What You Should Know About Virtual Meetings: Advantages, Tips, and Tools

1. How do virtual meetings work?
2. These are the advantages of virtual meetings
3. What you need for a virtual meeting
4. 7 tips for a successful virtual meeting
5. What you should pay attention to during a virtual meeting
6. Which tools are suitable for virtual meetings?
7. Effective meetings for optimal results

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become a fixed part of our everyday working life. So that all team members remain networked despite different work locations, keep up to date with the current status of projects and benefit from the advantages of the Remote teamwork you can use virtual meetings as a part of your collaboration. These are practical, but can also be challenging. This article is here to ensure your online meetings are successful.

You will find out what virtual meetings are, what advantages they have and what you need to implement them. We also give you tips on how to structure and moderate your meetings even better, prepare you for how to deal with minor problems and reveal our favorite tools for online meetings.

How do virtual meetings work?

A video conference takes place using appropriate software in a virtual room. You can either install such a program or hold a Video conference without installation through a web application. Instead of sitting together in a meeting room, you sit at your computer and can see your colleagues through the camera. You can give presentations and get feedback from your fellow campaigners or simply arrange to have a virtual coffee with your colleagues to keep up to date. The same applies to cooperation with business partners, suppliers or also in the private sector. As long as all involved have a computer and internet access, nothing stands in the way of your virtual meeting. In the meantime, your company data is as well protected via the Cloud Security as in a face-to-face appointment.

These are the advantages of virtual meetings

The advantages of virtual appointments are numerous. You don't have to check whether a meeting room is free if you want to call a team meeting. Plus, you can also conduct your appointments using computers, cameras, etc. even if not all colleagues are on site. With just one click on the link to your meeting, all important people are there. This makes it possible to give updates at short notice and work out solutions together. This saves both time and money, as your team members don't have to commute to the office to attend the meeting.

In addition, online meetings improve cross-departmental or cross-location collaboration. When you have a face to the voice of your colleagues with whom you have always only telephoned or written emails, this strengthens your bond. This promotes more trusting and reliable cooperation.

Another advantage is the increase in productivity through virtual appointments, as all disturbing factors can be eliminated. As a rule, virtual meetings can also be held much shorter than on-site appointments, as no side conversations can arise and every* participant knows exactly - or is reminded by the computer's memory function - when and where a meeting takes place. With a tool for online meetings, you can also exchange files with your colleagues and use different functions for voting and opinion formation.

What you need for a virtual meeting

The equipment you need for a video conference is manageable. In addition to a suitable end device, such as a computer, laptop or smartphone and a reliable internet connection, you should use a functional camera and a good microphone. The latter often comes in the form of a headset.

Furthermore, noise-free speakers provide a better listening experience - but of course you can also use your headset for this. To start the video call or join it, you must have appropriate software, such as ivCAMPUS. We will present you a comprehensive selection of video conference software at a later point in this article.

7 tips for a successful virtual meeting

To hold a successful and satisfying virtual meeting for all participants, you should definitely follow the following rules.

Rule No. 1: Place your camera at eye level

To make your colleagues feel connected to you, you should place your camera at eye level. You should also make eye contact with her to maintain your focus.

Rule No. 2: Pay attention to good manners

You should behave in a virtual meeting similar to an ordinary meeting. This includes dressing appropriately, logging in on time and banishing all possible distractions from your field of vision.

Avoid looking at your phone during the appointment, having side conversations or checking your mails and mute your microphone while your colleagues are speaking - otherwise there may be disturbing noises that distract the speakers.

Rule No. 3: Pick up everyone

At the beginning of the meeting, it is essential to establish the same level of knowledge for all participants. So if you want to solve a problem together, you shouldn't just burst in through the door, but take the time and make sure everyone understands what the meeting is supposed to be about. It's best to work with statistics, diagrams, a short anecdote or a small presentation. This makes it easier for your colleagues to access the topic and you awaken their attention.

Rule No. 4: Set rules

In order for all participants in your virtual meeting to pull together, it is important to set a few rules. These might include that you switch your mobile phones to flight mode for the whole time or close your mail program to avoid distractions and cause delays. You can also decide how to register to speak and how to collect ideas.

Rule No. 5: Distribute clear tasks

If you want to achieve quick results, the meeting participants should not be able to hide in the group. Therefore, address them by name if you want to hear their ideas and feedback. You can also divide them into mini groups who work on a task within a short time and present it to the others. This creates a commitment and makes sure everyone is fully committed.

Rule No. 6: Focus on the essentials

No one likes presentations with several hundred pages. Even in a meeting on site, the concentration quickly wanes during a long talk. In a video meeting, this happens even faster, after all, your colleagues or business partners can deal with other things unnoticed if the information you want to convey does not reach them. So focus on the essential content and dispense with unnecessary information.

