Make remote meetings more engaging with these 7 tips

When the pandemic hit, people underwent a lot of adjustments—from doing everyday errands and celebrating occasions to managing work. Most companies and organizations had to adopt the hybrid work style and to keep their businesses and transactions going, they had to utilize remote meetings.

According to Owl Labs⁠(opens in a new tab or window), a remote meeting, also known as a virtual meeting, occurs when a group of people, who are dispersed across different locations, use video and audio to connect online.

Since the rise of remote work⁠(opens in a new tab or window), companies have provided employees with quality gadgets such as laptops and desktops and ensured they have good internet connections to function even when working from home. Restaurants and cafés have also designed their venues to accommodate people who prefer working outside. A number of coworking spaces⁠(opens in a new tab or window) have also emerged as alternative offices for freelancers or entrepreneurs.

Admittedly, virtual meetings or remote meetings come with their own difficulties. Everybody s used to traveling to the office daily, spending their entire day with their co-workers while composing their emails, accomplishing paperwork and other tasks, and holding meetings - all face to face.

Today, conducting remote board meetings is still challenging because people have more distractions when they’re working elsewhere and may have a short attention span. Nevertheless, remote meetings are as important as in-person meetings. It helps the team stay aligned to achieve goals and maintain camaraderie while allowing a better work-life balance.

So how do you engage remote meeting participants? Below are some remote team meeting ideas that will pique interest and engagement. Keep in mind that creativity and resourcefulness are necessary because a dull presentation without remote meeting activities won’t engage a virtual audience.

Knowing how to run remote meetings starts with the meeting platform you choose. One in-demand remote meeting software is Zoom⁠(opens in a new tab or window). It is free, easy to use, and ideal for one-on-one catch-ups, team meetings, and even show and tells or sitdowns involving participants from different parts of the world. It has plenty of features like audio call, video conferencing, chat box, screen sharing, and cloud recording that documents the entire meeting and can be shared with participants (particularly those unable to attend) as discussion reference.

Meeting hosts should consider the audience’s schedule, meaning they must plan their presentations and organize their thoughts ahead of time. They should come prepared, confident, and knowledgeable of what they’re about to present. Be sure to get the most out of your meetings with a well-crafted meeting agenda⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

In face-to-face meetings, presenters commonly bring written notes to guide them while speaking. Don’t fret because this is possible even with remote meetings by designing presentations on Canva⁠(opens in a new tab or window). When it’s time to present, the speaker is provided two windows - one for the audience to see and another exclusive for themselves with notes to avoid forgetting pertinent points and a timer to keep the program flow on track.

An icebreaker or a short game to open the meeting is a good idea to wake up the audience and promote an enthusiastic mood. Plenty of free fun activities for remote team meetings are available on platforms such as Kahoot⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

Other fun remote meeting ideas include trivia quizzes and bingo games which the host can create from free bingo templates⁠(opens in a new tab or window) on Canva. To make it even easier, a host can use an AI quiz generator⁠(opens in a new tab or window) to quickly come up with fun and engaging trivia questions. Also, if feasible, the host can give a token such as chocolates, candies, or a small work essential to the winner. For sure, everyone will be raring to participate!

Presentation decks shouldn’t be bombarded with words so the audience wouldn’t be overwhelmed with too much information. An advisable layout is having bullet points or using online whiteboard templates⁠(opens in a new tab or window) such as concept maps, Kanban boards⁠(opens in a new tab or window), data flow diagrams⁠(opens in a new tab or window), comparison charts, etc. to highlight key ideas and concepts.

Project and product managers will enjoy exploring Canva’s wide variety of presentation templates⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and choosing one that best represents their companies and matches their themes. Incorporating images, infographics⁠(opens in a new tab or window), videos⁠(opens in a new tab or window), and reels make the presentation more dynamic and give the audience a better comprehension of the things being talked about.

Product or project managers must convey their purpose as to why they are conducting meetings so that the audience will be well-informed of the meeting topic, whether it is about new products to be launched, project progress, or team performance. The audience will also be able to gauge more or less what is expected of them during and after the meeting.

Some may know that Canva’s presentations⁠(opens in a new tab or window) include a feature that gives instructions and exhibits effects to surprise and capture the audience’s attention. Just by knowing and pressing on the right shortcuts, the audience can be instructed to quiet down before the remote working meeting begins, display a confetti effect to celebrate an individual or team milestone, and more.

The audience would also want to participate in the meeting aside from simply joining the icebreaker. Presenters or hosts can take advantage of breakout rooms from remote meeting platforms like Zoom for group activities. Canva’s online whiteboard⁠(opens in a new tab or window) templates can be mixed into the presentations, allowing each participant to edit and put in their thoughts simultaneously, and add graphic elements as designs to make their slides more fun.

And to achieve that ultimate engagement, presentations have an immersive feature called Canva Live⁠(opens in a new tab or window), where the audience can join Canva live sessions for real-time interaction. They can click on live reactions and post questions in the middle of the program to be responded to by the presenter.

A part of audience engagement is asking them for feedback and evaluation after the meeting. This can help you improve succeeding sessions by spotting which parts of the program should be removed, which ones should be retained, and identifying what else can be added. In addition, they can determine how often remote meetings should be scheduled and assess the impact it has on an individual or team’s goal progress or completion.

Remote meetings have become indispensable. Various teams worldwide are meeting and collaborating on projects virtually, even with differences in location and time zone. Yet with all these benefits, remote meetings come with their own challenges. It is best to provide the minutes of the meeting⁠(opens in a new tab or window) after every session to keep everyone accountable to your next steps.

Meeting organizers and presenters must find more ways to help participants engage and interact online, just as they do during traditional in-person meetings. We hope these tips above can help you overcome this challenge and give you more insights on how to make remote meetings more engaging and productive.