As promised, I'll go into a little more depth about the second day of the conference, and what I took away from the event.  Several excellent workshops were given by different suppliers, I attended the Polycom and ThinkEngine networks to learn more about their offerings, and about their companies.  I came away with several ideas of additional products and services that we can offer to our clients, as well as some general time frames to make these happen.

One of the most intriguing topics of the day was based around how universities and other places of higher learning are making the foray into the collaboration world.  The concept of these organizations being able to offer truly interactive learning experiences for their students in a virtual environment is an incredible opportunity for a company that takes the right approach.  This is a very quickly growing market segment, and one that our company will be gearing up for earnestly as the next few months come along.

The age old question of "What is the future of conferencing?  And where is it going?"  is always a hot topic for service providers like myself.  Needless to say, the importance of providing top-notch levels of customer service and a truly "human" experience is going to be even more important in the future as potential clients literally have hundreds of options to choose from.  Whether to purchase premise-based equipment or an outsourced service provider is always an important decision.  Then, on top of that you have several hybrid solutions to choose from such as having the equipment on premise, but having it managed by the outsourced service provider.  The next few years will be very exciting indeed.

The technology exists today to truly recreate the experience of being "right there, next to the person".  The question in most cases is whether or not the cost justifies the results. 

Signing off for now, and going to head to another session. 

Reno Provine
President
Great America Networks Conferencing
www.ganconference.com

We made the journey from Chicago Illinois over to San Francisco California to attend the Wainhouse Collaboration Summit.  The event so far has been excellent, with several hundred participants in attendance, ranging from smaller companies like mine, all the way up to the big boys such as Microsoft and Cisco.  The theme of course is conferencing and collaboration and there are many thoughts on this topic to be sure.

The first day was focused on the videoconferencing industry, and featured several vendors with outstanding technology and tightly integrated user interfaces.  The products ranged from standard definition video feeds to High Definition Video and of course everything in between.  Over the next few years, the world will definitely become a smaller place is videoconferencing becomes more mainstream.  The technology behind these products is exemplary and the price points are going to allow for some serious mainstream penetration in the near future.

After the first day and a half of the event, there have been several interesting topics covered, including the potential future of China in the industry, as well as the continued growth of MMORPG's and how the entertainment medium needs to be closely watched by business for trends.  Of course, the ever popular World of Warcraft was used as the main punchline with it's annual revenues in excess of $1 Billion and more then 8.5 Million subscribers.  Also getting mentioned was Second Life as more of a "business oriented" platform and an up and comer to watch.

Could there be an expansion into China on the horizon for Great America Networks Conferencing?  That is certainly an appealing option with a world of potential.  As most of you know, cell phones are the preferred method of communication in China, and if you add that to our future cell phone and blackberry products that allow for call control from your wireless device, there is a large potential there.

Our foray into the Second World community will continue to grow as the months move along, and we are building a very talented work force from within the Second Life community, and the potential is huge.  The Second Life Convention will be in Chicago this year, and my biggest decision now is whether to be a key sponsor in one of the chosen tracks.  I will be deciding that over the next couple of weeks.

I'll post another article when our afternoon sessions are completed.  For now it's off to lunch.

www.ganconference.com 

Great America Networks Announces Launch of New Conferencing Division

8 September 2005Great America Networks, Inc., the sister company of BTI Communications Group, Ltd., announces the launch of its newest conferencing and collaboration division, Great America Networks Conferencing, LLC. Already operational, the new division provides audio and video conferencing solutions as well as Web-based collaboration applications at a significantly competitive rate.

”Great America Networks Conferencing is the most recent step towards reaching the goal of being a one-stop shop for all of our clients’ telecommunications needs," according to Reno Provine, president for Great America Networks Conferencing, LLC, and chief operations officer for BTI Communications Group, Ltd. “While BTI and Great America Networks already allowed us to handle a significant portion of our clients’ telecommunications needs, the ability to service their audio, video, and web collaboration needs seemed like the logical next step.”

The launch of GANC provides several synergistic opportunities for BTI’s new and existing clients, according to Provine. The fact that a client can receive a phone system with all of the associated hardware and software, their network services (such as Local, Long Distance and Internet Access), and their Audio, Video and Web Conferencing is unique in the industry. In addition to this, they are able to receive significant discount volumes across the board for all of the services that they may choose to utilize within the BTI family.

Special consideration should be paid to the fact that a customer can receive all of the above services on one single invoice, and that their rates can all be customized to take advantage of price blending across services. The executive team will consider GANC a successful launch by measuring the amount of services that are utilized by our existing customer base. To us, this will be the ultimate indicator that the GANC offering accomplishes it's true goal, which is to be the one-stop shop for all of our clients’ telecommunications needs.

GANC’s current product lineup includes automated and operator-assisted audio conferencing options, dial out, video conferencing, Web collaboration, as well as a number of added features, such as participant polling, transcription, and call recording of audio conferences to enhance the conferencing experience.

“QuickConnect® and QuickPresenter® have to be at the top of the list for greatest benefit to users,“ says Provine. QuickConnect® is a simple-to-use, but highly efficient audio conferencing tool that allows individuals to host conference calls on the fly for instantaneous collaboration among employees with no need for creating reservations or for learning complex codes and systems. QuickPresenter® goes hand in hand with QuickConnect® by allowing users to instantaneously work on the same document together, collaborate and view the document and make edits where appropriate.

“Our clients’ can rest assured that the same quality and reliability for which the BTI name has always been known is inherent throughout each of the three organizations – BTI Communications Group, Ltd., Great America Networks, and Great America Networks Conferencing, LLC – and the attention to detail and customer service that has always separated BTI from its competitors for the past 20 years will only improve with the addition of our latest business entity,” says Provine.

About Great America Networks
Great America Networks Conferencing, LLC, the conferencing and collaboration subsidiary of Great America Networks, Inc. (GAN), was created to add audio and video conferencing and Web collaboration tools to small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide rounding out GAN’s service offerings.

Great America Networks, the sister company of BTI Communications Group, Ltd., was started in 2002 to provide reliable and cost-effective local and long distance service. GAN is licensed to service California, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Texas and Illinois and is continually working to expand its service areas.
Prior to GAN’s inception, BTI offered both local and long distance service, as a sales agent for other carriers for voice, video and communication needs for businesses. Due to limited control over quality of service as an agent, BTI created GAN to provide clients a comprehensive lineup of services creating a one-stop solution for all communications services to small- and medium-sized businesses. More information can be found at www.ganconference.com.

Great America Networks is pleased to announce the addition of Sitepal's virtual character models on their website.  "We greatly believe that the increased interaction and capabilities of the SitePal integration is going to allow our clients to achieve a greater understanding of exactly why they should choose us as their conferencing and collaboration provider.  We hope that this new addition will allow new potential clients to learn more about our products and offerings in a more interactive environment.  They will still be able to read all about our products and services, but this new addition will also allow them to hear about them and see a state-of-the-art 3D model representation of some of our staff members." 

The changes to the website were activated live on May 3rd,2007.  For more information about Great America Networks Conferencing and their services, go to www.ganconference.com or call 1-866-470-2290.