Here's how you can lead virtual meetings and presentations with best practices.

Have contingency plans in place for potential technical failures, such as backup devices, alternative internet connections, and pre-shared presentation materials. This preparation ensures you can continue seamlessly despite unforeseen issues.

Promoting Participation and Engagement: The effectiveness of a virtual meeting depends on how engaged its attendees are. Provide everyone the chance to actively participate and provide their opinions. Make use of conversation starters, ask insightful inquiries, and create a welcoming environment to promote teamwork.

Leading effective virtual meetings and presentations requires mastery of technology. First, familiarize yourself with the platform's features, such as screen sharing, virtual whiteboards, and polling, to engage your audience actively. Conduct a tech-check before sessions to avoid disruptions. Use high-quality audio and video equipment to ensure clarity. Keep presentations concise and interactive to maintain attention. Encourage participation through questions and breakout sessions. Lastly, provide clear follow-up actions and share presentation materials for reference, ensuring your message resonates long after the meeting concludes.

Preparation and Planning Set a clear agenda and objectives for the meeting or presentation, ensuring that everyone understands the purpose and desired outcomes. Distribute the agenda and any necessary materials in advance, allowing participants to prepare and review the information beforehand. Test your technology (video conferencing platform, screen-sharing, audio, etc.) before the meeting to ensure everything is working correctly and to troubleshoot any potential issues. Familiarize yourself with the virtual platform's features, such as screen-sharing, breakout rooms, chat functions, and virtual whiteboards, to leverage them effectively during the meeting.

Engage participants in virtual meetings by encouraging active participation through questions and interactive tools and acknowledging their contributions to keep them motivated.

Distribute relevant materials or background information prior to the meeting. Providing context in advance allows participants to come prepared with informed questions and ideas, enhancing the depth of the discussion.

Creating an Engaging Virtual Environment Encourage participants to turn on their cameras, if possible, as visual cues and non-verbal communication can enhance engagement and create a more personal connection. Use virtual backgrounds or blur effects to minimize distractions and maintain a professional appearance. Incorporate interactive elements, such as polls, quizzes, or collaborative whiteboards, to keep participants actively involved and engaged throughout the meeting or presentation. Vary your delivery by incorporating visuals, multimedia content, or screen-sharing to break up long stretches of verbal communication and maintain audience attention.

Despite the ubiquitous nature of virtual meetings, they can still be awkward and clunky. You can set yourself up for success by the work that's done in advance. A meeting without an agenda is doomed to fail. So start with this tool. You may want to include additional information such as a preamble about the purpose and scope of the meeting. If a guest is attending you may include information about their role in the organization and why they are attending. Agendas are particularly helpful when each item defines the intended outcome. This way people may recognize that they only need to attend for portions of the call. Make sure to stay on time so that the agenda aligns with the actual cadence of the meeting.

I cannot stress the importance of the community builder opening activities (I recently resolved to no longer call them icebreakers).. Ideally, these should be brief and directly connected to the upcoming content. Even though people in virtual meetings seem to arrive "on the dot," it can be nice to have a slideshow or music or a conversation starter going in the chat to provide a way for the audience to immediately feel engaged and therefore ready to learn.

It can be challenging to lead meetings virtually, as people’s attention, often veers off, and it can be more challenging to connect through visual cues. As a result, you need to be highly focused and prepared, and be even more interactive than you normally would be. If you just speak at people, rather than with people, you will lose them. It is also critical to succinctly and clearly, and then to pause and make sure that others What you are saying. Monologues on zoom alignment and confirmation of understanding can create serious deficits.

Enable closed captions or provide a transcript of your presentation. This can help ensure clarity and comprehension, especially for participants who may have technical difficulties or hearing impairments.

Effective Communication and Facilitation Speak clearly and at a moderate pace, ensuring that your audio is clear and audible for all participants. Use a headset or external microphone to improve audio quality and minimize background noise. Actively engage participants by asking questions, encouraging discussion, and soliciting feedback or input throughout the meeting or presentation. Practice active listening by paraphrasing or summarizing key points, acknowledging contributions, and addressing concerns or questions respectfully. Manage the flow of the meeting by setting time limits for each agenda item, transitioning smoothly between topics, and keeping the discussion focused and on track.

Virtual meetings may create unseen barriers for some participants. This may be the result of technical issues that may occur or the differences in tone and volume of the various speakers. As the chair of the meeting, you can ensure that all attendees are on an equal footing buy checking in to ensure understanding. You may sometimes choose to paraphrase what has just been said to improve clarity. Visuals can be helpful, but may also distract. A good rule of thumb is for visuals to contain a single idea that can help ground the conversation and also catch a participant up if they had to step away or were momentarily distracted. Remember, that it's your job to create a space for all to feel they can contribute.

A technique I use often in my virtual meetings and workshops is called the "chat waterfall". I'll ask a question (which can usually be answered in one word or at best few words). I'll ask my attendees to type their response in the chat window but press enter to submit only when I say so. This creates a "waterfall" of responses and it's fun as well as visually stunning!

The number one rule of effective meetings is to start and end as planned. This shows respect for all participants. If someone arrives late or leaves early, there is no need to draw attention to this; simply carry on. We can never know what other factors may be impacting our colleagues at any one moment. Be mindful of our capacity as humans to only focus for reasonable periods of time. Schedule breaks in longer meetings, or simply ask if anyone would like to take 5 minutes to stretch or attend to other matters. If you are working with folks from different parts of the country, or world, aim to schedule your meeting at a time that does not require attendance at an excessively early or late hour. We all have lives outside of work.

I would also add - arrive early so that you are not troubleshooting technology (or whatever hiccup may occur) during the time that should be devoted to the training.

Always start with a good agenda where everyone knows the goals of the specific meeting. For virtual, ensure that everyone gets a chance to chime in because it can be difficult for people to interrupt or be seen. Ask everyone to keep video on to increase engagement and connection.