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The Do’s and Don’ts of Online Video Meetings
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Online Video Meetings

From setting a clear agenda to testing your tech setup, here’s how to make video calls more tolerable for you and your colleagues.

Brian X. Chen
The New York Times, 2020
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Recommendation

New York Times reporter Brian X. Chen covers the basics you need to know to participate in video conference calls while working from home. This short piece doesn’t address the finer details of setting up the applications or hardware you’ll need for videoconferencing. Rather, it focuses on making sure that your time in front of the webcam is effective and suffers no technical and social interruptions or distractions. This advice will be most useful to people who are new to working remotely.

Summary

Video conferencing for working from home doesn’t have to be daunting – for yourself or your colleagues.

Few workers are actually prepared for the challenges associated with working from home until they begin to do it. Video conferencing, in particular, involves technical and social niceties that many users are navigating for the first time.

You can use some straightforward tactics to improve the video meeting experience for yourself and your colleagues.

Get the technical setup in place: check video, audio and internet speed before your planned call.

The first critical step is to get the technical part of the process under control. Make sure that your webcam works, that you have adequate lighting, and that the background in your camera’s view is uncluttered and won’t embarrass you or others. For the best audio quality, use a headset with a microphone if you can...

About the Author

Brian X. Chen is a technology reporter for The New York Times. He previously covered Apple and the wireless industry for Wired.

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