Have you ever seen something in passing—  a poor translation, a machine that doesn’t quite work, an inefficient business practice— and thought, “I could do better”? The feeling lingers for a few minutes, perhaps a few days, but eventually it fades as you go about your life. There are so many other things to do; it’s not your job to do that as well. What would happen, though, if you were to pursue it?

You would certainly be in good company. History is full of entrepreneurs, inventors, musicians, artists, and so many other brave souls who chose to push forward with their visions of something better, to leave the safety of the familiar and take a risk for the sake of improvement.

The reward for successful innovation can be great; it is often not the hardest-working person, but the one most able to devise unique solutions to problems, who will rise to the top. Many of the very best businesses are constantly looking for ways to increase productivity, incorporate new and better technology, and serve their clients better and more efficiently. Olympic athletes use the latest training methods to help them exceed the previous records of human achievement. The cream of the crop in nearly any field is rife with innovators.

There is no sense in hiding the truth: innovation is difficult. To borrow a quote from Star Trek, you truly must, “boldly go where no one has gone before.” Still, in light of the potential benefits your hard work can yield, it is well worth the effort. So the next time you think, “I can do that better,” I encourage you to nurture that thought and see where it leads.

Discovery Conference Centre is constantly working to find new and innovative solutions to your needs. Comfortable conference rooms equipped with the latest in teleconferencing technology will help ensure that your job interviews, depositions, and other meetings are successful.

Attorneys work hard for their clients, and one of the most exhausting parts of their job is travel.  Flying from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale to meet a prospective expert witness or commuting from Burbank to Newport Beach to “monitor” a deposition can be not only tiring, but expensive, costing both money and time.

There are iPad app solutions that give an attorney the choice whether to travel.  Many times the attorney needs to be physically present at a deposition, meeting, or document production, but if there is technology available that allows a choice, attorneys need to know about it.

1. FaceTime:  Allows a face-to-face video meeting or conference call.  Must have an iPad2, iPhone4, Mac computer, or iPod Touch and wi-fi connectivity.  (FaceTime app – free)
2. Remote Counsel – Courtroom Connect text streaming.  Your realtime court reporter can send a text realtime deposition/arbitration transcript to your iPad from a remote location.  (The court reporter must have special software installed in her/his computer to output the transcript.)
3. Case 24/7^TM online repository – allows the attorney or legal professional to have access to their deposition calendar, transcripts, and exhibits.  You don’t need to “physically” have documents that were previously marked in depositions.  Everything is accessible on the iPad.  (Kramm app – Free)

To have success with your app for remote events, wi-fi connectivity is the key to success.  For best results, schedule your meetings at a conference center that has T1 wi-fi available.  Unless there is enough bandwidth, and no firewalls to get through, your apps are not going to work efficiently.   Fractured images and slow audio will be the result of a lack of bandwidth.

Save yourself time, energy, and money – use your iPad. 

rosalie@kramm.com  Twitter

Having built our conference center in downtown San Diego with the plan to provide virtual conference rooms for attorneys conducting depositions, arbitrations and business people, I have come to understand how important it is to be present on the worldwide web, because unless people know about our first class conference center, it doesn’t exist.  The movie “Field of Dreams” had the famous line, “Build it and they shall come.”  The truth is you can build it, but unless people know about your creation, they don’t know to come. 
In my opinion, the most effective way to get the word out about anything and everything virtual is via the web.  And the best way to draw attention on the web to our creation is through blogging.  A website needs to be alive and dynamic to draw attention. 
I was reading a short little article in Inc Magazine called, “The Goods – Lights, Camera, Action – Tools for creating video blogs.”  The author John Brandon writes, “A video blog can be a great way to spread company news, talk about products, and stand out among traditional company logs.  Thanks to easy-to-use editing software, you don’t have to be a professional to produce one.”
The number one, five star choice of Brandon is:  WINDOWS LIVE ESSENTIALS (free software.)  The software has 11 basic apps, including Movie Maker, which lets you record videos and graphics.  You can save the videos as Window Media files and upload them directly to Facebook  and Youtube. 
I haven’t had the courage to do a video blog yet.  One of my goals in 2011 is to create 6 video blogs for the Discovery Conference Centre site and 6 more for my Kramm Court Reporting site.  
Another great saying is something like, “If a tree falls down in the forest, and there is no one to hear it, did it really make a sound?” or something like that.  So my philosophical question is, “Is a virtual conference center really built if no one knows it exists”?
I am looking forward to building our virtual conference center in 2011, blog by blog (brick by brick).

Everyone is looking for opportunities to save costs these days in litigation.  Many attorneys are choosing to take depositions telephonically so as to not incur travel costs and to save travel time.  Here are some ideas on how to make the telephonic deposition go smoothly.

1. Have the court reporter be with the witness.  The court reporter is able to swear in the witness and hear every word.  As everyone knows, with teleconferences, if two people speak at the same time or there is any type of line interference, it is hard to hear or understand.  Having the court reporter with the witness ensures a better record.

2. If because of scheduling conflicts, or whatever reason, the court reporter is not with the witness, have a notary public swear in the witness onsite.  Sometimes attorneys ask a court reporter to swear a witness in over the phone.  This is not considered to be legal or proper.  The court reporter has no real idea who is sitting at the other end of the line. 

3. Advice to reporters (especially if there are multiple people on the line):  Rather than writing down each person’s information, including address and phone number(s), just get the attorney’s full name and website.  It is much easier to look up the attorneys and create your appearance page(s) from a website than from scribbling down information over a phone.

4. Court Reporters, speak up if you are not understanding something, can’t hear, or don’t know who is speaking.  Before the deposition starts, make a statement, for example, “Please identify yourself before you speak.  There are multiple voices, and it is difficult to differentiate between them.”  If someone starts speaking, and you are not sure who it is, you may interrupt with, “Excuse me.  Who is speaking?”  After a while, people will get the hang of it.

5. If possible, get a service list before the deposition begins and start inputting your appearance page or get a copy and check off names.  You will need to know who the different participants represent.  Once again, it is often difficult to get that kind of information with spellings over the phone. 

6. If the firm you are working with agrees and/or if you don’t mind giving out your personal email, give the participants your email address and ask the participants to email you who they represent.

Teleconferencing is an excellent way to be efficient with time and money.