Have you ever wondered if the online meetings you organize meet your clients’ and employees’ expectations?
Now that online meetings have become increasingly common, we tend to treat them almost like something expected. Business meetings can be held more often and efficiently.
Virtual meetings allow for faster consultations with business partners, preventing the long process of arranging meetings in real life. But despite this, and the many other positive aspects of virtual meeting sessions, we must remember a few rules to make them as effective as possible.
Perhaps most importantly, online sessions still showcase your brand, so you should pay attention to their organization without omitting any details.
This article will show you the best tips and tricks to prevent unprofessional mess.
What is a Virtual Meeting Room?
A virtual meeting room is the equivalent of a physical meeting location on an online video conference platform. Much about a virtual meeting room depends on the application you choose to host it.
On such a platform, you can easily organize all kinds of business meetings thanks to which participants can interact in various ways. For example, via chat, video, audio, or screen sharing, etc.
Good Practices for Organizers
Regardless of the virtual meetings program type, you should remember our 15 most important rules below. These will help improve the quality of your online sessions and produce the desired results.
#1 Choose the best time for the meeting
Before organizing a meeting, setting the topic, and inviting guests, you must pick a suitable date. A quick chat message to your coworkers or creating a deadline survey seems to be a good solution for this.
#2 Establish the rules and purpose
It's always worth letting participants know the meeting format. Add a short note to the invitation in which you briefly describe what you will focus on and provide the virtual address. Thanks to this, invitees can familiarize themselves with the topic in advance.
#3 Comfortable workspace
Meeting organizers need to take care of their own comfort. For example, if you use two monitors, ensure you can see everything clearly on them and your laptop screen, say.
Remove distracting items, such as a phone with notifications turned on or an empty cup of freshly drunk coffee. This will help you focus solely on the presentation and the people involved.
#4 Check your internet connection
Having a fast and reliable connection to the internet is one of the most critical factors. A weak WiFi signal may distract participants if your presentations begin to break up with sudden communication difficulties, or even end the meeting entirely if the connection is lost.
Be smarter, close all unnecessary bandwidth throttling applications before the meeting, test the performance of your connection, and have a backup mobile signal prepared in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.
#5 Turn off notifications
How many times have you been in an online meeting when a pop-up window has suddenly appeared? Well, this can also be unprofessional and distracting for you and your participants.
Flashing icons aren't a good solution unless they are part of your interactive presentation. If your phone is still on your desk, don't forget to mute it. Even if your ringtone is a popular song, it is worth avoiding this situation.
#6 Test the technical configuration
Video calls are best organized using a laptop or computer. A cell phone might also come into play, but this is a pretty risky and often inconvenient solution.
Check if your online meeting software opens without any problems and if your built-in audio works correctly. Also, pay attention to any required system updates that may slow down your device.
#7 Make a proper greeting
A good introduction will set an appropriate tone for the meeting, then you can briefly discuss what you will present and your audience's expectations. After the introduction, wait for any potential questions and then feel free to start your presentation.
#8 Check the attendance list
Before each meeting gets underway, you need to establish whether or not all of the invitees are in attendance. You might be surprised otherwise if, say, you ask a question and don’t get an answer since someone is absent.
This kind of situation could be awkward and embarrassing for both you and the participants. So, to prevent it, look at the list of display names and compare it with the guest list to find out if anyone is missing.
#9 Create polls & quizzes
Polls and quizzes aren't obligatory because they depend on your chosen meeting format. However, using interactive content to engage your business partners and colleagues is very important.
Short questionnaires or quizzes during the presentation will effectively improve their focus and allow them to get more involved in the topic. Surveys and polls don't have to be complex – try adding a little color and humor to achieve positive feedback.
#10 Pay attention to the chat
If you have agreed to open a chat window during your meeting, read the comments from time to time. Agree in advance with members when they can ask questions and when you will answer them.
However, you can use an anonymous comments option to hide participants' names if you want participants to feel more comfortable and gain a sense of trust.
A chat function is also helpful if errors occur. For example, you might think that everything is working correctly, but it turns out from their written messages that the other participants can't hear you.
#11 Prepare a suitable presentation
When writing what you want to say, it’s worth having multimedia that helps you refer to it. People can be divided into hearing and visual learners, so you should try to appeal to both types.
The key to successful online meetings is participants who watch with concentration and interest. As such, it might be a good idea to add engaging media in your presentations or funny gifs and memes that let you break the ice cream during a complex theme.
#12 Match the virtual meeting to its type
Evey online meeting can be different. For example, an appointment with a therapist will be personal, whereas a virtual business meeting will be formal. Consider what your organization's work culture is and how you communicate.
Also, customize the video meeting for the topic appropriately. If this is a meeting with a potential new business partner, for example, then the dress code would dictate that you should go for a more elegant outfit.
However, if you summarize the month with your coworkers, you may choose to dress more casually but still neat. Just because you are chatting on your webcam doesn't mean you shouldn’t present yourself well.
#13 Make an eye contact
Looking at the camera can be difficult because our natural reaction is to look at the monitor. However, keeping your eyes on the camera gives a greater sense of engagement to the meeting participants.
Making eye contact positively affects the impression that you make during your speech, but remember to take short breaks to avoid seeming like you’re staring.
#14 Take notes
If one of the participants informs you about a new idea during the meeting, you should write it down immediately, as well as their name if necessary. This way you can ask them to send the details in an email after the meeting.
It’s often worth recording your meetings if you obtain permission to do so in advance so that you can look back on the presentation and any questions or comments, as well as giving absentees a chance to learn the topic.
#15 Choose a virtual platform
Last but not least, you should equip yourself with an appropriate tool before starting your adventure with presentations and online meetings.
One such virtual meeting software solution is LiveWebinar, which allows you to broadcast online conferences and webinars to social media and other external sources. You can also use its chat option and create polls or quizzes for participants.
Video-conferencing software helps convert leads into sales and encourages participants to make purchases or pursue further cooperation.
LiveWebinar allows you to create sharing conference rooms as needed. Additionally, it supplies you with a range of integrations and provides many marketing tools for automation.
Conclusion
We have gathered all of the essential information you need to organize the best virtual meeting space. Thanks to these steps, your sessions can be planned well and therefore be engaging and successful.
Follow our tips and use the excellent LiveWebinar virtual meeting platform to help you organize meetings with all of your desired features and improve your video conference performance.