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leadership & Campus Life

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Top Tips for Virtual Meetings and Events

 

Top Tips for Virtual Meetings and Events - Video

Each organization or department is unique and will require various platforms to achieve its goals. For example, a student organization may use Zoom or Google Meet for a small officer’s meeting and then switch to using Netflix Party to watch a documentary related to their organization’s mission. Whatever you are trying to achieve just be flexible and have fun with the new platforms and technology that you’re now using.

  1. Choose an appropriate platform for your meeting or event.
    1. For a smaller group or club meeting- try MS Teams (all OSU students and employees have access to MS Teams; login with your OKEY credentials), Zoom, or Google Meet
    2. For a live informational video, a live tour, a live presentation, or live Q&A session- Facebook live, YouTube livestream for desktop, or Twitch work well.
    3. For a movie or video watch party set up a- Facebook Watch Party, Netflix Party, Hulu Watch Party (limited to subscribers), Amazon Prime Watch Party (limited to Prime account holders/currently in Beta)
    4. Online gaming platforms – choose a game that everyone can play on a mobile device.
  2. Wherever you choose to meet online, you can create virtual events and track attendance for your events using CampusLink
  3. Keep meetings, presentations, or lectures short (30 minutes or less) by breaking them up into shorter presentations or by using breakout rooms in Zoom to allow committees to meet on their own.
  4. Send agendas and assignments 24-48 hours before a meeting so everyone knows what they will discuss and can prepare their portion of the meeting. 
    1. Pro Tip - Send or post  the agenda and the meeting link together so everyone receives the meeting URL and agenda at the same time.
  5. Stick to the agenda during the meeting and leave additional time at the end of the meeting for socializing. Do not discuss additional business after the meeting officially ends.
  6. While meeting, remind the participants to keep their video muted until it is time to speak and encourage speaking one by one to avoid any confusion
  7. While sharing a screen, close all other windows or tabs except the one you’re meeting in, or ones that you will use for the meeting.
  8. If possible, record meetings, presentations, and events so people can still participate asynchronously.
  9. Remind each other that the skills you are learning and using in your daily virtual interactions can help you achieve their future career or educational goals. Simply learning how to find tutorials and solve problems within new software platforms is a highly valuable skill that can be translated into other areas of life.