Meeting best practices

Recommendations for hybrid meeting attendees

1. Setting up the meeting correctly

Nowadays, setting up a meeting can be more confusing than the COVID confinement guidelines themselves. We must take great care to clearly explain the format of the meeting, to do this: As the organizer, you must decide whether you want a remote meeting, a hybrid meeting, or a face-to-face meeting. To do this, you must have an idea of which people will be able to attend in person and whether it makes sense to seat them in the same room. Only if we have a minimum number of key people in person will it make sense to have a hybrid meeting.

• The format of the meeting should be communicated. It is advisable to specify in the title of the call whether it is a face-to-face, remote or hybrid meeting.
• It is important to include the agenda with the persons responsible for each item. This can help these people to decide on their presence depending on the role they play in the meeting.

Setting up the meeting correctly will help reduce errors and ensure that everyone is committed to the objective of the meeting.

2. Person, computer, camera

It is highly recommended that in remote meetings, participants should be able to see each other’s faces. Much of the communication is nonverbal, and although it is not the same thing, faces help to understand people’s reactions.

In a hybrid meeting, there is a situation that can create first and second attendees. It’s the answer to, “If we’re already here, a computer is enough, right? Well… no. It is highly recommended that everyone in the meeting has their computer in front of them just like the people who are not in the meeting room. The reason is quite simple, it gives the impression that there are not two groups of participants and improves the flow of the meeting.

Of course, due to multiple situations, it is likely that some people will feel uncomfortable in front of the camera at times. In our opinion, it is preferable to make use of the camera voluntary or to set up a moment at the beginning of the meeting so that everyone can see each other. In this way, we manage to humanize the meetings.

3. Make it known that there is someone out there

How many times have we found ourselves in this situation in a remote meeting? It is important to establish audio and, if possible, visual contact with the people who are attending remotely at the beginning of the meeting. The moderator of the meeting should ask questions, make the other attendees intervene, and remind them that there are people attending remotely.

4. Promote the use of emoticons and reactions.

Nowadays, almost all videoconferencing systems have emoticons in text and on-screen reactions that allow you to know the feedback of the meeting attendees about what is being discussed. Specifically, we are all familiar with the hand icon to ask for a turn to speak, but there are many variations to express agreement, joy, or disagreement. As an organizer, it is recommended that you propose from the beginning of the meeting a way to use emoticons and reactions that will help reduce the time of the meeting and improve the expressiveness of the attendees.