Executives from Fortune 100 companies are leading their organizations to hold more meetings using electronic conferencing software (eg, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, WebEx). Technical communicators worry that the limitations of the medium will severely diminish the effectiveness of their presentations. They want to prepare themselves to develop and run electronic meetings that are engaging, interactive, and motivating.

I believe that it is not the medium that creates convincing communication; are the communication strategies used. Electronic meetings have several inherent drawbacks (eg, lack of visual feedback, more difficult social interaction), but they also have strengths (eg, the ability to collaborate over long distances with no time limit). Flexibility and creativity allow technical communicators to duplicate all the benefits of a physical meeting in a virtual meeting.

Below you will find a large number of ideas that are useful for organizing virtual meetings.

gain attention

Start your virtual meeting with a thoughtful introduction. Introduce yourself and, if time permits, invite participants to introduce themselves. Ask them to share background information, including professional and personal interests and hobbies. Post your photo and, if possible, photos of the participants. Use innovative methods to collect and share background information from participants (eg, match unique experiences to the right participant).

set relevance

Survey participants to determine their background and interest in the topic. Use a wide variety of media. These can include animations, background information, current events, cartoons, articles, thought-provoking questions, quotes, and stories.

Current information

Incorporate the same types of multimedia presentation that you would use in a face-to-face presentation. Use different types of media, such as text, graphics, animations, video and multimedia presentations, illustrations, diagrams, schematics, models, audio presentations, and concrete objects. Constantly refer to the meeting schedule you presented at the beginning of the presentation and provide summaries of the content throughout the session. Present the information in short chunks and in a logical flow while varying the pace and format every five to six minutes.

It incorporates compelling communication strategies that include:
or Storytelling
o Guest speaker presentations, which can be virtual
or Simulations
or Analogies
or Tasks
o Case studies
o Discovery learning
o Examples and non-examples
or Experiments
o Graphic representations
o Tips and hints
Ideas
or Mnemonics
Games
o Physical models to represent relationships

Support your main ideas with graphics whenever possible. Keep the information simple, especially if you’re using PowerPoint. Be careful with colors, white space, and fonts; limit your use of different fonts and colors.

Tell the participants what you are going to say, tell them, and then tell them what you have said. This should be easy as you have a lot of means to play with. You can set the stage in a multimedia presentation, then introduce the topic via a whiteboard presentation, and finally review the topic in a discussion using chat or a poll feature.

Allow participants to download documents instead of handing them out. Be sure to use PDF files, as they display and print more predictably than other document formats. Use the board as you would a flip chart. Point, highlight, draw, and write on the board. Consult websites and other resources; use them as valuable sources of information, references, and exercise materials. Present information from another point of view (eg, customer, competitor, user, and engineer). Anticipate and prepare for questions from participants. Build job aids that extract relevant information.

Realization of demonstrations

Use case studies related to real life situations. Ask participants to explore controversial issues. Ask participants to share their own experiences related to the content.

Show photos or video presentations of highlights from demonstrations, and use drawing and text tools to highlight and label. Use screen sharing to demonstrate computer applications and drawing tools to label and highlight sections of the screen. Select examples and activities that reflect the environment in which the participants will apply their new skills.

facilitating practice

Incorporate practice to maintain engagement and interest. Assign participants to groups and ask them to collaborate on specific tasks. Group size should not be more than four participants. Assign and rotate roles within each group to ensure sharing and cooperation. If applicable, summarize activities completed outside of the meeting. Encourage lively presentations of no more than five minutes in length. Encourage participants to use the board. Use case studies, role plays, and simulations that mimic real life activities.

If the participants cannot interact with the actual systems, provide links to training databases or test sites. Show participants’ screens if you want them to demonstrate their use of the applications or share information as part of interactive exercises or demos.

Instigate and manage debates

Open discussions with a provocative comment. Brainstorm ideas by asking a leading question on the board or in a chat window. Conduct structured discussions by including a proposed outline for the discussion. Keep the discussion on track by clarifying the topic of the discussion and the topics you hope to cover. Closely manage discussions. Use the microphone, whiteboard, chat window, or email as media in the discussion. Assign students “interesting” roles during discussions. Always end discussions by restating the objectives of the discussion, summarizing the results, and noting how the results relate to the next topic.

Evaluation of the commitment of the participants

Use frequently asked probing questions to check understanding, arouse participants, determine their level of engagement, or determine where participants stand on particular issues. Ask questions that are clear, relevant, short, and challenging. Use the polling capability to ask true/false or multiple choice questions and see how many participants selected each option. You can keep these results to yourself or share them with all participants. Include questions with a degree of difficulty that matches the level of the audience. Avoid comments that are brief or abrupt. Participants may interpret such comments as angry. Have groups use assessment materials and instruments located in a shared binder to complete the basket exercises (for example, completing customer service transactions in a variety of situations).

Develop and carry out exciting and motivating activities

Create constructive conflict or “creative abrasion” by:
o Ask leading questions
o Represent other points of view
o Explore the content in a new context (eg, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the author used the metaphor of a farm to illustrate the dangers of unbridled capitalism)

Extract positive results from difficult situations by:
o Direct the question to the group
o Ask the group for solutions or methods to find solutions
o Call specific participants to help

Build suspense by creating activities (eg, discussions, games) where the results are not predictable. Also feel free to change the rules while activities are still in motion. Do this by using chats, selective emails, and multiple shared folders to provide different groups with different rules and instructions.

Encourage the collaboration of the participants by creating group activities. Allow groups to communicate through chat areas or emails. If you’re bold, you can have groups set up their own virtual meetings to work together. Be sure to assign a leader to each group.

Good luck and enjoy!