Large Conference Call Blogs | All About Remote Work & Virtual Meetings

5 Virtual Team Meeting Ice Breakers You Should Try

Building rapport among employees situated in different parts of the globe in different time zones may be the most challenging aspect of conducting virtual meetings. 

A strong team foundation is usually cultivated in an office environment where every employee gets to personally interact with everybody else. Being in the same environment allows for constant communication and therefore more trust is built. 

However, more and more employees are working remotely now which can hinder the foundation of a strong bond between employees. This is why it’s important to try and reduce this gap by incorporating quick icebreakers to allow remote employees to get to know their teammates better and to help ease the air of awkwardness between employees working together for the first time. 

Ice breakers should have these three characteristics:

• It has to be quick

A meeting was scheduled for a reason, therefore it won’t make sense if your …

Common Mistakes You’re Making in Your Virtual Meetings or Conference Calls

Most, if not all, of us, have participated and attended virtual meetings. While its advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, there are certain mistakes that depreciate its efficiency which could be easily avoided. 

Preparedness does not refer to the absence of corporate blunders; rather, it is anticipating the worst-case scenarios and having a plan to counter it, making sure the meeting agenda is still met.  Nothing is worse than conducting and attending a virtual meeting unprepared. It gives an impression of disrespect towards other meeting participants and a lack of professionalism.

And while insufficient preparation is the root of all common mistakes, we narrowed down some specific mistakes that you should try to avoid at all costs. 

Familiarize yourself with these virtual meeting mistakes for better conference call meetings:

Disregarding time zones

While virtual meetings are definitely beneficial for companies with offices worldwide, we sometimes fail to remember one downside …

How Important Are Operators in Large Conference Calls?

Conducting large conference calls has been the go-to solution for employees or organizations situated in different geographical locations. This has been the most efficient and cost-effective means of communication under such circumstances.

Coordinating and managing a hundred or more participants for a conference call will need well-trained and experienced individuals to effectively carry out that responsibility. 

Imagine doing everything by yourself. It would require a tremendous effort for you alone to prepare the agenda, the script, and the whole content all the while managing a number of participants on the line. In fact, a study in 2014 reported that more than 60 percent of conference call participants admitted to doing something else while on the call. Organizing a conference call is already hard enough – maintaining participant engagement makes it even harder when you have other things to worry about such as logistical and technical issues and the need to …

4 Things You Should Be Doing After Your Conference Calls

There are a lot of conference call facilitation guidelines that you should keep in mind before and during your meeting but your responsibility as a host does not stop there – what happens after the call is as crucial as its beginning and middle. How you end a conference call and what you do afterward will impact the overall action plan and responsibilities of its attendees. Simply put, it doesn’t just end when you hang up the phone. You have to see to it that the deliverables discussed during the call will be worked on and accomplished within the discussed deadline.

Before you wrap up the call, check if every topic or issue on the agenda has been addressed. You can go over the key points and objectives really quick as a recap to make sure that everyone leaves with a clear understanding of their tasks.  Ask your attendees if …

Understanding the Risks That Comes with Conducting Virtual Meetings

With the relentless threats to digital security nowadays, organizations and individuals’ first priority when it comes to communication within the business should be making sure that all the shared data and information is safe and secure. While the benefits of collaboration technologies such as virtual meetings are acknowledged, there are a number of risks and security implications that are neither totally understood nor properly dealt with. Strangely, many organizations pay very little attention to the security of virtual meetings – a lot of companies still have outdated security software or lack the necessary security policies. On a more granular level, it is typically an afterthought for most participants, even to some hosts, if they think of it at all. 

All types of meetings, whether conducted physically or virtually, often include the discussion of sensitive and confidential information which, when compromised, can result in failed projects or even loss of revenue. …