Employing Conferencing and Communication Technology to Accelerate the Organic Conversion

Despite the tidal wave of recent publicity, the organic movement is not a new phenomenon. In 1940, Rodale, a Pennsylvania agriculturalist used the term to describe a superior practice of farming free of pesticides. And throughout, the organic community has occupied somewhat conflicting terrain. The field is certainly beset by overlapping regulatory authorities including the USDA, states and private bodies.

There are at least tens of thousands of certified organic growers in the United States. Last year alone, North American consumer expended billions of dollars for organic fruit, poultry and meat. And against this backdrop, is an entire industry of lobbyists, consumer advocates, business trade associations and ranchers.

What do all of these seemingly divergent communities have in common? Apart from their shared goal in advancing the organic movement, all will benefit from the use of new technologies.

Indeed, most if not all organic groups can benefit from new technologies that enable teleconferencing and communication. Ranging from free conference systems including Rondee.com that allow ubiquitous conferencing to new generation email newsletter systems, there has not been a more ideal time to use new technologies to help the organic vision. The following ideas are just a handful of recommendations.

Use an automated electronic newsletter system

It was not too long ago that sending out an email newsletter was time consuming and tiresome. That has now changed. On-line services such as Yesmail, Jangomail, and Campaign Monitor are making it feasible to create scalable newsletters. These services cut the work load by as much as 70% and in so doing enable organic groups to focus on content creation as opposed to content delivery.

Increase your online networking

The most advanced organic lobbying groups create networks of supporters who support their values and mission. While the term networking frequently gets a less than ideal connotation, the general reality is that these networks can provide significant aid to organic advocacy groups. Today in the San Francisco Bay Area, the expectation is that professional people will have at least a basic profile on LinkedIn.

Use a free conference calling application

In the last five years, there has been escalating collaboration between geographically diverse organic lobbying groups. One cause of this trend has been reduced air travel costs – a trend that may now be sliding back with jumping oil prices.

A separate cause is the availability of free conferencing companies. A number of these types of free conference call services, including the service offered by Rondee.com operate on the same underlying method. They offer you a PIN and a toll number to call. If all conference call participants dial the same toll number and enter the same code, they are placed into the call.

Desktop sharing

Some organic advocacy groups have distributed leadership groups, and it is impractical to have in person meetings. Technology is solving this problem by way of desktop sharing. Whether it's showing a PowerPoint document illustrating the group's development plan or a spreadsheet showing the tracking of volunteer participation desktop sharing can be extremely useful for many organic groups.

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Bob Letterman contributes to the free conferencing system which was first developed by the Rondee.com team. Bob is an expert in the area of teleconferencing and other topics of concern to the organic community.

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