By now you will have adapted to a new way of working, with in-person events replaced by online solutions. Hosting a meeting, training and collaborating online can all feel a little bit daunting if you are used to managing your audience ‘in the room’!
So here are some tips and tricks you can use to keep things fresh, engaging and interesting.
- At the start, set out a roadmap for what you plan to cover, so your audience knows the direction and can track progress – this helps to maintain engagement, but keep it short! Online sessions should be 90 minutes max.
- Create key slides. Not only will this help to focus your mind with direction and content, but it helps to maintain the attention of your audience.
- As the host, make sure you’re always looking at the camera. You want to maintain eye contact and avoid looking distracted. If you use dual monitors, make sure your attention is on the one with the camera. It’s also good to ask your audience to close all other web windows and apps so their attention is focused on you!
- Make sure everyone is ‘in the room’ – cameras on and microphones on, you can always mute people as needed. Consider using a virtual background from your office!
- Introduce an icebreaker, ask people to share their news, something interesting about themselves, or perhaps pre-arrange a different theme for virtual backgrounds. Any of these methods will help you to start the session off with something ‘fun’.
- Together Mode in Microsoft Teams makes it feel like you’re all sitting in the same room or even under the sea!
- Audience participation! Avoid talking at your audience, it’s easily done. Create a collaborative environment, invite them to share opinions. Give direction for the interaction, perhaps an activity or a brief Q and A on the content you’ve already covered.
- It doesn’t have to be all talk, try using polls, chat and reactions like hand raises or thumbs up in your next meeting. This helps you to introduce interaction without interrupting the flow of content. There are also some great third-party apps to add to Teams Meetings such as Kahoot to increase engagement.
- Try using Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams. This is a digital canvas where everyone in the meeting can engage and interact, and is great for brainstorming.
- Introduce breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams. This can help to create meaningful conversation rather than everyone relying on the main group. Breakout rooms help to inspire collaboration and interaction, perhaps try out some challenges or work activities that can be solved in teams using the breakout option.
Hopefully these tips give you something new to try in your next online meeting or training session.
If you’re looking to introduce your employees to Microsoft 365 or think the team could benefit from some refresher or intensive training, 365 Training Consultants can offer both in-person and online lessons, for groups and individuals, in line with covid guidance. We would love to help you make the most of 365, so contact us today to see how we can help.
