120,000 people are headed to SOMA in San Francisco this week for Dreamforce, including a tow of our colleagues who are ready to listen, present and network - in addition to drinking all the San Francisco coffee they can get their hands on. Here’s how to join in our Citrix-at-Dreamforce fun. Stop by our booth (number N2219 in the North Hall) and show us your business card or a Citrix mobile app that’s downloaded to your phone for your chance to win the iPad Air. Already have an iPad? We’re giving away iPad sleeves too. Join our colleagues at one of these sessions: Monday, 10 AM - 11 AM Press 1 for CTI Success Palace Hotel, Ralston Room Erik Coll, Manager Siebel and Avaya CTI CitrixCTI is fast becoming standard for Salesforce deployments. And why not? Telephony continues to be the largest service channel even in today’s social world. Voice provides both the last line of defense to keep a defecting customer and the white glove service for your most important ones. Join us as we discuss how Open CTI has made CTI integrations easier than ever. Our customer speakers will discuss their experience and motivations, and their stories will show how CTI is more accessible and powerful than ever. Monday, 11:30 AM - 12 PM Cross Filters, Joined Reports and Bucketing Make Workarounds a Thing of the Past The Westin St. Francis San Francisco, Grand Ballroom: Westin Carrie Schoenvogel, Salesforce.com Administrator, Citrix Why use a workaround when you can build a real solution using the advanced Enterprise Analytics features? Join us to hear customer stories about implementations using Enterprise Analytics features (joined reports, cross-object filters, and bucketing) that make workarounds a thing of past. Monday, November 18: 2 PM - 2:30 PM Marketing Cloud: Generating Leads and Sales on Social Channels The Westin St. Francis, Tower Salon A Justin Levy, Director, Social Marketing, CitrixHow do you generate leads and interest on social without scaring off prospects? How do you promote your brand or products without seeming pushy? Join our panel of experts as they share tips and best practices on how to effectively use social for lead generation. Monday, 2:30 PM - 3 PM Shorten Your Development Time with an Extensible Design for Apex Moscone Center West, Developer Theater With Robert Nunemaker, Senior Salesforce.com Systems Development Manager, Citrix Throwing hundreds (or thousands) of lines in a trigger or class will quickly get out of hand. How do you reverse engineer it? How do you see what the trigger is doing? How do you scale and make enhancements without impacting existing code? Join us to learn about a customized coding pattern: EDA - Event, Distpatch, Action. EDA will address all of this and make your code scalable, efficient and very maintainable. Tuesday, November 19: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Citizen Developers: The Future of Business Applications San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Yerba Buena - Salons 10, 11, 12 With Sebastian Barnes, Senior Salesforce.com Manager, Citrix By 2014, Gartner estimates that 25% of new business applications will be delivered by "citizen developers." A citizen what?!? Join us to learn all about citizen developers and why they are becoming so important to the large enterprise. Hear direct from our customers, who are building great new front-office apps through citizen-developer programs while simultaneously adhering to IT governance policies, delivering value to end users and freeing up enterprise IT to focus on more strategic transformational initiatives. Your IT back log will soon be a thing of the past! Wednesday, November 20: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Marketing Cloud: Moving Your Enterprise Through Social Maturity The Westin St. Francis San Francisco, Colonial Room With Justin Levy, Director, Social Marketing, Citrix Moving up the social maturity curve involves strategy, solutions and governance. Join us to learn the playbook for moving through the various stages with our guests Citrix, Nissan and JetBlue. Connect with @gotomeeting on Twitter. Not all of us can be at Dreamforce this week, so those of us at the office will be following the Dreamforce happenings at #DF13 and updates from our colleagues inside Moscone from @gotomeeting. If you are there, make it a digital party and send a pic of the fun you’re having to the @gotomeeting team on Twitter.

"This year I am thankful that Mom didn’t make me listen to Twilight on tape during our drive up here." Yep, that was my sister’s contribution one year to our family’s tradition of listing what we’re thankful for aloud at the holidays. We (and many other families around the world) like to sit as a group and name something (or things) that we are thankful for. Sometimes they are funny - like my sister’s - and sometimes they’re more serious, but taking a moment to spell out what we appreciate about each other makes us all feel special. Staying both appreciative and productive during the holidays can be difficult, even though we’re supposedly surrounded by cheer. More realistically, you’re running errands non-stop, cooking meals, planning parties and outfits, thinking of your New Year’s resolutions, decorating the house, cleaning for guests, shopping for the perfect gifts and, oh yeah, working. It sounds like a lot, and, trust me, I’ve had a few near-meltdown moments during the holidays. However, have you ever noticed that when someone takes a moment to say "Thank you" for your work - be it organizing Thanksgiving dinner or getting your year-end progress report in on time - it renews your spirit and turns that frown upside down? Feeling valued is a productivity instigator. A recent Forbes article by corporate HR and talent analyst Josh Bersin notes that while it’s not exactly rocket science that people who feel valued tend to get more done, employee-recognition programs can make your team more productive year-round. In fact, employee happiness is becoming a hot topic among CEOs and boardrooms alike. Bersin writes: "When your company embraces a modern recognition program and people start thanking each other, trust and engagement go up - improving employee morale, quality and customer service." But this isn’t just a management parable. This should be a company-wide initiative in order to really see success. Leading by example is a great way to foster a recognition-rich work culture throughout 2014. Bersin provides a few tips to get the ball rolling: Include specific results or behaviors in your message of recognition and appreciation. Tie the results and behaviors to your company’s goals. Encourage both formal and informal peer-to-peer recognition. Recognize and share stories of internal and external success whenever possible. Check out the rest of the article. Then tell someone "Thank you." Photo Credit: vernhart via Compfight cc

‘Tis the season to get shopping! If you’re like me, you are going to be watching the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals like a hawk. Getting everything on your list isn’t as tricky as it sounds. Just treat your cyber shopping strategy as you would a big presentation to the CEO. There’s setup and planning involved, and you need to have clear goals prepared in order to get what you need. Here are 5 top tips for tackling the cyber sale shopping like you would a presentation to the CEO: Have a plan. Organizing your approach and knowing what you need to accomplish is your first priority. You don’t want to waste your CEO’s time and you don’t want to miss out on great deals because you forgot something on your list. Having an agenda or itemized list of shopping goals is an easy way to keep your holiday shopping on target. Flattery goes a long way. Chatting up your CEO about their interests or hobbies can go a long way towards building a personal rapport - much like connecting with larger retailers via their social channels, which can score you exclusive promotions. Get there early. Just like with your presentation, the earlier you get started, the more successful you’ll be, So arrive early to the mall or get online at an ungodly hour. Read the fine print. A lot of retailers have limitations on quantity per customer or crazy return policies for items bought on sale during the holidays. Holiday retailers expect you to know the rules, just like your CEO expects your presentation to align with his or her high-level view. Stick to the plan. Your agenda is your roadmap to getting what you need out of your presentation and your shopping list. Since you probably have a set number of people to buy for and/or a limited budget, don’t stray from your plan. It will only distract you from your core tasks and you might end up not getting everything you planned for. Do you have any suggestions for Cyber Monday or Black Friday holiday sale shopping strategies? We’d love to hear them! Photo Credit: Stéfan via Compfight cc

