Tips For Effective Video Conferencing

With the help of the internet, connecting video conferencing systems in meeting rooms with personal devices such as mobiles and laptops with embedded webcams are defined as video conferences. These online conferences enhance productivity, saves time, reduce travel expenses, and promote partnership. The most basic but crucial advantage of video conferencing is the ability to bring out all the benefits of face-to-face communication without the requirement of traveling.

Benefits of using video conferencing for businesses:

1. Video conferencing software serves as the foundation for today’s digital workforce. It helps teams in maintaining human connections without any physical location thus speeding up decision-making.
2. Video Conferences are cost-efficient and time saviors as they avoid in-person meetings, thus eliminating traveling charges and the time required to relocate.
3. In a survey report of 1300 businesses, nearly 43% of respondents accepted that video conferencing has increased team productivity. At the end of every virtual meeting, share documents and use cloud-based file-sharing servers to ensure a flawless transfer of files.
4. Meeting scheduling has become quicker and easier as people do not have to reach the meeting venue in time, in person, and they just need to note down the date and time in mobile applications like calendars or notepads. Scheduling a meeting with executives who have busy schedules has also become easier because of video conferencing.
5. The best advantage of online meetings is that they are recordable sessions. So, if any important point is missing out, you can pause the recording and go back to clear that out.

Tips for effective video conferencing:

1. A high-speed reliable internet connection is a must-have. Most helpful is to use a wired ethernet connection to avoid wifi dropping issues.
2. Use an effective conferencing tool like Adobe Connect to ensure the smooth delivery of video and other forms of content that you wish to present.
3. Keep the laptop’s camera at eye level by placing the laptop over a few books to provide the members with a more straight-on view of yours, additionally preventing you from slouching over your system.
4. Maintain a decent distance from your laptop’s camera so that people present in the meeting can see your upper body and also your hand gestures as you try to deliver a speech or lecture.
5. Assigning a note tracker during the meeting will provide the other members with an idea of you treating the meeting professionally.
6. Dress up formally. Avoid formals with creases as that would pass on a negative judgment about you.
7. Declutter the background by keeping it clean and natural. If not possible then use the custom backgrounds on your video.
8. Check the audio jack and earphones before the meeting starts because a break in the voice suggests a lack of professionalism.
9. Practice patience and refrain from speaking when any of your fellow members are speaking. This gets a bit challenging when there are a lot of participants in the meeting. So, if you are the host, try to hold on to your queries until everyone is done speaking.
10. Have a backup plan in case your connection drops keep another person’s mail id and phone number handy so that you can log in using that if any discrepancy occurs.
11. Send the meeting’s agenda along with the invitation before starting. As this would help them to be clear about the reason for this meeting and be prepared.
12. Use a well-lit environment for the meeting. Avoid dim lights or colored lights or backlighting from a window, as this would lead to a poorly lit video. Remove any kind of distraction from the background such as a large painting or a cluttered desk. It is advisable to shut down all the windows and curtains to avoid extra noise.

Conclusion: Presently, quite a large number of organizations are switching to video conferencing, and thus it is required for all the employees to get accustomed to this new setting. Using the above-mentioned tips and tricks might help in bagging a successful video conference by enhancing the efficiency of the conference.

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