How To Conduct A Productive Video Conference

Over the past few years, video conferencing has grown exponentially in popularity. With the combination of improving technology and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses and individuals around the world have embraced video calls as a substitute (or even permanent replacement) for in-person meetings.

While online video conferences have opened up a whole new world of productivity and possibilities for remote workers, they are far from perfect, and require a little work before they can deliver seamless meetings.

The reasons for this stem from the fundamental issues apparent even with in-person meetings. For example, people can arrive late to the meetings, the conversation can rapidly veer off topic and lead to a lack of productive chat, and there can be a lack of overall focus on the meetings.

Thankfully, if you identify these potential issues, you can make the necessary adjustments to ensure that each video meeting you conduct will be as efficient and productive as possible.

For instance, you could ensure that the internet connection is strong to prevent any buffering, breaks in communication, or delays, as well as set a time limit and agenda for the meeting to ensure it remains focused on the problems at hand.

This is how to conduct a productive video conference:

Make sure everyone’s internet access is strong

One of the most irritating aspects of any video call is the inevitable buffering, lag, and audio disruption caused by a poor internet connection. 

Although rarely a serious problem, it can greatly disrupt the flow of a meeting and cause you to lose valuable time that could otherwise be used to tackle the problems you have called the meeting to accomplish.

It is somewhat of an inevitability that you are going to suffer from bad internet from time to time. Still, you need to minimize its overall interference with the productivity of your virtual meetings.

For example, you could set up a dedicated internet line for you and your employees to ensure your internet connection is more than adequate for the demands of remote work – and video calling in particular. 

Have a clear agenda for the meeting

Another way to ensure your video conferences are as efficient as possible is to set a clear agenda for the meeting at the beginning of the exchange (or preferably in advance). By doing this, you will focus everyone’s minds on one particular issue and ensure that all participants are singing from the same hymn sheet. 

When you host a weekly meeting, conversation can often descend into a variety of topics in a stream-of-consciousness form – leading to little in the way of progress on any particular problem. Instead, set a target and do your best to work your way towards it in a logical manner, which will increase the chance that you actually solve problems and have productive meetings.

Set a time limit

Often, video meetings can drag on because half of it consist of idle chit-chat as you wait for all the participants to join, try to remember what you wanted to discuss, or become distracted by different topics. A great way to prevent this from happening is to set a strict time limit on all meetings – which will force everyone to stay on topic and get through the items on the agenda.