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Online meetings have several benefits. These benefits include time and cost savings, inclusivity, and engagement. But what makes an online meeting effective? Here are some key factors to consider. If your team is not particularly vocal, you might want to schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss any issues. Or, create an online forum for feedback. No matter what your reasons for going digital, make sure you plan these meetings well. They’ll be worth it!

Keeping people engaged

Keeping people engaged in online meetings requires you to make them interesting. It is not enough to simply create an agenda and ask everyone to participate. You must give each team member a job. For example, one person should write questions during a brainstorm, while another should take notes on the key discussion points. Another team member can control the progression of a slide presentation. Everyone should be given a job that requires them to contribute in real time and interact with the meeting. If the job is straightforward and requires no complex thinking, it may be enough to keep people interested in the meeting.

You can also involve your team in the meeting by discussing their favorite books, movies, or shows. Use icebreakers or brainstorming exercises to help the team engage. You can also use polling and chat features to engage the group and accomplish agenda items. Another way to keep people engaged in online meetings is to ask them questions about their hobbies or interests. You can also include these in the meeting agenda, which will help keep people engaged in the meeting.

Time-saving

There are many benefits to online meetings. One of them is the fact that everyone in the meeting can participate in them from anywhere. That means no more wasted travel time and no need to cram meetings into your already hectic schedule. Moreover, they allow you to bill your clients and map your time across projects. You will be able to see which meetings are taking up more of your time and which are not. In addition, automatic meeting trackers will keep track of the attendees, duration, and follow-up work.

Apart from saving time, these programs also enable users to share documents, work on presentations, and view presentations. Some of these features allow participants to complete tasks right during the meeting. This is hugely beneficial, as it allows them to finish tasks right away and also makes it easier to take notes. Another advantage of online meetings is that participants can get more feedback during meetings. This is important for a successful business. Online meetings allow you to have a more flexible approach to feedback.

Cost-effectiveness

While some organizations argue that virtual meetings are not as cost-effective as traditional ones, they have a few pros that make them more worthwhile. First, these meetings are more interactive than traditional meetings. In fact, they are 80 percent interactive. As a result, they can significantly reduce travel costs and maximize the amount of time spent on information sharing. And, since participants can attend from wherever they are in the world, they are much more likely to be engaged during the meeting.

In addition to saving time, virtual meetings can also be cost-effective. Organizing a face-to-face meeting may require meeting room rentals, refreshments, and travel time. Online meetings, on the other hand, can be held anywhere. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. You can save hundreds of dollars if you hold your meetings virtually. Moreover, virtual meetings enable you to make important decisions and stay in touch with everyone.

Inclusiveness

Online meetings can be inclusive if you follow certain guidelines to make all voices heard. Managing technology and troubleshooting can make this a challenge. To ensure inclusivity, managers should focus on facilitation and noticing if someone dominates a conversation. They should also vary tasks assigned to different people to avoid replicating microaggressions. Here are a few ways to ensure inclusiveness in your online meetings:

Incorporating a polling tool into your online meeting can help you make your online meetings inclusive. There are several ways to use polls, including generating feedback from all participants or sparking conversations about a specific topic. Polls are also an excellent way to give voice to underrepresented participants and foster inclusion. They can also help you create a more welcoming environment for everyone. By including a diverse group of people, you can increase employee morale and company resilience.

Techniques to encourage participation

The use of a whiteboard is a good way to encourage participation in online meetings. This simple tool lets participants share and build on each other’s ideas, while the chat function and questions tab are ideal for Q&A sessions. Videos and audio clips also provide an excellent opportunity to present information and spark discussion. However, you must keep in mind that they require a high bandwidth and good planning will prevent technical difficulties. If the audio or video are not accessible, you can also set up a phone call-in number.

Sharing content on the whiteboard is another technique to motivate student participation. Teachers can model their thinking processes and annotate examples of content to discuss learning objectives. Annotations from multiple students are more beneficial for a smaller group of students, since Zoom does not allow the use of images or pasted content. However, these methods do take time and are best implemented in smaller groups. To maximize the effectiveness of these techniques, ensure that you dedicate enough time to each session.