Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay
By Emma Sturgi
Did you know that an engaging virtual meeting with your employees can have a more significant impact than a traditional face-to-face meeting? Whether you’re a large company that’s just starting to explore the potential of working from home or a small business looking to improve employee engagement, you can leverage virtual meeting technology to help your team feel more connected and productive.
Keep the meeting light and fun
You’re going to have a lot of meetings at work, and chances are the ones that follow will be just as engaging. If the sessions you have are a little drab, try to lighten the mood by using pop culture references, letting your employees play games, or using your laptop to project images on the wall. If you have a meeting after work, you might consider playing some chill music or having your team use their laptops to listen to a podcast in a group setting. You can use tools like Spotify, Overcast, or any other podcast app to create great-sounding playlists.
Have music or a podcast available
If your team members are all stacked up in the same room, they won’t be able to chat with one another as much as they would if they were sitting at a computer or phone. Luckily, you don’t need to sit there with them while they talk; you can keep them company in another room with a few ambient sounds, like a playlist of holiday music or a podcast. If you have a preferred technique for making audio content, that’s even better. This will allow you to keep the conversation going and interact with your team members without doing much. Some businesses use high-pitched sounds for everyday conversation, like an alarm for meetings or a siren for emergencies. These sounds can be set up to trigger different conversation starters, helping you to keep the discussion focused and engaging.
Use a professional studio
A studio like AVEX or other virtual meeting apps allow you to record the entire meeting and save it as an embeddable YouTube video. You can create a “Guestbook” for each meeting, which helps you capture important information from each conference, such as who you met with, what was discussed, and how the meeting went. You can also include a photo and a timestamp so that the meeting is displayed in a way that’s easy to understand.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
Although you might feel like you have this meeting planned out to a T, not everyone on your team knows how to use virtual meeting technology. Even if you have been using virtual meeting technology for a while, it’s easy to forget how a new team member might feel about using it for the first time. You don’t know whether that person is confident or self-conscious before stepping foot in your building.
When it comes to virtual meeting technology, many different options are available to businesses. Some companies use traditional meeting planners to schedule meetings with their team members, while others use online sessions. When you use virtual meeting technology, you get to create a more flexible schedule and avoid the distraction of having to put up with rude or unhelpful team members.
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Emma Sturgis is a freelance writer based out of Boston, MA. She writes most often on health and education. When not writing, she enjoys reading and watching film noir. Say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2.
