Hosting Virtual Meetings

1. What's a Virtual Meeting & Why Would You Want to Have One?

The typical meeting requires a physical meeting location and potentially long, cost-prohibitive travel. More and more, businesses are turning to online meeting solutions that don't require travel time and cost, and communicating with these requires their own skill sets. With the tools now available, you can have meetings with participants from across town as well as across the world instantly. The good news is, these tools are widely available, so your club can host virtual meetings of your own. This is hugely helpful if your usual meeting place isn't available or you want to learn those skills of being a better virtual presenter. 

A virtual meeting is simply a meeting that allows a number of remote participants to communicate via text, voice, or video. There are several technologies and approaches when it comes to a virtual meeting; some popular choices include:

• Google Hangouts
• Skype
• Microsoft Teams
• GoToMeeting
• Zoom
• WebEx

While some of these tools are free (Google Hangouts and Skype, for example), others have trials, feature-limited free or low-cost versions, or require subscriptions. It's recommended you try a few solutions to see what works best for your club.

This lesson will cover the requirements and logistics that apply to any conference, then use Skype as an example.