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March 12, 2020 is a date that most of us will remember for a long time. It was the day authorities announced that they would impose the most severe restrictions in peacetime, impacting our lives more than ever. We are now writing October 2020, and there are still many who are in home-office because of the Covid-19 pandemic. We can still not meet as we used to.
Many companies have postponed important meetings because we cannot meet physically. Some companies have held only the most essential meetings via digital platforms. It is about time to realize that digital meetings came to stay, most likely also after the pandemic. Therefore, we want to give you some of our best tips to how you can hold digital meetings at its best.
Several days
Not all meetings are equally easy to conduct effectively through digital channels. Some of the topics for the meeting may require a little more time for digestion and reflection. In such cases, it can be a good to extend the “meeting” over several days. Here is how:
- Set the agenda and send out the meeting invitation in good time. Be clear on which issues to vote on
- Select a time for presenting the agenda
- Set aside a limited amount of time between presentations and conclusions. Ask that everyone has cast their vote and feedback by a certain time
- Inform about how the meeting participants can cast their votes and provide feedback
- Select a time for conclusion where all votes and feedback gets reviewed. Once all this has been reviewed, a decision can be made
- Submit a report afterwards
If you want to conduct your meetings like described, there are several options for how participants can vote and provide feedback, both free and paid options. If you are looking for a free alternative, there are, for example, several good platforms for surveys that you can adapt to your needs and share with the participants.
Digitalt live meetings
If you feel comfortable conducting your meeting digitally, and making decisions live, there is nothing to stop you. Most of us had good practice with digital meetings lately, which led to many becoming comfortable in front of the camera. Here is how:
- The board has to make a decision, if the annual meeting is to be held digitally. Thereafter, the board must inform the members of its association that the annual meeting will be held digitally, and which technical solutions will be used.
- Set the agenda and send out a notice to all participants in good time. Inform about which platform or technical solution will be used, how the participants may log on, and whether there is a need for downloading a program.
- Feel free to send a reminder a couple of days before the meeting where you repeat the information given in the notice. In this reminder, you can also request that suggestions and comments on the agenda shall be submitted in advance.
- For votes it may be good to use a live poll.
- Send out a summary of the meeting to all attendees..
For these types of meetings you should also make sure to have good solutions for both votes and feedbacks. Surveys or poll services are usually a good choice, but you could also give the participants the opportunity to use the chat functions if your meeting platform provides this.
A hybrid solution
The corona pandemic has stimulated many to rethink how we can meet. This has led to innovations in form of hybrid meeting solutions, which came to stay for after the crisis. A hybrid meeting place combines the best of both worlds with both physical and digital attendance. At Oslofjord we have our own Hybrid Event studio with a world-class technical rig. Here you can gather key people in the studio, while other meeting participants participate digitally. This is particularly relevant if travel is a challenge because of current restrictions.
We have a self-developed app where digital participants can log in. Via this app, they can communicate directly with people in the studio, submit questions, video clips or photos, as well as participate in liv-polls. A Hybrid Studio solution is not limited to a certain number of participants and attendance is easy, since everyone can log in from anywhere in the world.
You can read more about our studio here!
