Even in today’s technologically advanced world, a meeting with your team face-to-face far outweighs a video conference. While utilizing technological advancements is a wonderful solution for those who may be unable to attend an event, it’s not a replacement for in-person gatherings.
Getting your team together in-person will benefit your staff and improve your bottom line. Here are a few reasons why.
Benefits of Planning an In-Person Corporate Meeting
Team-Building
1. BUILD TEAM LOYALTY AND TRUST
Trust and loyalty are two essential components of your business. If your team is loyal to you and each other, you will go far. Because of the importance of these qualities, any time you can invest in building loyalty and trust is worthwhile.
Sometimes it’s more effective to consider the opposite to understand the impact. How far will you take your business if your team distrusts you and each other and doesn’t feel like they are a valuable part of the company? It’s a disaster waiting to happen for sure.
In-person meetings are needed for teams, especially when all or part of your staff is virtual, to build morale and keep them cohesive.
2. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Meeting in-person can increase productivity in two ways. First, there are no technical glitches and hangups. People can speak freely and not worry that the virtual folks aren’t being heard or acknowledged. Making sure everyone has a chance to be heard can be challenging in a virtual setting.
Second, because of this, these meetings tend to move along much more quickly. Also, guests can take ownership of ideas or projects right on the spot.
3. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Technology is great, but it just can’t replace good old-fashioned face-to-face communication. It’s much harder to build a relationship through a screen. Meeting in-person also makes it easier for your team to open up and share their thoughts and feelings on certain topics that may be difficult to talk about over email or video conferencing.
Producitivity
4. SAVE TIME
We’ve all become pros at online meetings, but they just don’t flow like a traditional gathering, no matter how rehearsed we get. The duration of a meeting is shorter when everyone is present in the same room because there isn’t any downtime between replies. There’s also no need for emails or phone calls about missed deadlines or pending issues because all relevant parties are right there in front of you, available for questions and discussion. Plus, meetings that take place face-to-face tend to have more depth than ones conducted over video conference because there isn’t any lag time between speakers.
5. BETTER PARTICIPATION
We’ve all been in meetings where someone has themselves muted, and the camera is off. You wonder, are they listening? Are they paying attention? Are they even near their computer? There’s no hiding when everyone is together. If you have people you want to hear from, it’s much easier to engage them and have them participate.
6. BOOST MORALE
A team meeting can be fun and exciting to prepare for, as well as invigorating for those who attend. Seeing your peers and strengthening relationships will boost morale because it creates a positive work environment that is welcoming and enjoyable. It also gives everyone a chance to bond outside of their daily routines – employees might not typically interact with one another due to strict schedules and heavy workloads – which will make them look forward to future meetings.
7. BODY LANGUAGE AND NONVERBAL CUES
Have you ever gotten to the end of a conversation and wondered what you just talked about? This happens at meetings all the time! Virtual meetings make this even harder!
When meeting in-person, you can watch the body language and nonverbal cues of attendees. This quickly gives you the pulse of the success of the meeting and the status of your staff. If guests are bored, frustrated, or angry, you can easily see that when you’re meeting together, and that’s very difficult to discern through a screen.
If you want to build a strong team that works cohesively, face-to-face meetings are a key way to achieve this goal. At The Inn at Virginia Tech, we specialize in facilitating team meetings that are profitable and productive for businesses of all sizes.
