7 Tips to Facilitate Your Next Zoom Meeting

Run an engaging bilingual meeting with these tips from EFI

Essential workers in the fresh produce industry are continuing to pursue certification with Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) during the coronavirus pandemic. In response, EFI has adapted its trainings with Leadership Teams and auditors both within and outside the United States, facilitating bilingual virtual meetings on Zoom to complete portions of the training.

Use these tips to facilitate an effective and engaging Zoom meeting as you continue to pursue your company’s goals during this season.

A screenshot from the Zoom-facilitated training for Agrovision’s Leadership Team in Peru, led by EFI senior facilitator Lilian Autler.

1. Prepare participants in advance

Make sure your meeting participants know what to expect. Send an email to participants ahead of the meeting clearly communicating the meeting start time and expected duration. Attach an agenda and include the meeting location link, the meeting registration link and any special instructions. For instance, you may want to have attendees join with their video on and audio muted. Include a list of the Zoom features that will be utilized during the meeting, with instructions. Annotated screen shots explaining where to find specific features are also helpful.

An example of a pre-meeting information email for an EFI training. The image on the right is a closer look at an annotated screenshot with instructions for using Zoom features.

2. Share easy access links

Make it easy for your participants to access the meeting, register for the meeting and find additional Zoom feature instructions by adding links in your email communication and also in the calendar invitation. Include a link to the latest version of Zoom and system requirements so attendees can easily see if their software is up to date.

Include a calendar invitation with a link to the meeting when you send information out to participants.

3. Track participation with the registration feature

Zoom’s registration feature can be used to track attendee’s participation during the meeting and evaluate performance. Keep the process simple by including only the most essential information on your registration form and review participants’ information before the meeting starts.

You can choose to make meeting registration mandatory for participation.

4. Offer a practice session and review

Schedule an optional short, come-and-go practice session a day before the meeting so participants can work out connection kinks and explore using Zoom’s features ahead of time. Use a minute or two at the beginning of the meeting to orient participants to the features and quickly review instructions for use.

Take a minute or two at the beginning of your meeting to review  the features available to participants.

5. Use a dual language slide deck and the translation feature for seamless bilingual meetings

When possible, prepare your slide deck with bilingual content. Additionally, Zoom offers live language interpretation for nine languages. Once the language interpretation feature is enabled by the host, attendees can opt in to interpretation for their language of choice. Zoom interpreters are virtually added to the meeting and translate the meeting content live. For those opting in, the interpreted content is automatically played at 80% volume with the original speaker played at 20% volume. Participants can disable the original speaker if they prefer to hear the content in only their chosen language.

Zoom offers live interpretation in nine languages.

6. Increase interaction

Keep participants engaged by utilizing Zoom’s interactive features often throughout the meeting. Several Zoom features are highlighted below. In addition, consider incorporating features into a scheduled Q&A session, debrief sessions and games.

Following are the interactive features regularly used as EFI facilitates Zoom meetings and trainings:

  • In-Meeting Chat allows participants to send a private message to individuals or the entire group. Participants can use chat as a way to share links and resources with the group or to ask questions.
  • Raise Hand allows participants to get the attention of the host by choosing the raise hand icon, simulating a raised hand in a classroom or live meeting. Hosts can instruct meeting attendees about the best way to use this feature for each specific meeting.
  • Polling is another way to keep participants engaged. The host can create a poll before the meeting begins and launch the poll to invite responses from attendees.
  • Whiteboard is a feature that the host can enable to be shared by all participants. Participants can make annotations on the screen that are seen by everyone in the meeting. This feature can be used for brainstorming activities or icebreaker games.
  • Breakout Rooms allow participants to split from the main meeting into smaller groups. The host can control the timing of the breakout session and grouping of participants. Use this feature to create opportunities to collaborate.
Offering opportunities for participants to interact by asking or answering questions or making comments can help keep them engaged. The screen grab on the right is an example of an activity where participants were invited to place a check mark next to a topic on a shared screen.

7. Record the meeting to share

Record the meeting to share with participants so they can review content after the meeting is over. Zoom offers recording to the cloud and locally on each participant’s computer. For those meeting attendees using the language interpretation feature, local recording is the best option. Explore Zoom’s settings prior to the meeting so you are prepared to record.

Review Zoom’s recording settings before your meeting begins.

 

Find out more about the ways EFI is available to support your workforce development needs by visiting equitablefood.org/efi-services.