UK commuters are feeling the pain of rail costs, which are set to rise above the rate of inflation for the eleventh consecutive year. But what are the implications for UK businesses? We quizzed over 500 London commuters to find out. Check out our findings in this infographic . Light at the end of the tunnel There’s good news for those whose wallets are feeling the pressure — Working remotely has never been easier or more productive. Andrew Millard, senior director marketing, Citrix, detailed the significant issues for companies and commuters from their increasingly onerous daily trip to work: "The pressures of commuting on families, work-life balance and productivity are well documented, but this snapshot of commuters’ attitudes highlights the potential risk businesses are facing as London workers consider a move out of the capital to avoid the daily commute. Any significant reduction in this considerable skills base could have a damaging effect on business growth. To prevent any loss of talent, businesses need to take practical steps to offer flexible working to their staff." What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Let us know on Twitter! #winyourcommute with GoToMeeting and take home £5k! To lend commuters a hand, we’re offering one lucky person in the UK the chance to win £5,000 for their commute. To enter, all you have to do is hold an online meeting. Simple, right? You can enter right here. Good luck! Photo Credit: .aditya. via Compfight cc

December 24 is undeniably a pretty big night for Old Saint Nick. Going by the numbers, Santa has to deliver gifts to almost 528 millions kids worldwide (that’s about 365,000 kids per second.) Now you’re probably not making toys for millions of kids, but you too might be feeling the pressure that comes with trying to get everything done before the close of another year. After reading Maria Popova’s article about the history of the to-do list and the psychology of its success, I realized that my lists were good - but could be better. Turns out, I wasn’t making to-do lists that work for me. Even jolly Mr. Clause must use something to organize his tasks to ensure everything gets done by Christmas Eve. (An iMerry, perhaps?) So before your end-of-the-year task management makes you Claus-trophobic, here are some tips to channel the big guy himself and create a to-do list that will actually help you get things done: Break larger projects into smaller tasks. Santa’s to-do list for December 24 would never read "Make all the toys." He and the elves work and plan year-round to get everything made by Christmas Eve. The process of breaking down much larger projects into more elf-sized next steps will make completing action items on your list feel doable. Make list items actionable and specific. After you’ve made your list, be sure to check it twice to make sure it’s detailed as possible. It’s easier to follow through on descriptive and prescriptive tasks rather than vague generalizations. Prioritize your list. Saint Nick isn’t just winging it. It’s rumored that the man delivers by time zone to get his work done all in one night. Having a list hierarchy will help you complete the most time-sensitive items and train you in the powerful skill of saying "no" to the tasks that aren’t necessary. Be realistic. Unlike Santa, you don’t have elves and magic to help you complete your to-do list. Be honest with yourself and make sure to schedule tasks realistically within the timeframe that you have. Plan ahead. Santa works year round to ensure children worldwide get their toys on time. Once you’ve made your list and broken it down into prioritized tasks, make sure you plan your workday accordingly to accommodate what you need to get done. Do you have any productivity tips for to-do lists or groan-worthy Santa word puns? Send ‘em our way!   Photo credit: aheram

Did you know that small businesses employ over half the U.S. workforce? They play a big role, but their successes often go unheard. We thought some extra exposure was in order, so we’re launching a new series here on the GoTo Blog called Small Business Stories. It’ll be a regular feature highlighting small business owners who’ve used Citrix solutions to great effect, and we’re starting with GoToMyPC customers picked from our video submission gallery. For each post, we’ll give a little background and then share the video the owner recorded so you can hear from him or her directly. Kicking off the series for us, Kaydee Peterson is the owner of Peterson Business Services, based in Vancouver, WA. Kaydee runs a consultancy that uses technology to provide accounting services to businesses. In the process, Kaydee and her team help clients to balance their own work and family lives. That’s a benefit Kaydee can appreciate, because she’s often just as busy. "I always knew that I would be a business owner, but now as a parent myself, I truly understand the value of business and family time," said Kaydee. She wanted a way for employees to leave the office behind without having to close everything up. So, she turned to remote access as a solution. After trying a few "less than awesome" remote access methods, Kaydee settled on GoToMyPC as the way to a healthy work-life balance. The trusted Citrix security, ease of use and broad device compatibility were big reasons why. With GoToMyPC for her and her team, leaving the office to handle personal affairs is no longer stressful. They can just connect back in through GoToMyPC to finish work from wherever they are. "Our office does not compete with our personal lives, but enables us to live more fully the way we really want to," Kaydee said. Check out Kaydee’s video below to hear how GoToMyPC has changed the way she personally works. Whether spending time with her kids or taking off for a vacation, she can relax knowing she can still get her work done when she needs to. Want to be in the next Small Business Story? Click on over to our video gallery where you can record a short snippet about you, your business and how you’re using GoToMyPC. We’ll post each one to our web and social channels, and our favorites will be featured in our Small Business Stories here on the GoTo Blog.

Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce 2013 offered an enormous mix of inspirational ideas. It had 1,250 expert-led sessions in four days, an estimated 120,000 people registered and Twitter lit up with more than 569 million potential impressions around the #df13 hashtag. During the week in San Francisco, we listened to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and the one-and-only Deepak Chopra. But a few ideas really stuck with us after the sessions wrapped and we headed back to work. The four tweets below from Dreamforce capture some of the big trends in 2013 that are changing how business is done. #DF13 Highlights: "We need to become customer companies," said @Benioff during #SF1 launch. We couldn’t agree more pic.twitter.com/DsGo2HlqqJ — GoToMeeting (@GoToMeeting) November 21, 2013 The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we connect and communicate with each other, including the companies we buy from. More change is coming. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to radically transform how consumers and companies communicate with one another. Cisco explains the IoT in more detail here with a handy infographic. They expect 50 billion devices—from cars to coffeemakers—to be connected by 2020. So what does this mean and what is the impact likely to be? As more and more products have the ability to automatically share data with one another, companies will learn a lot about their customers. They will also be able to connect with customers in entirely new ways through direct one-to-one relationships. It will—as Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff says—result in successful companies being more customer-focused as they respond to habits and needs. Mobile caught a lot of people by surprise, says @Marissamayer. Many companies haven’t kept up with the fast growing demand #DF13 — GoToMeeting (@GoToMeeting) November 20, 2013   Mobile has exploded. In 2013, mobile Internet traffic grew to 15% from 1% in 2009. In the U.S., smartphone use is growing 28% year over year. Users report checking their phone an average of 150 times a day with 63% of female respondents and 73% of male respondents reporting they don’t go more than an hour without checking. At Dreamforce, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, talked about growing their business in the mobile category to meet users’ needs. According to Mayer, Yahoo! reaches 400 million users on mobile every month. Comscore says 82.2% of U.S. mobile users turn to Yahoo! ‒ which is just behind Facebook’s 84%. Since joining the company in 2012, Mayer has grown the mobile engineering team from about 60 to over 400. She’s also heavily invested in content creation in 2013, according to The Independent. She’s hired David Pogue, an ex-New York Times technology columnist, Matt Bai, the former chief political correspondent for the New York Times magazine and, most recently, Katie Couric, who will be the company’s global anchor. How prepared is your company for the mobile revolution? By 2015, more than 80% of handsets in mature markets will be smart phones. "The only sustainable content strategy is to think of the core human things that inspire people to share," says @peretti #DF13 — GoToMeeting (@GoToMeeting) November 20, 2013 More than 70% of B2C marketers say they are producing more content now compared to a year ago, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). And 60% of B2C marketers expect their organization’s content marketing budget to increase over the next 12 months ‒ up from 55% last year. As for B2B organizations, 93% are marketing to customers and prospects with a wide mix of content-based approaches, and 73% are producing more content than they did one year ago. This means the content marketing is only getting more competitive. A new report from DigitalSherpa.com on content marketing in 2013 and the trends for 2014 found that 58% of organizations saying they plan to increase their spending in this area. So what is your company’s content marketing strategy? After all, companies with a documented strategy are far more likely to consider themselves effective at it and less likely to struggle with content creation, according to the CMI. Would the world be a better place if more women were in leadership roles? Let’s try it, says @sherylsandberg #DF13 pic.twitter.com/YJyCbWQhn7 — GoToMeeting (@GoToMeeting) November 21, 2013   Only 4% of the CEO’s in Fortune’s top 1,000 companies are female. Of the Fortune 500 companies, 50 have no female board members at all. Women like Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg are loudly calling attention to the desperate need for gender equality in leadership roles. Earlier this year, Forbes named the rise of female leaders as a major trend in 2013. A recent Booz & Company report, called The Third Billion, found that if female employment rates were to match male rates in the U.S., overall GDP would rise by 5%. There are many studies on the positive impact female leaders have in businesses. Here are just 3 compelling facts: Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors, says a report from Catalyst An extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms shows a strong correlation between a robust record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability, according to a report by the European Project on Equal Pay 27% of newly incorporated companies with one female director have a 27% lower risk of becoming insolvent than comparable firms with all-male boards, says research from Leeds University Business School If things don’t change, it will take 3 centuries for women to reach parity as CEOs in Fortune 500 companies, according to HBR.com. We’re inspired to make that happen faster. Whether through the IoT, mobile technology, or the rise of female leaders, how we do business is undergoing serious and exciting changes. The transformational ideas, captured at Dreamforce, will no doubt continue to influence us in the year to come. To see more of our coverage of Dreamforce 13, visit our newsroom. We also took a lot of pictures. Check out our Facebook album, our portraits, and a collection of pictures from the Marketo party GoToWebinar co-hosted.   Photo Credit: jdlasica via Compfight cc

Have you heard the news? GoToMeeting 6.0 has launched, and it’s featuring some new features that make collaborating online easier and more effective. ‘Round here, we had the pleasure of testing the new features prior to launch. So we’ve gathered some insider tips to help you get started with GoToMeeting 6.0. GoToMeet.Me Beta GoToMeet.Me Beta is a new way to invite people to meetings. When you set up a free personalized landing page through GoToMeet.Me, the custom link to your page is all you need to invite anyone to on-the-fly meetings. Your custom page features your job title and photo from your LinkedIn profile and offers a simple Join My Meeting button so people can easily join your meeting right from the page. Why we love it: Having a single URL to copy to meeting attendees simplifies the process of starting a meeting online. For consideration: GoToMeet.Me works on iOS and Android too, so be sure to have the GoToMeeting app downloaded for a seamless meeting initiation experience. GoToMeeting 100 Good news for the head honchos out there: GoToMeeting can now accommodate sessions for larger teams and groups. With the new tier of GoToMeeting, up to 100 users can now join your GoToMeeting sessions. Why we love it: Some teams and companies are bigger than others, and it should be just as easy for a department to meet online as it is for small teams. For consideration: If your large team is meeting online for training or presentations, GoToTraining or GoToWebinar might be a better fit for your needs. Current customers can upgrade to GoToMeeting 100 by contacting their account manager or logging into their account at gotomeeting.com and navigating to Change Plan. New customers can purchase GoToMeeting 100 at the end of their GoToMeeting trial. GoToMeeting Labs Found under the File tab of GoToMeeting, GoToMeeting Labs gives you the opportunity to try out the new features we are building to improve the meeting experience. Not only will you now be able to see what we’re working on, but we hope you will also provide feedback from using the features so we know whether you like what you’re seeing or not. Why we love it: Customers can more easily and directly affect the features and functions of our products. For consideration: The Labs features will be in Beta, so please understand that the Beta process is to test something that is less-than-perfect in order to perfect it before formal launch. And that’s just the start! Read about the other new features and updates to GoToMeeting that we’ve launched (or are about to launch).

