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How To Make Virtual Meetings Fun, Interactive, and Engaging
Are you wondering how to make virtual meetings fun and productive for your team of remote workers?
It’s pretty common to see people in virtual meetings not paying attention, yawning, switching to another tab to do other stuff, or simply being bored.
It’s all too easy to point the finger at attention spans, diversions, or the inherent difficulties of remote work.
However, the basis of the problem is unlikely to be found in the individual who is sitting through the meeting.
Attendees are more likely to fall asleep or feel bored in a meeting if the meeting is dull.
So, what are some ideas for making communication networks more impactful?
In this guide, we’ll go talk about how to make virtual meetings fun, engaging, and highly productive for everyone involved.
How to Improve Your Virtual Meetings
Remote meeting attendees should be engaged and should get something out of every meeting.
The good news is there are some easy steps you can take to make your virtual meetings more engaging.
Set a clear meeting agenda
When the host fails to organize the strategy before the meeting, boring sessions occur.
That’s why you need to have a clear meeting agenda that you follow closely so everyone stays engaged with the plan.
When attendees are unaware of the meeting’s agenda, the host remains the only one who speaks if no one has had time to prepare and come up with questions. When they aren’t allowed to participate in the discussion, it’s often a long, boring one-way discussion, and no one loves a long talk.
Everyone should be involved
Involving everyone in the meeting keeps them engaged and makes them feel like they’re contributing something to the discussion.
The host should ask questions a few times randomly to keep attendees engaged and to see what everyone thinks about various topics being brought up.
Attendees should get time to process what has been put out there in front of them, and the host should create a space for them to ask questions freely.
Use the right tools
Not all webinar tools/virtual meeting programs are created equally.
You want to make sure the webinar software you choose to host your meetings on truly fits your needs and will provide a smooth experience for everyone involved.
The best meeting platforms will be:
- Reliable — You want to make sure your meeting platform won’t crash during the middle of your meeting.
- Easy to use — Make sure the meeting software you choose is really easy to setup and use for everyone.
- Feature-rich — The best virtual meeting apps will have all the features you could ever want, like chat tools, backup rooms to send everyone to in the event your meeting encounters a technical problem, interactive surveys, and more.
Create rules
Set the rules and disseminate them to participants before the meeting.
Uncontrollable meetings do not help the team be more productive or creative. They are usually confused with everyone speaking simultaneously or someone taking over the discourse.
Share your screen
When the host shares the computer screen in real-time, the attendees may essentially “see over the shoulder” while the host speaks. The attendees will be able to see the screen in the same way the host does.
Screenshare technology is the closest thing to a physical meeting, and it is often more effective.
You can use platforms like Demio and WebinarJam to share their screen during a meeting.
Schedule your meetings at a time that works for everyone
One disadvantage of remote meetings is that it is more challenging to locate the other person if they are not physically there. All remote sessions should be booked and confirmed at a particular time. On that topic, when organizing conferences, don’t forget to account for time zones.
Use video
Remote meetings often lack the personal touch of face-to-face meetings, but video conferencing can help. This technology is now considerably more robust and trustworthy than a few years ago (with a decent Internet connection).
Conclusion
The most challenging aspect of online meetings is keeping people engaged and interested, but by following the tips above, you can make your virtual meetings a little more fun and engaging for all parties involved.
Remember, you can always ask for feedback from your meeting attendees to get their thoughts on what they like and dislike about your company’s virtual meetings, and then you can adjust and improve things going forward.
Have any other thoughts about how to make virtual meetings fun and engaging? Share them with us by commenting below.