10 Simple Tips To Host A Successful Virtual Meeting
Virtual meetings have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, from work meetings to online classes, family get-togethers, and workout sessions. As a trusted Jabra Partner in the UAE and an experienced AV solutions supplier and integrator, Zeal Global has helped set up many meeting rooms across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. After the pandemic, the world has become a smaller place with advanced meeting rooms interconnecting businesses and people across the globe.
The quality of video conferences plays a crucial role in the success of the meeting. While we help set up meeting rooms, conferencing workspaces, and work-from-home setups, we consider it our duty to educate about hosting successful virtual meetings. In this article, we have detailed the various aspects you must think about and plan before hosting a video meeting to ensure it becomes a joyous and productive experience for the participants.
10 Simple Tips To Host a Productive Video Conference Meeting
With remote work culture, multinational companies, and worldwide franchise businesses, virtual meetings are as important as physical conferences. While it may seem less formal, it is crucial to plan and establish standards, which requires more attention than traditional meetings.
1. Choose a meeting platform based on the meeting needs
With the upsurge in video conferences, there are loads of meeting platform solutions available in the market. The first step in planning out the meeting solutions is to decide on the platform. You can make this choice based on the business requirements, software cost, meeting recording access, average expected attendees, interactiveness of the meetings, need for advanced features, existing access to software like OneDrive or Google Drive, etc.
Popular video conferencing software includes Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and WebEx. To avoid fumbling through the platform during the meeting, get acquainted with its features and ensure it has all the tools required.
2. Plan and set the stage
Never think that you can rush into a meeting. Such unplanned conferences are those that spoil the whole experience for the attendees. The first thing is to schedule the meeting well in advance so that the host and the participants get time to plan for the meeting. With remote attendees, cross-check the time zones and pick an appropriate time suitable for all. Send out the meeting agenda and topic. Ensure that everyone is well equipped for the meeting and help them if they are not. This helps prevent last-minute glitches that can lead to time waste in meetings. For formal meetings, the IT manager must check camera placement in the office and for remote attendees.
3. Invest in the equipment
Virtual meeting memes are too common, but you do not want yours to become one among them. Due to their ineffective noise cancellation, built-in laptop microphones are no longer sufficient for online meetings. Investing in quality audio-visual (AV) solutions is essential for office meeting rooms and conference halls. Zeal Global solves this crucial element with our expert meeting room consultation and AV integration solution for businesses in the UAE. We help plan your custom meeting room solution with the right video bar, speakerphone, microphone, and other essentials per your business requirements.
Connect with our team for your Free Meeting Room AV consultation.
4. Plan the meeting activities
Even if you have an agenda, you may need to plan the activities to ensure the meeting remains engaging with zero time lag. The host should begin the meeting with an icebreaker session, especially if there are new participants. It’s also important to start the meeting with introductions. Effective time management is also essential to prevent the meeting from extending beyond the scheduled hour, which can be undesirable.
Instead of having a one-sided conversation, try to make it more engaging with various activities like screen sharing, whiteboarding, collaborative boards, online sticky notes, etc.’ Zoom Fatigue’ is commonplace in longer meetings. You can use polls, quizzes, and open-ended questions to help prevent this. Keep it concise and avoid dragging the meeting.
5. Improve Your Communication Skills
The meeting host has the overall responsibility of driving the conversation and is in control of the whole call. A good communicator can grab the attention of all the participants and keep them involved. Even though you may be good at offline meetings, you must also scale yourself to show your charm in online meetings.
For virtual meetings, the key factor is to keep it short, interesting, and precise. Even though you start with an icebreaker, you can rush straight to the point. A clear and visible presentation can add to active listening. Make sure you involve all participants by acknowledging their input. Encourage the use of ‘raise hands’ or a chat feature to avoid talking over others.
6. Maintaining body language
In face-to-face meetings, you can use body gestures, walking and eye contact to capture the attention of the listeners, which is a major lacking in online meetings. So you are mostly left with the right tone of voice to keep the hold of the meeting. Speak loudly, and be clear and concise without mumbling through words. Avoid using jargon or repetitions. And above all, while being loud, be very careful not to shout, as it can be taxing for the listeners who are using headphones.
Being the host, formal dressing is key to expressing authoritativeness and exposing the importance of the meeting. Keep a simple background without too many colors. You can ideally blur the natural background or go for single light colors or a wall. Maintaining eye contact can be challenging, but try to look at the camera rather than the screen. Mount your webcam on the screen or use a tripod to get the right positioning.
7. Send out the meeting rules
According to a recent survey, 90% of Americans multitask during meetings, engaging in tasks like work, checking emails, messaging, or browsing social media. Lay out your rules and send a reminder a few minutes before the meeting.
Send a checklist to ensure the devices are working properly, background check, calm and silent surroundings, and ask to mute before joining the call. This will also work as a reminder to join the call in time. Send specific instructions to keep the camera on and ask them to avoid doing anything unrelated during the meeting.
8. Record the meeting
All web conferencing platforms allow you to record your meetings. This handy feature will help you share the meeting with those who may have missed it due to unexpected reasons. It also stays as a record to check for creating meeting minutes or any references. You can choose to record locally or on the cloud. Make sure to check the recording settings before the call. By selecting the cloud option, sharing it over the web is convenient.
9. Manage the meeting
While in the meeting, the host must check several factors to ensure a smooth meeting flow. If you have a core speaker, pin the speaker video to ensure it stays focused without distractions when others are talking. While teaching a class, turn on the gallery view so the host can see the participants and check if everyone is attentive. Keep an eye out for anyone unmuting accidentally, and closely watch the chat window to avoid missing out on participant interactions.
10. Follow-up and feedback
Any meeting bears the fruits only with proper action post the meeting. Being the host, you are responsible for tracking the follow-up actions and gathering feedback to improve the meeting. A successful virtual meeting directly impacts productivity. Sending out meeting notes, actionable points, video recordings, and any other relevant materials imposes the importance of the meeting and the further actions to be taken.
Genuine feedback can help you improve your future meetings. Send out a form where the participants can rate the meeting based on structure, content, and format.It is important to send the follow-up email soon after the meeting, as delaying it may cause the meeting to be forgotten.
