Articles on Conferencing | Topics: conferencing, conference
by Abdullah Ingram
Your First Web Conference: How To Do It Right
The key to a successful web or video conferencing is through careful planning. If you're fairly new to this technology and have little experience with web or video conferencing, all you have to remember is that online meetings are successfully possible when preparation and attention to detail before, during and after the session is mapped out and carefully planned.
A well-planned online conference ensures that the next one will be a smooth experience that will help your company accomplish its goals.
Below are some tips to help you manage a successful web conference:
Before the conference
Plan your conferences to only take about 1 to 2 hours. No person is ever comfortable with meetings that take up too much time. Longer meetings will leave your colleagues bored, restless and tired.
Be sure that you have prepared an agenda before you start the meeting. Have a list of questions and answers handy. This will ensure a smooth flow in the discussion and brainstorming. Outline the topics carefully. Determine what materials or visual aids you may need, and make sure that these are in order.
Coordinate with your IT department. For your web and videoconference to be a success, you would need to have the support of your IT people, specifically if you're dealing with participants in different locations.
Make sure to be at all test sessions with your IT people so that you will be able to see if the videos, microphones and application are indeed working properly. If you need to familiarize with the application, do so days before the session. Testing should at least take three days before the actual conference. Any other graphic aids you will use during the meeting must also be tested. Make sure links and documents work, especially if you're planning to send them out or share them to your colleagues.
When preparing for your visual presentation or graphic aids, a larger font is ideally better and clearer. Check the margins for each of your visual aid and estimate how it should transmit in the videoconference as side margins tend to be cut off in the actual transmission. Avoid too many words with your graphic aids, as they tend to look busy on the computer screen.
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The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.
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Send an advise to your team, to be in the venue a few minutes before the session begins. This is especially important if you need to brief them about materials and documents that you will need to present during the meeting. By also assembling earlier, you will be able to check for any last minute changes or glitches. Have your team go over the tools and application to avoid embarrassing moments while the meeting is in progress. Also send a reminder to the participants to ensure that the online meeting will start on time.
Here are other miscellaneous tips that may help you conduct online meetings successfully:
Dress appropriate for the meeting. Even if this is an online conference and you may be joining in the comforts of your home, you will still be facing your colleagues.
Steer clear of intensely colored and designed shirts or blouses, as this will be too distracting for the cameras.
Consequently, gestures during the meeting, like hand movements or finger tapping, may be distracting to other participants on the other side of the videoconference.
After the conference
The conference and brainstorming does not stop once the online connection is over. Extensions can still take place after the session. You can send follow-up emails or parcels containing documents, newsletters, surveys or even the printed versions of what took place during your session. When doing this, remember to attach your cover letters. Don't forget to add a thank you note or congratulatory notes, as well. If there are photographs taken during the meeting, set up a website for this. Your colleagues can peruse through the pictures online. You may even set up an online survey and feedback form. Let your colleagues know of this online website before the conference is over.
Lastly, two things you have to remember: kick-off with a bang and end with something memorable. Opening conferences with a powerful video presentation, a captivating visual or a strong speech will stir up your participants and will get them more involved. Then closing the session with a notable speaker or even an award presentation will send off participants on a positive note.
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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Your First Web Conference: How To Do It Right" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com. |
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