Events and meetings that are hybrid are frequently discussed. Despite the fact that in-person events are returning quickly thanks to advancements in public health, there is still a need to connect with and engage online audiences. The fact remains that many attendees might feel uneasy attending sizable indoor events in person for a while. Virtual meetings continue to be an effective way for businesses to communicate with audiences around the world despite the events industry going through a true digital transformation.
What is a Hybrid Meeting?
First, we need to understand what we mean by “hybrid meeting.” For event planners, hybrid meetings offer the best of both worlds, but they also present a unique set of difficulties. While each of your events has its own objectives, all hybrid events have as many participants as they can, both in-person and virtually.
If attendees desire the in-person experience of a hybrid event, they can do so. The option to participate virtually is another benefit of hybrid meetings for those who would not have been able to attend due to health issues or travel restrictions. Creating an experience that is equally engaging for both groups is a challenge for planners and marketers. Hybrid events give even more people the chance to engage with your content and your brand by lowering the entry barrier.
Why Do We Have Hybrid Meetings?
Genuine collaboration and innovation take place when people come together in the same location. A business struggles to prosper, innovate, and advance when everyone is cooped up at home or working remotely. It is obvious that the meeting room is the best location for holding meetings where physical presence in the room is necessary.
A portion of the workforce is physically present during hybrid meetings, which also makes it simpler for team members to collaborate virtually. Despite not being an exact match, it is the closest thing. Discover more on the 5 key benefits of hybrid working
Live meetings are impossible when working with global project teams that are dispersed throughout the world and, as a result, in various time zones and working schedules.
To overcome travel restrictions, address the need for going green and enhancing sustainability, and address travel restrictions, the introduction of effective, affordable hybrid meetings into the new corporate culture is a great solution.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdowns and quarantine measures, people have been forced to find new forms of collaboration, such as home offices and, more recently, in some regions, a shift toward hybrid work that facilitates social isolation.
How to Run An Inclusive Hybrid Meeting?
Asynchronous Communication Can Mean a Meeting Isn’t Always the Answer
To begin with, ask yourself if a meeting is the most effective way to meet your communication needs.
Many of us were tempted to schedule multiple meetings when offices switched to remote working in 2020 so that communication channels between coworkers remained open. Smart businesses have realized that many of those meetings are unnecessary as we’ve gotten better at working remotely.
Slack and other communication tools make it simple for coworkers to communicate with one another and advance projects without calling a meeting. Asynchronous communication allows you to accommodate various working schedules and locations without impeding the discussion’s progress because an immediate response isn’t expected.
Plan Your Hybrid Meetings Carefully
Reducing the number of meetings allows you to carefully prepare for the ones you do have. People enter the workplace in a hybrid culture with a purpose in mind. Meetings that are thoughtfully planned will guarantee they can maximize that time.
Next time you’re tempted to quickly pencil in a hybrid meeting in colleagues’ calendars, pause and take a few moments to think about:
• The purpose of the meeting
• The decisions you need to take
• Any pre-reading you can send attendees
• Which meeting room you will use, and whether it has the tech to accommodate remote attendees
The necessary preparations can then be made to guarantee a successful meeting that includes everyone.
Consider Meeting Timings
Video calls are exhausting, as is common knowledge. We don’t benefit from physical interaction with other people, they’re hard on the eyes, and it can be difficult to focus.
When organizing your hybrid meetings, be sure to take all of this into consideration. Plan breaks so that remote attendees can turn off their screens and leave their laptops for a while, and try to keep them from being too long.
Be strict about the start time of meetings as well. In-person participants can converse outside the room or leave the meeting to get a coffee if it begins late. The only thing a remote attendee gets to see as they wait for the host to press go is their own face staring back at them.
Structure Contributions from Meeting Attendees
Be more organized when inviting contributions to prevent remote attendees from being overlooked. This can be as easy as taking the time to ask each participant individually if they have anything to add at the conclusion of each agenda item.
Get Everyone to Use the Same Technology
Ask everyone to use the available technology, whether they are participating in the meeting in person or remotely, to prevent it from becoming disjointed.
Make sure everyone uses it, for instance, if you’re using a platform for virtual Post-it notes like Miro. Don’t let the meeting room whiteboard be used by half the attendees while the virtual platform is being used by the other half.
Tips and Best Practices
Come Prepared and Test Technology Upfront.
Make sure you arrive prepared, just as you would in person. Some coworkers find it stressful enough just to join a video conference. Therefore, there is no need to waste others’ time and increase the tension. Assuming it applies, confirm that you have tested the meeting connection beforehand. Additionally, if you are in charge of organizing the meeting, make sure that the technology and room arrangement will work properly. With ClickShare, you can quickly set up a video conference in your conference room. Additionally, ClickShare functions with any videoconferencing program.
Mic and Audio Check.
With high-quality speakers and microphones, make sure you have control over your audio. When it’s your turn to speak, do so, and when it’s appropriate, mute your microphone. Additionally, disable any audio alerts from your computer or phone that might interfere with the call. ClickShare can be used in conjunction with a variety of audio and video peripherals. Visibility and audibility of remote participants in the meeting space are essential, and vice versa.
Keep the Camera On.
It’s important to be able to see every participant in a hybrid meeting. Ensure that remote coworkers can see the conversation and speakers in the meeting room and vice versa. Share content, such as videos and presentations. equally in the room and to remote viewers.
Make It Safe.
Cybersecurity is a serious issue. Applications for video conferencing are the target of a recent wave of cyberattacks. Make sure everyone who joins the call is safe as a result. Make sure to use security-integrated meeting equipment and videoconferencing software. The development of ClickShare involved adhering to security procedures and global security standards, as evidenced by its ISO27001 certification.
Balance Meeting Equity.
Respect all meeting participants and accord them equal access to the (virtual) table. At the beginning of the meeting, introduce everyone and allow attendees to speak their minds without interruption. Ask questions or conduct a quick poll to entice the more reserved attendees to participate in the conversation. Achieving more equality may be possible if you make sure that remote participants can be seen in the meeting space at full size (to give them a stronger presence in the space itself).
Final Thought
The methods meeting attendees select to log in will change as the number of hybrid meetings rises. For both employee engagement and team productivity, it is crucial to support each individual. Therefore, there is a lot at stake for IT leaders to implement the proper strategy. This calls for a shift in mindset, moving away from the pre-pandemic era when most meetings took place in offices and thinking in terms of what constitutes a hybrid meeting.
