Category: Productivity

Virtual meetings have become more and more common over the years. With hybrid work becoming more regular and some people fully transitioning to working from home, they have become essential. Hopping on a Zoom call or into a Slack space has become essential to staying connected and coordinated with your team. It’s still easy, however, to fall into some of the same problems that made meetings something people would dread. So, let’s discuss how to run an effective virtual meeting!

Prepare for your virtual meeting

“This could have been an email” is one of the familiar cries you’ll hear after many virtual meetings. A lot of this is down to a lack of preparation. People will tend to have a vague idea about what the meeting should be about “we need to discuss this project,” which will be all the prep they do. This will only lead to a vague chat with some people not even sure why the meeting is happening.

The best remedy is to write out a full agenda for your meeting beforehand. In bullet points, type up everything you want to discuss. This will help guide the discussion, and it can help everyone prepare for it. Also, it can tell you if this indeed needs to be a meeting. Only have one thing you need to let people know? Maybe that is an email after all!

We mentioned helping others prepare; using something like the Google suite for your virtual meeting will really help with this. You can type up your meeting notes and add them to a calendar event you create. This calendar event can also be the link to the call, meaning everything is linked. Now, everyone can see a few days in advance what is going to be discussed in the meeting. This is also great for setting expectations, as people will know what they are meant to bring to the virtual meeting.

Make time for conversation

Also, be sure to set how long the meeting will be. Don’t block off an hour thinking you’ll only need half an hour. Respect people’s time and your own! Try to use the exact amount of time you need. However, one thing you should prepare for is allowing time for conversation.

It’s not a bad idea to consider having a set amount of time, 10 minutes or so, for people to catch up. With remote teams or even hybrid ones, these meetings can be the time when people get to connect. It will more than likely happen anyway, and not having it scheduled can lead to it running into the time you had planned to discuss things.

Another option would be if you really don’t have the time to set aside, plan to make that time available to people. Make sure it’s during work hours, but having a weekly catch-up can be great for team morale. This could even take the form of a virtual water cooler or break room. Slack will let you set up drop-in audio channels where anyone can come in and say hello. These can provide these spaces for people working remotely!

During and after the meeting

Designate someone to take notes! It’s important that notes are taken for a few reasons. Thanks to things like XSplit Broadcaster, a meeting can be easily recorded. However, it is still essential to take notes. The main reason is to designate responsibilities agreed upon during the meeting. So, for example, you’ve agreed that it will be your job to file a report? Note it down.

You can then take these notes and, in a Google Document, tag the relevant people. They will then receive an email letting them know they are tagged. From there, they can see a reminder of the area of responsibility they agreed to take on. This makes life easier for everyone as nobody has to remember everything, it’s all there and easily accessible.

Make sure you keep track of the time. Whoever is leading the meeting should watch how time is moving along. Be sure to move points along as needed and keep the discussion on track. The chances are everyone else has somewhere else they need to be after the meeting. For this to happen, the meeting now needs to stay on time. If something feels like it needs further discussion, you can always take time at a different point to discuss this. Or it could be something to discuss separately or even in an email!

Virtual meetings don’t have to be tough or feel like a waste of time. Using some of these tips, you’ll get a successful meeting running in no time. The point of a virtual meeting, after all, is for everyone to leave more informed than when they joined the meeting. Decisions have been made, and discussions have been had. Nobody wants to think “this could have been an email” again!

Since more and more meetings have been remote and online, we’ve become familiar with Zoom backgrounds. For those who don’t know, many people opt to remove and replace their zoom background. This means you’re now using a virtual background for your webcam shot rather than whatever happens to be behind you. This can be useful for a number of reasons. Maybe you are sharing the space you’re in with others? Perhaps you just don’t fancy cleaning up your spare room before the weekly check-in?

Best video Zoom Backgrounds for calls

We’ve got a nice list detailing some great still image backgrounds you can use for your next call, but what about video? Well, it just so happens that you can use YouTube videos in XSplit VCam as your background. XSplit VCam uses AI to remove and replace your background, keeping things consistent across all call platforms beyond just Zoom. It will, in fact, work with anything that accepts a camera feed!

All you have to do to use these videos is once you’ve downloaded VCam, click “Add Background” and select YouTube Video. From there, you can just paste the link in! You can also use videos from your computer if you have some you’ve made yourself!

The videos we’ve selected here are mostly animated soundscapes but don’t worry. The sounds won’t come through in VCam, just the video! The advantage we found was that these videos are pretty long, so whatever length of call you are in, these should do the job! Also, as a bonus, these videos are pretty great for relaxing or studying, so they work outside of being a video background for Zoom! Be sure to give these videos a like if you end up using them as Zoom backgrounds!

