Microsoft Office Tutorials: Organizer and presenter best practices

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Organizer and presenter best practices

Follow the suggestions in this topic to help make your online meeting or conference call a success.

Schedule the meeting

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

If you're scheduling a meeting on behalf of someone else, you'll need to get set up to do so. For details, see Schedule an online meeting on behalf of someone else.
Check the meeting options before sending the invitation, especially if you want to do any of the following:
- Give a presentation 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 meeting or conference call options.
If you're inviting people inside your organization who don't have Microsoft Lync 2010 communications software 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 is designed to allow people to 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 meeting type. To get details, including contact information for each of the partners, go to theMicrosoft 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 a variety of formats to present your material. A mix of PowerPoint, application sharing, and interactive polls and white board exercises will keep your audience focused.
Consider including web cam video to increase participant engagement.
If phone conferencing will be used for the meeting, presenters will also need to be familiar with any keypad 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 cellular phone.
For the best audio experience, use a Lync-optimized device. A list of devices can be found here: www.optimizedfor.com
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 prior to the start of your 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 adding handouts to the attachments area. For details, see Conduct a meeting as a presenter.
If you plan to lead the meeting remotely, by phone, make a note of your dial-in PIN and conference ID. This information identifies you as the conference call organizer, or leader. For details, see Join a meeting or conference call by phone.

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Lead the meeting

During the meeting:

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 choosing 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 or everyone other than the person who is speaking.
Monitor the meeting roster for the following indicators:
- An audio device that is causing interference
- Participants who are having difficulty with audio, video, or sharing connections