Facilitating Virtual Meetings

There is an ever-growing trend toward meetings that take place over the phone or the Internet. In the next few years this trend is going to increase as more and more new kinds of technology become available. Hopefully, more of these virtual meetings will feature a visual component to make them feel less disconnected and more interactive.

First, let’s look at some of the special challenges of virtual meetings:

• people can’t see each other, so the meetings tend to feel impersonal and disconnected
• because people can’t see each other, interaction tends to be stilted and conversations tend toward one-way information sharing
• since people have to wait for a chance to talk, meetings can drag on far too long
• sometimes people sit in silence for long stretches listening to conversations that have nothing to do with them