While conference calls are amazing for collaborating with people around the globe efficiently and inexpensively, they do have one constraint: they are audio only. Incredible amounts of information can be transferred by voice, but there is no substitute for a simple picture. Expanding your audio conference calls with a web conference or video conference will take your virtual meetings to new heights.

First of all, let's distinguish between the three types of webinars. Conference calls are audio only. Video conferences allow you to see who you are talking to. Web conferencing can be added to audio calls and/or video conferences, and include desktop sharing, application sharing, whiteboard, chat, and the list goes on.

Web conferences are easy to get started. All the participants need to do is navigate to a link you send them and temporary files are downloaded and run. In less than a minute, their screens are filled with whatever you want them to see. Why not begin by greeting them with your smiling face through video. You can have the view be the whole screen, or have your video box in the corner with the first page of your PowerPoint taking center stage. Note that no one but you needs to be on video, or even have a webcam to do this.

With your participants watching you, flip through your PowerPoint. Open the chat box so that they can ask questions without interrupting your flow. Instead of talking about a document, picture, graph, website, or what have you, open it up and share it with everyone. You'll get your point across clear as day.

At the heart of most tech-savvy presentations, in conference calls or in conference rooms, is a PowerPoint presentation. The reason for this is that the program is just that easy to use and powerful to boot. Just in case you've never used one – or seen one – a PowerPoint presentation can include pictures, videos, text, and graphs, all controlled and organized like your personal slideshow.

This is the basics of what you can do, and it's easy to combine these basics to produce an advanced presentation. For example, to show movement, use several slides instead of one. This is best illustrated using a graph. On slide one, put the graph with the "before" information on it. On slide two, put the "after" information. With one click, your graph's informational arrow shoots up the axis.

There are bad things you can do with a PowerPoint presentation. For your learning and enlightenment, look at the article, Death by PowerPoint by Mike Aoki. In it, he describes an interminable PowerPoint presentation and the unhappy reactions of his fellow participants around him. He didn't write the article to be mean to the presenter; he wrote it to help future presenters avoid the same mistakes.

The best advice for when you are creating your PowerPoint presentation is in the name itself. It's called "Power" and "Point." You use it as a tool to emphasize your main point and sub-points. You don't let it take over your presentation, or deliver your information by itself. That's your job, and besides, you do it so much better.

There are a few things that a webinar can't replace.  Shaking someone's hand is one example.  Another is the clap on the shoulder as you head out the door together to grab some lunch.  While a webinar can't provide these staples of a face-to-face meeting… yet, there is one thing that previously the only way to do it was to "be there."  Application sharing through a webinar makes it possible for many heads to come together – in real-time – even though they are nowhere near each other.

Application sharing is a feature of web conferencing that allows you to share an application with all of your participants.  You can allow them to directly put their input onto whatever you are working on.  You can even allow them to take control.  Application sharing is not just another presentation tool such as document sharing or PowerPoint.  Instead of you just showing your participants what you are talking about, you allow them to interact and show you their feedback as well.

An excellent way to picture a good use for application sharing is using an Excel spreadsheet for a quarterly report.  If you have all of your departments on the conference, they can input their numbers into one sheet at the same time.  This replaces getting four or five emailed spreadsheets from each department - hopefully in the same format – then spending a few hours integrating their data into your master spreadsheet.

Think about a report due, but one that requires the information, input, and analysis of several other people.  If you shared Microsoft Word with them, you could all cut and paste your work onto the same sheet, all while searching for typos, mistakes, or unneeded information.  You could go line by line and get a consensus, they can help with corrections, and soon you have a polished insightful report.

If you think about it, having five or ten - or more - people able to simultaneously see and edit the same document couldn't happen in a face-to-face meeting.  Which means webinars using application sharing is an improvement on how we meet.  Now if we can work on that handshake thing…

You work hard crafting your presentations to paint a picture in your participant's minds. You choose your words carefully to deliver just the right message. To augment this, to really drive home your point, you include – or should include – pictures, graphs, and other visual aids.

A very common form of presentation aid is the PowerPoint presentation. For those who don't know, this is a highly dynamic slideshow you can easily create and present from your computer. As you progress through your notes, you click through slides that show exactly what you're talking about.

There are a few tips you should know about PowerPoint. First of all, "less is more". Even if the PowerPoint is thrown up on a big screen with a projector – and especially if it's only shown on a laptop – you don't want to inundate your participants with too many visual details. A particularly crowded slide will take time and thought to decipher, dragging attention away from what you are saying. Keep your slides austere and simple. Avoid using bullet points, but if you have to, keep the number of them down to two or three.

When you use pictures, make sure they get your point across in one glance. Like a crowded PowerPoint slide, a busy picture will distract or worse, convey the wrong ideas. With video, take the time to really inspect your footage. Is it too long? Are there too many cuts, unnecessary effects, or extras that don't add to your presentation? Your video should be like your speech: carefully crafted, succinct, and to the point.

Graphs are unique pictures that can convey a big message in one glance using simple shapes, colors, and numbers. Here are 3 choice graph tips from Seth Grodin of Seth's Blog:

1. One Story
   A graph is to augment your message. You want it to proclaim in one glance that what you've been saying is correct. Or, as Seth says, "There is no room for nuance here. You don't have nuance in the other parts of your presentation, and it doesn't belong here. If the facts demand nuance, don't use a graph, because you won't get nuance, you'll get confusion."
2. No Bar Charts
   Bar charts are often used mainly because they are the first option when you elect to insert a graph. However, while a bar chart can convey your message, it does so in the wrong way. This ties with Seth's first point: "The correct use of a bar chart is to show how several items change over a period of time. This, of course, demands nuance."
3. Have Motion
You show a graph to demonstrate how things relate to each other or how they have progressed over time. To really make this pop, add motion. "It's simple: create two slides. The first one shows where the data used to be, the second one, on the same axes, shows where it is or where it's going. Motion. Establish the first slide. Make your point about your source and its validity. Then press the advance button. Boom."

It's happened to everyone that has ever used Microsoft PowerPoint. Specifically, all of us – at least once – has run across a snafu when we really needed the presentation to go smoothly. PowerPoint is a simple, easy-to-use and yet very powerful piece of software that does what it's supposed to do, and does it well. It could be we are lured into a false sense of security by its simplicity, but one way or another, lack of preparation or attention to detail has spawned nasty surprises when least expected. To combat these perfect presentation killers, here are some tips from Digital Inspiration on avoiding PowerPoint problems.

Keep your presentation with you on a USB drive. There are several reasons to do this, but using a USB drive as a safeguard is for all the reasons we can't think of. You may take your presentation on your laptop, email it to the presentation host, or even store it online. But what if your laptop malfunctions, the email gets bounced, or you can't get internet. With your USB drive, you can remain in control.

Don't forget your audience members in the back. With PowerPoint presentations, less is more. An informative, yet cluttered screen does nothing but confuse your viewers, with the end result of your message getting lost. Use two screens instead of one to show your message better. Use an Ariel or Times New Roman font with a minimum font size of 24 for best viewing.

Carry Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007 with you. Despite all your precautions, you have to resort to the USB backup copy of your presentation, but what if the computer you have to use has an outdated version of PowerPoint or not at all? If you have downloaded the viewer into your USB and carried it with you, you are still in the clear.

Remember: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!