Video Backgrounds for Meetings

https://youtu.be/sZdgGAlp_A0

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Backgrounds for Zoom Calls

These backgrounds may not be perfect for every meeting, but they are still pretty fun nonetheless as virtual backgrounds for a zoom call.

Hopefully, these add a bit more to your calls without being too distracting as Zoom backgrounds! Using them with XSplit VCam, as we noted, is easy! You can check out XSplit VCam for free by heading over here and downloading the app today!

Being an entrepreneur isn’t an easy path, but nothing is better than setting your own schedule and being in charge of your own destiny. The best part about it is in today’s world you don’t even have to leave your bedroom! So today we’re going to talk about online tools for entrepreneurs.

Meeting Management Tools for Entrepreneurs

So when you kick off your business, it’s going to be meetings. Tons and tons of meetings. And the worst thing you can do is double book meetings, especially if it’s a prospective client or potential investor.  It’s even worse to keep going back and forth on when a person is available to meet. So instead of trying to keep a running tally of meeting times you are available and converting time zones, you need something that helps you schedule these meetings

That’s why it’s helpful to have online meeting schedulers like calendly, which you can start with for free. Basically, set up your event type, designate the times you are available and send the link calendly creates to whoever you plan to meet with. They’ll select a time and you’re good to go!

Online File Storage

Everything lives on the cloud these days. Unless it’s ultra-private/secret info, your files are going to be on some cloud storage system instead of on a thumb drive that can be easily lost.  Now while I know the default is Google Drive for many people simply for the number of services it offers, it may not always be the best choice. If media files are a core part of your operation, like videos, gifs, images, I’d strongly suggest using Dropbox.

I live in Singapore, which is like the top 3 in terms of internet speed in the world. Not to mention hosts tons of data servers and Google Drive is still painfully slow with loading video files or zipping multiple files for download. I’m not sure what sorcery Dropbox does, but files download instantly and playback almost immediately as well. However, if you just are focused on productivity, contracts, presentations, etc, then Google Drive is still the best ticket in town as far as online tools for entrepreneurs go.

Screen Capture

Things move fast and it’s important to get feedback on things quickly. It could be a mockup for a graphic to use in a presentation or showing the proposed UI for a website you are launching. That’s where XSplit Capture and Cloud come in.

You can quickly capture and record your screen with XSplit Capture, which will then upload to XSplit Cloud and give you a link that you can share with colleagues for comments. A pro tip for video is that you can add timestamps of your comments if you want to call out a specific part of the video for feedback.

Project Management Tools for Entrepreneurs

Once the work starts coming in, you’ll need to delegate tasks and keep track of important deliverables. If you’re using or interacting with a remote workforce, you can check out our video below on tools for managing your workforce, but one of the most important is having project management software.

Now there’s a variety of tools like Trello, meistertask and ClickUp. The most important part is that it’s a system you can understand and quickly access via web or mobile app. My personal preference is meistertask, but any type of Kanban board system is a good starting point for online tools for entrepreneurs.

Wire/Money Transfer

Continuing with remote work, if you’re working with remote staff, you need to pay them. Depending on where you are located, doing an international bank transfer, especially in different currencies can be quite challenging and expensive with local banks. In this case, Wise is a useful tool if you can access it. Wise allows you to set up a multi-currency account and allows you to transfer money between a variety of currencies all online.

It is important to check with your local banks though, for example, Singapore banks are pretty top tier with international money transfers.

Presentation

Likely every meeting you’ll be doing will have some form of presentation. You’ll be hoping from Zoom to Google Meets to Microsoft Teams. Each time figuring out how to share the right screen. You can make this process simpler with XSplit Presenter!

XSplit Presenter allows you to load your PowerPoint, pdf, or Google Slides then add various elements like videos, cameras, and web pages. Once you have everything set up, just add XSplit Presenter as your video camera source in your video chat software. No more sharing the wrong screen!

All these tools I’ve recommended are free to try. If you have any tools that have helped you in your business let us know in the comments below!

There are lots of good reasons to communicate via email – it’s a great tool when you need to quickly and easily share information like your point of view, a case study, or whitepaper. However, there are times when the written word doesn’t quite feel like enough and you might prefer to show the recipient what you’re trying to communicate. With XSplit Capture, it’s easy to send video messages for work with screen capture, or a bit more.

Why would I send video messages for work?

If you’re trying to tell someone how to perform a process, make them aware of a bug in a piece of software, or show off the latest design of your website, it can be easier to present a visual rather than send an email. Not only does it save time but also makes it easier to demonstrate the relative point – so, why not make a recording of your screen while you run through the steps on your own computer? This will make what you’re doing obvious to the viewer, as well as allow them to see exactly what the process involves. It will also make it much easier for them to retrace your steps if they need to. 

Recording a video doesn’t have to be a slow process either – you can record in the same time that it takes you to run through whatever you’re showing, and the recipient can watch it just as quickly, or slow it down if they need to catch the details. It can also be much easier to explain something out loud than in a text format, especially when you need to point at things for emphasis.

How would I make this video?

XSplit Capture makes recording your screen easy. Simply select the area of your screen that you want to record, then carry on using the computer as normal. Once you’ve finished your recording, you can add any additional notes, or annotations, to cover anything you missed, then use the link provided in the software to share your video with your colleagues. There’s no need to worry about hosting or sending large files as the software will handle that for you seamlessly, automatically saving your videos to the cloud. 

If you want to make something a bit more complex, you can use the videos from XSplit Capture as the starting point for something more in-depth. This could involve joining multiple videos together, or even using them as part of a presentation. All of your captures, screenshots, and recordings are easy to access from your XSplit account so retrieving them is a quick and straightforward process. 

With XSplit Capture, it’s just as easy to attach a screen capture to your message as it is to send a text or a voice clip, so why wouldn’t you share that extra level of information? You could even give your clip a quick edit before sending it to make sure you’re completely happy with what you show in editing software. But the ease of doing everything quickly and in one take is what Capture is all about!

Pitching and fundraising are probably the most important parts of operating a non-profit. They’re also the most challenging aspects. There is a lot of competition for grants and investments, and it’s more important than ever to try and distinguish yourself from others. Here’s how you can use XSplit Presenter to give yourself an advantage when pitching to non-profit investors.

Keep it professional to pitch a non-profit

We’ve all been in presentations where someone’s desktop or messaging notifications have popped up on the screen and interrupted or distracted them. At best, this comes across as a bit unprofessional, at worst this could cause potential investors to lose interest altogether. 

This is a danger specific to presenting by sharing your screen directly on pretty much all video meeting platforms. Fortunately, there’s a way to erase the worry about unwanted messages popping when trying to pitch your non-profit’s cause to interested parties. Because XSplit Presenter functions as a virtual camera pointed at your pitch deck, not your desktop. It shares your presentation, and only your presentation, with your audience. No need to worry about an errant Slack message disrupting your flow or distracting your audience.

Integrate your existing web and social presence

A common story for non-profits is limited bandwidth to generate creative and promotional assets. XSplit Presenter allows you to show off the hard work you’ve put into building your online presence. You can show this directly in your presentation by integrating your existing web pages and social media accounts with your pitch deck.

And this is not just a static screenshot: you can seamlessly add web pages with full functionality to your pitch. Within Presenter they act the same way as a slide in a conventional presentation. This allows you to show off things like apps, client portals, or even just media and promotional material in their native environment. You can also easily add videos from YouTube or files directly.

Stay in the picture

We’re sure we’ve all also experienced that moment of disconnect that happens when an online presenter in a meeting switches from their webcam to sharing their screen, visually pops out of existence to become just a disembodied voice speaking over their slides. So much of compelling non-profit investors to join your cause while pitching a non-profit is forming connections. In these online meetings, losing the connection to your face unquestionably makes that harder.

XSplit Presenter allows you to add your webcam as an overlay to your presentations. This lets you stay a visible part of your pitch. Not only that, but it has a number of attractive formatting options to help integrate your cam into the overall style of your deck. Want to bring in a co-presenter or specialist on a specific slide? You can do that, too, adding additional NDI sources such as Skype calls as overlays. This allows you to bring in additional voices easily and in an attractive manner.

While this guide may feel directed mainly toward remote presentations, you can actually use all these features in your in-person presentations as well. Looking for more ways to improve your online presentations? Check out XSplit’s video guide to leveling up your presentations with Presenter for more tips and tricks.

Collaboration is the new normal in the workplace, with employees encouraged to work together to share ideas, increase productivity and accomplish common goals. However, there is more to collaboration than meetings and messaging. For far-flung teams, especially, it may make sense to use easy communication tools to organize work, share documents, give feedback and collaborate. Here are a few of the best apps available on the market today.

The original easy communication tools

Microsoft Office is the most-used office suite around and is likely already at the center of many workplaces. Using Microsoft 365 gives teams the ability to collaborate directly on the same set of documents. Workers can share and edit documents together, speeding up the workflow. What makes Microsoft 365 more attractive is that it’s cloud-hosted, meaning it can be used not just with Windows, but also Mac, Android, and iOS.

Asana is another veteran in the collaboration arena and has been used since 2008 by companies like Uber and Intel. It’s designed to make tracking and organizing projects easy, using Kanban-like project boards or lists. Asana allows users to create to-do lists, set reminders for upcoming deadlines, send requests and facilitate conversations and comments on work.

