Businesses Countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt with Help from Skype

We’re counting down to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco next week. A team of us from Skype’s Silicon Valley office are planning to visit the headliner event. We’re not only excited to check out the sessions, but we’re especially looking forward to the Startup Battlefield event at TechCrunch Disrupt.
As the official video calling host for TechCrunch Disrupt, Skype has been a key tool in the event’s Startup Battlefield competition. According to TechCrunch event organizers, “We’ve performed over 250 video calls and demos for Disrupt on Skype plus countless hours of calls, conference calls and chat sessions.”
That’s great. Not only do we think Skype is an essential tool for almost any business, but we also think it’s really novel that hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs are using Skype to be interviewed by TechCrunch. The final selected contestants will have their chance to pitch their ideas or products in person at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, for a cash prize of $50,000 that can be used to help them bring their idea to the market.
Millions of people use Skype every day, and in the first half of 2010, Skype video calling represented approximately 40% of all Skype-to-Skype minutes. In fact, approximately 37% of over 40,000 of our connected users surveyed in the first quarter of 2010 told us they use Skype occasionally or often for business related purposes. Businesses are using Skype to benefit from lower costs and expand how employees, customers, partners and suppliers communicate and collaborate with ease-of-use, greater convenience and efficiency.

Check out these tips to get started using Skype for your business today.

• If you can’t arrange an in-person meeting, suggest hosting the meeting over a Skype video call. Ensure you have a high quality webcam and microphone, high-speed Internet access, and Skype software downloaded to your computer.
• If there are more than two parties on the call, Skype’s latest beta for Windows can support group video calling, so you can talk to multiple colleagues or customers.
• If you want an easy way to manage and allocate credit for multiple Skype accounts for your organization, use Skype Manager.
• Don’t forget if you want to show a demo or run through a presentation, Skype’s screen sharing feature is easy and useful. In fact, check out this great TechCrunch post here about Skype screen sharing.
• Last but not least, a little bit of etiquette can go a long way when communicating with business associates over Skype. We enjoyed these great etiquette tips from TechCrunch here.

Skype Joins Mashable, 92nd Street Y & United Nations Foundation in Launching a Discussion on Social Good

At Skype, we know the power of conversation. We know that just one conversation can spark incredible ideas. Ideas that address the world's most intractable problems - like hunger, poverty and disease. We also know that all too often conversations on these subjects are limited to the inner circles of world leaders, politicians and think tanks. That's why we are so proud to join 92nd Street Y, Mashable and the United Nations Foundation in opening up the conversation around social good.
On September 20, Skype video calling will be used to connect leaders from the online, business, policy and media worlds to the Mashable and 92Y Social Good Summit. At the summit, top minds in digital media will come together to discuss how technology and social networks can play a leading role in addressing the U.N.'s "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs). Participating speakers include Pete Cashmore, CEO/Founder of Mashable, Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and founder of Jumo, Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED), and Ted Turner, the Chairman of Turner Enterprises, among others.
The Social Good Summit takes place during United Nations Week, which plays host to the annual General Assembly and a historic summit on global issues known as the "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs). The Social Good Summit will be open to the public and will enable millions to join the conversation via livestreaming.
Skype will also play a central role in the UN Foundation and Mashable-sponsored Digital Media Lounge, which will be hosted at 92Y throughout UN Week, September 21-24, allowing real-time, face-to-face communications. The fully wired lounge will provide the online community exclusive access to high-level UN officials and international leaders. Bringing UN closed-door conversations out in the open, experts in poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDs, women's health, and climate change will be able to connect with bloggers and journalists both in person and through Skype video calling interview facilities.

'Stand Up and Take Action!' with Skype, Ustream and the UN Millennium Campaign

Change often starts with having a conversation. At Skype, we're proud to enable global conversations that can help end poverty. We are partnering with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to foster conversations about the most important issues facing our generation during "Stand Up and Take Action!," the annual mobilization where citizens gather at events around the world to demand that world leaders eradicate extreme poverty by 2015.

As part of the program, for the first time, Skype is collaborating with Ustream to enable video calls about global poverty between world leaders, celebrities, and citizens globally to be broadcast on the internet live via Ustream's interactive video broadcasting platform. The Skype calls will be broadcast on both the Stand Up Take Action! page on Facebook and Ustream's web site.

Those participating in the Skype video calls include former Irish President Mary Robinson, as well as African entertainers Femi Kuti and Angelique Kidjo. The calls will take place throughout this week, leading up to the "Stand Up and Take Action!" weekend on October 16-18 when millions of citizens will take part in activities demanding that world leaders keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.