Online board room meetings help to cut down on the necessity for physical meetings and save on travel expenses. It also gives flexibility to participants who can participate from any location. But, like any new technology, there are challenges when implementing this software. Board members need to become familiar with the software and have a solid understanding of its functions before they can properly use it. They must establish clear communication protocols and expectations.
The most important challenge is making sure everyone who is online is participating in discussions. In a live conference it is easy for participants to get distracted and lose their focus. Therefore, it is crucial to keep them engaged by making sure they hear the speaker. It is also helpful to have a clear agenda that allows for efficient discussion and prevents the meeting from becoming too long. Ideally, the agenda should include 20 percent fewer items to allow enough time for discussion. It is also ideal to schedule the meeting away from meals to avoid eating in front of cameras. The chair should also ask the board members to turn off the mute button when they are not speaking to ensure background noise isn’t distracting.
A major challenge is to ensure that the virtual conference portal and the board portal work seamlessly together. A reliable solution will allow you to manage the video conference as well as documents from a single location. The system will also make it easy for boards to download and view an agenda in PDF format, even if they are offline.