WHAT IT TAKES TO HOST A SUCCESSFUL VIRTUAL MEETING

Within the last 60 days or so, virtual meetings have gone from being a fad to a must-have for all businesses. And because of where we are in the world today, traditional style meetings will become a thing of the past. We have been able to see how much easier and more productive we are and can be by using virtual technology to communicate with employees and clients no matter the location.

What's awesome about virtual meetings, are that the requirements to participate are minimal. All your attendees need is a device (ie. computer, cell phone, tablet), an internet connection, and their password to their app store on their iOS and or Android device.

As for hosting a virtual meeting, you want to make sure you have all the right tools in your virtual toolbox and a template on how to host a virtual meeting. So let's discuss what we believe are the best practices to hosting phenomenal virtual meetings.

SEND OUT THE AGENDA AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE. No one likes walking into a meeting not knowing the foundation of the meeting and what the end goal is. Make sure to create and distribute the agenda and any pre-work prior to the virtual meeting taking place. Make sure you stay focused on the agenda so that you keep the focus of all attendees and even yourself.

TEST THE TECHNOLOGY AHEAD OF TIME. Want to kill the momentum of a meeting, start your meeting 10-15 minutes late. It is imperative that you do the following prior to hosting:

• Download any and all required software. Remember sharing is caring! So remember to share your link with your participants to make sure they are ready to go!

• Make sure the video and audio to your computer work with your virtual meeting host software.

• Complete a trial run prior to your meeting and play around with the software so you know where all your needed buttons are located. No one likes to wait for people to figure something out during a meeting.

• Check your internet connection. We would hate for you and or one of your participants to be speaking and...........(sorry my internet cut out)........... Get my drift.

MINIMIZE YOUR PRESENTATION LENGTH. In-person or on a virtual meeting, a long presentation is a long presentation. Focus on the quality of your meeting and not so much the quantity. Everything does not have to be discussed all at once. Review your agenda and see what items you can place in the "parking lot". Remember, you don't want to lose your participants so be mindful of time and quantity of data.

SET EXPECTATIONS. Create ground rules in advance and share them with your participants prior to your meeting. Your rules can be something similar to what I have created in the past for virtual meetings I have hosted.

• Make sure that participants introduce themselves.

• Prior to speaking, making sure each participant provides their name.

• If not speaking, use the mute button to eliminate background noises.

• Make sure all comments are regarding the topic of discussion and kept short to allow time for other participants to share.

DO AN ICEBREAKER. I'll be honest, I am definitely not a fan of cheesy ice breakers but if you are trying to get your team acclimated to virtual meetings, I would suggest doing an ice breaker. You want to make sure you use a tool, like an icebreaker, to reinforce interpersonal relationships when people may be feeling isolated.

ENGAGE THE TEAM. It's a lot easier to be distracted during a virtual meeting because you have access to literally everything. So just as you would do during a traditional meeting, make sure you keep your participants engaged. Pause halfway through the meeting to check in with participants about the meeting process. Checking in halfway allows you to adjust before the end of the meeting. Engage your participants again at the end of the meeting and apply this feedback to future meetings.

ASSIGN SOMEONE TO TAKE NOTES. Prior to your meeting, reach out to one of your participants to have them be your scribe during the meeting. After the meeting, I have my scribe send me the meeting notes to review and then share them with the team. It's important that you get someone that can multitask during the meeting.

DEBRIEF AT THE END OF THE MEETING. After the meeting, you want to capture feedback, positive or negative, from all participants. I usually capture the feedback by sending out a survey and or asking for feedback via email. I then utilize that information to help me prepare for the next meeting. Remember all feedback is good feedback. Also, if this is your first virtual meeting, make sure you get feedback on what your participants thought. Then use that feedback to enhance your virtual meetings moving forward.

So yea...... Successfully running a virtual meeting can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. If you plan accordingly and take time to make sure you have properly prepared yourself and your participants, you will be able to confidently run a productive virtual meeting. Remember virtual meetings can be used for business meetings with colleagues and staff members, holding training sessions with employees, client interactions, document reviews and sales presentations and so much more. Though virtual meetings may still seem unfamiliar to some, this is a trend that is fast growing and a great way to conduct meetings. So if you have been ignoring this concept and if you are not yet exploiting this tool, now is the time to begin.

If you have some virtual meeting best practices and or tools that you would like to share, drop us a line!