The business world is changing. Communication technology is taking a big leap forward; from telephone, email and fax we have already moved to video conferencing and wireless mobile devices. In its course, technology is changing the possibilities and the rules of human interaction. And this also applies to business communications and work meetings.
So the question now arises: Are your work meetings keeping the pace?
There was a time when the hardest part of organizing a meeting was about finding a conference room and coordinating schedules. But we are past those days. Today, you need to think about coordinating with far-flung colleagues, clients and business partners when organizing a work meeting. Just like “work,” meetings too are shifting to anywhere and anytime space from its traditional “defined” place and time, thanks to mobile devices and cloud technologies. And this trend is likely to grow in the coming days. A report from IDC also supports this speculation, according to which “87 percent of connected devices sales by 2017 will be tablets or smartphones.”
Cloud-based communications and collaboration tools are also playing a big role in the way work meetings are now being held outside of traditional corporate facilities. The following are 5 must-have resources for conducting successful work meetings.
1. Slack
Slack is designed to make your working life more productive, simpler and pleasant. The company even boasts that teams using this tool have experienced 80.4 percent increased team transparency and 32 percent increase in productivity. It keeps team communication in one place so that you can search them instantly and access them from anywhere and at any time.
It allows for real time messaging and file sharing, search and archiving that keeps everyone in the loop, and allows inline images and video along with rich link summaries to give context to each of them. You can integrate Slack with numerous tools such as Google+ Hangouts, Dropbox, Zendesk, Asana and Twitter, etc. It also syncs across all devices and you can configure notification for email, desktop and mobile push messages.
Launched in February 2014, this communication tool is one of the fastest growing B2B applications that has more than 1.7 million daily active users.
2. Fuze
Fuze is an extremely flexible video conferencing tool that allows you to take your work meetings online. From Groupon to GM, a number of leading brands are leveraging this tool to conduct face-to-face meetings with their remote workers and clients in real time. In fact, Fuze is redefining visual communication and collaboration with its great user experience design that drives user engagement.
In addition, Fuze allows seamless communication so that each member can contribute their best from any device and/or location. Use this tool for life-like quality and reliability when conducting online meetings and video conferences.
Some of its features include HD video and screen, cloud content sharing, and meeting recording with MP4 support. Besides, you can opt for add-on services like room solution management, user management, usage analytics and reporting and more.
3. Google Hangouts
Backed by its brand name and value, Hangouts is one of the most popular tools for team meetings. It allows face-to-face interaction, apart from messaging and voice calls. In fact, this tools allow group call for up to 10 people, allowing you to share documents, photos, maps and more. The best part is that you can turn any conversation into a free video conference with just one tap as calls made to other Hangouts users are free.
You can even call any phone number on Hangouts. And it also allows you to connect your Google Voice account for integrating phone number, voicemail and SMS. And since it is a cloud-based technology, you can hold and attain meetings from anywhere across the world. You can even sync Google Hangouts across various devices including Android, iOS and the Web.
4. MeetingBurner
MeetingBurner is another great place to organize your online work meetings. The most striking part of this tool is that you can use it right in the browser; there is no need to download MeetingBurner. This is also a great tool for sharing your screen and hosting webinars. With the premier package, you can add up to 250 attendees. Apart from live meetings, this tool also allows for autopilot meetings and one click meeting recordings and sharing.
In addition, there are certain bonus features like in-meeting chat, automated email reminders, customizable meeting registration page, Skype integration, and meeting analytics. Using the analytics you can get an overview of how your guests interacted with your content and use them for future reference. MeetingBurner is highly praised for its easy-to-use interface and fast load times, which also makes it one of the most popular online meeting tools.
In fact, its free version also comes with a host of features.
5. Nutcache
Nutcache is a collaborative project management tool that helps you to keep all your documents and reports organized so that you can access them easily during a work meeting. In fact, it is known for its extremely flexible, collaborative features that allows you to invite your team members, clients, partners, vendors and other collaborators to discuss, comment, and share files from anywhere and at any time, right from the tool.
You can hold group chats and conversations right from this tool to discuss and check on project’s status updates and advancement data. Besides, there are over 30 comprehensive and flexible reports offered by Nutcache, ranging from time tracking to project analysis.
You will find these reports, especially beneficial when holding project meetings. There is no need to send reports or other documents separately, as other collaborators too can check the business activity in real-time.
Since everything is transparent and all your team members and stakeholder are already on the same page, Nutcache eliminates the need to organize too many meetings up to a large extent. Thus, freeing your time to focus on something more productive.
Conclusion
Work meetings must be brief and to-the-point in order to be effective and successful. Similarly, the tools and resources you are using must also be easy-to-use. Complex technology that takes a lot of time and effort to comprehend usually confuse people and hardly leads to an effective meeting. Also remember that a well-facilitated meeting must promote creativity and open communication. You tool therefore needs to provide enough room for them.