December. The month of the mile-long to-do list. With so many things to take care of at work and at home, it can feel like you’re trying to break the world record for fastest marathon time - except you’re not a runner. And you’re attempting the feat in 4 feet of water. It’s understandable that at this time of the year all you want is a productive day, where by the end of it you feel accomplished. You’re able to wind down and forget the rest of the items on your list (until the next day). I feel you, and so do our GoToMyPC Facebook friends. We asked them what the keys to having a productive Monday were (even in December), and they came forth with some useful and clever tips, shared here for your trying-to-be-productive-on-a-Monday-in-December reading pleasure. So, without further ado… How to have a productive Monday Having a productive Monday starts with how you leave things on Friday. In addition to tying up loose ends before work is over on Weekend Eve, be sure to clean off your desk. This chore should take all of three minutes, and when you get back to work on Monday, a clean workspace will signal the start of a fresh week. This helps you begin in the right frame of mind. (Thanks Lee J. for the tip!) Before you get back to your desk on Monday, use the weekend to rest up. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be your downtime, and while family obligations and random to-dos can keep it from feeling so, scheduling even just an hour of me-time can make all the difference in your replenishment department. (Thanks Linda M. and Jennifer S.) If you get to work and start tackling tasks willy-nilly, you’re doing everything wrong. Okay, fine, not everything - but at least one thing wrong. To be more productive, write out what you want to accomplish that day. You only have eight hours or so in your work day, so make a plan, prioritize your tasks and tackle them, leaving a bit of room for the unexpected fires that will no doubt spark and need to be put out. (Thanks Darlene W.) Next on the list for your productive Monday bliss, stop reading this blog post right this minute. Kidding! What I meant to say is that social networks and other sites can be quite a time and productivity suck. That’s why Sara R. recommends getting off Facebook so you can get down to doing some real work. When all else fails, Bridgette B. recommends consuming a cup of coffee. Sometimes that little bit of extra energy can make all the difference. It can really perk up your day. Working from home on a Monday (or everyday)? Sarah H.B. recommends putting your young’uns to bed for a long nap. That or a sitter will grant you the downtime to hunker down on work without distractions. When none of the above tips work, maybe it’s time to just take a day off. You can’t do it all, and sometimes personal matters just matter more, so make your Monday your own. If you do, Tuesday is sure to be better. (Thanks Mark B.) Finally, when you need to tend to matters both personal and professional on a Monday, I recommend being in two places at once. Stay home or work from wherever you want and use GoToMyPC to remote into your work computer. Two birds, one stone. Magic. Life-saving. Whatever you want to call it, GoToMyPC can help you make your Monday a productive one. What are your tips for a productive Monday? Photo Credit: seeveeaar via Compfight cc

Technology means it’s now possible to work from anywhere. Some companies have taken this to the next level and abandoned the office completely. We caught up with the co-founder of one such company, Andy Bargery of Klaxon Marketing, to find out the secrets to his team’s success. If you’re interested in learning more, make sure to follow Andy on Twitter. Thanks, Andy! Tell us a little about the rationale behind Klaxon’s remote working strategy. We wanted to create a more flexible working environment where we could concentrate on delivering outputs rather than spending a certain amount of time at a desk. We also wanted the freedom to balance our professional and personal lives, working at the times we are most productive and spending plenty of time with our families. What are the strategies you use to collaborate successfully as a team? The most important strategy is to get the right people. It takes a certain mindset and level of experience to be able to work remotely and stay motivated to get the job done without a stable office environment. This means we have to recruit team members carefully, and typically we work with experienced marketing and communications professionals. They’ve often spent time in big agencies but want a new challenge. They have the right mindset: just putting in the hours is not good enough; they have to be able to focus on delivering outputs against a client brief. We also couldn’t work remotely without a very good communication infrastructure and solid processes. That means being able to share documents seamlessly or get in touch easily through instant messaging or conference calls. It also means we have a documented system for how things get done, which helps people to work within our environment. We call it the Klaxon Playbook. How do you maintain a team spirit when you’re all working in different locations? The key is regular and open communications, both remotely and in person. We’re currently planning a team dinner where we’ll get everyone around a table to discuss our strategy for the next year, but in the past we’ve done things like taking everyone for a snowboarding lesson. This helps to build a platform for team working and a team spirit. What are the essential tools your business couldn’t live without? The key tools are cloud-based file sharing, instant messenger, Google Apps, GoToMeeting, email and SaaS accounting applications. What advice do you have for companies who are seeking to establish their own remote working models? Get the right people on the bus. This style of working is not for everyone, so hire carefully. Make sure you choose the right technologies and tools, too. Define the processes that go into running your company. This is essential, as you can’t simply lean over the desk and ask your colleague. Are there any companies or individuals who particularly inspire you? I like what the team at KindredHQ are doing to drive forward the notion of co-working. It’s a great way for people to work independently but without the fear of isolation. They have a great community vibe going on there. Where do you see technology taking SMBs in the short term and longer term (5+ years)? Technology is completely transforming the future of the workplace. It’s increasingly easy for people to work anywhere at any time, and you can see this trend impacting companies of all shapes and sizes. The digital revolution and the impact of social technologies within businesses are fascinating to watch. Mobile and the consumerisation of devices and applications is also a big challenge, particularly for large traditional enterprises. Who knows where we will be in five years’ time? Technology is evolving so rapidly at the moment. Tech startups are creating new apps and tools all the time that have the potential to transform how we work and live. One thing I wouldn’t bet against is that in five years there will be another dozen-or-so big technology brands shaking up the status quo. Quickfire! Top 3 workplace anthems? Looking at my iTunes play count these are the three most played artists: Kings of Leon, Blur and Doves. Where does your to-do list live? In my moleskine notebook. What would be your ideal alternative career? Scuba-diving instructor. Tell us about a secret talent you have. I make the best scrambled eggs in the world. Who’s your favourite superhero? Batman. But then is he a super hero, or a man with lots of gadgets? Favourite time-saving tweak/hack? Anything Excel-related. Favourite productivity hack? Cloud-based accounting application FreeAgent. I couldn’t work without it. Best way to start the day? Breakfast with my family followed by a flat white. Want to implement your own remote working strategy? Our free trials of GoToMeeting and Podio represent the perfect starting point. Photo Credit: nic519 via Compfight cc

The holidays are here, and so is GoToTraining for iPhone and iPad! If you’ve been aching to gift mobile learning to your students this holiday season, now you can. We just launched an update to our free universal iOS GoToMeeting app that enables GoToTraining customers to provide a mobile live learning experience to attendees on iPhones and iPads. Using the GoToMeeting app, your students can: Join and participate in live GoToTraining sessions. View and respond to in-session polls and tests. Raise their hands to indicate that they want to pose a question or comment. Communicate with instructors and other learners via text chat. View learning materials shared via the GoToTraining content library You can use the app to present from an iPad during GoToTraining sessions, too. iPad presenters can: Share content from cloud services (ShareFile, Dropbox) or email attachments. Share a website from a browser. Share a whiteboard and sketch ideas with drawing tools. To access these new, interactive capabilities, instruct your learners to download the GoToMeeting app from the App Store today and give them the gift of mobile learning!

