Hybrid meetings offer flexibility, help to reduce travel, and ensure that everybody remains included, even when conflicting schedules and hard to get to locations make it difficult to attend.
Despite their potential benefits, hybrid meetings have a tendency to be awkward. When done badly, hybrid meetings risk leaving remote attendees feeling left out in a room full of participants who can’t understand what’s going wrong.
Hybrid meetings can be brilliant, but an aspect of planning is needed.
What Works?
Clear Planning
Hybrid meetings need to be intentionally facilitated. It’s very easy for conversation to drift towards those in the room, but the meeting chair must ensure they keep engaging with the virtual participants.
Regular check-ins such as, “any thoughts from those online?”, addressing online participants directly by using their name, and keeping an eye on the meeting chat or hand raise functions are absolutely vital.
It can be tricky, but it’s all about managing two rooms at once, and making sure both feel equally valued.
Reliable and Simple Technology
You don’t need a full broadcasting setup, but you do need the basics to make it work. From experience we can tell you that a laptop microphone simply doesn’t cut it for virtual board meetings, you should consider using a conference speaker and dedicated microphone.
You’ll also either need a projector or a flatscreen tv to make sure everybody in the room can see the remote attendees clearly. Sharing a digital agenda and slide deck on the screen will also help to keep everybody on the same page.
Pre-Meeting Habits
Successful hybrid meetings start before the call does. Send joining instructions, meeting links and a clear agenda so that everyone has the same chance to prepare, whether they’re joining from their home office or sitting around the meeting table.
Prep attendees on what they can expect from the meeting. Will there be breakout groups? Slides? Open discussions?
What Doesn’t Work?
Hope for the Best
Please don’t prop your laptop up at the end of the boardroom table and expect the in-built microphone to catch everything. It makes virtual attendees feel like an afterthought, and nearly always results in frustrations from both sides.
Do some forward planning and bring a separate microphone and camera. It makes a big difference in how people feel connected and can save a lot of time at the beginning of the meeting.
Dynamics
Face-to-face attendees often have natural side conversations, visual cues, or moments of informal chat that remote joiners miss out on. This can quite often make it feel like there’s an “inner” and “outer” circle.
It’s the responsibility of the meeting chair or admin team to help bridge this gap by pausing, summarising side conversations, or looping back in. It’s not so much a case of controlling the meeting but making sure everyone stays a part of it.
Review
Forgetting to review your meetings will lead to a repeat of errors.
Hybrid meetings should evolve to meet the needs of the attendees. A quick check in at the end of the meeting to review the format will help improve things for the next time. Make sure that everybody provides feedback, what worked for some people may not have worked for others.
How We Can Help
Hybrid meetings are now a permanent part of how boards, teams and communities operate, and it’s fantastic as long it’s done well. Leaving the meeting setup and organisation to your admin team can save a lot of time and stress.
At Cygnul we work in partnership with our clients and are seen as trusted advisors to the Board. We can undertake the full range of membership, secretarial and bookkeeping services as well as offering advice and support to associations around the UK. If you want to explore how these services could help your organisation, please get in touch with us.