Town Hall Teleconference Meeting
By Lee Simonson
A Town Hall TeleConference is a virtual meeting of thousands of people on the phone, conducted in real time, using a combination of voice broadcasting and audio conferencing technology.
There are many applications for this technology and it has become particularly popular with elected officials, especially those in Congress, who find Town Hall meetings over the phone not only convenient but a preferred way to reach thousands of people and gauge public sentiment about various issues. The officials are able to invite those in the meeting to ask questions and to also participate in surveys that provide instant polling results on whatever issue is being discussed.
It also enables elected officials and candidates to have an unfiltered media outlet that speaks directly to the people without depending on the press. It's the fastest and easiest way to have tens of thousand of people hear the what the official has to say, in his or her own voice.
The Town Hall TeleConference begins with a list of compiled phone numbers that the user wants to invite to the virtual town hall meeting. Usually, the lists contain 20,000 or more phone numbers, though in some instances it can be less. Using powerful auto dialers, the service begins dialing hundreds of phone numbers simultaneously, inviting each person called to the town hall meeting. If the person is interested, they can just stay on the line and are automatically switched into the giant conference call. If they are not interested, they just hang up.
Once in the conference call, participants may be invited to ask the leader (elected official, candidate, organization president, etc) a question by pressing a number on their keypad. Depending on the wishes of the leader, questions can be asked directly or may be screened ahead of time to stay on topic. While individuals are asking questions and hearing the answers, thousands of meeting attendees are listening in.
The big advantage to this technology is that it enables people to engage leaders from the comfort of their homes on a spur of the moment basis. No one has to rearrange a schedule or fight traffic or weather to get to a physical meeting across town. People can listen in and participate as long as they want and hang up at anytime.
During the meeting, the leader and/or associates can view a real time report on the number of people in the conference, those who want to ask questions and if screened, what the questions are. The conference fills up very quickly once the initial phone invitation is sent out.
Educational institutions, unions and associations, are also using this technology for a variety of purposes geared toward improving communications and outreach with their respective constituent groups.
For more information on how a Town Hall TeleConference or virtual town hall meeting over the phone works, you can click here: http://www.orangepoint.net/town_hall_teleconference.html
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