My morning meeting was free, my car repairs weren't

I spent this past weekend helping our team (led by Leslie Poston) to host the first PodCamp NH.  It was a fantastic two-day experience held at the beautiful New Hampton School.  Ted Pennings (@thesleepyvegan) even won a Dimdim Webinar account.  Sadly, my excitement diminished a little on the way home when my car's service engine light came on.

My challenge was the auto repair shop opens at 7:30 am Monday and I have a meeting at 8:00 am.  So  I left early to bring the car to the shop.  Instead of then finding a ride to run me to the office (which is about 45 min away), I sat down in the shop's waiting area, started my computer and joined the meeting.

For our morning meetings we use a Dimdim telephone conference bridge with the Dimdim meeting for sharing slides and video.  I dialed in with my mobile phone and used the auto repair shop's free internet access to join the Dimdim meeting.

I found a relatively quiet area and kept my finger on my phone's mute button to keep background noise to a minimum. When it was time for me to present, the meeting host gave me control of the meeting and I went through our portion of the meeting.  Controlling the slides while we alternated who spoke to each topic.

I'm used to collaborating with remote teams, but I always try to be conscious that others may not be as comfortable with it.  Just before my turn to present I repositioned my laptop so the built-in camera would show only me with the wall behind me.  Others were moving around in the waiting area and I wanted to prevent them from being seen in my video stream and possibly becoming a distraction.

The meeting went well, but as it ended I learned about the repairs needed for my car.  Unfortunately that's one thing my free web conferencing can't help me with. 

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

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