The Conference Group has added a new feature to its ReadyShow Web conferencing service that lets moderators and/or operators view, and control, questions that are submitted into the Q&A queue in real time during a live Web conference.

This new feature, called Conference Viewer, enables a moderator or operator to prioritize the audience questions that are entered into the Q&A queue, so that the more important or pertinent questions are asked first. In this regard the feature helps improve the quality of the information conveyed to the audience during a live Web conference.

 

During a most Web conferences, audience members are invited to submit questions by typing them into the Q&A queue -- which is a standard feature of most web conferencing dashboards -- and a live Q&A session typically follows the presentation. With Conference Viewer, all conference moderators and operators can view questions as they are being submitted -- and they can prioritize them by changing the order in the queue. Once an audience member’s question has been answered, it can be removed from the queue, so it won’t get asked a second time.

This new capability, which is included in the cost of the Conference Group’s full-time operator service, gives customers greater control over their events while still maintaining a professional operator-facilitated Q&A session.

Greg Plum (News - Alert), director of channel development at the Conference Group, said the new feature results in a better user experience and “puts more control in the hands of a conference moderator, while still having the support of our trained operators on the call.”

“These days, conferencing users expect a good value, as well as more control of their conferencing experience,” Plum said. “Conference Viewer provides both."

Last month the Conference Group announced that it had added a new feature to its audio conferencing service that allows a conference leader or other user to create and maintain lists of conference attendees for automatic dial-out.

The new capability, dubbed “UBlast,” allows a user to quickly get a pre-defined group of people on a conference call with just the click of a mouse. Using a proprietary Web interface, a conference leader can easily create, add, delete or modify “dial-out” lists, and then enact them automatically upon entering the conference (or manually by entering a code).

The Conference Group (News - Alert) -- which also offers a Web-based videoconferencing service -- recently launched its Conferencing and Web Conferencing channels on TMCnet. These micro-portals offer news a feature articles about The Conference Group’s products as well as research and news about the conferencing market in general.