5 Video Conferencing Tips for a Productive Meeting

 The use of Video Conferencing has increased exponentially during the pandemic, with both domestic and commercial users taking advantage of the software to communicate with family and customers.

In fact, 45% of teams use video calling tools daily or weekly and another 75% of CEOs say that video conference calls will entirely replace audio-only conference calls in the near future.

One key reason is the exponential growth in remote work. Remote working has created a new economy where teams are working from different locations, all across the globe.

With work no longer being restricted to the office anymore, video conferencing is a smart tool and one of the most effective ways to collaborate with your team.

We’ll be looking at the benefits of video conferencing, whilst exploring a few helpful tips to run productive calls.

Let’s get stuck in!

Thanks to the pandemic, face-to-face meetings have become a thing of the past, there’s no more travelling long distances or expensive fuel bills to consider.

Video conferencing apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams allow you to easily connect with customers or fellow team members with the touch of a button.

Did you know Zoom had over 300 million meeting participants per day in 2020 alone?

What’s more, many video conferencing apps enable you to connect with several long-distance teams, allowing everyone in the team to be seen and present.

This not only reduces commute times which your team can dedicate to other important projects but also can save up to 30% on travel expenses - great news for the expenses bills!

Sharing knowledge with teams has become a lot easier with the help of document sharing on the go. Allowing you to access important information whenever, and wherever saving a heap of time and effort.

With the added bonus of increased efficiency and improved time management, you can dedicate more time to your customers by being more present and staying in touch.

Communicating and engaging little and often with customers can not only build more trust but can also help you retain business and increase your bottom line.

Running successful video conferences isn’t hard, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines:

• It can be a little daunting joining a video conference if you don’t know what’s going to be discussed. That’s why we recommend, always setting an agenda that’s agreed upon between everyone with key details and objectives.

• The element of surprise is not ideal if you’re hoping for a productive meeting. Sharing relevant documents or links in advance allows participants to look over them beforehand and familiarise themselves with the information, ready for any possible questions.

• This one's self-explanatory, but it's vital you're on time for your video conference! If you had 10 participants and you were all 2 minutes late that’s 20 minutes of your precious time wasted.
• Try scheduling your meeting in a calendar to help you keep track and send a reminder to your participants 1 hour beforehand to jog their memory.

• Even after everyone’s connected its wishful thinking to think that there’s going to be no issues during the meeting, with possible internet outages, poor connections or technical difficulties.
• Try to allocate the first 10-15 minutes of the video conference to setting everything up. Make sure this is on your agenda too, then everyone will know what to expect, leaving little room for unexpected delays.

Video conferences are essential for businesses in today’s world as teams are becoming more globally distributed every single day. If you want advice, support or to discuss the best video conference solutions for your business,