For example, there might be a dozen people in a meeting in an office and another dozen joining from home. Those who are remote often can’t see or hear what’s happening in the room, and that is “certainly not equal as if they were participating” in person, Wharton says. There might be a single camera or a laptop with a webcam set up at the front of the room. If someone is drawing on a whiteboard, those tuning in remotely might not be able to see the material easily.
How can businesses address these shortfalls?
“You need to move to some professional-grade equipment, and it can’t just be in the boardroom anymore like it was pre-pandemic,” Wharton says. “It needs to be everywhere.”
The Tech Needed to Improve Hybrid Meetings
Organizations can use a variety of hardware and software to make hybrid meetings more equitable and inclusive, according to Wharton and other industry experts.
One of the first aspects to address is audio quality, say Bob Frisch and Cary Green, the founding and managing partners, respectively, of Strategic Offsites Group, which facilitates strategy conversations for executive teams and boards.
“To avoid a last-minute scramble caused by poor audio, make sure the room is equipped with enough high-quality microphones so remote participants can hear,” they write in the Harvard Business Review. “If you’re in a hotel or other temporary meeting space and multiple microphones aren’t a viable option, consider supplementing your audio input by having in-person attendees pass around a hand-held microphone before speaking.”
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