Best Practices to Facilitate Remote/Hybrid Meetings

Katie Miles
Katie Miles
  • Updated

With the sudden shift of our workforce into remote working situations, many public sector organizations have been left scrambling on how they can continue to facilitate remote meetings but still maintain a level of transparency. 

A fact of our new reality due to COVID-19 is that the way that we conduct business has changed, likely forever. Public sector organizations are now venturing into uncharted territories, where before the discussion was reducing paper consumption and going electronic with Council/Boards, now meetings have evolved to a remote or hybrid model. 

To clarify any uncertainty, a REMOTE MEETING is a meeting where all of the key meeting participants are joining remotely; whereas a HYBRID MEETING is a meeting where some key meeting participants are joining remotely, and some participants are located in the meeting room.

Our team has been having many of these conversations with our Customers and we wanted to compile some best practice ideas for you.

NOTE: As our current situation in the world evolves, our team will continually add to this article with any new best practices and lessons learned. Feel free to comment below with your own suggestions.

Let's look at some of the questions that you are likely asking yourselves right now:

Diagram of a Hybrid Meeting

Diagram of how a hybrid meeting might be setup with Webcasting Plus

How are we going to disseminate information quickly for adhoc and task force meetings?

  • Many of our Customers leverage the browser participant portal and/or eSCRIBE Meetings Pro apps to distribute electronic meeting information. This process becomes crucial as participants are not able to come into the office for hard copies. 
  • Making information available to public stakeholders can be as simple as publishing it to your website using Internet Publishing.
    • Remember to make use of the various formats of amended agendas to update with the latest information, as information makes its way onto the agenda last minute.

How are we going to connect everyone for audio/video to this meeting?

While this part isn't necessarily using eSCRIBE to connect all of your meeting participants, we see it as giving you an option to leverage best in class solutions together to accomplish your remote meetings.

  • First, you'll have to choose a video conferencing tool of your preference. The most common tools that our team has found in order of capability and ease of use considerations would be: Zoom, MS Teams, Webex, and GoToMeeting/Webinar.
  • Once you have selected your tool, you'll have to make sure that all meeting participants have the necessary webcam, microphone, and speaker equipment at their locations.
  • It is CRITICAL that participants conduct speed tests from their home network to early identify problems (the eSCRIBE/ISI Live team can assist in reviewing results if desired).
    • Should problems arise during a meeting, a common cause of quality issues is an increased usage at bandwidth at the participants home. As example, others might be working from home, attending school remotely, playing online games or watching Netflix - all of which will use that precious bandwidth.
  • It is important to underscore that this might be a big learning curve for some people and our team strongly suggests advance planning for setup, configuration and testing of the video conferencing tools for your meeting participants.
  • HYBRID MTGS: for those that are facilitating a hybrid meeting it is recommended that both those meeting participants who are joining remotely as well as those who are present in the meeting room, join the video conference meeting with their webcam & audio mic/headset.
    • Of course this is not the only option for conducting hybrid meetings, however having both groups of participants join the video conference the same way will make the transition easier for those that occasionally join remotely. This will also significantly reduce the possibility for audio feedback issues that might occur when using a combination of in room audio equipment and remote attendees for most Customers.
      • Ensuring that all members have direct audio connection using a quality headset & microphone also greatly assists in improving the closed captioning accuracy.
    • Other options that leverage existing AV equipment for those present in the meeting room can be accomplished with third party AV hardware and software, eSCRIBE is happy to assist as needed in consultation with a Customer's AV experts.

What devices will my meeting participants need?

  • It is strongly recommended that participants join the video conference on a computer and then separately join the audio of the video conference using the dial in phone line for the conference (as opposed to using the audio through the computer). 
    • This is to accommodate for optimal A/V quality of both the video and audio. This also provides a back up in an instance where the internet connection drops, the phone audio will still be connected.
  • It is suggested that participants connect a headset to their phone for audio
  • Participants who use their Meetings Pro for iPad:
    • Join the video conference tool on a computer with webcam functionality to display the participant's video streams
    • Join the Meetings Pro app on the iPad for reviewing the agenda, making comments, votes and requests to speak
      NOTE: It is not recommended that participants attempt to join both the video conference and the Meetings Pro app from a single iPad as navigating quickly between apps on an iPad can be cumbersome.
  • Participants who use their Meetings Pro for Win10 or internet browser participant portal:
    • It is strongly suggested that participants have two monitors
    • Participants will join both the video conference meeting, and open their eSCRIBE Meetings app/participant portal.
    • The first monitor will display the video conference to show the participant's video stream
    • The second monitor will display the Meetings Pro for Win10 or browser participant portal for reviewing the agenda, making comments, votes and requests to speak.
      NOTE: If two monitors is not possible, leveraging two separate computers/surface tablets is also possible, one logged into the video conference and one logged into eSCRIBE Meetings app.

