Remember the old days (aka pre-2020) when we were able to have meetings with real humans face-to-face? While we hope we’ll be able to experience those good times again, it’s worth noting that even as we approach the “next normal”, many facets of remote work-life are here to stay. While we definitely have made strides since the beginning of COVID-19, there is still room for improvement when it comes to running efficient and productive GoTo Meetings. Find out how to use GoToMeeting and get most of it below.

Some of the biggest time wasters we deal with in virtual meetings are attendees joining late, lack of engagement, noise disruptions, and other avoidable kerfuffles. How often does someone say the phrase “Are you seeing my screen?” or “Can you hear me?” The answer: way too often. 

In order to prevent time-wasters, I hosted a webinar where I shared some of my favorite tips and tricks to ensure your GoTo meetings run smoothly. Spoiler alert: running a productive virtual meeting starts way before you click the “launch” button.

Send a clear invite 

The whole purpose of the invite is to make it simple for attendees to join the meeting. So, when sending invites, be sure to use the calendar plugin, give clear joining instructions, and include goals and expectations for the meeting. 

Sharing the goals or the agenda of the meeting ahead of time allows attendees to prepare and helps make your meeting more productive. 

Plan for Fun 

It may sound counterproductive to schedule “fun” into your meetings, but it’s not. Adding fun to your agenda helps nurture collaboration and synergy. So it’s actually worth your time. 

Make Your Guests Feel Welcome 

Make it easy for people to join your meeting. The simplest way to do that is by using your personal meeting room. This is essentially a standing meeting that allows you and your attendees to use the same link and the same audio for every meeting you host. Don’t forget to use the meeting lock feature if you are in back-to-back meetings to avoid disruptions. 

Be Prepared 

The beginning of your meeting is not the time to check your audio and video. Before joining the meeting, use the GoToMeeting’s join experience to check your audio and webcam. This means you can avoid asking, “Can you hear me?” Which saves everybody time and keeps everybody sane. 

Let Them Mingle hot to use gotomeeting 

With so little in-person communication, it’s important to let people communicate easily. That means allowing them to join the meeting with either telephone or computer audio. You can also add Call Me to your meetings, which allows GoToMeeting to call you to join the meeting. 

Work the Room 

We’ve all been in meetings where there are wires everywhere and a stray laptop that nobody knows how to use. Inevitably, this mess of hardware slows down the login process and wastes everybody’s time. In order to avoid this situation, GoTo has partnered with audio and video hardware providers. These partnerships simplify the process and make hybrid (in-person and virtual) meetings simpler. 

Be Ready to Bounce 

Take advantage of GoTo’s mobile app, which lets you start and join meetings on the go. You can also share your mobile screen or switch to computer mode when you get to your office. Check your schedule ahead of time and look for meetings that you can take out for a walk, or to a different area of your house to break up the remote-work day! 

Don’t Make it a Meeting 

Sometimes trying to fit a meeting into multiple schedules is enough of a time-waster that you shouldn’t even hold a real-time meeting. In that case, don’t have a meeting. Instead, record and share your content with resource links. This allows everyone to view the “meeting” at their own convenience. 

Keep Your Momentum 

Once a meeting ends, share meeting recording, slides, transcripts, and notes with key players using one easy link. 

Work Remotely Like a Boss 

Use meeting diagnostics and GoTo Network test to identify and resolve network and system issues. Bad network connections and system issues cause so many delays in meetings, but you have the tools to ensure optimal connection and win at this remote work thing. (via GoToMeeting)