Tips for an effective virtual town hall meeting

The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has made it apparent that many events will remain online for the time being. Even as some offices reopen their doors, travel restrictions make it difficult to gather your entire team in the same place. While hosting a virtual town hall meeting might have certain challenges, the right VCaaS software, such as our 8x8 conferencing solutions, can help to redefine these experiences. As CEO, you need to bring together multiple departments to make strategic decisions and communicate updates and projections to your board. To help you plan your next meeting between employees and senior leaders, we've compiled a list of tips that you can use during your next virtual town hall meeting.

Tips for an effective virtual town hall meeting

Get virtual town hall meeting software

Town hall meetings are a great way to share updates, gain departmental insight and establish trust and confidence between your entire team. However, without the right audio and video software, these meetings can be cumbersome. When people can't clearly hear others or when the video picture is blurry or out of focus, people may have a hard time concentrating. They may also miss pertinent information due to a poor connection. Some people who are joining your calls may have busy a schedule (you included), so you want to waste their time.

Lead with a positive mindset

Connectivity is rare, so when people are coming together for a company State of the Union or similar event, they should leave feeling optimistic about their work. Of course, there may be serious things to address during your virtual town hall meeting. However, leading with positive news in a town hall setting or celebrating recent milestones can help to build a communal work culture. Try to highlight these points when your address employees and shareholders.

Let all levels of employees speak

Hearing from a diverse group of voices can provide insight into whether you're meeting your milestones and may reveal things that are standing in the way. A virtual town hall meeting is a great opportunity to hear from members of all departments at different levels. Of course, these virtual town hall meetings should be as concise as possible, but that doesn't mean that you can't choose a few people to present or share in front of the entire room. Make sure you reach out to everyone in advance, so they can think about what they'd like to say.

Make sure your conferencing software can handle multiple viewers

When you're deciding how to hold a virtual town hall meeting, make sure that the platform you choose will be able to handle all the guests. Many software solutions aren't designed to handle large numbers of viewers on their platforms, which means that there could be latency, buffering or other technical issues.

One of the easiest solutions is using our 8x8 virtual town hall meeting software. Our video conferencing tools are available to your entire team on their existing electronic devices. We use advanced cloud-based storage to ensure crisp, clear video streaming that can be accessed anywhere.

Contact us today to learn why we're an industry leader in video conferencing. Our systems are designed to bring CEOs closer to their teams, and our VCaaS products are designed to help you run high-quality virtual town halls with speakers and moderators from around the world.