How are we going to facilitate discussion so that people don't speak over each other?

  • This can be facilitated in a very informal manor, where everyone's audio lines are open. While this might work for smaller team meetings, unfortunately for larger groups it can easily result in people talking over each other.
  • One best practice that our team follows, is that everyone places themselves on mute, until they want to speak. This really helps reduce background noise and distractions.
  • For more formal meetings, the meeting admin can choose to have participants leverage the request to speak function of the eSCRIBE Meetings Pro apps (or browser portal). When someone wants to speak, they can submit a request and when it is that person's time to speak, the meeting admin could then unmute their lines.

How are we going to be transparent and efficient when conducting votes?

  • While verbal roll call votes could be conducted over audio lines, the most efficient best practice would be to leverage the Vote Manager module to allow remote participants to enter their votes using their eSCRIBE Meetings Pro apps (or browser portal).
  • Remember Vote Manager offers different styles of voting. It could even be useful in informal settings, such as conducting a multiple choice election vote on which option of the plan the management team prefers, or conducting an election vote on the chair of the new task force.

How are we going to be transparent to our public citizens and those meeting participants who are joining remotely?

  • For members of the public who are viewing the meeting from their homes, simply displaying the tile view of the speakers from the video conference tool (ex: Zoom, MS Teams, Webex, etc) is simply not enough to be transparent. While it provides access to the dialog, it can be difficult to follow along the meeting without visuals of the meeting information or proceedings (such as motions on the floor, or vote results).
  • The following flow of the meeting is recommended to ensure optimal transparency for both remote meeting participants and the public.
    • The presentation computer is connected to the encoder and logged into eSCRIBE with administrative rights in order to leverage the Public Display screens.
    • At the time of the meeting, the presentation computer will join the video conference meeting and share their screen to all participants, ideally with the active speaker's camera set to display. 
    • Throughout the meeting the presentation computer will be used as the master control, sharing the public display screens to bring up any meeting materials, casted motions, request to speak queues/timers, vote results, etc. Because the presentation computer is sharing it's screen to the video conference meeting - all participants will be able to see the proceedings on their screen, and because the presentation computer is connected to the Webcasting Plus encoder, it is also displayed to the public stream.
    • If at any time it is desirable to see the tile view of speakers, or a larger view of the active speaker (depending on the functionality of the video conference tool being used), the presentation computer will simply stop sharing it's screen.
  • HYBRID MEETING - where staff are able to be present in the meeting room, where the Webcasting Plus encoder resides, it is recommended to use the presentation computer to manage the meeting's displays for both the meeting participants and the public views. In this scenario, the presentation computer is connected into the Webcasting Plus encoder for streaming the webcast to the public.
  • REMOTE MEETING - where it is not possible for staff to be present in the meeting room where the Webcasting Plus encoder resides, or for those using the Webcasting Lite package (which has no physical encoder), OPTION #1 from the Options for Remote Webcasting article is recommended.

How are we going to support the attendance at meetings for those members of the public that don't have the ability to watch the webcast from home?

  • Leveraging other rooms, such as a committee room, a viewing room can be setup with a computer that has been connected to the video conference meeting, along with a webcam and microphone to allow members of the public the opportunity to speak at the meeting.
  • The computer in the viewing room will likely be connected to a larger display TV.
  • A staff member in this viewing room will be able to control the webcam & microphone as necessary.

How are we going to allow for public comments at the meeting?

  • Members of the public who are attending the meeting in person is outlined in the above section 
  • Members of the public who are watching the meeting via the webcast from their home, it is suggested that they register to speak with the administrative staff prior to the meeting so they can be sent the video conference (or conference phone) information prior to the meeting. Using the video conference tool, the meeting administrator can admit the person into the meeting when it's their time to speak, and remove the person from the meeting (if desired) at the end of their time.
  • Enabling the Request for Delegation and Public Comments add-ons to your Internet Publishing page are also recommended as a way to centralize requests and comments being submitted by the public and manage them in a streamlined way for administrators.

What if I have the Webcasting Lite service and do not have an onsite webcast encoder?

    • Since the Webcasting Lite service uses an IP camera that streams to a virtual encoder, there is no direct source to input the presentation computer's display, so it is not possible to plug the presentation computer's display output into the camera.
    • A solution for hybrid meetings is available for Customers who are using ZOOM video conference, leveraging the RTMP streaming function of ZOOM (Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise accounts are required).
    • For a one time cost configuration and training, eSCRIBE will provide instruction on how to configure and conduct the meeting using the eSCRIBE Webcasting Lite virtual encoder and/or the ZOOM integration and, if applicable, the Webcasting Lite camera. Included in this one time cost is assist in ensuring an appropriate level of audio/video quality  for the participants who are joining remotely.
PLEASE NOTE: all other recommendations above for how participants join the meeting and conduct the live webcasted meeting also apply to hybrid meetings with Webcasting Lite.

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