Virtual meetings are essential for successful collaboration, but only when done right. Here’s our tips on how to get participants involved in your virtual meetings.
The Tools for Collaboration
The difference between a seminar or lecture and a virtual meeting comes down to collaboration. Leveraging the diverse strengths of a team into a greater whole requires a culture of collaboration. Nothing is more important than being connected when it comes to achieving this. When 20 – 40% of team members are well connected from the start a team has a greater chance of successful collaboration.
Platforms like Involve Cloud allow companies to connect and collaborate more efficiently with a higher ROI. Regardless of the tools you deploy, they should integrate well with your existing software and provide an effective mobile interface. Research shows that only 3% of people come up with their best ideas when in the workplace. Providing the right tools to employees will assist your clients in succeeding beyond a single meeting.
Before The Meeting
Ask yourself: Is this meeting necessary? With all the benefits of engaging participants in virtual meetings one of the biggest enemies is wasting time. If a company schedules unnecessary virtual and online meetings you won’t just host a failure– you’ll also undermine your chances of success down the road.
But when the meeting is necessary there are steps to take before the day of. Give participants an agenda and tasks to prepare for prior to the meeting. Our friends at HB also remind us to only invite the required participants for the most effective virtual meetings. Involve Cloud now has a recording and streaming service available, allowing you to stream your virtual meeting to those who may benefit from what is being discussed in the meeting, without needing to be a part of it. There should also always be a clear goal articulated for the meeting as well.
Finally, all AV technology, content, and software platforms should be checked well before the start. The key components of successful virtual meetings include ensuring technology and tools can support client requirements and best practices.
Efficient and Respectful
Just as important as not holding unnecessary meetings is not wasting the time of your participants when virtual and online meetings do occur. You want to capture their attention in an efficient and collaborative spirit.
Resolve to start and end on time. This communicates mutual respect and encourages participants to be respectful of time as well. In that spirit, these virtual meetings should be kept short and to the point. Encouraging collaboration does not require meandering. 30 minutes is usually a good rule of thumb.
Part of keeping things on track is assigning roles prior to the start. Each participant, as part of their agenda, should be aware of the role they play in the success of arriving at the meeting’s objective. Include roles like timekeeper, moderator, and note taker as well.
Individual Participation
Part of individual preparation might include personal refreshers on their interface with collaborative technology. AV integrators can assist in the success of the meeting by working individually with each participant on their level of comfort with the tools.
Successful video conferencing means participants are getting the most out of their access point. Refreshing their skills on microphone and audio, lighting, and hands-free participation can help their comfort level and the overall success of the meeting. As our friends at VDO360 point out, showing clients how to check their environment and remove distractions prior to starting will also help to create a better virtual meeting.
Directing Outcomes and Evaluating Results
The art and science of virtual meetings is getting attendees to actively participate with their strengths while keeping things on track. If anyone gets off topic, or if discussions get out of hand, a moderator should not hesitate to head off the trouble before it escalates. This allows participants to know in each virtual meeting they can feel comfortable knowing they are collaborating in a respectful and efficient environment.
Each virtual or online meeting should also include an assessment of results. Did everyone participate? Were the goals achieved? Did the meeting start and end on time? Did technology perform to requirements?
Each company will have their own assessment criteria. Help them create measurements that foster a culture of performance improvement for virtual meetings. Each subsequent meeting can be more effective and helpful to your clients and all of the participants involved.
Helping You Succeed
Collaborative technology will allow you to increase productivity and reduce costs. By creating a collaborative environment—and ease of access to required data and documents in a team setting—the results will extend throughout corporate culture. Pair the right tools to these proven processes and you can make every virtual meeting interesting and helpful to your business as a whole.
To find out more about Involve Cloud, contact us! We also offer bespoke consultancy packages to help you make the most out of collaboration platforms for seamless virtual meetings.
