Which webinar/video conferencing tool?

Our comparison charts highlight some key differences to help you choose the right tool for your needs during the Coronavirus pandemic, focusing on the affordable end of the market. Features and pricing may change once normality resumes.

There are some caveats about each tool – read on to the end, for the tips and tricks! All the apps mentioned below work across multiple devices (i.e. desktops and phones).

Webex is no longer instant sign up; at the time of writing (26th March 2020) they’re operating a queing system with a waiting time of around a week between signing up and getting login details.

Zoom Pro is coping with scaling up better as it uses AWS resources, however publicly advertised meetings are attracting unwanted spam, so here’s what you should do to help reduce the risk:

  • Disable “Join Before Host”
  • Enabling “Co-Host” so others can help moderate
  • Disable “File Transfer”
  • Disable “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin”
  • Add meeting-specific passwords; this changes the meetings from an easy to hack short URL, to something far more complex, which is still easily shareable in invites etc.
Zoom Pro with Den Haag Salesforce Saturday (Webex has the same multi-person facility)

Multiple cameras: all of the options offer the ability to see many webcams/people on screen simultaneously but the trick for all these tools is to play around with the initial view as the display may not the most suitable option. Also let the other participants know, as they may be just seeing the main presenter on screen and not realise that other choices are available, until they adjust their settings.

Also newly available is Tencent Meeting, free for up to 300 people. Exact breakdown of features unknown.

None of these products have been checked for how they use your personal information.

Running a Community Group/Salesforce Saturday hints and tips

You can listen/watch a discussion we organised between David Giller (who’s been running virtual Salesforce Saturdays for a while) and other Community Group Leaders; alternatively Lauren Dunne has written up her experience from running the well-established Ohana Coffee virtual social space.

Credits

Huge thanks to Dirk-Jan Ansing for the Microsoft Teams information. Any other errors or updates (e.g. can everyone else see multimedia if you use Amazone Chime Basic?), let us know!


Comments

  1. Melissa Hill Dees says:

    This is fabulous, Paul! Thank you.
    FYI Zoom Pro at the lowest price tier is $14.99 USD

Comments are closed.