Warm Up Your Online Meeting

Online meetings benefit from icebreakers every bit as much as the face-to-face meetings.
Shy participants need help getting comfortable participating. Bored attendees need to see the content will be useful.
This doesn’t change just because we can’t see each others’ faces.
There’s also the intimidation factor of online technology. Many of us don’t know how to use the tools, or are uncomfortable
not seeing each others’ faces.
Next time you lead an online meeting, try incorporating one of these 4 icebreaker approaches and you’ll see a difference.
1. At least get an introduction
You’ll always want to at least have everyone introduce themselves. (If I’m in a meeting I want to know who else is on the call, don’t you?) If it makes sense for your meeting, have them add something personal about themselves as well. I like to guide the personal side with a question - favorite pet, something fun about themselves we may not know, best vacation spot, you get the drift.
2. Ask for a lead-in
Help everyone understand the reasons for the meeting. You might ask each person to share one thing they want to get from the meeting. Advanced online tip: if you have interactive chat in your web conference software, have everyone type in their answer. Think of it as a quick software orientation inside the icebreaker.
3. Visuals rule
Use a powerpoint slide to display a question or visual puzzle. This icebreaker technique is a chance to make sure the web conference software works for them. If you plan to use the webinar’s document annotation tool, have them try that feature out too.
4. Take a Poll!
If your webinar software supports it, post a survey for attendees to take. It can be an on-topic survey, particularly good as a lead-in for a training meeting, or even a “fun facts” set of trivia questions. If you give the survey results (and the correct answers) later in the meeting it can make a nice break when the energy starts to flag.
Decide on an icebreaker (or two) for your next online meeting. Your attendees will appreciate it.