6 Tips For Organizing Effective Online Meetings

28/06/2021

Now, More Than Ever, Online Meetings Are Vital To Ensure Strong Communication In The Workplace. Whether You’re A Retail Brand Or Offer Consulting Services, We’ve Created These Guidelines To Help You To Organize Productive Online Meetings.

While the foundations are similar, running online meetings requires a slightly different approach. The Rusty Rabbit International consulting services team have pulled together their top 6 tips for making your next virtual meeting as effective as possible:

1. Prepare And Test Systems In Advance

First of all, spend time preparing for your virtual meeting. There’s nothing worse than clicking on a meeting link one minute before the meeting starts and not being able to log in, or finding that the meeting platform doesn’t actually fit your team’s requirements.

Think about your meeting agenda and choose software that will allow you to achieve your meeting targets. Zoom, Skype, Citrix™ GoToMeeting and Microsoft Teams are just a few of the popular platforms out there.

2. Create An Agenda

To ensure the meeting runs smoothly and all points are covered, write up a clear agenda. In-person and virtual meetings almost always go off on a tangent at some point, the agenda will allow you to gently steer the group back on track and ensure all key issues are discussed.

3. Share Well-Formed Calendar Invites

With the latest developments in cloud technology, it’s never been easier to share calendars invites. When sending out your meeting invite, be wary of time differences and ensure the instructions on how to join are clear for all participants. We also recommend adding the agenda to the invite for everyone to prepare for beforehand.

4. Set A Time Limit

Our consultancy services team recommend setting a time limit to all meetings as it can significantly increase productivity levels and ensures participants will stay focused. Remember, alternative meetings can be set up to discuss areas that may not affect all team members.

5. Conclude With Clear Actions

It is the responsibility of the meeting moderator to confirm the points of action required by all meeting attendees, and agree on a deadline. This is an effective way to ensure these actions are carried out before the next meeting.

6. Share Meeting Notes

Finally, sharing the meeting notes is another way of effectively tracking the work needed to be carried out. It is the meeting moderator’s responsibility to combine any points raised in the meeting and allow attendees to add anything that may have been missed.

With the requirement for online meetings on the rise, the need to alter our day-to-day practises is becoming more apparent. We hope this step-by-step guide will help you to run effective remote-meetings regardless of your meeting size or the distance between attendees.