Meeting Communication

A good article on meetings in The New York Times: JOBS | September 26, 2010
Career Couch:  Staying Professional in Virtual Meetings
By EILENE ZIMMERMAN

Virtual meetings have become a staple of business life, but personal conduct during a phone or video conference can be different than in face-to-face meetings.

Eilene Zimmerman hits on some important points about staying professional in Virtual Meetings from the perspective of being a participant.  I totally agree that virtual meetings are now a staple of the business world. One key point she left out about virtual meetings . . . you need to pay even more attention to your PowerPoint visuals – that’s if you are using them.  As Eilene points out the visual component of your virtual meeting is important.

A video component can add to the success of your meeting by keeping people more engaged than just an audio phone call.  Personally, I hate long boring “audio only” conference calls.

But what about PowerPoint? It is so easy to add these to an online meeting – why would anyone not choose to take advantage of this visual tool?  It becomes even more important to have PowerPoint visuals that add to your meeting communication and do not distract and force your participant’s eyes to race to their Blackberry or iPhone screens.

When you have a global, multi-lingual audience it’s just as important to have more visuals to support your message that will assist in the difficult task of sharing information in a language that is not native to all.

Virtual meetings can make sharing important information among a group easier than ever before. I love a good virtual meeting, although I do miss some of those wonderful catered, delicious lunches served in the conference room.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 6:55 pm and is filed under General, Meetings, PowerPoint, Presentations, Technology.