The Home Boardroom & The Evolution of Our Remote Meeting Spaces
How many of us have upgraded our home theatres in the last year? With social distancing measures, lockdowns, and restrictions on movement keeping so many people at home, and with movie theaters temporarily closed, home renovations and home theatre upgrades have skyrocketed over the past 18 months. More people, it seems, are intent on creating their own cinema experience—either with a dedicated home theater room or by upgrading movie night in their living room.
Now, this makes sense, but how much time do we really spend watching movies? If your family is anything at all like mine, I can’t get my kids to even go downstairs and watch the movie on the big screen, they would rather watch it on their tiny little iPad screens!
My next question is how many of us are upgrading our home offices? Unlike home theatres, we literally spend countless hours in our home offices, glued to the screen on endless online virtual meetings. Other than getting a good chair or upgrading our desk, what can we do to elevate our home offices? What are the best practices for amazing online and hybrid meetings? What setup is ideal to engage our audiences?
The contrast between home theatres and home offices
Interactive Whiteboards for The Home Boardroom
Just like the home theatre is trying to mimic the experience of the big screen usually found in movie theatres, the home boardroom is the extension of your corporate boardroom in your home. It is a professional space where we can invite our customers into and close deals. AND you don’t have to travel, save costs, have a better balance, and get the benefits and flexibility of the hybrid environment. A space where you can duplicate the energy and engagement of a great presentation anytime you want.
Interactive Whiteboards and smartboards, used properly, can transform your home office into the home boardroom for any virtual meeting. They allow you to:
stand in front of your data and information which changes your energy during your next virtual sales presentation
immerse your audience into your presentation and make them feel like you are standing in front of them even in a hybrid meeting
use intuitive body language and gestures like pointing at your content or using your arms and fingers to circle something in the air to make a point which is critical for online presentations
forget about the computer and UI and be fluid and natural in the way you present
The right type of touch screen can also automatically detect between pen, finger, and eraser allowing the user to be fluid and natural with their interactions as if they were in front of a real whiteboard in the boardroom.
Make Your Next Online Presentation Memorable
If your audience pays more attention and remembers the information you are giving them the results will be clear. They will learn more, absorb more, make fewer mistakes and they will more likely buy your products and services.
Here are some tips on how to configure the ideal home office.
Interactive Whiteboard – get a high-performance board designed to let you write naturally. You need to be able to move objects with your finger, write with a stylus and easily erase without having to fumble with buttons and menus. Low latency interactive whiteboards will truly give that pen-on-paper experience crucial for fluid virtual meetings.
Camera – Put the camera in front of you watching you and the interactive whiteboard. Your audience needs to see you point, gesture, and interact with your data.
Audience Monitor – Use a small 23.8” or 27” monitor to host your audience. This is critical so you can also see your audience live. An effective virtual presentation requires you to see their faces, body language, and gestures as well.
The ideal setup will allow you to turn to the interactive whiteboard, write and work, and quickly turn back to face your audience and see them directly. This is exactly what happens in a real boardroom when you stand up at the front and start your presentation.
Software like Reactiv SUITE can help you blur the lines between another online presentation to a killer presentation.