How to Organise a Great Virtual Town Hall Meeting
All-hands or town hall gatherings are a common occurrence at most organisations. It is one of the best methods for communicating business updates and encouraging communication between management and employees. However, as they see the advantages and efficacy of being virtual, town halls have followed the trend of most corporate events.
Organisational alignment is essential given that employees have been working from home for almost a year. Although the majority of organisations have been holding virtual town halls once a week or once a month, engagement levels continue to be a problem. So, in order to make them engaging, a good Virtual Town Hall Meeting Platform is necessary.
Employees no longer participate as actively in virtual meetings as they once did due to Zoom fatigue brought on by constant video calls. Long speeches delivered during virtual town halls are also a hindrance. This blog is a short note to help you organise a great virtual town hall meeting with the right webinar services.
Virtual Town Hall Meetings: How to Plan One
The heading “how to plan” needs a bit of consideration of the few points mentioned below;
Pre-Planning
Planning is, by default, a necessary way to make any event successful, and if you are thinking about what to plan, don’t worry. Start with the basics and not your requirements first. Here are four tips;
- Decide the technology (virtual town hall meeting platform) you need to stream the virtual town hall meeting.
- Determine the headcount (how many people are going to attend).
- Be aware of the different time zones.
- A team of certified professionals (who know about the technology).
Define the meeting objectives and agenda
The town hall meeting must have some objective. Without it, there is no purpose. For example, have you launched any new products recently, sales updates, campaigns, or others?
The goal aids in the preparation of the meeting’s agenda, presentation, and speaker list. In addition, you can concentrate on “softer” objectives like inspiring employees and developing trust, in addition to specific goals.
Get Your Content Ready
By keeping your presentation concise and avoiding past information that the staff is already familiar with, you can focus more on what will be useful to the audience. To ensure that everyone on the team understands it, simplify the language or concept to the bare minimum. Ask a department head from the relevant team or a subject matter expert to speak with you about how to make a complex topic simple.
Request questions from the attendees. A series of inquiries or polls can be shown with the help of event live streaming services. Make your content engaging and memorable by incorporating video, audio, and images.
Ask for questions in advance
Encourage your staff to submit questions in advance. To encourage spontaneous participation during the Q&A session, the presenter should ideally address these questions during the presentation.
Conduct a technical dry run test
Set up the chat app, event tools, and online webinar platform on the day of the meeting. Before beginning the session, run a thorough tech check. Check if the virtual town hall platforms, connectivity, and equipment are working properly. Developing a plan B for potential technical errors and minimising disruption.
Welcome Your Attendees
In virtual meetings, it can be hard to keep the audience interested. As a result, give a shout out to your employees when they participate. A great way to welcome them is with virtual icebreakers. Allow them to freely express their opinions throughout the discussion. To make future virtual town hall meetings more interesting and informative, include them in the discussion by asking questions, taking polls, and soliciting feedback.
Send a on demand webinar
No matter what you are doing, whether it’s a meeting or webinar, the platform allows you to record it and use it for the future. By using on demand live streaming services, you can easily record your town hall meeting and make it available for every employee who missed the meeting, so he can also take advantage of that. Send the minutes of the meeting along with the recording so that everyone can see what was discussed. We suggest using virtual webinar platforms and their templates to create a page that will house all previous recordings and minutes.
Summing Up
Every business is aware of the importance of town hall meetings and their benefits to the overall productivity of the company. Without a doubt, it is always a necessary option to look for and plan a cost-effective way of meeting. There are lots of companies in the UAE which have multiple offices across the cities and country, so for just a meeting it is not possible to gather them all at one place.
Use the secondary option, which is going virtual. You can collaborate with a webinar service provider for that. Taking help from the team of certified professionals can help you to have a smooth meeting session without any technical glitches or errors.
