6 Ways To Host A Virtual Meeting Effectively
Effective virtual meetings are something that must be done so that you can maximize the time you have. Perhaps, you often feel that meetings are held irregularly and take too long. As a result, the audience does not absorb the information properly, and productivity decreases.
To avoid this, it's better if you start making a meeting agenda that is clear, well-organized, and neat so that work productivity also increases.
Apart from that, many mediums can make your virtual meetings more interactive and fun. You can show any kind of content such as, presentation videos, images, infographics and even social media videos. It helps you get high engagement, better information absorption, and a more thorough understanding of your content.
So, holding effective meetings is not difficult if you know effective strategies and methods. Here are the six best ways to host a virtual meeting effectively:
Image Via Freepik
1. Choose the right virtual meeting tools
When dealing with online meetings, the most vital resource required is technology. It will facilitate you and your audience to communicate and collaborate quickly, precisely, and multi-functional during the meeting.
Interestingly, this technology can solve various obstacles faced by human activities due to limited space and time.
Several video conferencing tools can be used for the success of your virtual meeting, such as:
Google Meets
Zoom Meeting
Google Hangouts
Skype
etc
The tools above can be used for meetings with video conferencing, presentations using Slides, and collaborating using documents and spreadsheets. Everything can be easily shared through the share feature that is integrated with your corporate email. All in one G Suite service plan
2. Leverage visual assets
When you want to increase the engagement of your meeting attendees then a visual component is the way to go. You can utilize various visual media to help you convey your material, such as explainer videos, images, infographics, etc.
You can also display engaging social media videos through the share screens feature on the video conferencing platforms you are using.
3. Create a meeting agenda
Preparing a meeting agenda is also an important thing to do. Try to understand what you want to discuss and determine how you will present the information at the meeting, such as giving a demonstration, dividing participants into small discussion groups, conducting a survey, or inviting guest speakers. Gather whatever materials and equipment you plan to use for the meeting.
After that, you can start setting up the meeting agenda, such as determining how much time you spend on each topic, meeting title, time, date, location, discussion tools, and participant roles.
4. Send meeting invites and set reminders
After you finish creating the agenda, you can announce it to the participants at least three days before the meeting. Usually, because people are busy, they tend to forget incidental or non-routine meeting schedules, so meeting reminders are needed as notifications. Send a reminder one day before the big day.
You can also use tools to create online meeting invitations with Google Calendar and share them according to the date settings you set. That way, your virtual meeting can run smoothly and according to plan.
5. Set the guidelines
Setting up guidelines for virtual meetings is required. It will help you organize meetings quickly and efficiently. You can make conditions such as participants are required to turn on the camera during the meeting, opportunities to speak and ask questions, meeting agendas, etc.
It aims to expedite the flow of virtual meeting events and keep order during the virtual meeting event. That way, the virtual meeting will continue to run smoothly without any disturbances so that the audience can receive good information.
6. Follow up after the meeting
For meetings to be effective, everyone must have clear goals at the end of the meeting. What they should know is:
Work results and next steps
Who is responsible for these steps?
When should the work be completed
When will the next meeting be held?
If you are hosting a virtual meeting, don't forget that the most important part of the follow-up is asking for feedback from all meeting participants regarding the meeting that has been held.
You can ask for their opinion individually or through an anonymous survey. This will help you improve the quality of meetings that are more inclusive and efficient for everyone.
Takeaway
Making virtual meetings interactive and fun is not an easy thing to do, especially when convoluted meetings are a tradition that continues to be carried out. So, to realize an effective meeting, it must be started slowly by implementing the six methods mentioned above.
So, at the end of the event, you can begin to determine what the meeting agenda will be discussed next. By doing this, it will be easier for you to know what to do next.
Author
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).
Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email/Gravatar: andre@breadnbeyond.com
LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro