By leveraging these tools, the group experience will become a professional and efficient process.

Application
The most important tool for Strategic Conversations, is the teleconference call capability. In a nutshell we're talking about a service that provides a single telephone number that each member calls. As people join the call the meeting room begins to take shape. Once everyone is there the meeting can begin - just like you were all sitting around the same table in someone's board room

Teleconference calling services today are easy to use, and are available at no charge whatsoever. Once the free account is set up, and the time of the calls are reserved, members simply call a pre-arranged number and enter the pre-assigned access code.

Some of these teleconference services, such as www.freeconference.com, are 100% free. Some will, for a few dollars, record the call live and one that we know of is a completely "turnkey" system that offers live recording on the fly, instant messaging, and other services.

By now you know the importance of everyone being at every meeting. This is a critical component of creating strategic, and dynamic conversations. The central phone number and global reach cell phones would seem to take away all the excuses for missing your meeting.

However in real life, we know that occasionally circumstances interfere. While members can call in while they are traveling, sometimes they just can't make it. In the event a member cannot make the call, a recording can be made easily, so that all can stay connected to the ongoing group discussions.

We have found that to be truly strategic, conversations need to be ongoing - continuing between the bi-monthly calls. The best way we've found to do that is with a group email service or one of the popular social media applications.

For example each member can create their own www.twitter.com member persona and only send and receive messages from the others in the group. This provides a 24/7/365 connection with your peers. Maybe that's too much closeness for your group's members.

www.facebook.com for those who use it provides numerous ways you can stay connected to your fellow members and keep the conversation private as well.

At the time of the writing of this information piece, Yahoo and Google are two providers of free group email/discussion group services. With this service, any member can send an email that is automatically sent to all the members - this might be a follow up from the last call, or a new question.

Your "private" discussion group will have its own free "home" page. You may want to use that as a place to post pictures or upload documents. When members post pictures of themselves, their company, their families, etc., it helps their fellow members see them more completely, and creates a very real person behind the voice they are talking to on the phone.

The capabilities of these free tools are vast - I have barely scratched the surface. You and your group will take advantage of these additional resources as you see fit.

We suggest that you research these communication technologies and see which ones would be best for your group. You can start simply and upgrade to more sophisticated services at anytime.

Dynamics
We suggest that these tools be investigated and understood from an application point of view before the group commences. This will demonstrate professionalism to the members.

Additional Resources