Back in 1979, Darryl and Vita Dworkin found themselves burned out on corporate work. Darryl was a vice president in the toy business, and Vita was a director for a large pharmaceutical, but both wanted something more. "So we formed a corporation (DNV - for Darryl ‘N’ Vita) and in 1980 bought a 25-year-old retail store business called The Bright Acre," explained Darryl. Today, The Bright Acre is a fireplace store that has successfully served the Ocean and Monmouth Counties in New Jersey for many years, thanks in part to lessons Darryl and Vita learned in corporate life. They were quick to adopt new technology like computers to replace inventory tracking on cards, and they recognized the importance of a company culture that values people. "We have always provided paid health plan costs for employees and treated people in a way that has allowed us to have a company that today has the average employee with us almost 20 years - and as many as 30 years," said Darryl. Partially due to the burnout they experienced, Darryl and Vita wanted The Bright Acre to be a company that would allow them to get away frequently. The Bright Acre was initially a summer business so they could ski in winter. But as the company grew, they needed a way to run the business year-round from wherever they went next. So they hired dependable staff and then chose GoToMyPC as a remote access solution. "Before GoToMyPC, we called and were sent reports," said Darryl. "Now we just go to the company server to set up check runs or review inventory or do any of the thousand other things that running a small business requires after the daily reports." GoToMyPC has also been useful for business continuity at The Bright Acre. Last year’s destructive Superstorm Sandy passed right over them in New Jersey. "GoToMyPC allowed us to leave at the end of November and still guide the business from our winter home in Nevada," explained Darryl. But there was a silver lining in that storm cloud - they’ve since increased staff by 40 percent to assist in rebuilding the New Jersey Shore. "As business owners, we’ve learned that we just don’t know what to expect next," said Darryl. "It may be a recession or it may be a hurricane; either way it may require late nights going over the changes to make intelligent decisions. And it sure is a lot nicer doing it from home than staying alone in a closed store to crunch the numbers or watch the finances." Check out Darryl’s video below to hear more about his experience as a long-distance owner with GoToMyPC. Want to be in our next Small Business Story? Click on over to our video gallery where you can record a short snippet about you, your business and how you’re using GoToMyPC. We’ll post your video to our web and social channels, and our favorites will be featured in our Small Business Stories here on the GoTo Blog.

Oh the weather outside is frightful, and the fire might be delightful, but we’ve still got stuff to accomplish this winter! Have you ever noticed that productivity (like the daylight hours) seems to dim during the colder months of the season? You’re not alone - up to 50% of Americans report feeling less productive in the winter, and a whopping half-million people are diagnosed annually with seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. If you find yourself feeling a little sluggish in the winter months, we’ve got a few suggestions to help take you from pooped to productive: Get active Get your heart pumping and feel yourself become more alert as the fresh air fills your lungs. Even if it’s too cold to step out your front door, try jumping jacks or running stairs to get a little cardiovascular activity. If you can get outside, use the weather to your advantage and hit the slopes or go for a hike. The important thing is that you elevate your resting heart rate and let the added benefits of the endorphin rush kick in. Get a hobby Keeping your mind active is just as important as keeping your body active during the long winter months. Sign up for that cooking class you’ve always been curious about, learn another language or crack open a book you’ve been meaning to read. The sense of excitement and accomplishment you’ll feel about your new hobby can lead to happiness throughout the seasons. Get productive Staying warm during the cold months has shown to cut winter office complaints by up to 70% - and that’s nothing to sneeze at! Try setting up full spectrum light bulbs to increase the light, dress in layers to keep yourself comfortable and, when it’s sunny, take a break outside to enjoy the fresh air. Being proactive is an excellent way to beat the winter blues. Don’t forget, your office might have a telecommuting or workshifting policy to let you work from the warmth of your own house. If that’s the case, make sure you’ve got what you need to stay connected and collaborating with your team. For more ideas of fun activities and hobbies to help keep you working in a winter wonderland, check out this infographic.

Today we have a guest post from Gihan Perera. Gihan is a consultant, speaker and author who helps professional speakers, trainers, thought leaders and other business professionals to leverage their products, services and business practices - particularly with their online strategy. He is also the author of the books Secrets of Internet Business Success and Webinar Smarts, among many others. Find out more at www.WebinarSmarts.com. Collaboration is the key to business success, but if you find yourself wishing for the "good old days" when everybody in your team was based in the same office and your meetings took place in front of a white board, you’ve fallen behind the times. Collaboration tools were born out of the necessity - they enable geographically dispersed teams to communicate fast and easily. But these tools do more than just instantly overcome the barriers of distance. Surprisingly enough, online collaboration is often faster, smoother and more productive than in-person collaboration. Here are five ways to elevate your team’s collaboration and leverage the advantages of virtual meetings in 2014. 1. Get the right people on board. In the past, the only practical way to choose the best project team was to choose from your existing staff (or make expensive hiring decisions). Now, online collaboration software opens up numerous other opportunities for bringing a team together, for example: Bring in expertise from other departments located in other cities and countries Outsource specialized tasks to external contractors Work more closely with customers and clients Create partnerships with peers, colleagues and even competitors 2. Include your virtual team members in the team. If you have a hybrid team, with people in the office and others located elsewhere, ensure you include the latter group in team activities and decisions (where appropriate). It’s easy for them to be out of mind because they are out of sight. You don’t have to bring them physically into the office regularly. But do keep them in mind when planning other activities, such as: Setting goals, objectives and roles at the start of a project Team meetings to make important decisions Celebrations and feedback at the end of a project Ongoing training, mentoring and professional development for their careers 3. Stop making decisions via email. If you find yourself engaging in long sequences of back-and-forth email discussions within your team, stop using email and call a meeting! This can be an in-person meeting or a video conference, but face time is often the best way to quickly gain agreement on a complex issue. 4. Meet face to face to save time and money. Online meetings are typically more efficient than in-person meetings (even after excluding travel time and idle chit-chat). They also have other advantages, such as an in-built recording facility, easy screen sharing and the ability to join from mobile devices. Video conferences are even more effective because face-to-face communication fosters familiarity and engagement, which are both critically important in business communications, like all communications. 5. Share ideas and insights with other teams. Another powerful use of collaboration software is to share ideas, insights and progress with other teams and other stakeholders. You can now do this quickly and cost effectively using online tools, such as webinars and social workspaces. Photo Credit: susanvg via Compfight cc

