Best practices for a Lync Meeting

There are different options you can use when setting up, joining, and presenting in a Lync Meeting. These best practices help you take advantage of the features that make your job easier and provide a pleasant meeting experience.

Note: For an interactive guide to common presenter tasks, see Scheduling and preparing for a Skype for Business (Lync) Meeting and Managing your Skype for Business (Lync) Meeting.

Setting up a Lync Meeting

Use Outlook or Web Scheduler to schedule a Lync Meeting, and follow these best practices.

Note:  For details about how to schedule a Lync Meeting, see Set up a Lync Meeting.

Scheduling the meeting

• For a small and casual meeting with people inside your company, use the meeting default options instead of changing the settings. Remember that the default options let everyone be a presenter and join the meeting directly.

• If you have a specific meeting requirement, for example, a larger audience, secure data, or external customers, be sure to change your meeting options to fit the requirement. For information, see Change participant settings for Lync Meetings.

Note:  The maximum number of meeting participants is 250.

• If you have both in-person and online attendees and you use Outlook, you can run your Lync Meeting in a conference room. Click Room Finder in the Outlook meeting request to find and add a conference room in the building you want. Or book the room separately, and add the room information in the Location box in the meeting request.

Designate a backup presenter

Choose a backup presenter, in case you can't join or are running late. A backup presenter can also start the recording, help and manage the audience, or monitor the questions submitted in the meeting so that you can focus on your presentation. This is especially important if you have a large meeting or event.

Include a training document or link in your meeting request

If you're inviting participants who aren't familiar with Lync, include a How-to training document or link to the Lync training in the meeting request to help them learn about the meeting features before joining the meeting.

Add notes to the meeting request

When scheduling your meeting, if you use OneNote, you can add private or shared notes. Invitees can then view and edit the shared notes before the meeting if they have appropriate permission. Just click Meeting Notes on the invitation ribbon, and add shared notes for the meeting requests or your own notes (not visible to others). See Use shared and private notes in a Lync Meeting for more information.

Joining a Lync Meeting

For details about how to join a Lync Meeting, see Join a Lync Meeting. And follow these best practices for joining:

• Sign in to your meeting 10 to 15 minutes in advance to get set up and have time for troubleshooting, if required.

• Before the meeting, decide if you'll be using computer audio (Lync integrated audio and video) or a phone (if your meeting request includes call-in details), for the audio portion of your meeting.

• If you're using computer audio, set up your audio and video devices, and check the quality. You can use your computer's mic and speakers or plug in a headset. For more information, see Set up and test Lync audio and Set up and troubleshoot Lync video.

• If you're using a phone for the meeting audio and you're enabled for dial-in conferencing (contact your workplace technical support for details), take advantage of the LyncCall Me feature. On the Join Meeting Audio window, select Call me at, and type the phone number you want to be called at. When you use this feature, you won't need to enter the meeting ID or a PIN.

• If possible, use a headset, instead of your computer mic and speakers, for higher quality audio.

• Audio quality is highly dependent on the condition of the network. Use a wired network connection and make sure you switch off wireless on your computer.

• After you join the meeting, mute your mic when you're not speaking.

Know your PIN

Most of the time, you don't need a personal identification number (PIN) when you call in to the meeting with a phone. You get connected directly and your number shows up in the participant list. But, if you want to call in as the leader or an authenticated caller, you'll be prompted for your PIN and/or work number or extension.

Note:  Dialing in as an authenticated caller just means that the meeting is secured and you need to be identified before joining the meeting.

It's a good idea to have your PIN handy in case you need it. If you don't remember your PIN, click Forgot your Dial-in PIN? in the meeting request and follow the instructions on the page to reset.

Important:  Call-in details are included only in meetings set up by users whose accounts are configured for dial-in conferencing. For details, contact your workplace technical support.

Presenting in a Lync Meeting

To learn how to set up a sharing session, see Share your desktop or a program. When sharing, we recommend that you do the following:

• Have a colleague sign in to the meeting with you to verify the meeting audio and visual quality.

• Check the in-meeting options to make sure you've selected the audience features you want, such as attendee permissions, view content, or annotation permissions.

• Leave enough time for questions, and let the audience know that they can type their questions or comments in the instant messaging (IM) section of the meeting.

• Mute yourself when not speaking, and make sure you know how to mute or unmute your participants if needed, both by using Lync and phone touch tone commands, if you're using a phone (press *1 on your phone dial pad to hear the commands).

• Remind participants at the beginning of the meeting how to mute or unmute themselves.

If you're using PowerPoint:

• Keep the slide deck to approximately 15 slides or fewer, with larger fonts (above 30 points) and a simple background, to avoid distraction.

• Upload your presentation in advance, and practice with the controls to move the slides or annotate. For example, you can call out important points by using the laser pointer or stamps.

• Use the presenter notes to help you remember your talking points. See Present PowerPoint slides in a Lync Meeting for more information.

If you're sharing your desktop or a program:

• Keep in mind that when you're sharing a program, only the programs and files that you're sharing are visible to attendees. If you browse to other programs, they won't be visible in the meeting.

• Use desktop sharing if you need to switch between programs.

• Click Preview in the meeting window to see what your attendees are seeing when you share your desktop or a program.

• Let your audience know they can increase their viewing area by going to the Full mode. For more information, see Share your desktop or a program.

Running your meeting in a conference room

It's a good idea to give yourself time to get the room ready before your meeting starts, to make sure Lync is set up to work with the room audio and video devices.

• Connect your laptop to the projector and the conference room phone if needed.

• Mute your computer's mic and speakers if there's an echo. Ask other people in the room to also mute their mic and speakers if signed in to Lync.

• You can connect the room phone to your computer or use the phone to dial in to meeting audio, if the meeting request includes call-in details.

• If you're using the room projector, connect the cable to your computer, and select the appropriate display. On your keyboard, press the Windows key + P to bring up the display, and then click: Duplicate, to show your desktop on both your computer monitor and the room projector; Extend, to extend your desktop from your computer monitor and the room projector; or Projector only, to show your desktop only on the room projector.

Tip:  We recommend selecting Duplicate so that you can see the meeting both on your monitor and the room display.

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