Communications and collaboration tool Trello is another app that’s easy to use. Similar to Asana, it lets users set up project boards, set up to-do lists, and delegate work. Trello also has the advantage of integrating a number of apps, such as Evernote, GitHub, Google Drive, and Slack, to make collaborating with your coworkers even easier.

Communication tools focused on collaboration

With more and more people working on mobile platforms, it makes sense to use easy communication tools that are optimized for mobile. Collaboration platform Podio is equipped with mobile apps that make it easy to use on the go. In common with many other business collaboration apps, Podio comes equipped with tools for sharing files, checking the status of ongoing projects, and sharing feedback, along with third-party services and apps, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and Zendesk.

Flock offers a communication focus, somewhat similar to Slack. The app offers channels for group communications or one-to-one, as well as audio and video calls and screen sharing. In addition, it offers collaboration tools such as polls, note sharing, and the ability for users to assign tasks. There’s also integration with third-party apps like Google Drive and Twitter, with notifications appearing directly in channels.

You can also use XSplit Capture to record or screenshot your desktop and share it instantly during meetings. It even lets you add voiceover and annotations quickly and efficiently. You can then generate a unique link to share with the necessary people and find these captures again from your account, as they’re stored in the cloud!

Ones to watch

Basecamp has positioned itself as an all-in-one collaboration and communications platform. It offers a wide variety of standard features, like chat, message boards, to-do lists, and scheduling, and automated check-in. However, it also acts as a single place to store all documents, files, and folders, making it a useful all-in-one collaboration platform.

Drag-and-drop functionality and ease of use make Monday a very good workflow management and collaboration platform. It also integrates with Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other apps, which means it can be used as a central nexus for collaboration on a range of projects.

There is a huge variety of online collaboration tools out there. No matter which one you chose, they’re all designed to make sharing ideas easier and to work faster and more efficiently – whether you are working remotely, hybrid or in-office.

Just when we’d become used to 100% virtual meetings, another new way of working has developed. The hybrid working pattern means a team might be made up of a blend of onsite and remote employees. This can be really beneficial for the individuals and the organization, but it can present us with a few logistical issues. How do we create and manage a hybrid meeting space?

With the help of some reliable AV equipment, a supportive tech team, and some fantastic remote working software, you can easily bring everyone into the boardroom, wherever they’re based.

Audio equipment needed for hybrid meeting spaces

Let’s start with the tech. We’ve all learned from experience that poor audio can be one of the most stressful things about virtual meetings – often more so than poor video. This can feel especially fraught in hybrid meetings when inconsistent audio can lead to the remote attendees feeling alienated from the action in the room.

In the physical meeting room, make sure you find a mic that can pick up multiple users. You can easily get hold of omnidirectional Bluetooth conference microphones from places like Amazon. One suggestion from our team? The Anker PowerConf S3 looks nice on the table and delivers good quality at a reasonable price point. Ideally, your virtual participants will also have access to a good audio setup. If they’re your employees, you may need to sort this out for their remote workstation. 

It’s also a good idea to set up clear “speaking in turn” protocols, which can help avoid cross-talking during more free-flow meetings like brainstorming sessions.

Getting the visual aspect right

Okay, sound’s done. Now, what about video? If it’s a straightforward meeting with no presentations or documents to share, set up a webcam to capture the whole room. This gives remote attendees a participant’s eye view of their colleagues. A good tip is to make sure that the remote attendees aren’t tiny, as we don’t want them to be overlooked. If they can appear on a decent-sized screen, that will help those in the room engage better with their teammates.

What if you need to share a presentation? Just switch over to XSplit Presenter, giving remote participants a great view of the slides (and the presenter, if you wish), while those in person can follow along. If someone can’t make it, you can also record your presentation using Presenter, and send it out afterward.

Combining physical and hybrid meeting spaces

The first thing to think about when setting up the room is the remote attendees’ sightlines. This will determine where to put the webcam. Consider who or what they need to see, as well as where the screens need to go so you’re not blocking the physical attendees’ views.

Which room should you use for your hybrid meeting space? One with a fast internet connection or none of this is will work well. A good source of light is also handy, so everyone can see each other well and keep visual distractions to a minimum. You might also like to advise remote attendees on how to blur out their background with our XSplit VCam software if they’re working from home. The day before the first hybrid meeting, why not have a test run to make sure everything runs smoothly?

The key to the smooth running of a hybrid meeting is the facilitator. Choose your hybrid meeting host wisely: are they someone who can bring everyone in, at the right moment, like a skilled conductor? For more tips, read our blog about managing remote meetings.