Online Tools for Face-to-Face Meetings

Online tools for use during face-to-face meetings have added a new dimension to the meeting experience. They are usually easy to use, offer quick results, and provide an element of fun. As most meeting participants already have mobile devices (and may use them during meetings/conferences), why not acknowledge their utility and apply them for the purposes of the meeting? Use these tools to find out how participants feel at various intervals during a meeting, gauge their interest levels, collect feedback and ideas, evaluate their understanding, and ensure your message is getting across.

Online tools enable meeting organizers both to empower participants and to give them some measure of accountability for the success of a conference or meeting. Using their mobile phones, laptop computers or tablets, participants can vote on questions, give inputs quickly at a moment’s notice at any point during a meeting, or take part in learning games. These tools can significantly increase participant engagement, because everyone can respond at once, no one needs to be individually called upon, and in some cases participation can be anonymous if required. Results can be shown to the participants in real time. Large meetings (workshops and conferences) especially benefit from the power of these tools.

In addition to enabling participant feedback, most meeting tools incorporate analytics that offer useful insights to organizers.