Tips for the virtual meeting

Now that more of us are working from home, we are getting used to virtual meetings with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other software. Zoom seems to be the most popular platform and here are a few things to remember when making conference calls to colleagues and clients. Some of them are free with the basic package, but some require a monthly subscription.

Choose your own background

People don’t need to see you in your room, so you can set a default background, a blank wall, tidy office or photograph that you’ve taken. Open Settings, Virtual Background or when you join a meeting tap the three dots at the bottom of the page and make a choice.

Improve your image

There is a setting in Meetings called Touch Up My Appearance. It works in a similar way to a filter on an iPhone camera.

Control the microphone and video settings

The default position is that Zoom broadcasts audio and video immediately you enter a meeting. If you’d prefer to control them yourself look in Settings Audio and Settings Video to turn them off. You can open them up at any time you wish.

Remove people who have video turned off

You can hide the people who have disabled their video by checking the Hide nonvideo participants in the Settings, Video, Meetings section.

Record your meeting

Not everything gets written down, but the meeting host can record the meeting though the Settings, Recording section. The recording can be paused and restarted at any time.

Share a screen

A quick and easy way for everyone to look at the same document, or whatever is on your desktop.

Mute everyone

Background noise can interfere with the meeting, but the meeting host can mute everyone and talk uninterrupted. Everyone can then be unmuted to start a discussion.

Name display

Firstly, make sure your display name is correct and don’t use something frivolous if you’re using Zoom in a work environment. In the Video settings select ‘Always display participant’s name on their video’, it’s a useful reminder if you’re talking to customers or making sales calls to people you don’t know well.

Set an Alert

When you’re organising the meeting, send a calendar invitation that participants can accept and posts the meeting to their schedule. You can choose how far in advance of the meeting you want a reminder to flash up.

And don’t forget the ‘Zoom Groom’ to look your best, or you top half anyway. For more information and to download Zoom, click here