This article aims to assist you in running virtual meetings in a professional manner and get the most value from these meetings. Best practices for virtual meetings are focused on improving collaboration, avoiding distractions and keeping everyone interested. If your online meetings aren’t a success, then you’re wasting valuable teamwork opportunities as well as productivity gains.
The purpose of your meetings is vital. It doesn’t matter if it’s an exercise to solve problems or a status update. Having a clear goal will keep you focussed and achieve your desired outcome. It’s also beneficial to define the roles of the key players during the meeting, for example, who’s taking notes or leading discussions, so that they feel confident and motivated to take part.
Try using icebreakers and team building activities to encourage participants to attend your virtual meeting. You can incorporate an interactive quiz, a team-building exercise, or even divide participants into smaller groups to encourage brainstorming and discussion. When you do this, be sure to respect the privacy of the participants and their privacy. This will make them feel more at ease.
You should have an emergency plan in case of any technical issues that might arise during your virtual conference. You can prepare a short presentation to share with the attendees of your virtual meeting or have someone else record notes for you to send the notes after the call. The idea of asking for feedback is a great way to discover what was a success and how you can improve your meeting in the future.