Virtual meetings are essential for businesses with a remote team. This is an excellent way to build and maintain connections. Besides, these sessions can also help you communicate valuable announcements without leading to confusion or misunderstanding.
However, not many people like formal meetings; this may be the same with virtual employees. It can be challenging to keep your remote workers attentive throughout a session. Thus, making your formal online gathering more interesting and fun will keep participants engaged and make your virtual sessions productive.
The following are some ways to make your online meetings livelier:
1. Use Meeting Platforms With Interactive Features
There are several cloud-based videoconferencing applications or programs you can use to conduct your online meeting. Consider those that allow virtual corporate entertainment to pique the interest of your remote team.
Some apps and software can let you run a karaoke session, play trivia games, hold a dancing or musical comedy competition, and do much more to keep your meeting exciting. The best one to consider will depend on your preference and the type of activities you’d like to do for fun.
You might also find platforms with interactive visual elements that can help keep your meeting interesting. For instance, some have whimsical backgrounds, graphical interchange format (GIF) image files, and avatar filters that can change people’s faces into virtual animal characters. These are playful visual elements you could look for when choosing a meeting platform for online meetings. They’ll make things livelier and keep everyone engaged throughout the session.
2. Incorporate Icebreaker Questions
Before a meeting starts, there may be an initial period of awkwardness and quietness. Icebreaker questions can help you eliminate this as you manage your remote workforce and make them feel more comfortable with each other. This may help them bond more despite their geographical location. It can also make collaboration on different tasks after the meeting easier.
You may start by asking about how they feel at the moment or try informal questions like the best meals they’ve had, preferred travel destinations, or their weekend plans.
If you hold meetings often, some questions may get repetitive. Icebreaker apps could help keep things unique and exciting for every session to avoid this.
3. Play Fun Games
Besides icebreaker questions, you can also play fun games in your meeting. These could keep participants excited and full of energy throughout the formal gathering. Likewise, it can make them eager to attend the following sessions. You may consider these online games:
- Two Truths And One Lie
The game ‘Two Truths and One Lie’ needs no further explanation as the instruction is in the title itself. This game will keep employees interested as they won’t give up until they figure out which ones are the truth and which one is the lie. You could control the game or have the participants ask each other questions.
- Virtual Treasure Hunt
In a virtual treasure hunt, you come up with a list of items like a hammer, a kitchen apron, or a toy. After that, ask participants to look for the items in their houses. The employee who gathers the most wins the game. The advantage of this game is that it’s also a form of exercise that will keep your team members energized throughout the meeting.
- Virtual Copycat
Virtual copycat involves reading body language. In this game, you and your remote employees present playful gestures like a thumbs up, waving, saluting, or raising a hand.
You then pick one participant as the game leader and notify them secretly. This individual will randomly initiate the actions you selected. The other members have to be keen not to miss any of them. Once they notice the leader making any gestures, they must mimic them to score a point. The last person to copy the leader gets the least points.
Virtual copycat will keep participants attentive throughout the meeting. Hence, they won’t tune out and miss important things you have to say.
There are other fun games you could try. Find them on the internet before starting your meeting, or ask participants to develop new ones you could play.
Conclusion
Meetings are necessary even though you run your company virtually. However, not many people enjoy these formal gatherings, so it’s best to keep your sessions fun and interesting. This way, your employees won’t get distracted and miss company announcements you might make.
You can ensure this by using meeting apps or programs with interactive features. Moreover, you can incorporate icebreaker questions to eliminate awkwardness at the beginning of the formal gathering. Virtual games could also help keep everyone attentive, energized, and excited throughout your meeting.
