Video conferencing best practices

Follow these tips to ensure a more successful video conferencing meeting.

When using equipment or locations not regularly used, test your meeting connections in advance.
When possible, establish online video conferencing connections several minutes before the meeting start time.
Create a backup communication plan in case you have trouble connecting with remote participants. A backup plan can include asking onsite participants to connect to the meeting through their laptops, using a mobile or speakerphone, and/or collaborating through an online collaboration tool (e.g., Google docs).

Have all participants share their video and audio. No lurkers.
Ensure all participants can see and hear all other participants, as appropriate.
Ensure conference room microphones are distributed appropriately to pick up all speakers.
Ensure location lighting does not limit a participant’s visibility (e.g., avoid backlighting from windows or lamps).
Have participants mute their microphones if their location has excessive background noise or they will not be speaking.
Have a meeting facilitator — often, but not always, the person who called the meeting. The facilitator is responsible for:
- providing an agenda to participants — ahead of the meeting is nice, but minimally at the start of the meeting — that includes an overview of topics to be covered and planned outcome;
- establishing the visual or verbal cues, such as raising a hand, to indicate when someone wants to actively contribute verbally to the meeting;
- engaging participants at all locations to ensure discussion understanding, and alignment;
- limiting “side conversations” and multitasking or ensure all participants are made aware of that content;
Make sure all participants have equal access to content by sharing all content within the video conferencing connection and using online tools (e.g., Google docs) whenever possible.