Remote meetings have their benefits; no commute, no expenses, saves time and so on. However, they can also bring with them nervousness or awkward feelings which can have a knock-on effect on how successful they are. So, here are our top tips on how to hold a remote meeting.
Plan your meeting beforehand
You need to ensure that you complete a detailed agenda prior to going into your remote meeting. This will allow everybody to understand the format of the discussion, know what the aims of the meeting are and should alleviate any awkward feelings others may have going into it. You can email this to each participant before the day of the meeting for them to familiarise themselves with the topics.
Use the best tool available
Presbee remote meetings uses new browser to browser technology that allows you to share your Presbee and screen content online, featuring one or two-way audio communication, with remote participants.
A dedicated meeting room is set up by the organiser, desired attendees listed by email address and automatically invited with the meeting details and link to the meeting room, where they will be able to see the screen of the meeting organiser. Organisers and presenters can also choose a public webinar format for open presentations.
Dedicate a lead speaker
This will most probably be yourself as the organiser but dependent on who the meeting is with, you may want to delegate this to another participant. The lead speaker will need to have assertive qualities, be confident at speaking, be efficient in their job role and have knowledge of the topics.
Allow everyone to speak
It is imperative that each person is allowed time to speak and to answer questions throughout the remote meeting. It can be very easy for certain members of the meeting to sit quietly and never speak up. This can happen more often if there are far too many participants within the meeting. The optimum number is 6 purely because more than this can begin to cause issues. It is down to you how you set the meeting out and who you invite to take part but it is essential to the company/business that everybody has their say. Each person must also identify themselves before having their say in order to be able to keep track of who is providing their input.
Don’t allow participants to talk over one another
This is a task for the leader to enforce. A remote meeting cannot function with several people speaking over the top of others or with voices becoming raised. If this means that each person is given a dedicated time allowance in order to keep things on track so be it. It can be very tricky if the meeting is being held via a phone and the participants cannot see one another.
Direct questions to avoid confusion
One way of keeping the meeting organised is by directing questions to particular members. This will drive the conversation forward, it will keep the talk flowing, it will prove far more productive and you will receive the information you require from the people in the know-how.
Once your meeting has completed make sure you round up your main points and feedback, check if anybody else has any input and thank your participants for joining you. Once you have all come out of the remote meeting, type up the notes you have made, actions that need to be taken etc whilst they are fresh in your mind. These should then be emailed out to all of the other members so everybody is working from the same page. This will also give you a focus for your next agenda in any follow-up meetings.
We hope this helps with your next remote meeting.
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