The Future of Business Meetings

2020 brought disruption, fear, uncertainty, change and forced business to be conducted from your home and typically via a 14” screen on your laptop. OK yes there were quick wins and some benefits which were obvious;

• less travel
• minimized cost of commute
• more time for family and self
• fewer cars on the road
• fewer planes in the sky and less carbon burned
• real estate associated costs.

It was as if the planet was just having a minute to recoup and with technology driving the new virtual meeting we were blessed with word clouds, virtual white boards and even virtual reality rooms all enabling us to embrace this virtual world and see it as the future. However, I wonder what the future really holds for the business meeting, conference and the face to face catch up chat?

Virtual Hangover

During the COVID-19 lockdown I have attended more meetings than I ever imagined possible. I have closed large multi-million-pound contracts, ran coaching sessions for large teams, held endless BAU meetings and too many escalations every single day. During this I saw a clear trend and behavior developing across entire sections of people I deal with from client CXO’s to new graduates just starting their careers in the corporate world.

Most meeting duration went to or exceeded the set time, rarely did they finish early. I felt that initially people were keen to use the time allocated to the meeting, many needed to be been seen and heard to speak to fill the gaps rather than add value or counsel. In the normal’ of the ‘old’ world, some of these meetings might simply have been quick discussions, coffee moments or a simple telephone call, straight to the point.

People were and looked forlorn and tired. OK maybe not in the first few weeks, but very quickly people’s appetite to look like they were doing business eroded, they looked screen tired and were cameras were beginning to be switched off. Did people start to become lazy?

Key Messages were not landing as well as they could. Some will argue that this is debatable but when you compare to a face to face situation there really is no comparison.

Fewer new relationships were formed. People need to get a real sense of someone’s personality and persona to build trusted strong relationships, and whilst the new ways of working have forced us to build new relationships over skype, they can never replicate the sense of building that personal connected face-to-face relationship.

Conference Challenges

Even the bigger events that would in the past have filled an auditorium, hotel meeting room or business conference centre have seen mixed results at best. The lack of the creative leader, the sound of the build-up as people settle with anticipation of what they are heading into have been lost.

We have all seen that person asleep in the audience (I won’t reference anyone here, but in truth I would have liked to . .JS) but now attendees of big events can literally switch their cameras off, go on mute and not be seen or heard, leaving the host to only hope that the ticker in the corner remains the same number whilst smaller breakout groups head to WhatsApp and IM discuss their own views and start critique panels to break the doldrums.

A new social language required.

The old days would have seen the effervescing hotel lobby gatherings, where people met and connect, reconnect or build new business relationships/friendships. This was all about observing and often reacting to the body signals that surround you. How they speak, how they stand, do they fidget, are they warming, authentic or cold and closed and it is this that is very difficult to recreate in the virtual world.

A double shot of normality please.

So when the government announced the measures to relax the some of the restrictions and adhering to some sensible guidelines we started to see small numbers of people actively looking to get back to some level or normality, holding a small number of face to face small group meetings. The difference was immediate, and our evolutionary perceptions had a party.

• Eye contact was fearless and the ability to see and get a real sense of a human presence became a drug of choice.
• Those little humans tells, movements, ticks and nonverbal clues about someone’s state of mind, view, ability or level of engagement reminded people that there are personalities and real individuals that many had forgotten through the zoom generation.
• Tactile comforts of a touch or elbow bump, a shake of a hand or a simple hand on a shoulder in most cases gave people a sense of belonging and care.

Either way, what I saw was a clear endorphin hit of positivism and energy that had been missing!

So, what does the future hold?

For now is seems clear that the majority in business are driving forwards in the virtual world and have come to accept that the zoom generation is here to stay, whether the face to face meetings will ever come back remains to be seen but it’s unlikely that it will ever be as it used to be. New technology is set to drive the virtual world forward with many of the big players making changes and beefing up their applications:

• Google has strengthened its Meet app with noise cancellation and low-light enhancement
• Facebook's Messenger Rooms allow ad hoc meetings, spicing up their images with photo filters, 360-degree backgrounds, and special effects.
• Shindig seeks to replicate the vitality of a meeting or the intimacy of an informal chat using 3D audio, and which replicates real life voice and voice distribution.

Regardless of the technology, we don’t right now know what the future holds regarding the business meeting. For me it’s a going to have to be a combination of technology and safe face-to-face meetings. Strong business people like to deal face to face and with strong eye contact and whilst new technology will assist it will give that human touch that so many of us need. So, for now I continue with my blend of holding both virtual and face to face meetings but when I’m on camera for a virtual meeting I will certainly make sure that I;

• Look, sound and engage like I am at work and in business
• Have clean sensible backgrounds that don't distract the audience
• Keep background noise to a minimum
• Add value in the same way that I would have done in the face to face meeting

Virtual meetings may not allow me to present myself in person, but I will do my upmost to make sure my personality

presents itself virtually. AD