VIRTUAL MEETINGS VS FACE TO FACE
With the continuous increase of Covid-19 pandemic all over the world, it has been ceasing the activities of face-to-face events to maintain social distance and hygiene in the surroundings as the virus is spreading rapidly even when all the precautions are being taken to prevent social gatherings and meetings. Post pandemic the virtual meetings like online webinar, video conferences, virtual event platforms has seen a very significant growth in space of education and work from home.
Although both face-to-face and virtual meetings plays a particular role having their own strengths and weaknesses contingent to the lengths and goals of every event.
The current remote working world has motivated enterprise heads to transform the method they use to function by leaning towards video conferencing and online platforms to stay connected with each other. Multiple professionals have now become used to digital platforms like zoom, google meet, certain online tools which we have never taken into consideration before.
Want to explore more about Virtual Meetings, Read this article full with Pritish Kumar Halder.
Here are the few benefits of Virtual meetings over Face-to-Face meetings:
ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL MEETINGS
Cost Reduction-
virtual meetings are considerably less expensive than face-to-face equivalents because there is no travelling cost, food expense and other local expenses such as security, staff. The team members as well as clients and business partners do not have to travel to their office. It is a sound advantage to small start-up businesses which initially cuts down the expenses in this pandemic.
Environment friendly–
due to pandemic, virtual meetings happen to be environmental friendly because there is no frequent travelling as it eliminates the requirement of aviation travel and conveyance transportation. It does not require any paperwork and public gatherings to discuss their projects and assignments, these can help in lowering burden.
Speed–
face-to-face meetings require long duration for advance planning and conferences and it will not be safe for the public to gather at one place. That is why virtual meeting can be constructed in lesser time by preferring work from home meetings and conferences.
Better barometer–
virtual platforms have magnificent online barometers for measuring number attendance, duration spent online, meeting sessions attended, chat comments or questions, polling and more. Deep rooted online platforms make it easier to perform better than the face-to-face planet.
Contagion free–
during covid-19 pandemic, the major reason behind the outburst of virtual meetings is the complete shutdown for face-to-face events and the fear of contagious surroundings in public gatherings or groups.
Webinars:
A webinar is simply a seminar conducted over the internet. Typically, the webinar size ranges from dozens to a few hundred people. There are many software options in terms of pricing and capabilities with a variety of presentation options including sharing of PowerPoint slides, screen sharing, polling, Q&A functionality, audio/video streaming, level of security and some type of registration automation.
Strengths:
Webinars are good for relatively short information exchanges with some attendee interactivity. They are less expensive than F2F with no room rental, catering, AV and travel costs. Unlike F2F events, they usually do not require significant preparation and promotion time. Also, in these days of significant pandemic concerns, a big benefit is that they do not require travel and possible exposure to contagions.
Weaknesses:
Major weakness are the lack of visibility of the attendees with some of the systems and time limitations. As the attendees can be invisible to the presenter and to each other with some of these companies, there is no social contract to even look like they are paying attention, unlike F2F events. Due to increasingly shorter attention spans, webinars generally should last no more than one hour. In today’s distracted office environment, it is difficult to keep a viewer’s attention fixed on a screen for longer than this.
Disadvantages of Virtual Meetings
Lack of Human Connection
There’s just something about interacting in person that can’t be replicated when we connect online. This is one of the major downsides of meeting virtually.
Technical Difficulties
These are inevitable, and they’re incredibly distracting and challenging when it happens.
Distractions
Accessing a virtual meeting from anywhere can be beneficial, but it can also mean that participants are surrounded by distractions as they try to communicate and contribute to collaboration in a meaningful way.
Decreased Participation
The option to mute gives people the option to decline to participate in meetings, an option they wouldn’t have if they were attending a meeting in person. Capitalize on the Advantages of In-Person Meetings.
CONCLUSION
With a handful of key advantages, face-to-face meetings offer some significant benefits that just can’t be replicated by virtual gatherings.
The emergency delivery of Covid-19 crisis made the entire workforce to operate from their homes and it might become the permanent course of action for working. The pandemic has undoubtedly propelled business enterprises to reconsider the methods they operate for business.
In order to run a business, the working professionals have switched to virtual meetings to stay connected with their clients and business partners to maintain social distancing.
To work remotely with the requirement of social distance, virtual meeting provides a personalized approach. It serves as the alternative of face-to-face meetings. Virtual meetings like video conferencing provides a platform to permit leadership management to convey messages immediately to the employees and inscribe related concerns on the spot. During this situation effective communication is very important to run businesses smoothly and efficiently.
References
https://recintervcardiol.org/en/editorial/virtual-vs-face-to-face-meetings.-can-both-of-them-coexist
