To get the most out of your conferencing service investment (whether it be audio conferencing or web conferencing), all of your attendees need to be engaged and participating to the fullest extent possible. It’s not enough to simply keep them from being distracted. While this can seem like a tall order, we’ve put together a small list of tips to help you do just that.
- Prepare – create an outline or agenda for your meeting and send to all of your attendees along with a few specific review items or tasks you would like them to go over. In addition, gather any additional hosts or presenters and perform a few trial runs to get everyone acquainted with the available conferencing features. This will prevent any confusion on the day of your meeting and help iron out any unforeseen issues.
- K.I.S.S. – stands for Keep It Simple (Stupid/Smarty/any other ‘S’ word you see fit). The last thing anyone wants to do is be stuck in a meeting that should have ended 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes ago. If all you require is a brief conversation, don’t feel as though you need to entertain everyone on the line as long as possible. As a general rule of thumb, larger web and audio conferences should be kept around the one hour mark, while smaller more intimate conferences typically last around 30 minutes.
- Watch – if you’re holding an audio conferencing call and are concerned that one or more of your participants are on the call but not engaged, consider integrating web conferencing into your meeting. With real-time video feeds you’ll be able to see each participant throughout your meeting, which leads to less sneaking off or multi-tasking on the job.
- Inform – prior to starting your meeting, send out an email to all participants that covers the topics that will be discussed and provide a clear list of objectives and expected outcomes that you are looking for. As a side note, it wouldn’t hurt to add in a few reasons why your meeting will help make their day/week/etc. easier and enhance performance.
- Ask – unexpected questions will keep participants on their toes and focused, making them less likely to multi-task. It’s not unusual for one or more attendees to hold off on making comments or suggesting ideas because they are unsure of when to jump in and add their input. If you feel you are not getting enough participation from certain attendees feel free to direct questions specifically at them.
- Audio conference hosts, might want to try asking all participants to leave their mute buttons off so they are less likely to be tempted by distractions (although if mobile workers are located in an area with a lot of background noise this might not be an option).
- Provide – web and audio conferences require just as much planning and forethought as face-to-face meetings, so be sure to offer your participants an informative, memorable experience.
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