MeetingBurner – Host Your Meetings Online

Nobody likes meetings, especially when they involve remote workers making special trips into the office and organizers having to book conference rooms weeks in advance. With MeetingBurner, you don’t have to worry about that. MeetingBurner is a web-based tool that lets people host business meetings online.

Get a free account and check out MeetingBurner for yourself before hosting your first business meeting in the cloud. The first stop on any tour of MeetingBurner is the dashboard, where you can schedule a meeting in the future, start a meeting right now, or view information about the past meetings you’ve participated in. Each meeting gets a title, a custom link, and a direct dial-in number that participants can use to call in and take part in the event. Invite the people you want to join in, and then click “Start your meeting” to begin. Meetings can be hosted using a webcam, or by connecting via a conference call or Skype. Meanwhile, hosts can share their desktop with participants to ensure everyone stays on the same page at all times.

Every company has that one employee who skips meetings and then demands to be filled in on everything he missed. With MeetingBurner, you can email that person a recording of the meeting or turn it into a YouTube video and post it online for the world to see. What really separates MeetingBurner from similar online meeting platforms is its analytics tool. Meeting hosts can get feedback from participants with the Meeting Temperature tool in real time; hosts can then get temperature reports at the end of their meetings, which clearly show when employees were the most and least engaged.

Practical Uses:

• Host an online meeting to talk about an upcoming event
• Invite remote workers to participate in your weekly meetings
• Share a meeting recording with someone who missed the event
• Plan a big event with your family members across the country

Insider Tips:

• People can watch meetings in full-screen mode
• The “Schedule Similar” feature duplicates existing events
• Meeting participants can join in using a conference call number, Skype, or a webcam
• The analytics tool measures participants’ feedback and creates detailed post-meeting reports

What we liked:

• People can use MeetingBurner even if they don’t have a webcam or a Skype account
• MeetingBurner makes it easy to record meetings and post them on YouTube
• Managers can use the analytics feature to find room for improvement within their online presentations
• MeetingBurner is planning to offer PayPal integration so people can charge for the meetings they host

What we didn’t like:

• MeetingBurner is still relatively new, and it’s still in the process of rolling out some of its best features

Alternatives:

• HipChat – https://www.hipchat.com
• Lucid Meetings – http://www.digitalguestlist.com
• Zoho Meeting – http://www.zoho.com/meeting

Company Info:

• Launched: August 2011 (Public Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Orange County, California
• Founded by: John Rydell, Paul Rydell, Rachel Homer, and Kevin Reeves
• Web site: http://meetingburner.com

Costs:

• Free