The continuous waves of covid-19, more and more employees started working from home. Virtual meeting platforms allow various kinds of interactions online from the comfort of one’s home- interviews, meetings, and conferences. Even though these meetings have different themes and purposes, they work on the same system, which is why there are a few things to keep in mind for a better, more effective virtual meeting.
1. Plan it out:
Schedule meetings, and organize them better by adding an agenda. This will help give a flow to the meeting and will make sure productivity is maintained since members are driven to discuss the issue at hand. While working with a Virtual event Platform, shareholders must get a chance to speak or raise a question or concern. Allotting time for Q&A sessions and some for technical glitches would reduce a lot of confusion and chaos.
2. Follow-through with the agenda:
Setting an agenda helps steer the meeting in a productive direction. However, it’s possible that over time, the discussion might go on a tangent which is when making notes and noting down the minutes of the meeting ensures an effective one, and helps track progress well, thus setting the pace for future meetings.
3. Hello’s:
The tone in which a meeting is started often sets the precedent of it. This is why greeting one’s employees set a positive tone and helps to keep them motivated and focused throughout the meeting. A warm personalized greeting for every employee acts as a great way to boost morale, especially on a Virtual Corporate Meeting Platform where there’s too much pressure to keep the meeting extremely formal. This helps the team members feel important and will therefore be encouraged to turn in their best work.
4. Less is more:
Humans come with a limited attention span, which is why the shorter and crisper a meeting is, the more effective it is. Conversations do tend to go on, which is why managers should encourage their employees to share but keep it short so it’s fair and quick. If the management drones on for longer, the main objective is lost as even the most focused employees might zone out. If in case, important topics do come up but the meeting has gone on for a while, keep it for the next meeting as thirty minutes is a very ideal meeting duration.
5. Ditch the phone:
While using a smartphone might be a very easy and convenient alternative, it doesn’t exactly scream professional. Setting it at the right angle without it toppling over or holding it throughout the meeting might act as a distraction, restrict the speaker and prevent them from saying what they wanted. Laptops or desktops are a much better alternative. Because it opens up at the right angle, it encourages the person too, to sit straight and their hands are free to take notes. It is much easier to navigate on a laptop since a lot of virtual meeting platforms are very laptop-friendly thus making it a lot quicker while sharing presentations.
6. DND mode:
The ‘do not disturb’ mode is very helpful in this setting as it disables any kind of notifications one might receive from various applications. Using a laptop in this case too might be beneficial considering that laptops don’t receive notifications as constantly as phones do, but if in case one has to use the phone, the ‘Do not disturb mode or the DND mode helps with efficiency as constant pop-ups might distract them and they might forget what they were going to say thus diluting the efficiency of the meeting. It might be a good idea to gently remind meeting participants too, to disable pop-up notifications.
7. Virtual eye-contact:
While meeting on a Virtual Corporate Meeting Platform maintaining eye contact is not possible, however, looking at the camera is. In a virtual meeting, every attendee’s alignment of their screens and cameras are different therefore their eyes are at different levels, therefore when one looks into the camera while talking, the eyes are fixed at their eye –level. This helps the speaker look more confident and hence come off clearer to the rest of the attendees and while this might be challenging to attempt since it’s like looking at an inanimate object instead of a person, it might be easy if the camera is thought of as an eye.
8. Less background noise:
It is completely frustrating if the person talking is not clearly audible due to a constant buzzing or disturbance. This is why conducting meetings in a place that is quiet and peaceful is a good idea. The attendees will be able to better hear and understand what the speaker is trying to say, helping with the productivity levels of the meeting.
9. Simple backgrounds:
Along with sounds in the background, loud colors and shapes too can be distracting and a pain to look at which is why the speaker and the attendees should be encouraged to maintain neutral colored or blurred out backgrounds and refrain from using flashy filters and effects.
10. Avoid interrupting:
While the main speaker or the superior might have asked for the meeting if an attendee is voicing a concern it is important to hear them out. Interrupting someone is highly unprofessional and disrespectful thus making the person feel unimportant, attendees too should use a signal after which they may speak- many Virtual Meeting Platforms come with buttons that one can tap before talking or a chat box in which they can notify before speaking so that they don’t interrupt.
CONCLUSION
While hosting meetings online one must remember that everyone is working with devices that might falter at times, internet connections that might lag, and certain system glitches that might not be in their control, therefore patience and understanding are important as they will not stress the person further. In light of minimizing background noise, it might be a good idea to have each attendee keep themselves on mute to avoid disturbances and use an efficient platform, like Dreamcast.