Some people look at the meeting experience. Did the technology work properly? Did everyone understand and properly use the meeting technology? Did all the awesome bells and whistles work the way they should? Did Sally finally remember to hit mute when her dog barked? Others prefer to look at the outcome of the meeting. This view concentrates on agendas, action items, communication skills and even team building to help bring about a desired outcome. The definition of success comes from the answer to this one question: Was the objective of the meeting achieved? The truth is, neither type A nor type B can really define an effective meeting. But, both options can contribute to a successful meeting. In order to have a good meeting, your objective should drive your web conferencing technology choice and the technology should then, of course, work properly. Meeting objectives are met much easier when your web conferencing product helps you to achieve your objective. In order to do that you, have to know your meeting’s objective before you choose your web conferencing technology. What’s the point of investing time and energy into planning a meeting, if you end up using a product that doesn’t help you achieve that objective? Let’s say you have to train five new recruits. You live in Chicago and they live in five different cities. Obliviously, traveling to five cities across the country to train five people isn’t a great use of your time or budget, so you set up a web conference. Your company uses Global Meet, a perfectly fine web conferencing tool with great screen sharing capabilities. The problem is that Global Meet isn’t the best web conferencing for your meeting’s objective, ensuring your trainees fully understand and know how to use XYZ Software. Good trainers don’t sit in front of a screen, flip through slides and talk. Effective training sessions have many moving parts – interactive activities, guess speakers, quizzes, small group discussions, demonstrations, etc. Your meeting technology needs to have the capabilities to facilitate all of these moving parts so you can train people as quickly and effectively as possible. Global Meet works great for your company’s collaborative meetings, but a product like Adobe Connect mimics behaviors you would actually have in a training room. Not only can you create quizzes and breakout rooms for small group discussions but you can create custom meeting room layouts, track your meeting engagement and much more. A really successful meeting happens when people understand and can perform their roles and responsibilities. They know what the meeting was about and what actions they should take to meet the objective. You should always select a web conferencing product that helps you achieve your goals. Depending on your objective, you may need all the bells and whistles – you may not. Use your objectives to choose your technology and you won’t have to worry about your product working against your goals. For more tips and meeting insights, sign up for our newsletter. Click here.
How to define an effective web conference
Historically, there are two schools of thought when it comes to defining an effective web conference. Unfortunately, both schools of thought are missing the mark.Type A: The product driven meeting
Type B: The objective driven meeting
Type A+B: The successful meeting
Case in point: The Off the Wall Training Call
Technology is not the answer, it’s a tool that helps you find the answer.
