In the face of the current restrictions on meetings due to COVID-19, Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation have launched a teleconference facility aimed at bringing communities together for meetings of up to 99 people for up to 24 hours duration using high-quality video and clear sound at no cost.

They will be using Zoom, the market leading teleconferencing platform. They started by using Skype meetings but found that the quality leaves a lot to be desired. There are frequent gaps in the sound and the pictures frequently freeze. Experiment showed that Zoom provides far better quality, and it also provides free teleconferences. However, if more than two people talk, the conversation is limited to 20 minutes.

So the Committee decided to take out a paid subscription and offer to host teleconferences to any community group in Coventry for the foreseeable future. Anyone can request or organise a meeting, conference or informal chat by visiting the website CovTeleCon.uk and registering as a user.

Chair of the Committee, Philip Brown, said “We will give priority to groups who have some connection with peace and reconciliation and, taken in its broadest sense. That already covers a lot of meetings. But in addition we will host meetings for any community group, and that can include teams, religious groups, schools, friends, neighbours, almost anybody. For example we are happy to host parties, seminars, religious services, anything that people think the people of Coventry will find useful.

“We will give preference to organiser of the teleconference to live or work in Coventry under normal circumstances,” Philip went on, “although we realise that with current restrictions on movement they might be living or working elsewhere.”

Please visit the “Read This First” page to find out how to organise or take part in a teleconference.

Contact

For questions or queries write to admin@covtelecon.uk