The Do’s of Web Conferencing

Web conferencing is getting more and more popular as it can effectively save time, money and even the environment by reducing business travels. Here are a few tips to help you enjoy a perfect web conferencing experience.

1. Define your meeting goal, agenda and audience

When preparing for a meeting, think about what is the purpose of this meeting and what you want to achieve with it. Draft an agenda that helps you accomplish your goals. And also select the participants carefully – try to answer such questions as why to include or exclude somebody? Why are their contributions important to the meeting?

2. Prepare all the files and links you are going to use during the meeting

During the presentation, don’t waste your time searching on the Web for the websites, the pictures, or the videos that you want to show others. Have everything ready within just a mouse click.

3. Only have the necessary applications running

Keep your desktop clear of distractions such as irrelevant shortcuts and unnecessary applications. This would enable you and your participants to concentrate more on the meeting.

4. State the policy for behavior of the presentation

Make it clear how the meeting proceeds. Can participants ask questions during the presentation? Or shall they wait until the end of the presentation? Reaching a consensus at the beginning of the meeting enables you to carry out the meeting smoothly.

5. Always record the session

Keep a record of the discussion. Many web conferencing tools offer the recording function. The recording can serve as internal training material or documentation whenever conflicts occur.

6. Interact with the participants

As people who are participating in a web conference cannot see each other, it is very important, and meanwhile difficult, to have everyone focus on the meeting during the whole time. Try to engage the audience as much as you can: switch the presenter or give out the mouse/keyboard control sometimes.

7. Stay on track

It is very important to have an agenda and stick to it. Don’t digress and always centre your discussion on the issues covered by the agenda.

8. Control your time properly

Start and end your meeting on time. Allocate your time carefully so that every issue listed on the agenda is fully discussed. Politely avoid long discussions and don’t dwell on one single issue for too long.

9. Conclude the session

It’s always helpful to recap what has been discussed in a session and confirm the distribution of tasks among the participants. By doing so, you can also make sure that you’ve accomplished what you wanted from the meeting.

10. Select the right web conferencing tool

The point of hosting a web conference is to communicate not to showcase high technology. Keep your audience in mind – consider that they might have different levels of computer knowledge. Choose an easy-to-use tool that frees your participants from complicated configurations, slow installation and overwhelming features.