How to Conduct "Live" Meetings
Below are tips and suggestions for the UWF community on how to conduct virtual, “live” meetings.
Platforms
- Zoom
- Facebook Live
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
Before the Meeting
- Create an account for the service and complete your profile/account set up.
- Familiarize yourself with the service and understand the controls and meeting settings.
- Practice and test audio, video and screen sharing, if necessary, in advance. Your computer may prompt you to allow screen recording, which could require restarting the application.
Preparing for the Meeting
- Ensure all meeting participants have the invitation link and materials in advance of the call. Include meeting password, when needed.
- Create and share a meeting agenda working doc, such as a Google Doc, before the meeting to allow others to post their questions or link to respective projects or information relative to the meeting.
- Determine if recording the call is needed. As a best practice, it’s always good to inform other meeting participants before you start recording.
- Zoom allows the host to set a meeting to record automatically before the meeting occurs and meeting attendees to record the meeting as well.
- Google Meet calls may be recorded as well.
- Look your best.
- Ensure your attire is work appropriate.
- Keep your background clear of distractions or use a virtual background.
- Join the call a few minutes before the meeting start time.
- Choose a location with a strong internet connection.
Etiquette
A video conference or virtual meeting allows users to meet, share content and collaborate without the need to be in the same room. There are multiple ways to join meetings and interact with the other attendees. To ensure virtual meetings are productive, approach a virtual meeting as you would a face-to-face meeting and conduct yourself as if you were all present in the same room.
Communicating Effectively
- Communicate verbally and nonverbally in a virtual meeting environment just as you would in a physical meeting environment.
When asking a question or communicating during a call, allow time for delayed responses as you may experience a slight transmission delay between you speaking and others receiving. - Ensure you direct questions to the specific individual(s) to ensure the appropriate meeting attendees answer.
- Establishing an understanding among participants of when and how to interrupt if needed will help meeting productivity. Examples may be raising a hand or using the chat.
- To prevent any possible confusion, avoid interrupting others as they are speaking as many video conferencing services have a voice-activated switching feature to automatically move the camera to the active speaker.
- If the call is experiencing or if certain individuals are causing unappealing or poor meeting etiquette, allow for safe feedback or criticism to be provided by others. Poor meeting etiquette will ruin meeting productivity.
- Know how and when to mute and unmute. Best practice is to keep yourself muted if you are not speaking to prevent any background or inadvertent noises from interrupting others. The video platform may have a keyboard shortcut for muting and unmuting.
- Limit side conversations and multitasking to ensure appropriate focus for the meeting. You are on camera so behave as you would in person.
After the Meeting
- After a virtual meeting, tie up any loose ends. Reach out to the host and/or other participants regarding any outstanding issues or questions that may have arisen during the meeting.
- Do your part. Is there something that you need to do now that the meeting is done? If so, get it done in a timely fashion.
- If the meeting was recorded and needs to be shared with the attendees, be sure to do so following the meeting.
Zoom Support
- Zoom Quick Start Guide
- Zoom Testing Computer or Device Audio
- Zoom Video Tutorials
- Zoom Frequently Asked Questions
- Zoom Meeting and Webinar Best Practices and Resources
- Zoom Video Communications Best Practice Guide