The coronavirus is a highly transmissible virus and companies have been scrambling to prevent their employees from catching it. Remote work arrangements, travel restrictions, and virtual meetings have been the norm lately. The world is slowly learning to live with the virus, but virtual meetings are here to stay. With the right virtual corporate meeting platform on deck, companies can easily pull off an effective virtual meeting.
Though this transition to the virtual model was driven by a contagion, virtual meetings have proved to be productive, time-saving, cost-effective, and user-friendly. The purpose of a virtual corporate meeting is to bring people together to achieve critical goals and discuss relevant issues. To conduct a smooth and effective virtual corporate meeting, a checklist should be devised:
1. Test the technology and make necessary improvements
Conducting a pre-meeting check is a necessary step before the legit meeting. It is similar to getting a physical room all set up before the meeting. The virtual conference platform should be tried and tested before the meeting, ruling out any technical malfunctions or other issues. The features and tools should be checked out well. Any sort of delay, in the beginning, tends to kill the momentum of the entire meeting, especially due to technological malware.
Testing technology is also necessary to establish some sort of comfort with the virtual platform and not get intimidated on the D-Day. The meeting flow and itinerary time can also be assessed through this. A test run always helps in determining if any changes or improvisations are required. Further, not everyone is adept with technology hence a rehearsal gives them time and space to get familiar with the virtual event platform.
Another important aspect of a virtual meeting being conducted on a virtual summit platform is the duration of it. Long and tedious presentations, especially on the screen, can bore people to death. Meetings should be more discussion-based than one or two people dominating and speaking till the end of time. Prioritizing conversation helps maximize the time people spend actually looking at the screen during a virtual meeting.
2. Agendas and ice-breakers
It is significant to set an agenda for the virtual corporate meeting. Even a pre-read may help. Setting objectives beforehand is necessary to keep the meeting on track and the flow is maintained. During the meeting, the agenda can be discussed, set ground rules and time for breaks, and the next steps should be clearly outlined. For instance, if the agenda is to wrap up a meeting within an hour, the meeting should be divided into 15-minute segments for convenience. When everyone is on the same page, the flow of the meeting is also good and agendas are achieved.
Also, not everyone is a big fan of ice-breakers but at times they are important, especially in the virtual world. The pandemic has impacted people in ways beyond measure and building interpersonal connections have been difficult for many. To lessen the mutual feelings of isolation and loneliness, a little ice-breaker goes a long way to make people feel comfortable even in a professional setting. For someone who might have a family member struggling with health issues, check-in is in order.
3. Proper closing of the meeting is essential
Why simply end the meeting when one can close it properly? Virtual meetings have made leaving a meeting extremely convenient with the simple click of a button. But in a professional sphere like a corporate meeting, it is necessary to close the meeting with purpose and control and to avoid the urge to end the meeting quickly and disappear. The host can ask the attendees if they wish to add something before the meeting ends, key points can be summarized, greetings can be exchanged and everyone can loosen up a little bit. A head-start can be given to the attendees and a follow-up email will be sent shortly after.
On a side note, if the host senses that the engagement of the meeting is plummeting or that people are not participating, the meeting should be wrapped up early. This is more productive in the long run than dragging it on.
4. Follow-up
Visual cues are definitely harder to comprehend at times which makes gathering and processing inputs rather challenging. This makes it important to collect on-demand feedback in real-time from the attendees in the meeting on the virtual event platform. A phone-based survey or a poll can be circulated via email to the attendees to collect feedback. Following up immediately after the meeting ends is vital for continued engagement purposes while the meeting and its topics are still fresh in the participants’ minds.
In the follow-up email, minutes of the meeting, next steps, key accomplishments of the meeting, recording of the meeting (if possible), and the link to a feedback or satisfaction survey should be included. Furthermore, attendees who may have had any trouble connecting or may have any additional queries should be reached out to.
Conclusion
To make virtual team meetings work, proper and effective planning does the trick. From picking the right virtual fest platform, like Dreamcast, to closing the meeting on a light and purposeful note, all of it is extremely significant in contributing to its success.
Virtual meetings work amazing in the present era owing to the growing need to go remote. The cherry on top is that our technology is advanced and better than ever. Knowledge of the virtual world has increased manyfold in recent years and the success rate is commendable. This is the future!
