How to be a great video conferencing host in healthcare (part one)

Coronavirus has changed our working lives and like everyone I have been thrown into the world of video conferencing. Whether it’s small team meetings, larger department meetings and even organisational or national meetings - I think we have all been involved in some form of video conference.

Over the last few months, I have successfully hosted dozens of small and large meetings and recently more and more people have asked me for tips on how to run them smoothly.

So, I am sharing a few of my own notes on how to be a great host since they are likely to be a fixture of working life for some time to come.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree and share your own top tips.

1.    Get it right from the start

It’s bad when no one turns up to your video conference. Even worse when just a few people turn up to witness your failed video conference! So, help people turn up on time. Send the invitation out ahead of time along with the agenda and highlight the link to your video conference. Use whichever tool matches how your participants operate - whether that’s email, WhatsApp, or text message.

Then, send them the link again on the morning of your meeting – it will be easier for your guests to find the link when scrolling through their messages. Ask anyone who is presenting slides at the meeting to log on perhaps 10 minutes early so you can help fix any technical issues and ask them for a copy as a backup.

2.    Who’s invited?

There are the nightmare stories of having your meeting hijacked by unpleasant and uninvited people. Shockingly, colleagues ran a paediatric oncology teaching session for trainee doctors only for the meeting to be crashed by someone sharing indecent images.

The safest way to stop unwelcome guests at your meeting is to ensure you have your meetings set up with passwords and only share the invite with those people who are welcome. Know who should be turning up or with larger meetings have a guest list by your side.

Too often people’s video conferencing account names are nicknames or default names of their mobile phone. Let everyone know they must have their account name matching your guest list or they will not be let in. If a guest’s name is still unrecognisable when they enter the waiting room – you can send them a private chat message to confirm their identity and help them rename their account so that when they enter other guests know who they are too.

3.    House rules?

Would you let anyone share your home on Airbnb without first letting them know your house rules? Same goes for remote meetings. You will learn to adapt them to your different sets of participants. Here are some good examples:

• Let people know that you will set them to mute on entry to the meeting and they should stay on mute unless they wish to contribute. People shuffling, dogs barking, or off meeting conversations will disrupt things.
• Let your guests know how they should ask questions or join in the conversation – raise a virtual hand, ask a question on chat, private message you or someone else on chat or just join in the conversation.

4.    Start early

The meeting may be scheduled for 10am but that’s not when you should turn up! For larger meetings I start prepping about 20 minutes before the scheduled start. I have a quick check list that I run through:

• Check my host name is correct
• Check all entrants are muted on entry
• Check I get alerts when guests arrive in the “waiting room”
• Check I am recording the meeting
• Activate the chat message box so I’m ready to see messages
• Check any slides or presentations that are needed for the meeting are ready to go and on my computer’s desktop
• Check my screen sharing preferences are correct for the meeting

You are then set up to welcome any early bird attendees or to help your presenters get comfortable.

I’ll be sharing part two of my ‘how to be a good video conferencing host’ shortly!