MEETINGNEWS.COM
December 9, 2002
Mary Ann Pierce

Prompted in many cases by budget cuts, organizations increasingly are deploying virtual meetings as substitutes or adjuncts to physical meetings.

In many cases, it's up to meeting planners to learn how to set up these new-age meetings.

The good thing is that you don't have to feed the attendees lunch. But careful attention must be paid to the laws and technical constraints of this new medium, and you must take extra steps to keep attendees engaged.

Types of virtual meetings include:

• Video and satellite conferencing: full-motion video transported over a point-to-point connection.

• Webcasting: transmission over the Web of video and audio, either live or archived, for on demand viewing. Instant messaging, polling and other interactive tools can be programmed.

• Web conferencing: live transmission over the Web of images and documents, especially PowerPoint presentations, with audio transmitted typically via telephone. Participants can share contents of some documents and contribute with instant messaging and polling. A Web conference can be archived for on-demand viewing, with audio accompanying the visual presentation via the Web.

The first step is to determine remote attendees' technical constraints and sophistication. Find out the following:

1. If you're planning a video webcast, determine if remote attendees have sufficient bandwidth where they'll be receiving the webcast. If a majority does not have access to at least 100 kilobits per second (kbps) of bandwidth, a video webcast will be pixilated and very difficult to watch. Thus, an audio webcast with integrated speaker support would be a better format. It can be received over a telephone line with a dial-up modem at just 28 kbps, and costs much less to produce.

2. Find out if attendees' corporate intranets allow webcast reception. Video webcasts are bandwidth-intensive, and some information technologies directors block their reception. If 20 people are viewing at 100 kbps, that uses two megabits per second of bandwidth, which is more than a T1 line provides. Consult early with your IT directors so they can open the firewall or deploy a webcasting server on your network to efficiently distribute the webcast.

3. Determine how proficient the attendees are in participating in webcasts or Web or video conferences. Simple navigation, jargon-less instructions, and plenty of technical support via email and phone are critical, especially for those participating in virtual meetings for the first time.

   Launch a virtual meeting website one week in advance and encourage testing of the webcast demo. Send out this demo as an email invitation.

   Encourage pre-registration so that you can estimate the number of simultaneous users. This will impact your bandwidth costs and alert you to a need for more promotion.

   A few hours before the virtual meeting, email the link. This will increase attendance.

4. Ask if attendees have access to a video conferencing facility within the organization or at a local venue. If a video conferencing facility is available, meet with its manager and your IT director before you start planning content. Learn what format is used, and how much bandwidth supports it.

   For extra value, consider producing an adjunct webcast or Web conference to reach those who are not at the specified facility.

Quality of experience

Examine the communications and marketing objectives of the virtual meeting. Is the event meant to train, motivate, inform or produce revenue? This discussion will allow you to shape the content and the quality of experience.

1. Make content concise and compelling. Compared with a face-to-face meeting, a virtual meeting is a cold medium. Attention will wane if the phone rings, a colleague interrupts or the video conference is not two-way. Therefore, content must be concise and compelling, and interactivity should be used to keep people engaged. Just remember that what is dynamic in a ballroom may not be to a remote attendee.

2. Evaluate live vs. on-demand. If you definitely want a live virtual meeting, you still can consider posting an on-demand webcast the day after the live event that opens with a two minute highlight video. Even if a large number of people view only the highlights, they will get some of the content and you will save on live webcasting costs. Very few Web-based meetings should be live only. The Internet is a 24/7 medium. Use that to your advantage. You will increase attendance by giving remote attendees the ability to choose their viewing times. Remote attendees also can better retain information by viewing the presentation more than once if they wish.

3. Create an engaging environment. The design of the virtual meeting space should be integrated with your other design and branding efforts in other media. Consider the variables in screen size and resolutions. Crisp design, contrasting colors and lots of open space will make the virtual meeting website or video conference easy to view. Post plenty of detailed information such as speakers' bios, white papers, graphics, and links to related Web sites. This will keep attention levels high. Conduct Q&A, polling or testing, or just ask the remote attendees what they think. Virtual meetings are two-way communications vehicles. Keep them busy.

4. Archive content for a long meeting life. Archiving the meeting for at least a month can extend its value. Register users so you can record patterns and find out if the content was compelling and how long it remained vital. Which webcasts did they view and for how long? How many are repeat users? Did they click on other Web pages during the virtual event?

Quality of results

• By what criteria will the virtual meeting's communication effectiveness and return on investment be judged? Here are some possible benchmarks:

• Total number of remote attendees who participated. Virtual meetings require more marketing and promotion than traditional ones. Market across all your available media: print, email, telemarketing, etc.

• Cost savings. The most cost-effective virtual meeting is a Web conference or archived webcast. Live video is expensive and increases the bandwidth costs. Video conferencing is far more costly than either.

• Effectiveness of the meeting. Gauge retention of content by polling, examining comments and questions, and testing.

Mary Ann Pierce is president of MAP Digital Inc., a provider of webcasts, cyber cafés, Web sites and networking services for the meetings industry. Email her at map@mapdigital.com.