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Productive meetings when participants are in different locations
Video conferencing is a simple and cost effective way to “bring” many people together for a meeting without physically bringing people together. Unfortunately, many digital meetings end up wasting more time than traditional meetings — and most traditional meetings are less-than-stellar points of productive comparison.
Productivity501′s recent article “9 Tips for Effective Video Conferences” provides considerably more than nine tips for how to run productive digital meetings. I particularly enjoyed the advice:
Assume that the technology is going to be a problem and give yourself multiple options and enough time to get everything right … Reboot your computer ahead of time. If you occasionally need to reboot your computer to keep it from getting bogged down, do this ahead of the meeting. You don’t want to force everyone to wait while you reboot your machine.
One of my biggest pet peeves during video conferences is that many people don’t treat it like work. A spouse will come on screen and wave at everyone or one person will take a call on his cell phone or it becomes obvious that someone is surfing the web, checking e-mail, or playing a video game. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t conduct yourself that way during an in-person meeting, don’t do it while on a video conference.
What advice would you add to “9 Tips for Effective Video Conferences?” I’m eager to read your suggestions. I’m also interested in hearing which video conferencing programs people prefer to use. I’ve never organized a video conference, just participated on them, so I use whatever program the coordinator chooses. I’d like to hear if some of the systems are significantly better at helping users be more productive.
6 comments posted
Posted by Gil - 04/06/2010
Our company uses Gotomeeting every day since we’re all working remotely from our homes (we’re all mainly contractors) and we use it for conference calls, to share projects, show screens … and in the future, I would suppose video conferences (but we don’t really care about seeing each other as much as each other’s work). It can be buggy sometimes, so it’s nice to have the option to just call in and talk over the phone too. We also use a lot of Skype for constant conversation (like a open office space – group chats and all)… and it’s worked really well. And everyone is very productive (even if we might be also surfing the web while in some of those long drawn out not-so-relevant-to-me meetings).
Posted by Kristen Hartmann - 04/06/2010
Our office uses Gotomeeting as well. I can echo Gil’s comments – it’s useful to have the flexibility to both call in and to share screens. It does sometimes crash and freeze, though, in the middle of meetings. Generally, before we set up, we share a backup phone number outside Gotomeeting via email that we can all use for a traditional conference call.
Posted by Zac - 04/06/2010
As a consultant that conducts 95% of my work over the phone I can honestly say that seeing someone on a video conference is not nearly as effective as simply sharing someone’s desktop using Logmein express or Web-ex, and having every one dial in to a conference line.
Seeing who you’re talking to doesn’t really result in a more productive meeting. Realistically, you’re going to get a lot more done using a desktop sharing solution, and displaying a meeting agenda that every one can see. This also enables the call leader to direct the conversation using the agenda, and pull up pertinent documents as needed.
I would much rather see an important spread-sheet with information pertaining to the topic of the call, versus the other meeting participants faces.
It’s also important to have good meeting practices: Don’t invite non-essential people to the meeting who aren’t likely to contribute. These are the people who surf the internet during calls. Engage each person in the meeting directly, and make sure that the agenda calls for contribution for all the participants.
Most importantly, don’t have a meeting if you don’t have an agenda, this is what results in thirty minutes to an hour of people discussing the recent news on their favorite website.
There are certainly times when video conferencing is worthwhile, but in my day to day operations I’ve found that desktop sharing and conference calls can be exponentially more productive when done right.
Posted by WilliamB - 04/06/2010
If you expect to use a presentation, send it out in advance.
If possible, send out a list of participants in advance: first and last name, role in the meeting, job title and responsibility.
If you expect to use a whiteboard, make sure the camera can see it.
Don’t have side conversations, even if you hit mute. It’s rude and usually counterproductive.
Zac’s rule – he’d rather see the computer than the person – is situational. If you’re discussing a detailed presentation or spreadsheet, then definitely. If you’re interviewing a job applicant, then definitely not.
At a former employer we had to schedule finish time as well as start time. That was great! The scheduled finish time meant we worked till the finish, then the call automatically ended. No more losing 10-15 min to pointless repetition or pleasant-but-time-consuming chit-chat.
Posted by Kyla - 04/06/2010
We use Web-ex all the time at work. I love it since I can see the screen that they’re using.
I wish people would have phone etiquette though. I’ve heard lewd comments, elevator music, and the worst – a toilet flush, while on conference calls. I’ve been guilty too, while working from home after my son was born, I was asking a question and he started crying. People need to learn how to mute their phones – just as I need to learn when to not ask questions.
Posted by Mark - Productivity501 - 04/06/2010
Erin – Thanks for mentioning my article. As far as different systems go, I use Acrobat Connect Pro. It is about $100 per month, but they will try to sell you 5 licenses at a time. It can handle up to 100 people and does video, screen sharing and audio all together.
Connect Now at Acrobat.com is less expensive, but has a limit of 5 to 20 people depending on your plan. There use to be a free option for 3 people, but they are making it harder to find in order to promote the paid version. if you poke around on the site, you’ll see the Sign Up option in little letters next to the Subscribe option. I think the Sign Up option will let you still use the free capabilities.
DimDim is an option that I’ve been looking at. It seems to have a lot of features and a pretty low price point. I’m going to look at them again when I get to the end of my Acrobat subscription.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think GotoMeeting does video conferencing.
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