Bluescape is a cloud-based, software as a service company based in Silicon Valley, CA, that provides a digital whiteboard of the same name.
$10
per user, per month (10-50 licenses)
MaestroConference
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
MaestroConference is a web conferencing platform with the capability to run small break-out sessions within the main group. It incorporates voting and social capabilities.
I've only used the Google one and the Microsoft one, and those have pretty limited features in comparison. The canvas size being huge is a great asset to me because nothing sucks more than when you literally can't fit your ideas on the canvas. Also the speed it updates and how …
We have Workware installed on different computers in our office that were supposed to be great for presentation but we had issues after a user connected their laptop then they no longer had access to our server. If they had files they needed for the presentation they had to …
Maestro Conference is the only service I know that allows you to create break out groups and allow participants to actively engage with each other and with the host. It is the most like an "in-person" event of any service I have used. And the customer service has always been …
Maestro Conference has breakout rooms. That is its point of difference. If you need breakout rooms, this is it. If you don't, this solution is not the best in any other regard.
Maestro has everything that GoToMeeting and WebEx has. The primary thing that sold us on Maestroconference was the ability to incorporate breakout groups for small group discussions and explorations. It also is very easy to access and does not require a type of download onto a …
This digital version of a pin-up space is absolutely an improvement to my workflow. The input is so robust. What you do with it is where the magic happens. This program is best suited for team collaboration. It helps to discuss how/where the team will contribute information to it--whether that is discussing the templates or a plan of action. Otherwise, the workspace can tend to get messy. I like the idea of having a presentation mode, where some of the markups could be hidden. The idea of a working session with consultants or clients sounds appealing, but at the same time, there is a desire for a cleaned up, clear shareout.
Key questions to ask might be: 1) Do I want to create a more "in-person" experience for my participants? 2) Do I want participants to be able to connect in smaller groups? 3) Will I be leading exercises that I want participants to actively engage in? 4) Would it be helpful for participants to be able to talk amongst themselves at any point during my presentation? 5) Do I want to be able to listen in on what participants share in the smaller groups?
We have uploaded Ceros, PowerPoint, renderings and website links to our wall for new client presentations and they are always impressed with the technology.
Ceros is a pretty robust program that has links and different touch points and customers love clicking and scrolling through information posted.
We use one wall to post all of our customer boards so we can quickly jump into a different board and show new ideas or companies that we have done business with with a few quick swipes.
The number one strength of Maestro Conference is the ability for the host to create "break out" groups where members of the call can interact with each other in smaller groups as if they were in an in-person conference.
Another quality of Maestro Conference that I love is the fact that the host can then "weave in and out" of the different break out groups, listening in, providing support and getting feedback. It's an incredibly tool that Maestro offers.
Lastly I think Maestro Conference has excellent customer service.
Chat function is less than ideal. It is easy to lose track of a conversation or a comment. We find making comments on the workspace turns out to be more effective.
Mentions--it would be nice to be able to assign groups within the people added to the workspace. Sometimes it'd be nice to do a quick mention with out having to do @everyone or type several names in (@person1, @person 2, etc.)
The call sound quality was often pretty poor, and we had a lot of trouble with calls being dropped. Over the years I would periodically throw in the towel and go back to Free Conferencing just to have reliable quality. But they only have 3 of 4 breakout rooms and I couldn't conduct the rooms easily. Then I try MC again to see if the engineering had improved. It was like a wave. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.
The conductor interface has an annoying glitch wherein we could not change a persons attribute fields on the fly. I would interview my callers and assign them to one class or another based on their answers, and the partner up people into breakout rooms based on their answers. This meant editing the two attribute fields , and it just plain didn't work 75% of the time.
Maestro Conference repositioned its business away from small educators like me, to large organizations like political action committees. The price became too high for me, and it just no longer made sense. I repositioned my product to work with less expensive and less complicated solutions.
The add on features, like recording each conference room, were insanely expensive.
VOIP and MC didn't mix. The MC dialer never worked. Neither did Skype. This meant that my international callers were out of luck. This was FRUSTRATING to say the least. Now I just use Skype. A picture is worth a thousand words.
I've only used the Google one and the Microsoft one, and those have pretty limited features in comparison. The canvas size being huge is a great asset to me because nothing sucks more than when you literally can't fit your ideas on the canvas. Also the speed it updates and how easy it is to share around with people seems to be easier.
Maestro has everything that GoToMeeting and WebEx has. The primary thing that sold us on Maestroconference was the ability to incorporate breakout groups for small group discussions and explorations. It also is very easy to access and does not require a type of download onto a users' computer for the interactive conference calls. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use and the call quality is high and access is reliable.
