Camille Schmidt was recently asked at a meeting to share something about her that no one at the company knew. As opposed to the previous meeting, when she needed to announce a hidden talent her co-workers weren’t aware of.
If it seems like a day to meet you at school, it’s normal. The goal of the executives of Philo, a television broadcasting company, is to humanize the montage of dry videos and bring them to life.
The meetings will “never be the same as the face-to-face ones, yet they still make us a coherent group,” says Schmidt, Philo’s chief of communications. “These are the social schedules that unite us as a company. We have 10 new workers who have joined since the pandemic. And I feel like I know them, even though I’ve never met them in person.
Maintaining the human connection when you’re a video camera is a factor that most of us are suffering from in those difficult times. Like it or not, we are all asked to learn, get to know or look for new jobs through the webcam.
When Mark Comon had to cancel all of his photo categories for his camera store in the Los Angeles area, Paul’s Photo, and put them online, he had to figure out how to reflect a delight that allowed student/teacher interaction. Learning photography, of course, involves asking and answering questions and reading in the room to evaluate how things are understood.
Expert tips: six to look wonderful at a Zoom meeting
For Comon, whose Creative Photo Academy teaches almost every single night, an undeniable answer to opening the elegance part an hour earlier. “The instructor is on, other people know they can get in and out, which we encourage. We need it to be a matter of non-public interaction, not just something dry and canned.”
And it worked so well, it’s not to get back to physical classes.
“A lot of other people like the online course better,” he says. “People don’t have to drive here” and can better interact with the images displayed through the instructor on a computer screen.
For Randy Lehrman, who runs the Real Genius Corporate Events of Los Angeles, he also turned to the game to get afloat.
It offers DJs for weddings, corporate parties, birthdays and bar and bat mitzvah and has moved to online parties for companies and organizations under the guise of trivia contests.
It probably wouldn’t make up for the 2020 vacation cancellations, but “it’s a laugh and it’s wonderful to be able to interact with other people and hear them laugh again. They’re trapped at home, too.”
For Tyler Haak, account manager at Schneider Electric, who sells accessories to hotels, he’s used to traveling to meet consumers and lacks the non-public touch of analog assemblies. “The handshake, the walk looks through the look, the opportunity to finish the assembly and have lunch afterwards.”
But with video and travel, you can do a lot more meetings, “so I see more people.”
Just paint to integrate non-public interactions into video conferencing, he says.
One way to do this is to ludify the assemblies, says Gamal Palmer, who runs the consultancy Diversity Gym. Start the montage by inviting participants to put things in the chat or answer a survey and ask them funny questions like “What call would you replace to describe how you feel today?” and respond the same way.
“In the user, we have a frame language and a general temperament or energy,” to read how a user feels, and that’s missing from video conferences,” he says. Therefore, he notes that he will need to be “more explicit” by offering guidance, on several occasions, “to help others interact and honor the fact that others are informed and permeated differently.”
Susan Kjorlien, who runs a San Francisco-based college consulting firm for top school students, dropped out and recently transferred her meetings online.
Video conferencing is more effective and less difficult to show and count a video conference, in which you can focus your screen instead of returning your computer to the office.
It also makes her a better adviser. “I make a conscious effort to be more upbeat and positive and connected because there’s a screen there,” she says. “That’s helped me become better connected.”
Finally, how to take care of a lovely appearance in front of the camera? “It’s about understanding that we’re going to be in front of the camera all day and that you want to dress professionally, make sure your hair is combed and the makeup is good,” Schmidt says. “It’s like getting a job.”
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