How to Ensure Every Online Meeting Goes Smoothly

It is commonplace now to hold meetings through the screens of our computers. Gone are the times of driving to your client’s business or meeting at a popular lunch restaurant in lieu of our new digital workspace due to the novel coronavirus. Not only are we bound to these virtual meeting spaces when we interact with our coworkers and employees, this is also what we rely on to stay in contact with many of our friends and family. With that being said, it is of the utmost importance to make sure your meetings are fail-safe, so everything goes off without a hitch! Continue reading for tips on how to make it happen.

Find Your Best Setting

The perfect setting will vary on a person-by-person and house-by-house basis, but it is vital to pick out the most optimal location prior to your meeting instead of just hunkering down on the couch. Avoid high-traffic areas where things like household pets, family members, or televisions might cause you a distraction. By reducing your environmental factors, you are setting yourself up to be able to give and get respect during your meeting. Also, pick out a simple background: a plain wall backdrop and good lighting are all you need to be seen well.

Prioritize Your Meeting

Be transparent about your meetings so that your household can accommodate your time. If you have a scheduled meeting and share a home with others, make sure to let them know so that they refrain from disturbing you during your meeting time. Additionally, your family should also be careful to avoid downloading or updating software as this will consume bandwidth and slow down your own connection. Be sure that none of your own applications are scheduled to update or back up during your meeting time or you will just be making things harder on yourself.

Rely on Ethernet, not Wi-Fi

Hardwiring yourself to your connection with an ethernet cable will ensure a much more stable connection than wireless. Though a wi-fi connection offers more flexibility within your household, you are allowing yourself to be at risk of losing your signal to disruptors such as walls, metal objects, and other electronics that may interfere with your communication. If it’s not possible to connect with an ethernet cable, reduce the obstacles that could possibly disrupt your wi-fi.

Test Your Connections

Regardless of how often you meet with others online, you should always double check your connections prior to the next meeting. This does not just mean checking your internet connection but also your headsets, microphones, or any other equipment you will be using. Whenever you unplug hardware like USB headsets or speakers, your computer automatically switches to its default audio input/output. This might lead to some unexpected confusion next time you are joining a meeting and expecting everything to be functioning the same so make sure everything is feeding into the right outlet.

Use Proper Equipment

There could be anywhere between a couple or a few dozen people with live microphones involved in discussion during your meeting. The use of headphones will enable you to hear your meeting better without background noise from your household droning in and external microphones will help pick up your own audio without the ambient noise. Using hardware such as these cuts back drastically on noise pollution and will ensure that everyone has an easy time listening and contributing.

Take Advantage of Meeting Features

Virtual meetings can be so much more than a digital room full of voices. Now, there are so many additional features available on most meeting applications that permit things such as an interactive shared whiteboard or call transcripts that capture everything that happened. Capitalize on the availability of these features to optimize your meeting experience when possible.