Tips for meeting online - with Zoom, Skype, or Webex, or…

It happened - COVID-19 has sent us indoors. Mostly.

While plans are scrapped, conferences, concerts, games, and gatherings are cancelled, those who still need some learning and development cry, “Move it all online!”

I spent today re-tooling my schedules for my Professional Speaking and Interpersonal Communications classes at Loyola University. We are now fully online for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, I’ve been leading trainings online and meeting virtually since the early ‘00s.

If you suddenly find yourself needing to meet, train, or learn online, here’s some tips.

• Test! Test! Test! Before the meeting or class actually happens, test your slides, go into the platform you’re using and test everything. No matter how often you’ve done this. Speaking from experience. Enter the platform at least 15 minutes before the meeting to test audio, sound, connections, etc.

• Have a backup plan. What if you’re slides don’t show? What if your sound drops out? Is there a downloadable pdf you can make available? An alternate platform you can switch to if you have technical difficulty?

• Speak slower than usual. Online training is not the same as face to face. Without your lovely face and voice in-person, your listeners need more time to take in and process what you’re saying.

• Be clear with your agenda and expectations. Ensure all participants have a written game plan before the meeting starts.

• Share help resources before you meet. Make sure attendees have a resource to reference (such as an online troubleshooting guide) or someone to contact if they run into technical issues. You don’t want to stop your flow because an attendee can’t see an image on their screen - and they keep interrupting you to say so.

Need some help with your online training or meetings? Or want some coaching so you can shine when you present online? Let’s talk.