How to prepare for video conference meetings

Are you tired of unproductive video meetings?

Unproductive meetings are not only a waste of time, they are straight up frustrating. You should be able to host a productive video conference meeting even when key people are missing. But in order to do this, you have to do the proper preparation. Follow these steps below and you will host more productive, engaging and satisfying meetings in no time.

Step 1: Make sure your attendees have enough bandwidth at their location

If your participant doesn’t have enough bandwidth, there will be latency delays, making the overall video conferencing experience frustrating. The amount of bandwidth that is required varies from system to system. Features such as screen sharing, multimedia sharing and recording the meeting all have different requirements. Therefore, if you know you are going to share videos, pictures and a PowerPoint presentation during your virtual meeting, make sure you check with your conferencing provider to see what the minimum requirements are. This way you can ensure that your meeting runs as smoothly as possible for all participants.

Step 2: Test your equipment before the meeting begins

It is always good practice to test your camera and microphone before every meeting. Time is so valuable, so you don’t want to waste any of it troubleshooting your equipment during your scheduled meeting. Not only does that make you look unprofessional, it also decreases overall productivity. So, at least 20 minutes before your meeting is scheduled to start, make sure your camera is capturing everything it should and your microphone levels are set just right.

Step 3: Do a trial run

If you are hosting an important meeting with business partners or clients, doing a trial run is a great idea. Just invite your best friend, co-worker, or mom to join you in your virtual meeting and take notes. This way if any of the videos didn’t work, or if the slides didn’t make sense, or you need to re-work your script, you can fix them before your actual presentation. This will also give you time to practice using the video conferencing platform if you have never used it before.

Step 4: Send out invitations to all participants

Send out an invitation with all the details about the meeting included. This means attaching the meeting agenda and access codes or links to the video conference room. You should send this information to each participant well in advance of the meeting so that they will be able to easily access the meeting when the appropriate day and time has arrived.

Step 5: Open the meeting room early

Just because you have spent weeks practicing and training with the video conference solution doesn’t mean all of your participants have. By opening the meeting room early, it gives people time to set up their equipment and settle in. If they are experiencing technical difficulties, they will hopefully be able to work it out before the meeting begins.

It’s important to remember that video conferences are essentially in-person interactions that allow businesses to communicate more effectively. For more tips on how to host a successful virtual meeting, click here.