A penguin, a panda and a hummingbird walk into bar. What does that have to do with your content marketing strategy? A lot considering all three are actually Google search algorithms that decide the ranking of your content. How so? Each weighs "quality content" heavily in their search results, meaning the better your content, the better you rank in online search results. In fact, a recent survey from the Custom Content Council reported that 78% of people feel companies that publish strong content are more interested in building relationships with them, and a whopping 68% said they would be more likely to buy from organizations that deliver informative content. With stats like that, it’s hard to ignore that the frequency, relevancy and quality of your content matters more than ever. Don’t panic! This doesn’t mean that you have to start churning out content like a tabloid magazine. Creating great content is about quality and consistency, and with the New Year swiftly approaching, you’re probably evaluating what worked this year and what you need to do in 2014. No matter if your content marketing program is nonexistent, planned but not kicked off or quite established, you’re probably thinking of ways to get more content with less effort. The best strategy: build a hub-and-spoke content model This strategy focuses on dissecting and repurposing content to get more out of each asset you produce. Great content marketers take one asset and turn it into multiple assets, using a variety of formats, like video, webinars, blogs and so on. While this sounds like a tall order, it’s easier than it sounds, and when the payoff is reaching new clients and freeing up your time too, a repurposing-focused content model is a win-win. Win with webinars To improve your content marketing model in 2014, start with webinars. By nature, webinars collect rich data about your prospects and customers, let you interact with them in real time, not to mention that webinars recordings can be truncated into multiple assets for your content marketing promotions. Turn the webinar recording into a video highlight reel. Share the slides from the presentation as another form of content, and curate the questions that you didn’t get to during the live Q&A and send them to the webinar speaker to respond to via email and then post the Q&A as a blog post. When you’re starting (or improving) a content marketing program, getting more bang for your buck is key, and webinars can be chopped and repurposed. Now, that’s called working smarter. For more tips on getting started with content marketing via webinars. Download our free ebook "How to Build Your Content Marketing Hub." Photo Credit: nick_russill via Compfight cc

Family owned and operated since 1980, Thelen Service Center is an automotive shop offering a variety of services from repairs to regular maintenance in Albany, Minnesota. Now in its third generation of Thelens, the shop still provides the same helpful and friendly service as always. They even offer free vehicle pick up and delivery for people too busy with work to drop their cars off. Speaking of busy, part-owner Amanda Thelen works as a secretary for the shop, helping her brothers Ben and Bob run the business. But she also has another full-time job at a company 25 miles away. "After working a full day at my other job, I would pack up my kids once a week, every week, and drive 30 minutes to drop my kids off at my Mom’s and go to our business," said Amanda. "I’d try to do all my work, bills and checkbook balancing for the week in a few hours before I would have to pick up the kids and drive 30 minutes home." Unsurprisingly, Amanda began to get fed up with the back-and-forth. She realized the best solution would be to use her laptop to simply do her work from home, but she could not get her computers networked no matter what she tried. But then she came across an advertisement alerting her to GoToMyPC remote access. "It was destiny!" joked Amanda. "Now that I have GoToMyPC, I don’t have to make that dreaded trip. I can go online anytime and stay caught up when the kids are watching a movie or napping." Now she’s more in control of her busy work schedule, and she can spend extra time with the family to boot. Check out Amanda’s video below to hear more about how GoToMyPC has changed the way she works. Want to be in our next Small Business Story? Click on over to our video gallery where you can record a short snippet about you, your business and how you’re using GoToMyPC. We’ll post your video to our web and social channels, and our favorites will be featured in our Small Business Stories here on the GoTo Blog.

If your 2014 is shaping up to involve a lot of presentations, you should consider utilizing a template for building your presentations and maximizing workflow, if you’re not already. Simply put, templates are a great way for presenters to cut down on prep time and have professional-looking standardized documents. You get more time to focus on the quality of your content, not to mention all the time you’ll save not having to create new presentations from scratch each time. Moreover, templates allow the non-designers out there to elevate their brand using professionally designed documents that have visual consistency, which can go a long way with audiences and customers. So why not resolve to jazz up your presentations in 2014 with templates? To help you get started, we found a few reliable presentation template resources with plenty of variety - and some of them are free! Whether seeking a new look or just trying something different, there’s bound to be a few worth trying out: Imagine Layout: A resource for Power Point and Keynote templates, diagrams, charts and more. You can filter for presentations that will best suit your industry or needs, and there’s even an archive of free options that are pretty user friendly. Inkd: Every template design can be downloaded as both a Keynote or a Power Point source file. You can search for industry-specific options, and there are plenty of free options to choose from that you can modify to fit your needs. Templates Wise: A website that features templates, charts and image resources for Power Point presentations. With filtering for your industry and needs as well as royalty-free music and imagery that can help brighten up your presentation or illustrate a point. Microsoft: A no brainer when it comes to finding compatible and reliable Power Point templates online. There are both free and paid options, and their library and customer support are top notch. If you already have a presentation template that works for your needs, shift your focus to improving your presentation style in 2014. Here are some presentation musts to get you started: Turn on your webcam in online presentations to connect better with your audience. Video conferencing is especially effective during Q&A sessions and panel discussions for helping the audience keep track of who is talking and for adding an extra visual engagement element. Use built-in feedback features to improve your future presentations. Polls and surveys work really well for this. Send out a survey or poll after your training session or webinar for feedback not just on the topic or speaker, but the overall presentation flow, the slides and anything else you want feedback on. Record presentations or training sessions and upload the recordings to your website or social channels to add to your on-demand content library. For more tips and creative suggestions to shake up your presentation style in 2014, read the white paper on transforming presentations from monologue to dialogue.   Photo credit: Fuelgrafics

In recent weeks I’ve grudgingly marveled at New Zealand’s world champion rugby team, the All Blacks. Having defeated all comers, including an indefatigable and inspired Irish side that came agonisingly close to beating New Zealand for the first time in 108 years, the All Blacks can now justifiably claim to be one of the most dominant teams in any sport. What’s the secret of their success? In this professional era, with its advanced nutritionists, specialist trainers and analysts, comparatively little separates teams in terms of physical conditioning. Players in both the northern and southern hemisphere are fitter, stronger and faster than they’ve ever been. But in the dying seconds of the Irish game in Dublin, when it looked as if defeat was inevitable, what allowed the All Blacks to finally prevail was their self-belief. Of course, this doesn’t materialise out of nowhere. Self-belief is founded on skills, leadership and strategy - all of which are bound by teamwork. I want you to be able to create a team that has the capacity to be as awesome, in its own field, as the world’s top teams. Read our new ebook, The Citrix Guide to Great Teams, to take the first steps. The Citrix Guide to Great Teams from GoToMeeting   Photo Credit: geoftheref via Compfight cc

