What will online meetings look like in the future?
Do you remember the days when a meeting was scheduled and you had to enter an actual real-life board room? Team members face to face across the table, coffee cups charged and biscuits within arm’s reach (if you were lucky). The agenda set, levels of authority and not a clumsy pet in sight. Online meetings were not yet a ‘normal’ thing.
Enter Covid-19 and the height of the pandemic. Nearly half the world’s population are in lock-down and people are enforced to stay at home, even for work. The sudden switch to online working turns businesses on their heads as workers take to their kitchen tables or convert home offices from cupboards under the stairs. Most were unprepared!
A year on – The new Normal
Some coped better than others. In my industry, working virtually has been the norm for quite a few years so adjusting wasn’t too difficult. I found myself suddenly very busy with many of my clients looking for solutions to bring their teams together to meet virtually. I quickly became an expert in several different online video conferencing platforms and became quite the authority on how to conduct yourself during a Zoom meeting (check out my blog ‘How to Survive Online Meetings’).
So now we’ve all pretty much adjusted and the video call doesn’t instil the fear it once did to many. Video calls have given us the well-needed medium to connect with our teams and our loved ones and businesses have invested heavily in the infrastructure, so I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay for most, even when we get our freedom back.
What happens next?
As with all these things, technology develops – competitors are always trying to bring the users the next-level experience, but where can it go? Are we getting to a point where the tech capabilities might catch up with science-fiction? Imagine holographic board meetings or conferences brought to your living room in a VR headset! The reality is probably the introduction of more hybrid style of meetings and events. The big players like Google are already doing it and as lockdown eases the general consensus will be to make the most of the technology. There’s no denying the economic savings made by holding virtual events are massive, but you have to wonder whether we’re losing out on something else more intrinsic by not meeting in the flesh.
Drop me a line in the comments! I’d love to know what you think the future holds for online meetings.
If you need help working out the best options for your virtual team meetings, get in touch now.
