Companies are trying to protect employees from the spread of covid-19 by following remote work routines. However, with the travel restrictions and flexible work arrangements, there is an excellent possibility that in-person meetings with clients, teams, and suppliers may get canceled for days.
Even if the members join, meetings may fail due to several reasons. First, attendees generally consider virtual meetings a place to multitask. Even meeting organizers are observed to be less careful about the design and purpose of the conversation. Moreover, it is not uncommon for a few attendees to dominate the discussion while others are out of mode.
Under these circumstances, virtual meetings can never achieve the desired objectives. Therefore, finding reliable ways to make those gatherings more fruitful is essential. Below we have listed a few tips and tricks from experts at Global Investment Strategies to help you get the best out of virtual meetings.
Use videos but keep the audio dial-in option active
It is good to use video conferencing instead of traditional dial-in conferences to make your people feel they hold the same importance in the meetings. The latest technologies, such as Skype, Zoom, and GoToMeeting, can help you personalize your conversations during meetings while ensuring enhanced engagement for participants.
Although video conferencing will always work well, it requires a strong internet connection, which is not always available. Therefore, people must be given a chance to participate via audio calls to ensure that at least they can attend the meeting. However, it is still important to announce that video is the preferred norm.
Test technology ahead of time
The biggest killer of time in virtual meetings is a delay of 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting because attendees want to download software or their video is not working. Therefore, all members must be advised to test their systems before meeting time. In addition, training them to become friendly with the technology and ensure they understand all the necessary features is better.
Also, when you meet with the customers and suppliers, ensure your team takes the initiative to familiarize them with the software package. It is necessary to make your meetings worth useful for all attendees.
Assign a facilitator
It isn’t easy for most people to handle a virtual discussion compared to an in-person meeting. To lead conversations effectively, you should provide a facilitator to manage the virtual meetings. They can help all attendees to stay focused on the content.
The facilitator can use a polling system to manage the entire group and handle various questions. The facilitator can also resolve basic technology-related questions of the attendees. It would help if you also made efforts to get real-time feedback from members to make meetings more fruitful.
These simple tricks can help you make virtual meetings more useful for all attendees. When working in distance mode, it is also essential to be careful with the length of the presentation. One can also use ice-breakers to motivate all team members to participate.
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