Planning
- Establish your purpose or goal.
- Identify your target audience.
- Determine how many attendees there should be for optimal efficiency.
- Create an agenda and plan on sticking to it.
- Consider if you’d like to record the meeting. Click here to learn more about recording your event.
- Decide on the length and plan on ending on time!
Inviting Attendees
- If your meeting involves important visual materials, encourage attendees to participate via computer versus phone.
- If the majority of attendees plan on participating by phone, make materials available in advance of the meeting via email, Microsoft Teams or other document-sharing sites.
Conducting
- Designate a leader/moderator who will communicate procedures, introduce each topic of discussion and stick to the agenda.
- Post a slide with an agenda a few minutes before the meeting starts.
- Communicate Procedures:
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- Remind everyone to mute themselves until they want to speak.
- Determine how attendees will participate. Will they have to raise a virtual hand, submit questions via chat or be called upon by the moderator? This can be pre-determined prior to the meeting or decided by consensus as a group. The moderator or host of the meeting can also send an email the day of the event/meeting reminding the participants of how the meeting will be run.
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- Keep attendees engaged:
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- Encourage attendees to use their video so they are less likely to multi-task and remain engaged.
- Designate tasks, such as note-taking, on a rotating basis.
- Call on attendees throughout the meeting to ensure broader participation.
- Answer questions throughout the course of the meeting to keep people involved.
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Following Up
In a virtual environment, where you can’t always read facial expressions or be assured that all participants are paying attention, follow-up is very important. Send a meeting recap, and when appropriate, slides, handouts and links to resources that may have been shared in chats. If there are specific calls-to-action or assignments, list those to avoid confusion.