Audio Conferencing with Teams and Skype for Business

March 17, 2020 /

While we recommend Zoom for most virtual meetings, sometimes a simple conference call is all that is needed and may present a lower technology hurdle for some. All Trinity employees should have received an email with their conference phone number and the audio conference PIN for Teams and Skype for Business. 

While these audio conferences use Teams or Skype for business you do not need to use these applications and the participants do not have to have any accounts to join. Everyone can participate via phone without the use of a computer.

Scheduling a Teams Audio Conference

To get started you will need to schedule a Teams meeting. This can be done in a number of ways, but probably the easiest for many people will be to use the Outlook web application. You can also use the Outlook, Teams, or Skype for Business applications.

Scheduling a meeting in Outlook web Access

Login into your email account at http://outlook.office365.com/. Enter your username in the format: username@trincoll.edu then your password.

Go to your calendar by clicking its icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Once in the calendar view click the button to create a new event.

Here you will be able to enter the details of your conference call:

  • Set the date and time as needed. You can also make a recurring meeting so you don’t have to create a new event if you want to hold regular calls.
  • If you enter the email addresses of everyone you want to invite they will get an email with the details. This is recommended but not required. Once you create the meeting you can manually email the details to anyone you wish.
  • Next to the location field you should see a box or toggle to select “teams meeting”. This is important as that is what will set up the audio conference and give you and your attendees the required access information.
  • Click the save button at the top left when you have entered all the required information. 

If you entered the attendee’s email addresses they will receive an email with the phone number and conference ID needed to join the meeting. If you didn’t enter their email addresses you will need to find the meeting on your calendar and open the item to find the conference ID and phone number to send to your participants.

To start the meeting simply call your conference phone number, enter the conference ID and then your PIN. Attendees will not need a PIN just the conference phone number and ID.

Scheduling a meeting in Outlook

If you have Teams or Skype for Business installed on your computer you should see their icons in the Calendar view of Outlook.

To schedule an audio conference using them just click the button for a new Skype or Teams meeting. The process is the same for creating any other appointment and as described above. 

Remember even though we are talking about scheduling a Teams or Skype for Business meeting these can be used as regular telephone conference calls and do not require a computer or any other technology or applications.