20 Apr Get more value from Virtual Meetings
Remote meetings are more in demand than ever before, and this pattern will persist. Due to COVID19, employees had to change the way they worked, switching from face-to-face meetings to teamwork behind a screen.
This was a scary process at first. Remote meetings can be difficult when there are dogs barking, kids screaming and a hoover running in the background.
Despite this, it became increasingly clear that virtual meetings are just as productive as in-person meetings as the globe adjusted to lockdown procedures.
Of course, they have the capacity to stray as well. Here are some tips for efficiently organising, inspiring, and collaborating with your team during virtual meetings. Remote meetings are clearly here to stay, despite the COVID19 crisis bringing them to public attention. for the best of motives.
Remote meetings involve a special set of tools, manners, preparation, and execution. By incorporating them into your professional life, you can make the most of the meetings you have together. If the right tools aren’t in place, they could, however, fail very rapidly.
The challenges of remote meetings
Remote meetings can be lengthy internet conferences with participants from all around the world or brief 1:1 sessions. One of the obvious benefits of remote meetings is the ability to interact, cooperate, and work with staff members from all around the world. Since there are no longer any geographical limitations, a wider spectrum of talent is now accessible.
A remote meeting differs from an in-person meeting because it takes place virtually. That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Online meeting organisers face a variety of unique challenges as a result of that simple difference, including:
- Affecting attendees’ ability to read body language and emotion
- Issues with audio and visuals due to technical barriers
- Use of screen sharing to illustrate talking points
- Working across time zones and shifts
- Distractions and technical limitations in the home office
Remote meetings need to follow the same format and protocol as in-person meetings, despite the additional technical obstacles and geographic distance.
Technology finally catching up to the rise of online meetings is a wonderful thing. The providers were easily able to supply the growing demand. As a result, you can now streamline the process by using a range of tools.
How to choose the right tool for remote meetings
When selecting a platform for remote meetings, a number of criteria should be taken into account. It is crucial to take into account elements unique to your team and organisation. You might find it helpful to use different conference platforms for smaller and larger gatherings.
How do you pick the best conferencing software for online meetings, is the question. Consider the following elements when you consider your options:
- Your team’s size
- Time zones and locations
- Sharing of screens and visuals
- Having the ability to schedule in advance
- Platform uptime and reliability
How you run your meeting is just as important as selecting the finest platform to host it on. A productive online meeting requires careful planning, keeping track of ideas and activities, central information storage, and ensuring remote access to the materials.
Tools for managing meetings include digital whiteboards, mind maps, and cloud-based note storage to take notes instantly. Your remote meeting can need a basic Word document or even Kanban boards to show project progress.
It’s crucial to have a tool that facilitates clear decision-making for the team, collects fresh ideas and information, and stores it for future use.
One such tool is Microsoft Teams
Within Microsoft 365, the collaboration tool Microsoft Teams encourages teamwork, video conferencing, document sharing, and workplace collaboration.
According to Microsoft, 75 million daily active users were using Teams, a rival to Slack that was introduced in 2017 as the COVID19 outbreak got worse. Teams has been dubbed the company’s fastest-growing business app in its entire existence!
Teams has emerged as one of Microsoft’s key workplace productivity and collaboration tools as a result of its introduction and the necessity of remote working.
Video and audio conferencing have surpassed Microsoft’s popular Skype for Business Online feature in importance within Teams.
This was especially true during the epidemic, when businesses scrambled to set up virtual meetings for remote employees. As businesses closed and sent employees home in March 2020, Microsoft observed a 1,000% spike in video meetings. Teams users also increased dramatically, from 32 million at the beginning of March to 75 million by the conclusion of the month.
Microsoft quickly added new features to enhance remote working capabilities in order to take advantage of the quick change in working habits and reduce the fatigue associated with video conferences.
One of the key breakthroughs, called “together mode,” produces a virtual environment, like a conference room or café, where participants’ video feeds are cropped and gathered in more natural settings to create a shared area ideal for dialogue.
Distractions are lessened with the addition of real-time noise suppression. Deep learning techniques isolate the speech signal from undesired background noise.
Basic video call features like custom backdrops, screen sharing, hand raising, recording, breakout rooms, and live captioning are now available in the Teams app.
How can you determine what is effective for you? By using our advice on conducting remote meetings, you may test out a variety of various remote conferencing and meeting management systems that are now accessible.
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