In our last article, we shared some tips on how to look and sound your best in your virtual meetings. In this one, we have some best practices for holding your remote colleagues’ attention and ensuring a successful virtual meeting.
Holding Attention
and Avoiding Distractions
To ensure a
productive remote meeting it’s helpful to have a quiet place with minimal
interruptions to hold your meeting.
Is your area free of clutter and other distractions? The more items in your background the more distracting it is for the remote viewer to pay attention to your messaging.
You can place a temporary background behind you or some remote meeting platforms have a virtual background feature. If you have a green screen or something similar this does improve the look and function of virtual backgrounds.
Printed background
Virtual background
Limit the amount of cross traffic behind you. This can be people, vehicles, or animals that might cross behind you while you are live in a virtual meeting.
Distractions and busy backgrounds
No distractions
Do your best to control ambient noise levels of your surroundings. Turn off email and text alerts, silence your cell phone, and other appliances if possible.
Similar to an in-person meeting, you’ll want to avoid eating.
Try to use a space where you can close an interior door for privacy. Using public spaces to conduct a virtual meeting like coffee shops, retail spaces, or outdoor areas are not ideal and can cause multiple distractions, interruptions, and ambient noise.
Create a stable image for all viewers during the live meeting by propping your device on a surface rather than holding or moving your device.
Setting Up Your Streaming
Device for a Successful Virtual Meeting
Always take advantage of any “test” feature your software may offer prior to the start of any live meeting.
Familiarize yourself with the basic features of your virtual meeting software. It is key you understand how to mute, disable camera, and that the change screen functionality works in advance.
If you will be sharing your screen desktop, make sure that it is free of clutter and all other applications are closed. Disable text and email alert notification windows if possible to avoid popups while your screen is shared.
Understand that sometimes other users may experience buffering and latency issues in the webcast. Be prepared to repeat a statement or question.
Last and most
importantly, you should probably wear some pants or at the very least remember
not to stand up until you’re sure your camera is off.
When social distancing means you must have meetings online…and you don’t realize they can still see you!! 🙈😂 TURN SOUND ON!! 🔊 I watched this no less than 11 times and laughed harder each time! 🤣🤣🤣
