So many businesses have been dramatically affected by the CoronaVirus Pandemic. Client/Sales visits are right out, and many are now working from home and remotely controlling their office computers, making it very hard or impossible to stay in touch with multiple people at the same time.

One way to help overcome this is by using online meetings to keep everybody on the same page. This could be employees, clients, key members of clubs and organizations, or even just a chance to get family together over the upcoming holidays.

The good news is that there are a number of quality online meeting systems that are pretty easy to use, fairly inexpensive (some are even for a period of time), and pretty reliable. Most people have a laptop or tablet at their disposal they can use that already has a camera and microphone in it. You can even use most of the smartphones for it as well. Most of the better known meeting systems – gotomeeting, zoom, anymeeting, etc, have pretty much the same features that we’ll be talking about.

To have the best meetings you can, make some preparations beforehand and test them out with a friend or partner before going “live” with a number of people. Here’s some tips to make your meeting the best experience it can be. Some of the tips are good to remember if you are an attendee of someone else’s meeting -

• Choose a good provider – again the top providers are highly recommended – gotomeeting, zoom, webex, anymeeting Intermedia ,etc. They will have the more reliable and robust systems.
• Include all the information necessary to connect in your invitation email that you send to attendees.
• Create and share an agenda with your attendees.
• Practice the meeting with a colleague. How do you look and sound on their computer?
  Try to use a headset microphone or pair the Bluetooth earpiece/microphone you use with your phone to your computer. Microphones internal to laptops tend to sound boomy or lots of echo.
• Make sure your lighting is BRIGHT. Without good lighting, you will look dark and rather sinister on the other screens. Have a light background, like a blank office wall. You can even drape a white sheet behind for better contrast and appearance with a logo or brand graphic attached. It is best to avoid a window as your background.
• If at home, choose a room with good lighting away from everybody else.
• If there are going to be more than three attendees, you want to be able to mute people at will as one of the biggest complaints is people talking over one another.
• With more attendees, it is best to have a colleague manage the meeting – muting / unmuting as necessary and switching the mainscreen to others for you as necessary.
• Many systems allow you to record the meeting. This can be helpful to recall documents that are shared or clarifying what was said.
• Repeat number 4 – Practice is the best way to become familiar with the system, check the sound and picture, and share documents and videos.

These tips should help you create effective meetings that can help keep your clients, colleagues, or potential customers engaged and improve your image as you attend other’s meetings.

Through our Unified Communications Partner, Intermedia, we are offering an online meeting system that will be free until the end of the calendar year.

This is their full featured system with up to 30 web attendees and 200 dial in attendees.

Please contact us at info@systemsupport.com to inquire about this offer.

Thank you for your consideration!

Regards,

Brian MacFee

Systems Support Corp