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An online meeting can provide your organization with valuable benefits and insights beyond those of a simple phone call or a long stream of team emails. Before choosing from the many types of meetings, it is helpful to know the options available, how it can help your organization, and when it's essential to hold an online meeting. Armed with this information, you can make the videoconferencing business case to executives in your organization and start taking advantage of the benefits.
What are online meetings?
A virtual meeting is a team meeting online using audio or video conferencing software. People in different locations and time zones enter a virtual meeting room and communicate in real-time during a remote meeting. An online meeting differs from a face-to-face meeting in that you aren’t physically in the same place, but the best online meetings will create an environment similar to an in-person, conference room meeting.
Different types of meetings
You can use a remote meeting for various purposes. Consider these examples of online conferencing scenarios:
Benefits of online meetings
Online meetings create effective communication among teams who don’t physically work in the same location or are on different schedules. Companies that use effective meeting strategies and virtual meetings can cut down on the cost, effort and time it takes to get people together in a brick and mortar conference room.
For instance, imagine scheduling a meeting with all franchise operators for an important corporate announcement, or having your top sales executive and their team lead an online meeting with a major client. An online business meeting allows anyone to quickly and easily join using different types of virtual communication, including audio and video.
The benefits of remote meetings also apply to internal use. You may use them to:
Virtual meeting ideas can also include ways to motivate and reward employees. For example, you can set up a quick meeting to celebrate a loyal employee’s birthday or the birth of a child. Well wishes from multiple people in the organization can boost morale and make the employee feel appreciated. You can also celebrate a project finish and announce an early end to a day after a successful milestone. The possibilities for virtual group meetings are endless.
Why use web conferencing tools?
Wondering how to make virtual meetings more interactive? Web conferencing is easier with tools like GoToMeeting, which provides the following features:
Integrating online meetings can take some time to get everyone on board, but you’ll soon learn the best time for meetings, how to increase attendance and interaction during sessions, and how to gather follow-up from meeting attendees.
An online meeting is one of the most valuable and effective types of virtual communication at your disposal. When you embrace virtual meeting strategies, you create an instant, reliable, and easy-to-use way for you, your team, and your customers to stay connected, with the right communications tools to build relationships and more effectively share information.
With GoToMeeting, you can deliver presentations, perform product demonstrations, brainstorm with colleagues and securely share confidential information online from anywhere at any time. Your meetings can be one-to-one, or you can meet with multiple people at once.
Presentations: Give a slideshow to your online audience and reduce travel costs.
Demonstrations: Show prospects how your product works by inviting them to view a demo in real time, whether they are across town or a thousand miles away.
Work together: Meet with others online to share, discuss and edit any document. Transfer presentation controls to other attendees.
On a PC
To schedule a meeting in advance, right-click the GoToMeeting system tray icon on the bottom-right corner of your screen, select Schedule a Meeting... and log in by entering your account information and clicking the Log In button. Then, on the Schedule Meeting dialog box, enter your meeting information and click the Schedule button.
You will be notified that your meeting has been scheduled. If you are using Microsoft Outlook, a meeting reminder will be generated and give you the option of inviting attendees via an Outlook Calendar appointment.
On a Mac
To schedule a meeting in advance, click the GoToMeeting icon in the dock, select Schedule Meeting and log in by entering your account information and clicking the Log In button. Then, on the Schedule Meeting dialog box, enter your meeting information and click the Schedule button. You will be notified that your meeting has been scheduled.
On a PC
To set up a recurring meeting, right-click the GoToMeeting system tray icon on the bottom-right corner of your screen, select Schedule a Meeting... and log in by entering your account information and clicking the Log In button. Then, on the Schedule Meeting dialog box, click the check box next to Recurring meeting. This will disable the scheduling settings, keeping the meeting open and available in My Meetings until you delete it. Click the Schedule button.
You will be notified that your meeting has been scheduled. If you are using Microsoft Outlook, a meeting reminder will be generated and give you the option of inviting attendees via an Outlook Calendar appointment.
On a Mac
To set up a recurring meeting, click the GoToMeeting icon in the dock, select Schedule Meeting and log in by entering your account information and clicking the Log In button. Then, on the Schedule Meeting dialog box, click the check box next to Recurring meeting. This will disable the scheduling settings, keeping the meeting open and available in My Meetings until you delete it. Click the Schedule button. You will be notified that your meeting has been scheduled.
Screen sharing needs to be turned on after starting a meeting – GoToMeeting starts with it turned off to prevent early attendees from viewing your preparation.
To enable screen sharing, click Show My Screen in the organizer control panel.
If attendees still can't see your screen, please contact Global Customer Support.