Millions of people use the power of online meetings to give presentations, lectures, workshops, and webinars today.
The ultimate reason is quite clear – they are highly practical for reaching a wider audience without having to physically gather in a place. As video conferencing tools are easily accessible by anyone around the world, everyone can host an online meeting.
However, the crucial point is to know how to deal with meeting management to captivate your audience.
Anyone willing to host an online meeting indeed has the opportunity to make it happen, but the key lies in making it effective and memorable.
Effective Communication Strategies in Online Meetings
There are various points to consider in delivering a well-conducted and effective online meeting by carrying out successful meeting management.
Let’s take a look at some of the most effective communication strategies to take your online meetings to the next level with outstanding meeting management.
Act Confident
To impress your audience and have full control over meeting management, you should be well-prepared for your meeting. If you do in-depth research on the subject or subjects you are going to talk about in your meetings, you will be more confident while conveying your views and opinions.
You must also make eye contact and use body language efficiently to support your words. This will give you power – which will help you captivate your audience and make them believe that you believe in every word you utter and so should they.
If you feel and seem confident, it will be much easier to deal with meeting management as people will pay attention to your words, get involved, and ask questions. It will also be easier to impress and influence your audience.
Be a Good Listener
It is important to get your points across in an online meeting. However, it is also equally important to listen to the opinions and views of participants. You should pay close attention to their ideas even if they are different from your own points.
It is always best to listen to them candidly and try your best to understand their point of view and respond accordingly. Show your audience that your aim is not to be proved right but to take into account every opinion and come to a conclusion.
In this way, they will feel that you are sincere and that you value other people’s opinions as much as yours. This will make the whole meeting experience more impactful and memorable for them.
Plus, it will make it easier for you to carry out the meeting management process more efficiently as you will fully understand what your audience feels and wants.
Create an Engaging Environment
You should create an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their opinions and collaborating easily. To achieve that, you should encourage people to ask questions and be a part of the meeting. You can do this by offering them alternatives like using microphones or chat features.
In this way, people can easily ask their questions or make their comments with the communication tool of their choice. It would be nice to provide a ground for discussion so that people will express their opinions and choose a side.
Creating polls during or after a discussion is another good idea. In this way, you can encourage people to engage in by performing a simple action.
It would also be beneficial to use features like whiteboards for note-taking or screen sharing to show videos or visuals.
Do not make it your show – make your participants a part of meeting management. Let them run the show with you and share some responsibility.
Be Repetitive
You should emphasize the parts you think are the key points in your meetings. Do not hesitate to repeat these key points over and over throughout the meeting.
People tend to not forget the things they hear repetitively in a short time. The points you consistently highlight might even get into their head without them even realizing it. In this way, you will produce a great effect at the end of the meeting.
Best Practices for Successful Meeting Management
To manage your meetings efficiently, you should pay attention to the practices that will facilitate your video conferences.
These are some of the most significant practices you must follow to be successful in meeting management and have a well-arranged meeting.
Choose the Right Tool
The first step is to find the most suitable video conferencing tool to meet your needs and expectations.
Your presentation will be more seamless and impressive with a user-friendly platform that offers high-quality video and audio features, engagement tools, and special modules.
With the right tool, it is also possible to carry out the meeting management process effectively as some video conferencing software gives full control to the host with various features.
It is a good idea to compare the video conferencing tools in terms of both quality and pricing to find the most proper one for your needs.
OctaMeet, a video conferencing tool by OCTAPULL, which stands out with its distinctive features and affordable price might be the one you are looking for in this sense.
Have a Clear Outline
Do not forget that the participants’ time is as valuable as your own. So, plan your meeting and make sure that it starts and ends on time.
If you have a clear outline that shows the whole timeline of the meeting, it will go on as planned and be more organized and clear-cut. It will also help you deal with meeting management easily as you will have your script in hand.
If it is possible, you might also share some documents that could help the audience understand your points clearly before the meeting.
So that both you and your participants will be better prepared for the meeting and have more effective communication during the meeting as a result. It also ensures that you will not have to worry about having poor meeting management.
Prevent Technical Problems
You should check your microphone and webcam before the meeting in order to make sure that they work without a problem. It is also a must to ensure that the device you will use during the meeting works without any problems.
You should solve even minor problems as it might cause you great trouble during the meeting and result in a poor-quality meeting.
You might use your video conferencing software to test all the features including engagement tools such as whiteboards, chats, or surveys before you start your meeting.
In this way, you will be able to conduct your meeting without any technical problems – which will help you deliver a seamless online meeting.
As not to have any meeting management problems during the session, you might think of a plan B and have another video conferencing tool as your backup.
Secure a Quiet Setting
Nobody likes messy and chaotic meetings, either in real life or the virtual world. Not only do they make the audience feel uneasy, but they are also hard and complex for the hosts to manage.
To give an efficient presentation in an online environment, you should ensure that there are no distractions around the place you are having your meeting.
You should put your phone in silent mode and make sure that your notifications are off. It is also important to put away objects or machines that might distract you during the meeting.
It is a nice idea to remove background noise as it might also distract your audience and make it harder to understand your points.
It is also a must to avoid multi-tasking – your only focus should be on the subject you are talking about in the meeting. In this way, you can direct all your attention to your participants and master meeting management efficiently.
Digital Solutions in Managing Online Meetings
The right video conferencing tool must provide you with various solutions that will make it easy for you to deal with meeting management.
So, you must choose a video conferencing software with digital solutions such as:
- Engagement and interaction tools
- Note-taking tools
- Visual backgrounds
- Automated transcriptions
- Screen sharing & features for watching videos collectively
A video conferencing tool, along with providing all these digital solutions, must prioritize customer satisfaction and offer a customized experience to its users.
It should also provide seamless communication without any glitches in order for the hosts to handle meeting management effectively.
Have Full Power Over Meeting Management with OctaMeet!
OctaMeet, with its exclusive features, makes it easy and practical to handle the meeting management process. Let’s take a look at OctaMeet’s distinctive modules and features for having total control over meeting management:
- Host Controls: Meeting hosts have the power to invite and add participants, allow/disable microphones or webcams, and conduct polls or quizzes. In this way, they can easily handle meeting management problems.
- Interactive Whiteboard: The interactive whiteboard tool enables both the host and audience to make timelines, write notes, or visualize ideas. So, the meeting management process is handled collaboratively.
- Screen Sharing: The hosts can easily share their screens and provide the audience with videos, pictures, reports, diagrams, or timelines.
- Screen Recording: This feature allows the hosts to record their meetings. These recordings can be downloaded and accessed after the meeting.
- Hand Raising & Reactions: The participants can raise their hands virtually in order to ask for permission to speak. They can also give reactions to the host or other participants. This feature fosters the meeting management process as it creates an interactive and collaborative online environment.
- File Sharing: The hosts can share important documents with the participants regardless of their formats.
- In-Meeting Messaging: This feature allows users to send text messages even when they are in a meeting. In this way, the hosts can easily solve potential issues and control the meeting management process effectively.
Sign Up for Free!
You can start using OctaMeet with the 30-day free trial and benefit from exclusive features that set it apart from other video conferencing tools in terms of handling meeting management.
You can also schedule a demo meeting with our product team to learn more about OctaMeet features and advantages.
