How do we create (more) engagement in virtual meetings with a group that’s still pretty unfamiliar with good Zoom meetings? And that likely means most of your participants. If you can do that, you’ll immediately stand out from the cavalcade of everyone and their uncle who are now offering online sessions.
One great question to warm up a virtual meeting is, ‘What are you enjoying about the lockdown?’.
While that may seem paradoxical, there will be some things that people are benefiting from by staying at home, whether they have thought about them yet or not.
Here’s a sampling of answers from one recent call: vivid dreams, my exercise routine…
Online meeting etiquette actually isn’t as different from face-to-face meeting etiquette as you’d think, and you’ve probably been on enough online meetings by now to know what you like and don’t.
Have you been on those Zoom calls where the first 30 minutes (of 60) is taken up with elaborate introductions, and by the time everyone has described their new routine…
Most virtual meeting systems offer a waiting room, where you can hold your participants until you are ready to begin.
It can put a lot of pressure on you to have to get straight into the substance of the meeting, precisely at the advertised time. So using a virtual waiting room can provide a gentle. You can let participants enter as they arrive…
You don’t have to be a technology wizard to be a great facilitator of online calls but you do need to have good enough tech skills. You need to know just enough to ensure you don’t let technical shortcomings hamper…
Given basic technical competence, the art then is to exploit the difference in medium – to raise engagement, productivity or intimacy…
What works well online is not simply a matter of taking what works well offline and hoping for the best.
It’s not a bad idea for starters, as many principles and practices are directly transferable. But you also need to be aware of what’s possible – and not possible – in each medium. As the context changes, so do the interactions. I’ve been on virtual calls…
