With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many people are finding themselves working remotely for the first time. This can be confusing and frustrating, especially when you need to host virtual meetings. Here are three tips to host virtual meetings more effectively.
Select the Right Platform
When hosting an online event, finding the right platform is crucial. There are several platforms to serve your needs, but what is your objective? Is it a webinar listen-only; is it a small workshop or small class? Once you determine the objective for your online event, it can help to identify the best platform for you. Here are a few platform options that can help you.
For webinars, listen-only mode, I prefer Zoom or Adobe Connect
For online classes and live virtual training, I prefer Zoom and WebEx. You can have lectures, a whiteboard, and the ability to share YouTube or other videos, as well as breakout rooms. The breakout room is one of my favorite features because it allows me to have participants work in groups as they would in a classroom.
If doing an online virtual conference with many speakers, I also use Zoom and Adobe Connect.
Zoom is my favorite for online classes, training, workshop, and conferences, but there are other platforms including, Adobe Connect, WebEx or GoToTraining.
If you are hosting a meeting, there are these platforms as well as Skype, FreeConference and Google Hangout.
Do your research to determine which platform is best for you.
Prepare for your meeting
Like with all meetings, preparation is the key to success. Preparing for a virtual meeting goes beyond ensuring technology is properly set up and ready to go. It involves determining the purpose of the meeting, outlining the objectives and what should be achieved by the end of the meeting. You also want to make sure you have an agenda to keep you on track and a facilitator to guide the meeting. Send the agenda in advance along with a calendar invite. When scheduling your meeting, take into consideration different time zones. You may have team members who are in a few different time zones. Find a time that works best for everyone. Lastly, it may even help to have a scribe to take notes. Notes should be emailed to everyone within 24 hours after the meeting.
Keep your team engaged during the virtual meeting
Now that you are prepared and ready to go, how do you keep your team engaged? One of the first ways to keep your team engaged is to have EVERYONE turn on their cameras for the duration of the meeting. This way you can see them and know if they are REALLY focused on the meeting. A second way to keep your team engaged is to give everyone time to speak; this can be a 1-minute update from everyone on their current projects or 2 minutes to offer new ideas. This will also help to ensure that one person is not dominating the meeting. The third way to engage your team on a virtual meeting is to make sure it is collaborative. Even though everyone will have his or her time to share, you still want to make sure there is time for dialogue among the team. The last way you can keep your team engaged is to share a story or something inspirational at the start and at the end of the meeting. Who doesn’t love a great story or video that gets you excited and motivated to collaborate and work?
Stay Safe!
Thanks for the tips and I like that you suggest platforms by type of meeting.
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