Now that the dust has settled on the Covid crisis, around 40% of Australians are still working from home. This might sound wonderful, laying about in your pyjamas whilst you work on your laptop. Even so, having to accomplish all your own IT work on your own can be difficult, and if something goes wrong a technician is unlikely to show up at your door to help!
Also, what about important staff meetings and brainstorming sessions that were formerly held in person? Luckily there’s a solution that many companies have been using to great success, audio-visual conferencing.
Here are some tips to make sure your conference goes smoothly:
First, get up early and double-check your home’s Internet connection. Nothing spoils your day like missing the big meeting because someone in the neighbourhood dug up the cable with their garden’s cultivator-tiller! Having a backup connection like portable Wi-Fi on hand will ensure you don’t miss out on anything big!
If possible, log in early to test things out. If you wait until right before the meeting is starting, and there’s an unforeseen technical glitch, this gives you the time to sort it out before everybody else is inconvenienced.
Make sure there are no bandwidth hogs loose in your home. Audio visual conference calls are resource intensive, and meetings that suffer from pixilation and choppy distorted sound are likely to be unpleasant at best, and possibly even a deal breaker. Tell the family that under no circumstances should anyone be streaming movies or games during your call. If necessary, remind them that doing so is a privilege and that you are the one paying for it.
Be careful to choose surroundings that are conducive to a quiet, productive atmosphere. Make sure the kids have been warned not to enter the room during the call, and keep any noisy dogs somewhere out of earshot for the duration. Keep the windows closed and the blinds drawn to cut off outside noise and glare. Use a soft, indirect light that is complimentary to you, and minimises any undesirable views of your surroundings.
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