Executives from Fortune 100 companies are directing their organizations to conduct 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 be prepared to develop and conduct electronic meetings that are engaging, interactive and motivating.

I believe that it is not the medium that creates a 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 great distances without time limits). 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 allows, 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 participant background information (eg, match unique experiences to the appropriate 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 content summaries 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.

Incorporate compelling communication strategies that include:

or storytelling

o Guest speaker presentations, which may be virtual

or Simulations

or analogies

or Tasks

or case studies

or discovery learning

o Examples and non-examples

or Experiments

o Graphic representations

o Suggestions 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 the use of different fonts and colors.

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

Let participants 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 whiteboard as you would a flipchart. Point, highlight, draw, and write on the board. Check 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.

Carrying out demonstrations

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

Show photos or video presentations of highlights from demos 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 setting in which the participants will apply their new skills.

facilitative practice

Incorporate practice to maintain engagement and interest. Assign participants to groups and ask them to collaborate on specific tasks. Group size should be no 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 animated presentations of no more than five minutes in length. Encourage the participants to use the board. Use case studies, role plays, and simulations that mimic real-life activities.

If participants can’t interact with real 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 demonstrations or exercises.

Instigate and manage discussions

Open discussions with a provocative comment. Brainstorm by asking a trick question on the whiteboard 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, the whiteboard, the chat window, or email as a medium 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 for understanding, wake up 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 save 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. Ask groups to use assessment materials and tools located in a shared folder to complete exercises in the basket (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 (e.g., 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 outcomes are not predictable. Also feel free to change the rules while the activities are still in motion. Do this by using chats, targeted 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 via 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 for each group.

Good luck and enjoy!