It's a "Mute" Point

The one issue on which people disagree is the Mute button. Most meeting participants wish others would press Mute on their phones to reduce background noise and to improve sound quality-but that opinion isn't universal.

Settle-Murphy urges people to stay off mute. Doing so, she says, allows people to readily participate in verbal conversation without a pause, and gives the meeting facilitator a greater sense of whether people are engaged and alert, she says.

Sarah Churton, general manager of SureSlim, is among those who favor using Mute when the participant isn't speaking. "I came from a business that would regularly teleconference 20+ locations where managers and teams were in an open plan environment," she explains. "You can only imagine what it was like when only half of the participants used the Mute button as requested."

Whichever answer you choose, be sure that it's included in the ground rules-and be prepared to remind participants.

Stay Conscious of Time Zones

Meeting participants aren't always in the same time zone; when you plan a meeting, take their time of day into account.

Kevin Mackie, director of software development at Oracle, says a lack of colocation isn't nearly as important as the ability to meet during people's normal working hours. "Large differences in time zones are much more of an obstacle to collaborative development than not being in the same room," he says.

It isn't simply an issue of scheduling a conference call for 9:00am. Mann advises meeting organizers to be aware of other time-of-day impacts, such as crossing over a lunch hour, keeping someone from leaving work on time or having to arrive extra early. "If these are the only options, work with the people that need to leave early so that their topics are covered, and if someone needs to work across the lunch hour to attend your meeting, provide lunch for them," he says.

Another option, says Howard Lichtman, president of The Human Productivity Lab, is to alternate who stays up late when meeting with people in distant lands. "Alternate for fairness," he says. And be flexible.

Technology Can Help. But Use It for Good, Not for Evil.

You've undoubtedly discovered the myriad tools that can help moderate meetings and share materials. Choosing the right one for the task isn't necessarily easy.

Managers should be clear about what they're trying to accomplish in the meeting and how information may flow before deciding on the software to use, says Mittleman. For example:

• Live Meeting: Best for a presentation where one person will speak to a group with occasional participant questions.
• Group Support System (GSS): Best for problem solving or decision making where a team of people will work on a problem and come to resolution.
• Collaborative Document-Building Tools: Tools such as Google Docs are best for a work product execution meeting where a team will work at developing a deliverable.

Upgrading your whiteboard can also help. "Most Web conferencing and data collaboration applications come with a whiteboard tool, but they all require you to use a mouse," Lichtman says. "If you are in a field that requires a lot of hand-generated graphics, like networking, consider getting a rear-projection SmartBoard, tablet PC or Wacom tablet that will allow you to whiteboard with the same degree of control that you would get with a regular whiteboard. Your colleagues, partners and prospective clients will thank you!"

Technology is great-when it works. Test the technology an hour before the meeting, Mittleman adds. Every time, he insists, no matter how routine. Then set things up for real a few minutes early. And, he says, "Have a technology backup plan. Think through carefully what you will do if the virtual technology fails. Will you postpone the meeting, or hold it anyway with backup technology? Don't make this decision on the fly; already know."

The challenge for presenters in remote meetings is to move beyond a simple analog of showing slides on a projection screen in front of a room and more fully involve the remote participants in true collaboration, says Molay. "Web conferencing features have made this easier with functionality suited to the task. Make use of things such as file sharing, interactive text chat, polling, whiteboards and cobrowsing to take participants to Web applications of interest."