisted conferencing, but without the cost or intrusion of a live operator.

While the dashboard can do many things, this article describes:

• How to dial out to someone to add them to a conference
• How to reconnect someone who left the call accidentally

Who Has Dashboard Access?

The dashboard is available to people invited to the conference in the role of Host or Interpreter.

The person organizing the conference is always a Host.

When creating the conference the organizer can designate additional Hosts to help moderate a large or complicated conference.

In the ZipDX web portal the dashboard becomes available once the conference has started. You’ll see it listed in your In-Progress Conferences.

Click on the round Dashboard icon to launch it in a separate browser window. In the dashboard Hosts are indicated by a gold star beside their name.

It’s also possible to designate another Host once the conference is underway. In the dashboard simply click on the name of the desired participant. A menu of options will appear. Click on “Make Host.” Once given host rights they will be able to access the dashboard to assist in moderating the conference.

From the dashboard there are several ways to reach out to people and bring them into the conference.

Callback

Everyone who was invited to the conference is listed in the column on the left side of the dashboard. Those who were invited but have not yet joined are shown as “invited.”  Anyone who has left is shown as “Exited.”

The participant list includes tabs that make it easier to manage a large conference. The Callback tab lists only those who were invited but have not joined and those who have departed the conference.

A host can click on any of the listed names to access a pop-up menu of options for that person. If the system has contact details for that participant the pop-up menu includes the option to Dial out to User.

Host Dial Out

A host can also use the dashboard to dial-out to someone who was not originally invited to the conference.

This is done using the Dialout section of the Host Controls shown across the top of the dashboard.

• Clicking on Dialout reveals a pop-up menu with two options.
• Clicking on the Dialout option opens a place to enter a phone number.
• Enter the phone number of the person you need to reach. Be sure to start with + and the country code.
• Click OK to place the outbound call.

If you reach voicemail instead of the person you’re trying to reach, select the Dialout option again and click on Disconnect Dialout to hang-up the connection.

Leveraging Private Rooms

The process of bringing someone into the conference is noisy.

When the dial out is initiated you hear the far-end ringing and hopefully being answered by something other than voicemail. If heard in the main conference this can disrupt the conversation, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The dial out is initiated from the room where the host is presently located. If you move to an otherwise unused room you can dial out to the new participant without the rest of the conference hearing that activity.

You can move to another room using the dashboard or the keypad on your telephone. Using the dashboard, click on your name to see the blue pop-up menu, then click on the number of a room that’s not being used.

To do this from the keypad of your telephone dial *4, the number of the room you want to move to, then #.

When the new participant answers you can privately brief them about the conference that they are about to join. Then move them into the main room. You can move both of you to the main room in one action by clicking on Rooms in the host controls and selecting Send Room x to Main.

Using a private room in this manner ensures that the main conference proceeds uninterrupted, even as you reach out to new participants, or those who have been accidentally disconnected.

Practical Magic

This is just one way to use some of the tools found in the conference dashboard.

The best way to become familiar with the dashboard is to experiment. Hold a test call and explore how the dashboard can be used to address your conference requirements.

The tricks you learn will make your conferences more productive. Your associates will think you’re a conference call wizard!