Hybrid presentation and workshops are a necessary part of doing business in today’s world, but they don’t have to be a hassle (looking at you, tech issues). If your business is struggling to facilitate virtual and hybrid events, you’re not alone, and there is a better way. With the right remote and hybrid meeting technology, you can bring teams together no matter where they’re signing in from—without sacrificing productivity.
In this article, we’ll cover technology and virtual teams—more specifically, the five essential features you need to facilitate virtual meetings. Let’s get started.
What Is Virtual Meeting Technology?
Virtual meeting technology makes it possible for individuals to gather and share ideas, even across great distances. On the surface, video conferencing technology enables people to see each other and talk in real-time. However, virtual meeting technology goes deeper than that and can even revolutionize how people work together. Alleo’s dynamic canvas paired with built in presentation tools support an efficient workflow, even when teams can’t gather in person.
What Are the Types of Virtual Communication?
With virtual communication technology, teams can organize and host meetings, presentations, and collaborative workshops. In meetings, there is typically one leader at a time, but who the leader is can shift throughout the meeting. Attendees are also typically expected to participate at different levels. In presentations, one team or leader presents to an audience. The focus is primarily on the presenter, but there are opportunities for the audience to participate by asking questions or giving feedback. In collaborative workshops, each participant has a nearly equal expectation to pitch in and contribute ideas.
Virtual communication has different goals, and your technology should be able to adapt to support those goals.
What Are the Communication Devices Used in Video Conferencing?
Whether hosting a virtual or hybrid meeting or presentation, you need the right tools to ensure everything runs smoothly. Let’s take a closer look at five essential conferencing technology examples and what you should look for in these tools:
- Audio and Visual: Video conferencing revolves around the ability to communicate through video and sound. These are the most basic features, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll find a virtual meeting platform that doesn’t have both. However, there are still nuanced features to look for. For example, it’s important to allow participants to join meetings with their camera and microphone set to off as the default. Otherwise, your meeting could start with some surprise introductions—like a puppy with very loud, yet less than productive, feedback.
- Text Communication: Most virtual meeting platforms come with text communication capabilities, like a built-in chat window. This feature is helpful for sharing links or questions and comments that the presenter can address at an appropriate moment. Advanced platforms may also include an interactive notes section, like Alleo’s Idea Input Meeting template.
- Presentation: When hosting a video conference, it’s often crucial to have access to presentation tools. Meetings, workshops, and pitches typically rely on sharing visual data. With basic tools, presenters usually need to share their screens through the meeting platform. While this can be an effective method, it’s far from perfect. Presenters have to fumble around to find the share button and be absolutely sure they are only displaying what they want to share. What could go wrong?
More advanced platforms, like Alleo, give you the ability to create presentations within the meeting platform itself. That means you don’t have to connect to anything outside of the meeting. You also don’t need to save presentations to your device, which frees up storage capacity.
- Collaboration: Video conferencing is designed to bring teams together because each participant has something to contribute. Traditional tools are often limited to a participant voicing their opinion or sending it through chat. However, this limits what they communicate. While they can voice their opinions, they can’t actually demonstrate them.
This changes with Alleo. Our platform makes meetings equitable. In other words, anyone who has something to say can use the collaborative whiteboard space to express their ideas. Browse Alleo’s template gallery to spark ideas for your next collaboration.
- Security: At the beginning of the pandemic, businesses of all sizes and organizations like schools rushed to implement virtual meeting technology. While this transition was necessary, it came with security concerns—like unauthorized participants accessing meetings and sharing distracting material.
Alleo makes security a priority. With four tiers of board access, you can customize how participants interact during meetings and protect sensitive information.
How Technology Can Make Meetings More Effective? Alleo Has the Answers.
Technology can make or break virtual meetings. When you have the right features, meetings can be worth everyone’s time. However, meeting platforms that are ill-equipped can leave hosts frustrated with tech issues and participants feeling disengaged. To transform virtual and hybrid meetings for the better, Alleo does what no other platform can, including:
- Achieving equity for each meeting participant
- Eliminating the need for downloads
- Maximizing meeting efficiency
- Enabling work from any device
- Best-in-class security
- Integrating standard communication tools
Ready to experience greater creativity and collaboration? Get in touch with us to find out how.
