There is a lot of value with face to face interaction and meetings. Many times, this is not an option. With virtual offices, working from home, and telecommuting becoming more popular, the need for virtual meetings and conference calls has increased. The good news is, when done correctly, a call or webinar can have the same level of engagement and productivity as an in-person meeting. As a professional who has worked from an at home office for over 6 years, I have some best practice tips to share to make a big impact while utilizing technology. Through this blog post, I will discuss three different formats for communication that include one on one touch points, conference calls and webinars. Hopefully these best practices will help you feel confident as you enter your virtual world.

1:1 Interactions:

Pick up the phone. Email is not always the best form of communication. With the addition of text chatting technology, our society now relies heavily on text messages, chat platforms and emails as their main form of communication. However, a lot of the tone behind the message gets lost this way. Picking up the phone and having a discussion is still the best way to make sure your message is understood clearly.
Use all communication platforms. The best way to take advantage of all these communication platforms would be to utilize text or chat functions to set up the meeting, have an actual conversation, and then follow it up with an email recap. This way you are opening up dialogue in a non-invasive way, clearly communicating with the other person, then having a written recap of what was discussed or what action items will be taken.
Treat your phone call the same way you would an in-person meeting.
- Be prepared
- Have an agenda
- Take notes
- Have friendly dialogue
- Follow up

Internal Meetings:

Consistent communication is key – there are so many platforms to start group conversations with your internal team. Teams, Skype, Zoom, GroupMe, WhatsApp and many more platforms exist to have instant communication with your peers. Utilize these to get real time dialogue going regarding active projects.
Schedule more frequent team calls – When people are remote, they can often feel like they are on an Island. It is good to have more scheduled touch points with the full team to check in and get status updates on what they are working on. Be sure to send out agendas in advance so people can be prepared to contribute and ask questions.
Utilize webinar technology – sharing your screen is often an effective way to discuss current projects. Teams, GoToMeeting, Zoom, Skype, Livesteam, etc. are all different platforms where you can host a webinar where you either share a presentation or allow people to see your screen to talk through assignments and have the group engaged.
Stay personally engaged – one of the biggest things when you have teams away from each other is the loss of the ‘personal’ touch. Think of it as the virtual water-cooler. Share pictures from the weekends, recipes that you love, or feelings about what happened on a show everyone watches together. The personal connections are what bring you closer during physical distance.

External Meetings/Trainings: If you are hosting an external meeting with some potential clients or a training webinar, there are some key best practices to make it as engaging as it could be if you are in person.

Create the right environment: It is important that you are hosting your webinar in a space that is distraction free. That can be difficult when working from home. Have a room with good wifi and that has a door that can be closed off. You will want to make sure you have clear audio free of background noises.
Test all technology first: The quickest way to set your meeting off on the wrong foot is with technology failures. While this often cannot be avoided, it is important to do everything you can to set yourself up for success. Send the invite to a friend or colleague to practice logging on the way your client would. Have them test out things like:
- User friendliness of the app – is there software that needs to be downloaded? How long will it take for them to log in? Do they need a meeting ID or password to call in? If they are having issues, is there a back up phone number they can try?
- How is the quality of the meeting – how do you sound? Can they see the screen properly? How should they be submitting questions?
- What platform can they join from – is it best on the desktop or can they do it through their phone? Is there an app to make it easier?
Keep the meeting brief: People have short attention spans. The longest a meeting should ever run would be an hour worth of content with 30 minutes of Q&A. The sweet spot would be more like 30-45 minutes of content with 15-30 minutes of Q&A.
Do a run through: How close to the goal time are you when you run through all the content? Make sure you create a buffer for unexpected issues of technology, questions in the middle of the presentation or if you ad lib any section. You want to make sure you keep it as close to the time promised.
Make it engaging: The presentation itself should be visually appealing without too much animation that could be slow with a connection. Try to infuse humor and antidotes that make the content relatable. Have pauses throughout when applicable to get audience engagement. If you have a poll functionality or a typing aspect of your platform, can you get quick polls from the audience to show that you care about their opinion?

Video Meetings - Get Camera Ready:

The hardest part of working or meeting remotely is the lack of human connection. The simplest way to get this back is with video conferencing. There are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to a video conference to make it successful and not an instant fail.

Do:

Understand your audio/visual settings. Know which buttons turn things on and off and try to have your sound turned off when you aren’t speaking for the best sound quality of the full call
Be mindful of your environment. Take your call in a space that you are comfortable with your team seeing. If you don’t have a dedicated office, do you have a desk and chair in a bedroom, living room or kitchen that is cleared of clutter and quiet to do the call.
Wear appropriate clothing. The biggest temptation when working from home is to skip the shower and work in your pajamas. However, when it comes to video calls, if you wouldn’t wear it into the office, don’t wear it on a video chat. The best rule of thumb is to get ready for your day the same way you would if you were going into an office minus the commute. Be clean and professional with your attire as you prepare for any video conference.
Use good lighting. Make sure the space is well lit for the best video quality
Be understanding. This is the most important one. As much as we are all trying to set boundaries and quiet spaces, life happens. Dogs bark, kids come into the room, doorbells ring – it’s life. The biggest thing is to just to excuse yourself briefly, put yourself on mute, handle your distraction, and then come back.

Don’t:

Take your phone/camera to places that you don’t want others to see. You might think you’ve turned the sound or video off, but there is always the chance that it could accidentally get turned on.
Try to multitask while on a video conference. Just like if you were in a conference room with everyone, you shouldn’t be checking your email, texting, or working on other projects. Stay engaged!
Catch people off guard. If you are hosting the meeting, make sure it is clear if it will be audio only or video. As much as everyone should be ready for a live meeting, you should also be understanding that sometimes they are not and need to prepared.

I hope these tips are helpful for you as you navigate your new environment of virtual interactions. It is possible to have very productive meetings in a virtual world. Good luck and leave comments with additional tips that you have learned.

Hosting Effective Virtual Meetings