Conduct TEAMS meetings like a Pro with Preloaded Content

GroupM exists to make advertising work better for people. No, it doesn't already work better for people.

I also care about making team meetings, especially virtual ones, work better for people.

Pre-load content into your meetings

We had the 'Make your meetings better' session today with Microsoft. A key takeaway from that session was to pre-load your content, so your meetings happen faster and without interruptions. This will help especially when you have large presentations to share.

How to pre-load content?

• Once you setup your meeting, go to the Teams calendar, locate your meeting, click on the meeting and then click on the expand arrow on top-right.

• Once your meeting is expanded, click on the 'Files' tab and upload your presentation. Depending on the size of files, it might take a little while and you might have to close the meeting and re-open as mentioned above - but, it's worth the wait!
• If you are planning to use a whiteboard for collaboration, click on the 'Whiteboard' tab and add content like post-its with topic names and text boxes so these are ready for your attendees to collaborate on straightaway. 

• If you plan to ask attendees to vote on a topic, click on the + sign, then search and add 'Forms' app. Follow the prompts and create a 'quick poll'. 

• If you plan to collaborate on any other apps in Teams like PowerBI, you can add these as well in the same way as the poll by clicking on + sign. 

Before your meeting, you can send a message to all participants (using 'Chat with Participants' or Chat tab) and ask them to contribute to the whiteboard or other content you have already shared.

During the meeting,

• When you click on 'Share Content' button and the tray opens, you will see your pre-loaded presentations on the right hand side. Voila! Click on it and it will open in a flash with a page navigation on top left and slides preview at the bottom. 
• Your Poll or any other apps you added should be present on the meeting toolbar on the top, right next to the meeting options (the 3 dots aka ellipsis).

NOTE:

• External guest users will not be able to collaborate on whiteboard for now but this feature will be coming soon too.
• Attendees will be able to collaborate on other apps if they have proper license and accounts for these.
• When you are adding an app for the first time i.e. no one has ever used it on Teams, you will be asked to request for access. You can include the screenshot of the prompt you see when adding the app if it shows all permissions needed. This is a one-off activity for each new app and it has been put in place for your own security!

Feel free to share any more tips you have on this topic or your experience with these tips! - LETS MAKE MEETINGS WORK BETTER FOR PEOPLE