How to host a successful zoom meeting with a webinar planning template
I don’t need to tell you how incredibly popular video conferencing has become in our “new normal work from home (W.F.H.)” world. Thanks to videoconferencing products such as Zoom, we can easily participate in business meetings from the comfort of our home-office or even when we are out-and-about.
I’ve lost count of how many Zoom meetings, workshops and webinars I have attended in the past few months. Some of them have been short, sweet, productive and quite enjoyable. Others have been interminably long without a clear purpose or agenda.
And that’s the theme of today’s blog post – how we can take charge of our video calls and be more productive, strategic and targeted with the aid of a webinar checklist.
1. Have an agenda
Just like in a normal face-to-face meeting, having an agenda is vital.
An agenda provides structure and clarity, setting an end-goal or intention for the meeting, and informing people what will be covered during the session.
Distribute the agenda to the attendees well in advance of the meeting, for them to digest the action items and to enable them to bring their best thoughts and ideas with them to the meeting.
2. Get the timing right
You need to budget some time (say 1-5 minutes) in at the beginning of the meeting for people to connect, resolve any technology issues and to settle in.
You will also need to take a few minutes before your session starts to do a quick run through of any zoom features you plan to use.
Similarly, towards the end of the meeting, you need to allow some time (say around 5-10 minutes) to wrap things up and assign any action items to the relevant team members.
And in order to end your meeting smoothly, allow one to two minutes for everyone to bid one another goodbye.
Which equates to around 15 minutes that you have to factor into your session’s timing.
3. Consider asking someone to be your Cohost
It’s a wonderful feeling having a moderator, also termed a zoom cohost, to help you run your Zoom Meetings and training workshops.
It takes much of the pressure off you, and allows you to do what you do best – train and lead.
I highly recommend asking a colleague, employee or a friend to help you take on the role of “crowd control”.
The moderator has a number of important roles. The moderator can:
Process the “waiting room”, only admitting people who have registered for the session.
Let any stragglers unobtrusively join the meeting, getting them up-to-speed behind the scenes.
Process the chat box, passing on relevant questions and comments to you, as they trickle in throughout the presentation.
Give you a useful heads-up if you happen to be sharing the wrong screen!
Help you deal with any technology glitches that rear their ugly head.
Keep you and the meeting on time, based upon your estimated timings. It is very important not to go way over time. If a meeting is supposed to end at 2pm, it should end as close to 2pm as possible. This demonstrates respect for other people’s time.
Mute everyone’s audio where required, in particular, whilst you, the host, are speaking. No one wants to get distracted by the din of a blaring TV, a bored, barking dog or the sound of clanging pots in the background.
Ensure that the meeting stays on track and that no one hijacks the meeting, running roughshod over the proceedings. The Moderator can also encourage and enable the quieter participants to contribute - if they wish to of course!
4. Convey your expectations regarding Zoom meeting etiquette
I highly recommend creating a document which covers the ground rules for your Zoom meeting.
Such a document should outline anything you feel is relevant to have a smooth and productive meeting.
Simply send the document to your zoom meeting attendees in the day or two prior to your meeting.
Here is some food for thought for some of the zoom meeting etiquette items you may wish to include on your list:
How to perform any relevant actions e.g. Open Chat Box, Open Participants Window, share their screen or window, raise their “digital” hands, Annotate a diagram etc. Some people are newbies to Zoom and you should cater for them too!
Your expectations for the meeting. For example: the meeting will start promptly at the scheduled time.
Timings – let participants know the start time, end time and if there will be any breaks and for how long the breaks will run.
The “rules of engagement” for the session e.g.to leave yourself on mute unless you are speaking.
The Zoom Meeting Id and Password. A friend of mine unfortunately forgot to send the password and the start of the meeting was a bit on the shambolic side, as she was inundated with emails and texts requesting the password. Definitely not a good look…
In closing, every time you need to host a Zoom meeting or a webinar on any platform for that matter, simply take out your trusty webinar planning template, and implement your action points.
Here’s wishing you many productive, fun and stress-free video-conferencing meetings!
© 2020 Susan Weser. All rights reserved.
