When hosting a teleconference, you should take advantage of the pre-reads and agendas, be specific about the time schedule and be immune to technical problems. These are the most important tips offered by the Open Forum website.
Pre-reads and agendas
When you distribute these documents among attendees, they will be more inclined to stay on point. They also have a better idea of how long you will spend discussing each topic. Emphasize that everyone is obliged to read the documents before the call starts.
Be punctual about the time
You can announce that the call will start at 13:00, and then discussion will start at 13:05. That leaves room for a little bit of friendly talk before the actual business talk.
Tell them what the rules are
First greet and welcome everyone and then you need to tell them what the goal of the call is. A short list of instructions should be next. To make the call more effective, there should be no interruptions. Everyone should wait with his comments until the issue is concluded.
Handle IT troubles
Don’t get distracted by annoying sounds of joins and drop offs. Only when you want to reassure yourself that a specific person is still listening, ask him or her. When you or someone else is working on a technical problem, keep the discussion going while it is being solved.
Sometimes an hour is too much
When the agenda is short, you can host calls as short as 30 or even 15 minutes. It will urge the attendees to get to the point and move quickly through the topic.
Multitasking can have an adverse effect
Working on a task on the side can be reasonable, provided that you are not one of the call leads. Make sure that you are on mute and that the sounds of your keyboard are not going to be noticed. If you miss an important piece of information, use a handy excuse… you might say that you were just searching for something connected to the call’s objective.
-jk-