Town Hall meetings, also known as all-hands meetings, are a highly effective medium for organizational communication and engagement that are intended to share important enterprise updates, announce strategy decisions, major accomplishments, and the trajectory of the company goals. Town Halls play an important role in institutionalizing employee engagement practices, creating alignment, building trust, and fostering healthy and productive interaction across the organization. There are numerous video conference platforms that enable remote collaboration for town hall events. The challenge, however, is to extend the sense of community and togetherness of a community meeting to all remote participants in a virtual town hall.
1. Determine a time that is convenient for everyone based on time zones
Given the Town Hall’s importance to the organization, it is best scheduled in a way that is convenient for everyone. It is critical to plan your virtual town hall event to account for multiple time zones while also ensuring your employees’ comfort and convenience. It increases the likelihood of everyone being able to participate while also ensuring that everyone feels valued.
Also, if your company operates in multiple countries, keep track of the time of each company town hall meeting and practice rotation, as some attendees may be dissatisfied with the meeting time. So, if employees in UAE have to attend a meeting early in the morning this month, the town hall the following month can prioritize their convenience and provide them with a break.
2. If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail
Virtual town hall meetings invariably attract a diverse range of participants with varying goals, skill sets, interests, and levels of expertise. To begin, it is critical to have a clear agenda and roles for the meeting in order to keep things on track and avoid deviating from the designated objectives. Before the virtual meeting begins, it is critical to educate the participants on how to use the technology and platform.
Some useful methods include:
i) A brief tutorial on screen sharing
ii) A link to a YouTube training video
iii) A point of contact for technical assistance during the meeting. Calling a couple of participants before the town hall to check video and audio quality and implementing the best audio conferencing solutions.
iv) A dial-in option for those experiencing video/connectivity issues.
Remember that the inability of attendees to perform necessary functions for an efficient meeting using the virtual meeting platform is the quickest way to derail a virtual town hall meeting. Consider usability and implement a video meeting solution that is agile, dependable, and easy to join.
3. Make the environment for key speakers more dynamic
The majority of video meetings and webinars feature speakers communicating from a very basic laptop desk environment. While this is sufficient to “get the job done,” most senior executives could benefit from more mobility as they seek to engage their teams.
During Town Hall meetings, a larger stage-style area covered with multiple camera angles and allowing speakers to move around freely and spontaneously as the cameras and mics track them can create a more natural and dynamic experience. While these live stage spaces are typically found in Town-Hall-cum-café environments. It gives them more freedom to express themselves and creates more dynamic visual experiences for colleagues who participate.
4. Including a chat function
While the majority of the participants will be sharing points and responses verbally, it would be a good practise to use Google slides and chat to provide participants with access to a chat function while also creating a safe space for the online town hall.
Chat, polls, and Q&As can also be used to create useful interactivity in a less disruptive way. They help ensure that employee queries are addressed and that people have the freedom to raise issues that they may consider important for the organization.
A team of facilitators can monitor chats and look for inappropriate content that needs to be moderated or ejected. It can be an effective way of setting expectations for the meeting’s timeline, directing participants toward healthy interaction, and assisting those who are hesitant to speak in front of everyone.
5. A quick technical check
Before the town hall event, the audio system (microphone/speakers) and video system (camera) should be checked and double-checked. A backup internet connection ensures that a loss of connectivity does not disrupt the session.
6. Record and share
When every employee is available and happy, it is difficult to find the ideal meeting time. Because most remote offices and employees are spread across multiple locations and time zones, some employees may be unable to attend the live town hall event. Recording the meeting and sharing a link after the event, whether internally or publicly, can help the employee feel included and informed.
On the surface, it may appear that incorporating interactivity into learning sessions is a beneficial practice with few drawbacks. However, while there are several benefits to incorporating interactivity in learning, there are several challenges to doing so.
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The first and most obvious requirement is that the instructor or faculty be able to moderate the sessions, supervise activities, encourage participation, and manage session flow while delivering their core session content. This means they must have a strong presence of mind (which comes from thorough preparation) in order to carefully steer the flow of sessions and the level of interactivity throughout the session.
7. Make mandatory registration ahead of time
It is critical to effectively manage attendees and protect your Town Hall, web platforms, and unauthorised access or participation troll invasion while the event is live-streaming.
One effective way to closely manage the participants is to require advance registration. You can also choose a practical number, such as 50, 100, or 200 attendees, to cap the number of participants in the remote meeting.
Virtual Town Halls must be much more than a means of disseminating company-wide announcements and strategies. Your all-hands meetings can serve as the foundation for developing and sustaining your company’s distinct culture and fostering workplace bonding in unusually difficult and unfamiliar circumstances. They can help boost your employees’ morale, keep them focused on the company’s mission and goals, and provide an opportunity to enthusiastically celebrate their accomplishments.
With the help of Asher Technologies, you can turn your next virtual town hall meeting into a compelling and informative event that keeps everyone engaged from start to finish. Asher Technologies provides the best audio-video solutions in Dubai