Fun and not-so-fun things about video conferences

Video conferencing is a type of distance conferencing where two or more people can visually connect and interact with each other. This method has enabled businesses and organizations to hold meetings face to face with people without having the need to move to one particular location. 

But as everything has its pros and cons, here are the fun and not-so-fun things about video conferences.

The fun things about video conferences:

A better way to connect with people

First up in our list of fun things about video conferences is social bonding. Online video platforms helps to improve communication and re-establish relationships. During a video conference, you get to see the body language and facial expressions of the participants. This leads to a more effective and faster collaboration. It helps to make the employees feel that they are close to the home office and helps them gain trust in their employers and develop a better workplace relationship that further amps up employee engagement as well. 

Video conferencing allows you to conduct meetings with several people at the same time. You can talk and chat with people from different parts of the world at the ease of your residence or office. Business owners can connect with clients and employees and hold discussions. Strategic planning and meetings which require several members to be present can be carried out with ease. You get the option of talking to multiple people at the same time and carry out your business strategies with ease. Thus projects get completed faster and deals get finalized within a short period of time. 

Increase in productivity

Video conferencing enables participants to stay more focused and alert on the topic of discussion.  Productivity also increases and your employees feel more in sync with each other. ezTalks has features like HD video and audio, free screen sharing. It helps you have an effective conference with all managerial tools at hand. It saves time and money related to business travel. Business owners connect with people by video conference for routine meetings, negotiating deals, interviewing candidates, etc. Thus video conferencing plays a key role in reduced costs of running the business. 

Enabling the Digital Workforce

Video conferencing software not only creates a more collaborative meeting culture in your organization, it’s a foundation for enabling today’s digital workforce. Video meetings help teams maintain human connections, irrespective of physical location, which speeds up decision making and improves your ability to collaborate globally. Learn more about how video conferencing enables the digital workforce. 

Aiding remote working 

Studies have shown that people working remotely are less likely to become ill and more likely to find satisfaction in their work. That’s great news for workers, but there’s also good news for employers. If more of your employees work from home or other locations, you have less overhead costs to pay for at the office. Remote working doesn’t have to feel remote anymore, now that video conferencing has become so reliable and easy-to-use. Workers can still stay connected with co-workers at the office even while they work in environments created especially for their own comfort and productivity. 

So it’s no surprise that  9 in 10 remote employees say that videos allow them to feel more connected to their colleagues. 

Some of the best workers out there want to have the flexibility to work wherever they want, and you’ll be more likely to attract the best talent if you offer remote working as an option to new employees. 

Video conferencing helps to shorten the gap between the employer and the employees. Video conferencing has now become more popular with the development of the VoIP which makes use of the underlying infrastructure of the net to make communication free. Video, voice, and other data are transmitted from point to the other in the form of packets. Moving ahead in our list of fun and not-so-fun things about video conferences, it's time to discuss the technical glitches and everything else that makes you want to haul your computer out of the window.

The Not-so-fun things about video conferences: 

Experiencing Technical Difficulties 

After that list of fun things about video conferences here is now a list of not so fun things.
Projecting an aura of confidence and competence is tough when you are trying to launch a video conference and can’t make the system work. A popular reason for people to hate video, technical difficulties add stress and frustration to a scenario that should be quick and painless. In addition, ongoing negative experiences significantly impact adoption and usage rates. 

This is an area that has improved but is still a major complaint. If everyone can’t connect to the call, then it is worse than useless: it’s useless and a waste of time. To be fair, this is often a result of internet connection issues that are totally out of the control of the software. 

Stunted meetings  

Conference calls typically end up in a “presentation mode,” rather than a fluid discussion. Often one person dominates the conference, and participants are hesitant to chime in unless there is a really obvious pause. I believe two factors are key to this behavior. In existing software, interruptions are really jarring, if two people talk at the same time, frequently neither can be understood. Audio delay adds uncertainty on whether somebody else is speaking. Users learn to compensate by simply talking less, leading to lower engagement and less useful discussions.

Uncomfortable experiences  

Video conferencing just doesn’t feel as comfortable as in-person discussions. Many factors contribute. For one, many people don’t really like seeing a video of themselves. Even a tiny video thumbnail can make us feel self conscious. Additionally, the experience does not carry over any of the spatial cues we experience in the physical world. Typically videos are displayed in a convenient, but not meaningful way, such as in a grid.

This is convenient for screen real estate, but not physically meaningful. Worse yet, some systems move around videos to highlight and enlarge the speaker. While it is nice to see who is talking, this is disorienting. Imagine a physical meeting, where anytime a new person speaks, they are teleported to the front of the room and grow 100% taller. When the next person speaks, they are teleported back to their seat. To make it even worse, imagine seeing people around the room moving their mouths, but hearing all of their voices come from a single speaker on the wall! 

Lack of Personal Connection 

Some customers may feel that video conferencing takes away from the personal touch provided by in-person meetings. However, as technology progresses, the majority of consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with remote communication, including texting, Skype and Apple FaceTime. Younger professionals are especially comfortable with this type of communicating, especially in business settings.

Plus, it’s important that your customers realize that video conferencing should be only one aspect of a communication approach. In industries where face-to-face interaction is especially valued, such as sales, video conferencing can simply augment in-person meetings and phone calls, rather than replacing them. 

Just like each coin has two sides, video conferences are both a boon and a bane during these trying times. All we can do right now is focus on the good parts and resolves the glitches together as a team. So here's to team spirit and HD quality data streaming, the current essentials of a healthy workplace. What did you think of our list of fun and not-so-fun things about video conferences? Let us know in the comments below!