Virtual meetings are a high engagement activity with low commitment from the attendees that can help your members connect on a new level. There are many details to keep in mind when planning and executing, so I'll be doing a short series on virtual meetings. We've already covered the following:
- How to Prepare for your Virtual Meeting
- Creating Anticipation for your Upcoming Event
Last, let's cover some important steps to ensure your virtual meeting is a success.
Moderating your Meeting
To ensure you’re ready to start on time, ask speakers to dial in 10-15 minutes early. Here are some things to consider covering in your introduction:
- Welcome – Appreciation for participation
- Mute telephone lines
- Call will be recorded/ start recording
- Agenda overview
- Brief speaker introduction
- Media to expect (interaction to look forward to!)
- Post-meeting feedback form
If you have a larger meeting with many participants, you may need help to ensure your meeting runs smoothly. Here are tasks to complete during the meeting, so allocate if necessary:
- Q&A. If your platform allows participants to submit questions via text, be sure to keep an eye on it. Decide whether each speaker will have their own Q&A time or if you’ll allocate a longer Q&A session at the end of the meeting.
- Timekeeper. Be sure to act as a time keeper for the meeting as well, notifying speakers when they’re getting close to the end of their time. It might be easiest to do this through an IM system.
- Slide Master. Someone will need to run the slides of the presentation. Your speakers may want to run their own slides, so coordinate and learn your platform’s capabilities as necessary.
At the end of your meeting, wrap up! Thank everyone again for their attendance and provide a way for attendees to submit additional questions after the meeting such as the forum in your user group. Remind them to check their email for the post-meeting survey which will help to improve future meetings.
Collate Materials
Send out a post-event email as soon as possible after your meeting. Find an email template here. Again, make sure it’s as clear and concise as possible. Include a link to a survey where attendees can provide feedback about your meeting which will help you improve future meetings. You can make a survey in your user group my navigating to your group's homepage, clicking the "..." icon, and clicking "Add Survey."
Lastly, don’t forget to post a blog about your event to share with those who weren’t able to attend. Include a link to the recording, if possible, and feel free to include any positive feedback you've already gathered from attendees. Include a call-to-action by asking for takeaways from those who attended. All of this will help pique interest in your community and encourage users to participate in future meetings.
If needed, send a reminder to participants a week after the event to complete the feedback survey if you haven’t received many responses. Once you’ve received enough responses, collect the feedback and use it for your next meeting!
A timeline outlining steps from the beginning of this virtual meeting series can be found here: Virtual Meeting Planning Timeline.