The first step to any successful meeting is knowing its purpose, and sharing it with your participants. Web conferences are no different - in fact, an agenda that is professional and well put together will ensure that your participants see your online meeting in the same light as a face-to-face one. This is particularly important when introducing colleagues or superiors to the web conferencing format, as they could worry that the Internet is too informal a place to conduct business.
Also, a great agenda will make your colleagues see that you have put a lot of thought into your online conference. What's more, it will set the tone for your meeting. Your participants will see that it is an important meeting with a clear goal to be achieved - be that closing an important deal or starting a new project.
By following the tips below, you will be able to make your agenda a perfect introduction to your online meeting.
1. Keep it clean - Just because you have learned how to upload videos to the Internet or use Photoshop, doesn't mean that you need to try to impress your colleagues with an over-the-top meeting agenda. Good agendas keep a focus on the content, and do not distract your meeting participants with fancy fonts or colorful pictures. Learn to create professional word processor documents, and keep your agenda easy on the eyes by using a simple font such as Arial or Times New Roman, font size 10 to 12 and a clean background.
2. Let your participants know how they can connect to the meeting - Even if you have already sent details on how the attendees can connect either by VoIP or dial-in, it's good to include that information again on the agenda. If this is the first time you meet online, it's also a good idea to include details on how log-in works. This means that you should let attendees know if registering for the online meeting tool is necessary, and if they will need a headset or regular phone to connect. This way, your meeting will not be delayed by any technical problems. Also let your IT team know that the meeting will take place, and include their contact details so if there are any IT-related questions, your attendees know where to go for help.
3. Include discussion topics in chronological order - As with any meeting agenda, it is important to include discussion topics in the order they will be discussed. But the web conferencing format lets you go one step further; if your meeting has a presentation, you can include links to it so your participants can familiarize themselves with its contents prior to the meeting, or you can create a workspace in an online collaboration tool so the attendees can pitch in on further discussions that they think are necessary to the meeting.
4. Add hyperlinks - If any portion of the meeting needs prior knowledge from your participants on a certain area, include a hyperlink to a relevant website that can teach more about the subject you will be discussing. Alternatively, you can even send hyperlinks to internal documents from your company, for easy reference. If, for example, you would like your attendees to have read a certain report in the system, all you have to do to link it is press CTRL+K, then choose the path do the document. It will show on the agenda in link form. Keep in mind that this only works if all attendees are on the same internal system or Virtual Private Network (VPN).
5. Include participant details - So that all attendees know who will be in the meeting, it is good to include details such as the name, position and e-mail address for each participant. Also let your participants know who will be speaking during the web conference. Many online meeting tools do not have webcam capabilities, so it could be difficult to know who a presenter is when they are speaking.
6. Make time for a Q&A - This is perhaps even more important than in face-to-face meetings, as participants in those can raise their hand to interrupt the speaker and ask a question. In an online meeting, this isn't always possible, so making enough time for a Q&A session is very important.
Creating a great online meeting agenda is not difficult once you learn to use the meeting's format in your favor. Once your agenda has all the necessary information, you will be on your way to a smooth web conference.