What is your virtual meeting persona?

Category: Technology

Throughout the pandemic, most of us have switched from face-to-face meetings to video conferencing and virtual meetings. And as we transition to the post-pandemic world, it is predicted that almost 70% of meetings will continue to remain online. This means that, almost everyone has had some sort of exposure to web conference software and screen sharing apps like Zoom, Teams or Google Meet. The funny thing is that, although the apps might be different, the virtual meeting experience is almost identical. Every meeting blurs into the next, every day blurs into the next; you might even feel like the main character from the movie “Groundhog Day.” How different are your meetings? In the best-case scenario, someone might begin with an ice breaker conversation or a persona story that is memorable, but ultimately, every meeting ends up with the host presenting PowerPoint slides while the audience minds their own business. Based on a lot of meetings and research, I differentiated four types of meeting attendees and wanted to share my thoughts. Do You Multitask During Your Online Meetings? This type of person is very productivity during remote meetings, not listening to you! They keep the screen sharing app open but their camera is off as they work on other things. Their slogan is: “Get the work done.” They might be working on business and personal duties, switching from checking emails to creating a shopping list and searching for products. As the multitasker is not paying attention, you usually call out their name a few times to get them to respond or unmute themselves! We have all been there. According to a Wired article multitasking can be a coping mechanism to zoom fatigue and there are ways you can combat this. Our own survey indicates that almost 43% of meeting attendees are multitasking. How do you stop the multitasker and get them to focus? Famous Multitasker quote: “I’m sorry, I missed that last part. Do you mind repeating it?” Multitaskers don’t want to waste time. Most PowerPoint slides can be a huge waste of time. When PowerPoint was invented, its purpose was to be a visual aid to the presenter. These days when we present a full screen slide and talk non-stop, we quickly lose our audiences’ attention and make it hard for them to focus. Most people can scan the slide and process information faster than you can read it out loud! If you are just repeating the information on the slide, you will quickly lose the multitasker. So go back to using the slide as a visual aid. Don’t fill it with your entire talk track and just repeat the lines. Next, realize that people connect with other people, and we resonate with conversations and not the presentation. Reactiv SUITE allows you to pin your camera and make yourself as large as your content, so your multitasking audience connects with you. It lets them feel like they are having a real conversation with a person versus passively listening to your presentation.