When Hosting a Virtual Meeting, Always Do These 5 Things

Posted By
Adam Grant


As the host of a virtual meeting, a lot is expected of you. First and foremost, you have had to schedule the call, invite the right people, as well as establish an agenda for it. At the outset, your organizational skills are really put to the test.

However, your work doesn’t end there. Once the video call begins, it is your responsibility to make sure it goes well. In order to have that happen, you need to – at the very least – always do these five things:

Speak Intelligently, Confidently, and Politely

When leading a team meeting over one of the best virtual meeting platforms out there, you need to set the right tone. As such, it is critical that no matter what the topic is, you speak about it intelligently, confidently, and politely.

Acting this way will help you maintain the attention of all video chat attendees, all the while showing them that your meetings are a productive, team-friendly environment where important matters get tackled.


Be Accommodating to Others

What else helps promote a team-friendly environment is making it known that everyone in the room has a voice. No matter someone’s experience level or tenure at the company, they should feel empowered to contribute to all conversations.

Additionally, if a member of your team requests time to put forth a presentation during a live video chat online you’ve organized, do your best to carve out a chunk of time for them.

Consider New Ideas

When accommodating others in your virtual meeting, you are paving the way for new ideas to be presented to everyone in the room. Now, not all ideas brought to these staff meetings will be winners. There will be some ideas that haven’t been entirely thought out, and need to be better crafted before being reconsidered.

But that’s okay. Be gentle if an idea has to be turned down, but encourage the individual to not let this momentary failure stop them from presenting more ideas in the future. Because one of these days, an idea brought to life because of a positive video call atmosphere will pan out wonderfully.


Be Prepared

Regardless of if you are the main presenter, or other individuals are leading the charge, take your usual level of preparedness to the next level.

In addition to the agenda you already put together, have a detailed collection of notes – maybe even a script – at hand. Even if you are a very comfortable public speaker, there is the chance you could forget a point you desperately want to convey. 

During those times where other members of your team are jumping on the online meeting platform to make a presentation, have them provide you with introductions. This will help you better tee up their presentation so that they can get right into it without having to pause for pleasantries.

Keep the Conversation Focused and On-Track

Regardless of the secure video conferencing service you use, there will be times when conversations take a hard left, or prematurely reach an impasse.

At this juncture, it is your duty as the virtual meeting host to keep everyone focused on the issue(s) that need to be discussed and/or decided upon. Considering you’ve probably set a time limit for this particular video call, you need everyone to remain on-track in order to satisfy the objectives of the team meeting.

Banty offers virtual meeting solutions for Business, Enterprise, Medical Practice, Virtual Event, and Personal use. Tap here to learn more about our services, as well as our 14-day free trial for new users.

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Adam Grant

Adam has been a professional, published writer for more than 20 years. He has experience writing about technology, business, music, news, as well as many topics in-between. When not banging away at the keyboard, Adam spins vinyl, obsesses over sports, and takes his dog on giant walks.