Ways to Boost Engagement During Your Conference Meetings

 

The modern office has drastically changed over the last few years. The pandemic has had a major impact as working from home has become the norm for many. However, even before the pandemic started, changes to the modern workspace included embracing virtual meetings. While there are countless benefits to working remotely, keeping employees engaged during virtual conference meetings can be challenging. Below are some of the best ways to boost engagement during your conference meetings.

Ways to Boost Engagement During Your Conference Meetings

Keeping your employee’s attention during a conference meeting is critical. Efficiency is the key to a successful team. Consider the following tips to ensure your team is engaged during your next meeting.

1. Time Limited: While most meetings are scheduled for one hour or more, research shows that attendees check out after 10 to 20 minutes. Limiting your work meetings to the amount of time necessary to complete your meeting is integral to keeping attendees engaged. While you may not be able to keep every meeting to just 20 minutes, shoot for a maximum of 45 minutes and be mindful at every 20-minute mark so you can re-engage your audience.
2. Meeting Plan: Depending on your employee’s workload, they may not have a lot of extra time. Meetings generally take away from their time to complete their regular tasks, so it’s important to make it worth their while. Part of this means that you’ll need to create a thoughtful plan for the meeting. Make sure that the meeting contents are valuable to each attendee to maximize their engagement.
3. Get Creative: Use diverse formats to engage your audience. Videos, images, sound, polls, music, and breakout rooms can all be beneficial to keep your employees on their toes. Be sure to utilize corporate AV solutions to meet attendees with the most effective and engaging experience.
4. Employee Suggestions and Feedback: If you hold regular meetings, talk with your employees about it. Ask them for topic and format suggestions so you can prepare meetings that can add value to their work. In addition, get feedback afterward to see what worked and what didn’t. You can keep responses anonymous to ensure your employees feel comfortable sharing their genuine thoughts.
5. Mini-Conferences: Attendees should only be there if they need to be. If you have a few things you want to discuss and decide to just have one big meeting, engagement will drop dramatically. Have mini-conferences with specific teams to ensure that engagement is high.
6. Games and Prizes: Depending on the content and how many people are on your team, consider integrating quizzes and prizes. If you have a presentation or work meeting that can be broken into sections, have a mini-quiz at the end about the content. Give away prizes that encourage engagement. Coffee, gift cards, or movie tickets can be a great incentive to stay engaged during a meeting.
7. Monitor the Chat: Usually meetings include a live chat where attendees can ask questions and provide feedback. Keep an eye on that as it can alert you of any technical issues, help you understand any areas of confusion, and get an idea of the mood of your audience.
8. Encourage Q&A: One of the best ways to get people engaged is to provide them with an opportunity to ask questions. Due to the fact that many people lose interest around the 10- to 20-minute mark, find opportunities to offer answers to any attendee questions around those times. If attendees do not want to ask their question on video, allow people to submit questions to the chat or anonymously message the presenter.

Corporate AV Solutions

Virtual meetings are here to stay and the corporate world has to adapt to the changes that come with it. Prepare your office and employees with the technology necessary to be successful working in the office or at home. Audio visual systems integration can be helpful and allow your employees to maximize their efficiency.