It’s not news to anyone: eLearning is revolutionizing the way we train, comprehend, and collaborate globally. But did you know that this nearly $56.2 billion industry is likely to double in size by 2015? With that kind of industry growth rate, you should seriously evaluate your 2014 training strategy to make sure you’re getting the most from your virtual classroom solution. It’s pretty hard to argue with the numbers when it comes to eLearning. In fact, roughly 77% of American corporations currently use online learning, and studies show that organizations with strong learning cultures significantly outperform their peers. A few of the other benefits that virtual training provides include: Cutting costs for on-site training Allowing audiences to learn at their own pace Producing and providing eLearning courses consumes significantly less energy and produces fewer CO2 emissions per student Increasing the retention of knowledge up to 60% So, in order to help you increase your reach, engage audiences and provide a more enriching online training experience, here are three things we recommend incorporating into your 2014 virtual classroom. Turn on your webcam via video conferencing. By simply turning on your webcam, you are creating a more personalized, face-to-face connection with your audience. Adding to the visual environment will not only foster familiarity between student and instructor, but it may also encourage students to participate and collaborate with you and the group when it comes to live Q&A sessions or group discussions. If your group is small enough (6 people or under), ask your students to turn on their cameras as well - it works wonders for reading facial cues and gauging their comprehension Press record at the start of class. Add to your on-demand content library by recording and editing your sessions then posting them online, giving students the chance to re-visit the material and share the content. You can even create customized playlists that include courses and other on-demand content to help students find additional resources that support the content. Use social to your advantage. Keep track of student comments and questions with social hashtag campaigns integrated across the platforms that make sense for your 2014 educational strategy. Asking students to use a hashtag for posts that relate to the class will help you track what questions are being asked outside of class and establish your role as a real-time source. For more tips and recommendations to give your 2014 a makeover, check out our white paper on 5 things to do in your next online training. We also found this infographic detailing the Top 10 eLearning Stats for 2014 to be quite handy. Photo Credit: Kyota via Compfight cc

Let’s make a 2014 resolution together: We’ll host more and better online events and conferences with confidence and ease. If you can identify with this resolution, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Citrix Consulting and Onboarding Services, and our job is to help you make your presentations via GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar and GoToTraining better and easier. How does that sound? Whether you’re just starting to hold your meetings online with GoToMeeting or moving your online events to a bigger platform with GoToWebinar and GoToTraining, our team’s whole purpose is to coach you on how to take your events to the next level. Not convinced that we should know each other yet? Maybe it’s time to break down a few of the things we can do for you. We help you get better (and faster) ROI on your Citrix product. We offer group training or one-on-one consulting for your event-planning needs, and users that take advantage of these services experience are more comfortable and proficient with their Citrix products. We get your team up to speed faster, too. Using Citrix tools with comfort and proficiency helps you see great results faster. We deliver coaching specific to your use case - that gets your team going with Citrix services faster to meet your expectations quicker. We make change easy. Whether you’re providing new Citrix services to your users or giving them new and higher expectations in their work, we help ease the change. Our services provide customized training on specific topics you want addressed. Phew. I hope you’re interested in getting acquainted now. We’ll be waiting for your call or email and look forward to helping you put on more engaging events this year. Download the Consulting and Onboarding Service’s ebook to learn more about the services available to Citrix customers. You can also learn more about Citrix Consulting and Onboarding Services online, or contact us at 1 888 536 0582 or professionalservices@citrixonline.com.   Photo credit: bearfaced

Today we have a guest post from Gihan Perera. Gihan is a consultant, speaker and author who helps professional speakers, trainers, thought leaders and other business professionals to leverage their products, services and business practices - particularly with their online strategy. He is also the author of the books Secrets of Internet Business Success and Webinar Smarts, among many others. Find out more at www.WebinarSmarts.com. Most meetings are polite and orderly, but occasionally you might be chairing a meeting with hostile participants, conflicting agendas or a controversial topic. Learn how to manage these meetings so you can achieve the meeting’s objectives without losing your cool. Before the meeting With careful preparation and planning, you can prevent hostility in your meeting (or at least minimize it): Strategically invite people: Sometimes inviting an important person - such as a senior manager, important client or external observer - can be a good strategic move to keep participants on their best behavior. Exclude the wrong people: Look at the purpose of the meeting and choose your attendees carefully. Some people need to be there, so you have no choice but to include them. But others don’t, so exclude them if they are likely to be difficult or hostile. Choose the environment: Choose the place, time and setting to minimize power plays and potential complaints. Meet in a neutral place if necessary, choose a time that suits all participants (especially if this is an online meeting with people in different time zones) and use video for online meetings (so people are less anonymous and, hence, more restrained). Head them off at the pass: If you know of potential hostilities, talk to the people involved before the meeting to discuss issues, negotiate a deal or even just listen to their concerns. Even if you can’t resolve the issues, you’ll be better prepared for the meeting. Circulate the agenda: It’s even more important than ever to send around the agenda for the meeting, clearly stating its purpose, attendees, expected outcome, order of business and any rules for how you will conduct it. Starting the meeting You set the tone of the meeting by the way you start it. With a hostile meeting, it’s especially important to show that you’re in charge: Start confidently: Be confident, direct and assured so you demonstrate your professionalism and competence. If it’s an online meeting, log in early to prevent any technology glitches. Remind them why they are here: Clearly state the agenda, goals, scope and duration for the meeting, and explain any ground rules (voting, consensus, order of speaking, etc.). Take notes: Make it clear you’re taking notes so participants know their comments are being put on the record. During the meeting Your job is to conduct the business of the meeting, so don’t be distracted by participants playing personal games or trying to bully or intimidate the group. Be firm but fair: Treat participants firmly but fairly if they start misbehaving. Refer to your notes where possible and quickly but firmly bring the meeting back on track. Don’t play favorites: Treat everybody equally, even if you would behave differently to them elsewhere. Don’t grant somebody a favor unless you’re willing to do the same for everybody else in the meeting. Don’t lose your cool: It’s OK to outwardly express emotion, but always be logical and rational under the surface. If you need to be sharp or firm, do so. Change your tone, but don’t lose your cool. Above all, don’t let your emotions get in the way of achieving your outcome. Ignore the power plays, put-downs and pettiness and focus on what you want. If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs, everybody wins! Photo Credit: bobsfever via Compfight cc

Many LogMeIn users woke up today to an email announcing that LogMeIn Free is being shut down. Helpful as always, many of our customers spoke up and recommended GoToMyPC as an alternative. We know how hard it is to go without remote access to your work when you need it, so we’d like to help those displaced by offering new customers 6 months of free remote access for GoToMyPC. And you can lock in the annual plan at $69 for up to 3 computers. Just use the promo code Welcome at www.gotomypc.com. You can upgrade or cancel anytime. We’re dedicated to keeping our remote access simple and powerful. GoToMyPC has many of the same features that LogMeIn Pro does - remote printing, mobile apps, file transfer - so your switch will be seamless. And if you used LogMeIn for tech support, we’re also offering 6 months free of GoToAssist Remote Support. This is ideal for those who need to deliver live attended and unattended support from a single product (includes up to 100 unattended computers). It features remote control, screen sharing, chat, support of mobile devices, recording and free technician-based mobile apps for Android or iOS. And it also has integrated Service Desk and Monitoring modules as options. You’ll then have the opportunity to buy the remote support service for $29 a month (58 percent off the regular price). Simply sign up for GoToAssist with the same promo code: Welcome. Give GoToMyPC and GoToAssist a try. We think you’ll like them.

