In the business world, virtual meetings are typically held when employees are spread out across multiple locations, but sometimes workers in the same office will opt for one so they don’t have to leave their desks. More businesses are now using virtual meetings as a remedy to hold seminars, conduct business meetings, and communicate with coworkers about projects. While virtual meetings have increased in popularity for work, they’ve also become commonplace for friends and family. Regardless of where they are situated in the world, it enables teams to interact in real time.
What is a Virtual Meeting?
A quick glance at the definition of a virtual meeting is enough to reveal its prime purpose.
A virtual meeting is a type of communication that allows individuals in different locations to connect with each other online rather than face-to-face. Such remote meetings are conducted through virtual meeting platforms, such as Zoom and Slack and other virtual meeting tools you’ve probably heard of. They are also typically simple to arrange and organise.
What are the Pros of Virtual Meetings?
- Lower Expenses:The biggest and most obvious advantage of an online meeting is the cost reduction. Every company strives to reduce costs and save money wherever they can. Because there is no need to pay employees to go from another place and possibly incur fees for lodging and catering, doing meetings online saves money in this area. A computer or other smart device with a reliable internet connection is required for virtual or online discussions, whereas a physical conference necessitates hotel accommodations, facility arrangements, and travel fees. As a result, an online meeting is more time and money efficient than a physical one.
- Connect Everyone from Anywhere: The utilisation of virtual meetings allows for more involvement from a wider audience because nearly anyone with an electronic device and a reliable internet connection can readily access the meetings. It might be challenging to choose a time and location for a face-to-face meeting that works for everyone. Virtual meetings are more simple because everyone may participate from anywhere in the world. Even if some people are short on time, they might be able to sign in for at least a short while. A business with a large number of clients or staff can set up an easily accessible virtual meeting to avoid using up resources like a fixed location or costs.
- Collaborate in Real Time: A virtual meeting can include participants working. You can make adjustments right away by sharing screens and documents. In actuality, several people can communicate with one another and work together on the same project. This eliminates the need to retain knowledge, use it once the discussion is ended, and then watch for other individuals to add their two cents. You have the option of recording a virtual meeting. You can record the meeting and save it to watch after work if you are having an appointment but are unable to concentrate due to a number of tasks. The recording can be safely stored as a file that you can access whenever you need to gather information from that conversation.
- Better for Health: Your physical and emotional health will benefit from participating in virtual meetings. People who frequently travel for work have stress, poor sleep, and a lack of exercise. Additionally, they could be unable to maintain a nutritious diet. These negative impacts are not present in virtual encounters. The participants in a virtual meeting are guaranteed their physical security. Since there are no face-to-face interactions and everyone may access the meeting from a convenient place, factors like the transmission of diseases and traffic accidents caused by being late for meetings do not occur. Additionally, going to fewer meetings will be advantageous, regardless of whether you personally are dedicated to minimising your environmental effect or whether being green is a key value of your business. A virtual meeting also prevents participants from fighting one other if something goes wrong. Overall, compared to traditional meetings, virtual meetings lessen the chance of participants contracting physical illnesses or injuries.
- More Frequent Meetings: The possibility of virtual meetings reduces the number of "I can't make it" folks. Meetings can be held more frequently when they are virtual. From brief 10-minute check-ins with your team to hour-long weekly sessions with a big group. Choosing a time and location for a face-to-face meeting that works for everyone's schedules is frequently challenging. Since everyone may connect from anywhere in the world, virtual meetings are more simple. Some people who are short on time might still be able to check in. Without any interruptions, those who must take another call can leave early.
- Increased Attendance: Participants can access an online meeting from anywhere; they are not required to travel. Attendees benefit from a certain level of ease in virtual meetings. You can reach a larger audience as a result without having to charge them extra for travel or lodging. You can join a virtual meeting from anywhere, even if you're ill, away from home, or swamped with pressing business. Increased meeting attendance leads to more fruitful idea exchanges, collaboration, and outcomes. This boosts audience involvement because even the busiest people or absent employees can stay for a short period of a virtual meeting.
What are the Cons of Virtual Meetings?
- Technical Problems: All participants must have a strong internet connection in order to hold a virtual meeting. Things can go wrong as a result of poor internet connectivity. Movements may appear slower to other attendees, and participants risk missing a crucial portion of the event. Additionally, someone might occasionally exploit this circumstance. The absence of an internet connection might be used as a justification by attendees to end a meeting early.
- Meeting Platform Subscription: Virtual meetings are not free, you will need software such as Zoom Microsoft Teams, Skype, GoToWebinar, etc. These tools come in both free and paid versions. If you want a better meeting atmosphere and more features, you need a paid version of the virtual meeting software. For instance, Zoom is a popular choice for video conferencing and conference calls. It’s free for one-on-one meetings and group meetings with up to 100 people for no more than 40 minutes. However, if you want to host longer group meetings, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid version. Paying for a good virtual meeting software can be very expensive with monthly or yearly subscription renewals and various packages.
- Less Dynamic: It’s difficult to divide into smaller groups to discuss topics if there's a need to do that in virtual meetings, it is mostly one person talking to everyone. Also, the chance to visit new places may not be possible with virtual meetings and remote working. Organisations may have to find new ways to entice candidates into the workplace and create a compelling workplace culture that doesn’t involve travelling.
- Less Interaction: A physical meeting's energy is different from that of a virtual meeting. Since virtual meetings are typically carefully controlled, not everyone can actively participate in debates or speaking. In physical meetings, you have many options for communication outside only voice. Also, participants may miss out of the meeting, lose either the camera or the sound, or get thrown out of the conference by the program, missing portions of the discussion.
- Less Spontaneous: Physical encounters provide you the opportunity to converse with someone you might not otherwise come into contact with. It involves networking. These actual interactions have the potential to produce new concepts, new business, partnerships, attract investors, and more. Even while the nature of online meetings may encourage more participants to join, occasionally some of those participants go ignored. Physical meetings make it simple to introduce yourself or simply run into an unrelated employee and strike up a chat. Speaking to someone who isn't directly speaking to you is less likely. This makes networking for an online gathering more challenging.
- Different Time Zones: You might need to schedule meetings outside of normal business hours for some members of your team if they are dispersed around the globe. The meeting can be scheduled for morning, but due to time zone differences, it could be midnight for some participants. Additionally, these team members could find it annoying since meetings always take place at the same time each week. In order to make things equitable for everyone, you might need to shift the timing of the weekly meeting to make it fair for everyone.
Takeaway
- The new standard is having meetings online
- Virtual meetings are quite economical but there are less interactions
- Virtual Meetings allows you to host more frequent meetings, but they can be less spontaneous
- Allow, they allow you to have an increase in attendees, but some attendee’s internet connections can fail
- Like everything, virtual meetings have advantages and disadvantages and for most, the pros outweigh the cons.
When you can't meet your clients in person, holding a virtual meeting is helpful because it lets you talk about the project online. With the availability of numerous video conferences and communication tools, you can hold virtual meetings from anywhere in the world. Additionally, improved internet connections have been made possible by technology, allowing users to maintain connections with all of their clients around the world.
We can conclude that virtual meetings have advantages and disadvantages. In summary, just like any other technology, a virtual meeting can enhance the effectiveness of our interactions during meetings, but it can also cause us problems with scheduling or put our personal information at risk. However, whether or not to use virtual meetings ultimately relies on the specific event of an organisation.
