There are so many choices for conferencing; Webinars, Video Conferencing, Podcasts, Streaming, how to decipher what they mean and determine which one best suits your needs? Today we are pressured by too much work, too little time, ever-tightening budgets, increased productivity demands and the need to be in a hundred places at once. To aid in this overwhelming effort, technology has been developed across multiple platforms for use in conference sessions. For many users, the differences between types of conferencing technologies are very vague. This can cause the mere mention of one type of technology to create user expectations based on an understanding of a completely different technology. Part of this confusion is caused by the fact that all of these technologies have the same goal in mind; Allow you to interact with others without being physically present. Another part of this confusion is caused by blurring lines or using the same word to describe different characteristics. Having an audio component is not necessarily VoIP (Voice over IP) enabled, and having a video component is not necessarily video conferencing. This document will attempt to identify the differences and provide you with some simple guidelines to help you determine which technology is best for your session. One of the major problems in addressing this topic is the ambiguity of the terms and technologies associated with communication. In this document we limit the typologies to four main categories: Videostreaming, Podcasting, Webconferencing and Videoconferencing. We also do not include social media forms of conferencing (Facebook, instant messaging, chat, etc.) as these further muddy the waters and are generally not used as the primary means for... middle of paper... ...resolution (close to computer image quality) is still just an image sent to remote locations. I may be able to show you a PowerPoint slide but you cannot manipulate or interact with it in any way. Within each technology there are additional, version-specific features and limitations. A feature that is required in a Cisco version may not be available in the Adobe version. Likewise someone with only Windows Media Player can't watch a Flash stream. Identifying what you want to present and how you want it to be received is the first step. Then talk to the professionals who manage the systems to describe their specific features. Knowing the capabilities of the methods available to you combined with how you want them to be presented and received will ensure you choose the right technology with the best chance of providing a successful session.