Today, we have a guest post from Whitney Durbin, VP of Product Development at Retrofit. Whitney is motivated by the joy she sees when people adopt healthy, active lifestyles. Before bringing her extraordinary powers of organization and guidance to Retrofit clients, Whitney began her career in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch and then transitioned to a recruitment startup called Strong Suit. She honed her project management and operations management skills at Allstate and MPC Group, respectively. She holds a BA in English from the University of Iowa. She loves to travel, dance and eat at new places. If you happen to see her wandering the city streets, don’t worry. She likes to get lost on purpose. I’m proud to work at Retrofit, the personalized weight-loss program where more than 90% of our clients are losing weight. But to win the war against the obesity epidemic - nearly 66% of the American population is overweight - we must take the fight to a larger front. A good place to start is the American workplace. There are studies that show how a basic, everyday activity like sitting can negatively impact your health. Yet a sedentary corporate culture dominates. And overweight employees aren’t just putting themselves at risk. Obesity results in lowered workplace productivity as well as higher healthcare costs. In fact, a Duke University study shows that obese employees cost nearly $1,500 each per year in additional healthcare costs. And according to the American Heart Association, the total excess costs related to obesity in the U.S. for 2013 were estimated to be $254 billion in lost productivity and direct medical costs. If obesity levels continue to rise, total healthcare costs attributable to obesity will reach between $861 billion and $957 billion by 2030. But there is hope. A recent Harvard University study proved that for every dollar invested in corporate wellness, employee medical costs fall about $3.27 and absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73. That means companies can save an average of $6.00 for every $1.00 spent on corporate wellness programs. That’s why we’re springing into action. Our CEO Jeff Hyman recently appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss how 2014 is the "year of participation" for corporate weight loss. Then we launched Retrofit Group, the first weight-loss program offering online group meetings conducted by wellness experts. By utilizing Citrix products in this venture, Retrofit has further enabled technology to reshape the landscape of American weight loss. We’ve been using GoToMeeting for internal communication purposes since launching in 2011. Given how easy it was to use, we figured we could rely on other intuitive technology from Citrix. We tried GoToTraining, and it turns out we figured right. Most weight-loss programs don’t address the main feature corporations need: flexibility. GoToTraining allows us to host multiple meetings at various times over a week so all employees can participate. Corporations want customizable options as well as quantifiable data on membership, attendance, and outcomes. With GoToTraining, the Retrofit team can now fill such market demands. GoToTraining has all the necessary features Retrofit needs to optimize program personalization and client engagement. Frankly, it’s the most effective and effortless way for our wellness experts to communicate the Retrofit philosophy. For instance, GoToTraining’s polling function is essential to the personalization process. It allows instructors to gauge each client’s needs. GoToTraining also gives Group members the ability to decide which features and settings to share online. This kind of security gives members the confidence to lose weight at their own discretion, while at the same time keeping them accountable to their fellow Group members - a key component to losing weight efficiently. Learn more about Retrofit Group at RetrofitMe.com, or learn more about other unique ways Citrix tools are helping people improve their lives. Photo Credit: CherryPoint via Compfight cc

As the landscape of work continues to change and become even more dispersed, more than ever it is becoming commonplace to freelance and telecommute, but with freelancing comes a whole new set of professional responsibilities. You are the keeper of your own timelines, you have to wrangle invoices, and of course you need to be in consistent contact with your clients and teams no matter your location. We feel your pain! That’s why we’ve put together this helpful list of tips on how to use GoToMeeting to manage some of the biggest freelance grumbles that we have seen over the years. I work from the road. Mobile work isn’t just a hot topic; it’s a way of life for many professionals these days. Fortunately, GoToMeeting has mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows, which means you can attend (and host) meetings from wherever suits your fancy. My clients have a firewall. Firewalls are an effective security option designed to block unauthorized outgoing and incoming communications with your computer, so they’re a good thing to that end. The downside of firewalls is needing to tell the firewall about benign communication tools like GoToMeeting so it doesn’t prevent these programs from launching. Fortunately, we’ve laid it out step by step so you and your clients can easily get started with GoToMeeting I need to communicate detailed design changes to my clients. Screensharing is pretty commonplace across web conferencing tools these days since so many teams and groups meet online to get work done. But drawing tools built in to the GoToMeeting platform take the online collaboration game up a notch, allowing you to circle, highlight and point to exactly what you’re talking about on screen for everyone to see. I have a lot of last minute meeting requests with clients. We know you’re busy, and the last thing you want to do is set up and send out meeting information. So just do a one-time setup of GoToMeet.Me - a new mobile-friendly and seamless way of inviting people to GoToMeeting sessions. Designed specifically for on-the-fly meetings, GoToMeet.Me frees you from setting up individual meeting invites and provides a custom link to share with attendees whenever and however you need. My clients aren’t "technical people." Joining a GoToMeeting session from any device is easy. First-time users will see an automatic download of the software pop up on their screen, but all meetings after the first one only take one click to get into the meeting. I need a way to time meetings because I am hourly. The Record button in GoToMeeting can double as a meeting timer. Just hit record at the start of your meeting to capture exactly how long you’re spending on the phone with your clients. That way you also have a backlog of information for account auditing purposes as well. I don’t like taking notes. The Record feature of GoToMeeting also doubles as automatic note-taker. Track everything that was said and shown in your meetings by simply recording your sessions. You can either play back for taking notes at another time or post the audio securely online for you and your clients to access and reference when needed. Or you can look into automatic note taking tools that can transcribe the audio portion of your meeting recording into a word-for-word transcript. It can be daunting trying to successfully facilitate collaboration while keeping track of important client information and working remotely. GoToMeeting can’t keep you from encountering nightmare clients (like the company you’ve sent 10 invoices to), but it certainly can help make communication clearer and your freelance business more organized.