Virtual Meetings in the time of COVID

This is a sample of a post I wrote about video chats.  It is more of a person observation rather than a technical observation.

During this COVID pandemic, video conferencing has become an integral part of office and daily life . Every day my team and I have a Teams meeting so that everyone is kept up to date on projects that are being worked on by team members. The meeting is not just for business.  We also chat about things going on in our personal life just like we did when we were in an office setting.   It certainly helps to break up the monotony of the home office scene. Teams and Zoom have become our best friends.  Sharing our screens and having a discussion is so much better than talking on the phone or emailing back and forth. We have a more collaborative environment. 

I decided to try it out in my personal life as well. It was in the beginning months of the pandemic and nobody really had a handle on social distancing.   It was my turn to host book club.   I felt that we could not be socially respectful if we met. I initially cancelled the meeting.  Then I thought to myself why don't I try to host a virtual meeting.  

It was so good to see everyone after being isolated in my  house for weeks. Adjustments to our routine needed to be made. Our usual book club agenda is as follows; greet everyone, happy hour consisting of wine and finger foods, dinner, book discussion with dessert.

Obviously our agenda changed and we just enjoyed a few minutes of chat and catch up time while sipping on a glass of wine.  We then went directly to the book discussion.  It went very well. 

Since book club went so well, I decided to host my wine club gathering with zoom.  Using zoom and doing a video call had an added benefit. Two members of the wine club were currently living on the other side of the country. Hosting a virtual wine club made it possible to include everyone.  It was great having the whole gang talking and drinking together..  We all picked our drink of choice, most picking wine but some going for a cocktail.  Why not? After all COVID changed everything so if someone chose not to drink wine it was ok.  An added benefit, no designated driver was needed since we were already at home.

The bottom line is whether you use  Zoom, Teams  Web Ex, Slack etc. virtual meetings have become a necessary way of life. Just remember,  facial expressions and body language do not always  translate well on video so you need to be mindful of what you are doing all the time. One additional reminder, wear pants or make sure your camera is focused on you waist up showing  you in proper attire. After all nobody wants to be caught with their pants down.

I found this video on you tube.  It seems a lot of looking good is all about the lighting  and camera angle so I want to share this link with you, Looking Good for on line meetings.  I learned a lot and I am changing how I have my home office set up and adjusting my lighting. 

For those who use video conferencing enjoy.  For those of you who never have, give it a try.  Let me know how it goes and where you are using it.