Thanksgiving is all about good food, fun traditions, and quality time with family. But no matter how much we stuff ourselves with turkey and holiday treats, we still have a lot to get done in Q4.
That’s why we’re thankful for virtual meetings. They make it easy to keep a team on track, productive, and efficient.
To help get you in the Thanksgiving mood, check out seven reasons why we’re thankful for virtual meetings.
1. You don’t have to be in the office to be effective.
You have no excuse for missing out on your family’s Thanksgiving traditions. Our favorite thing about virtual meetings is the freedom they provide — you’re no longer confined to the office! You can join a virtual meeting from just about anywhere: At the airport, on the bus, or even in the kitchen from your in-laws’ house.
2. You can meet on the go from your phone.
No laptop? No problem. Online meeting services like GoToMeeting make it easy to join a meeting from a smartphone or tablet. With the tap of your phone screen, you’ll be able to follow along and provide input even if you don’t have your laptop handy.
Headphones are your best friend when using the mobile app. This way your hands are free to help your mom dress the turkey – fun!
3. Meeting recordings ensure nothing is lost.
Your team can get pretty spread out during Thanksgiving and even year-round. Some may be traveling just a few hours by car, others can be in a different time zone, or even halfway across the globe. The great news is they’ll never be out of the loop. Even if they can’t make it to the scheduled meeting they can listen to the recording so they can catch up on the latest updates on their own time.
Plus, meeting recordings let you refer back to the meeting even if you were there so you don’t forget any of the ground-breaking ideas or urgent action items.
4. You can still talk face to face.
Conference calls just don’t cut it anymore. Seeing someone’s face helps you better understand responses, build stronger connections, and even remember more from the meeting. When on camera, people also give more attention to the meeting instead of Black Friday shopping or sneaking “taste tests” of pumpkin pie.
Remember to take an extra minute to check that you head and shoulders are camera ready before joining the meeting. Your Thanksgiving stretchy pants can be your little secret!
5. It’s easy to collaborate with screen sharing.
How great is it to be able to share your screen during a meeting? Screen sharing makes it possible to share a presentation, visually show the progress you’ve made on a project, demonstrate how to do something, and the list goes on.
Warning: Make sure to only share the tab you mean to share. No one wants to see the Black Friday deals you’re stalking in your free time.
6. Integrations streamline your workflow.
We’re thankful GoToMeeting seamlessly integrates with other tools to help us streamline work and collaboration. Need to quickly sync with your team on a project? You can set up a meeting directly from Slack. You can also schedule a meeting with a prospect in Salesforce.
7. Virtual meetings save time and money.
Virtual meetings save so much time and money by reducing the need to travel to get together with your colleagues from other offices or meet with customers or potential new clients. And who couldn’t use more time and money?
While we’re thankful for virtual meetings, don’t forget to keep a healthy work-life balance. Don’t go scheduling meetings during the holiday or 4:00 pm the day before everyone’s vacation starts. We wouldn’t want to give virtual meetings a bad name.