Everyone is meeting virtually these days, but some of us have been holding meetings online for years. Regardless of what platform you use, here are a few tips to make sure your meeting is both effective and efficient.
Communicate prior to the meeting
- Schedule the meeting before hand, verify who is coming, and always send a calendar invite. Make sure the key people will be attending.
- Provide a dial in number for anyone that may be traveling or does not have access to the internet.
- Include an agenda and let everyone know if you will be sharing information online and if possible provide copies before hand to ensure everyone has access.
Be prompt and secure
- Be on time, no one likes to wait in a virtual meeting room alone. Make sure the audience knows that your meeting always start on time and send out a quick reminder to anyone that has not shown up.
- Keep uninvited guests out of your meeting. For zoom, you can uses a waiting room so the host can control who enters the meeting.
Set ground rules
- Set some ground rules at the start of the meeting and specifically ask everyone to mute when not talking.
- Decide if it’s appropriate to turn on or off the video. Although it’s great to see the team, it can be distracting and use up bandwidth. As a host, you have control over both audio and video.
Be respectful of others
- Encourage participation by going around the room to make sure everyone has a chance to speak or share their opinion.
- Adhere to the scheduled meeting length. Respect that others have tight schedules and avoid the temptation to run over over the time limit.
- Before leaving, agree on next steps. Summarize actions and any followup meetings.
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