Rule No. 7: Provide variety

To counteract distractions, you should ask questions, assign tasks, summarize ideas or get feedback at least every five minutes. So the participants are always challenged again, because the meeting is structured in a varied and interesting way.

Rule No. 8: Take breaks
Especially for longer virtual meetings, it makes sense to include regular breaks. During these, your team members can process the input, get something to drink or do a few squats to get back into the swing. You will see, these short breaks sharpen the mind and ultimately lead to more efficient virtual meetings.

What you should pay attention to during a virtual meeting

As in any face-to-face meeting, minor or major challenges can arise during virtual appointments. To successfully master these, there are a few things you can consider in order to make a good impression on your colleagues and business partners.

Create a meaningful invitation: The better you describe in your invitation what you want to achieve, the better the other participants can prepare for the meeting. As an organizer, you should send potential meeting participants a fixed date via your calendar tool.

Please refrain from including all information in one e-mail. When transferring to your own calendar, problems can easily arise: The link is not copied, the wrong day is selected or a wrong time. After a meaningful subject line you describe your concern and the goal you want to achieve with this virtual meeting. Of course, the link to the online meeting as well as the date in the form of date and time must not be missing.

If your colleagues or partners should prepare for the meeting, tell them directly in the invitation to what extent they should do this. For example, you can ask them to bring their experiences on a topic, develop concrete ideas for a problem or prepare different tasks to be discussed together in the appointment. If you already have an agenda, send it as well. If necessary, you can ask your colleagues for additions in advance, so that you have an up-to-date agenda at the beginning of your meeting and you can start on the topic.

Stay focused:The more participants are present, the easier it can happen that you deviate from the actual topic. This makes the meeting lengthy and some colleagues lose interest in your exchange. To avoid this, you can briefly go through the agenda that you sent in advance and ask if there are additions that absolutely need to be considered. It also helps if you make sure that everything has been said on an agenda item before moving on to the next point.

You can find this out, for example, by asking the following question: "I think we have discussed everything about Topic A. Are we all ready to move on to Topic B?" If there should still be deviations, you can focus your colleagues with the question "I'm not sure how your argument X relates to Topic B. Can you explain this to me?" back to the actual topic.

Define the next steps: A clear roadmap is always important - also in virtual meetings. All participants must know exactly what the next steps are and what tasks they have to complete. This will make your coming appointments more productive and efficient.

End the meeting as soon as the goal is achieved:Don't drag on the appointment unnecessarily if you have already achieved your goal. After all, everyone has enough to do and is surely grateful if a meeting ends earlier than thought. Thank them for their participation, ideas and commitment and give a short feedback on how you found the meeting. Then you can end the meeting.

Don't be unsettled by interruptions:You can participate in virtual meetings from home, from the café around the corner or a co-working space. It can always happen that a pet walks through the picture, a child demands attention or the package deliverers ring. Don't be unsettled by such interruptions, but try to see them as a welcome loosening up.

Little mishaps can't even be planned and happen to everyone. By changing your Video background, you can at least hide obvious chaos and objects that your colleagues shouldn't see. A company-specific video background always looks particularly professional.

React to technical problems: If technical problems should occur, and your participants can't hear or see you anymore, for example, you should immediately find a solution. Sometimes the error can be found in the microphone or speaker settings or the desktop transfer needs to be restarted.

If this doesn't help, you can also restart the video call. If the problem cannot be solved at all, you should cancel your virtual meeting and repeat it on another day. In the meantime, you can liaise with the IT department so that you know how to fix or avoid a repeated disturbance.

Which tools are suitable for virtual meetings?

You are itching and you want to conduct your next team meeting directly as a virtual appointment? Then all you have to do now is think about the right Video conference software.

On OMR Reviews you will find the different Virtual Workspaces and conference tools, which our users have enriched with their experiences and feedback. This helps you to choose the right software for your virtual meetings.

This could be one of the following, for example:

ivCAMPUS

Wurkr

SpatialChat

Kumospace

Tandem

Slack

Microsoft Teams

Zoom

Google Meet

Discord

Stackfield

Effective meetings for optimal results

You can use virtual meetings as an efficient and practical communication tool when you want to exchange ideas with your colleagues and business partners. If all participants adhere to the set meeting rules and this is controlled by the moderators, you can also use them for workshops or a discussion with larger groups.

However, always make sure that you do not spend your day exclusively in virtual meetings that line up in your calendar - you would surely also avoid this in your normal office everyday life. Give yourself small breaks between the meetings and move a little to recharge your energy and complete the upcoming to-dos.