Teleconferencing checklist
Below you find concerns for organizing and conduction a conference call.
Preparation
- Inform the participants on time: starting time, dial-in number, conference code etc.
- Advise the participants to find a quiet room.
- If you are using a hands-free phone keep in mind that your setup introduces background noise in the conference call. So find a quiet spot and turn the speaker volume not too loud to avoid echo.
- In the case of dial out: make sure you have the phone numbers of the participants available with preferably a backup per participant. Ask the participants to turn on their phone and to make sure that call's don't end up in their voice mail.
- Send documents like the agenda and minutes in time, just like for physical meetings.
During the conference call
- Make sure that you open the teleconference in time.
- Make sure that it is clear to everybody which participants join the conference call
- If there are many participants it is wise to agree to mention your name before you speak.
- Mention the name of the person to who you ask a question.
- Don't interrupt each other and prevent participants to speak interchangably.
- Communicate concise and to the point
- Ensure that each participant has the opportunity to contribution.
- Close each issue with a brief summary.
- Plan the next session at the end of each meeting.
Afterwards
Send the minutes of the teleconference as soon as possible after the meeting to each participant.