by Dave Roos

Whenever two or more people gather to share information, collaborate, brainstorm, argue, inform or train one another, that's called a conference.

Conferences can be face-to-face affairs. A salesman attends a trade show to pitch his product to hundreds of potential clients. The accounting department and the CFO sit around a big table and review the fourth-quarter numbers. A consultant flies around the country to train employees on a new software application.

©2007 Dreamstime Face-to-face conferences aren't always viable.

The drawback is that these face-to-face meetings, presentations and training sessions are not always financially viable. Many of today's companies compete in a global marketplace with offices around the world and clients from Moscow to Moscow (Idaho and Russia, that is).

Communication and technology advances have made it possible to recreate the impact and interactivity of real-world conferences without having to leave your desk.

In this article, we'll give you details on all the major modern conferencing solutions, including teleconferencing, Web conferencing, Web seminars, videoconferencing and Webcasts.

Let's start with an explanation of teleconferencing.