Organizer and presenter best practices

For a more successful online meeting, read and follow the suggestions in this topic.

What do you want to do?

Schedule the meeting

Prepare for the meeting

Lead the meeting

Schedule the meeting

When you're scheduling the meeting, consider the following suggestions:

• Check the meeting options before sending the invitation, especially if you want to:

  • Present to a group of more than 40 people.

  • Invite people who don't have an account on your network.

  • Discuss something confidential.

  • Prevent others from viewing or editing your handouts before the meeting.

    For details, see Set options for online meetings and conference calls.

• If you're inviting people inside your organization who don't have Microsoft Lync installed, or if you're inviting people outside your organization, review the features and installation requirements of other supported clients. For details, see Join from a computer without Lync 2010 installed.

IMPORTANT   The Lync Meeting experience lets people collaborate productively from different locations. But building interactivity into online meetings gets more complex as your invitee list grows. For online meetings with 1000 or more attendees, Microsoft has partnered with a set of service providers who specialize in this type of meeting. For details, including contact information for each of the partners, go to the Microsoft Pinpoint website and search on "Event Services."

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Prepare for the meeting

As you plan your meeting, consider the following suggestions.

• If someone will be making a formal presentation, arrange to include a second presenter to manage questions while the meeting is underway.

• Consider using several formats to present your material. A mix of PowerPoint presentations, application sharing, and interactive polls, and whiteboard exercises will keep your audience focused.

• Consider including webcam video to increase participant engagement.

• If phone conferencing is going to be used for the meeting, presenters also have to be familiar with any key pad commands for muting the phone callers.

• Plan to use a headset when you present, as the audio quality is generally better than that of a speakerphone or mobile phone.

• For the best audioLync experience, make sure that the device you're using is optimized for Lync. For a list of optimized devices, see Phones and Devices for Microsoft Lync 2010.

• Prepare an orientation slide for the start of your meeting to advise your participants how to ask questions and how to manage their audio.

Immediately before you start the meeting:

• Check your audio and video devices. For details, see Set up audio and video.

• Add PowerPoint presentations and Polls to the share content area, and add handouts to the attachments area. For details, see Conduct a meeting as a presenter.

• If you plan to lead the meeting remotely, by phone, see Join from a computer without Skype for Business (Lync) installed.

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Lead the meeting

During the meeting, do the following:

• Briefly introduce yourself, your topic, and the general flow of your meeting so the audience knows what to expect and how to interact with the presenter.

• Manage or interact with individual meeting participants by right-clicking their names, and then selecting the command you want.

• For the best computer audio sound quality, ask participants to keep their lines muted unless they are speaking. You or other presenters can also mute individuals.

• Monitor the meeting roster for the following indicators:

  • An audio device that is causing interference, if applicable

  • Participants who are having difficulty with audio, video, or sharing connections

For details, see Conduct a meeting as a presenter.

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