Online business meetings have now become common in the fast-paced business world and most businesses use a general transcription service to obtain the transcripts. Collaboration has become an important requirement in the business world and therefore it is important for business organizations to have regular meetings to ensure success. With an increasing mobile workforce, online meetings have become a more practical and time-saving option to get people together. To make things easy, now we have many online tools such as conference-calling applications that can free up the time around meetings. There are applications that allow attendees to share computer screens, send instant messages, participate in live chats and invite others to join important meetings.
Online meetings can be made stress-free and less intimidating by following some tips. Following are five tips for successfully conducting an online meeting.
- Prepare a proper agenda: Whether online or face-to-face, it is important for the meeting facilitator to have a meeting agenda prepared with key objectives that will be covered in the meeting. This agenda should be given to the participants sufficiently early so that they have enough time for preparation. Once the meeting is over, ensure that all meeting notes and action points are distributed to all the participants.
- Have a moderator: A moderator in a meeting helps you to stick to the allotted time for each event in a meeting, gives everybody a chance to contribute to the meeting, and also makes sure that everything is on track. Always allow some time for informal talk at the beginning as it is a good way to start the meeting. It helps to break the ice and also helps in building business relationships.
- Familiarize yourself with the technology: It is important to ensure that the equipment that you use is working properly. Check the features available to you before the meeting itself because you don’t want to leave the meeting because of the issue of unfamiliar technology. Technical glitches can occur when the mobile devices employees bring have compatibility issues. There may be problems when all participants do not have the latest software update and sharing and uploading of documents becomes difficult. So make sure that you take necessary measures to overcome these issues.
- Keep it brief: Most people’s attention falters in 30 minutes; so it is important to break up your meeting into small segments and avoid multi-tasking. Make sure all participants in the meeting are fully involved.
- Choose the right location: Choosing the right location for a meeting is essential. Go for a quiet place with no room for distractions. Make sure that the place is well-lit with good air circulation. This will create a positive atmosphere for the meeting.
Video conferencing and online meetings are important activities in a business setup because that is where new ideas and insights are born and shared among the participants. With the right technology, and assistance of reliable business partners including general transcription services, you can meet all the objectives of your business meetings. Prepare well for the meeting, follow the above tips, and have a successful meeting which will ensure better collaboration and increased productivity within your business.
