How to Make the Most of a Virtual Annual General Meeting

Hosting your AGM in an online mode is a great way to reduce costs, increase the number of attendees and eliminate the need to travel. Given its advantages over in-person meetings, people are increasingly opting for Virtual Annual General Meeting. If you are also one of those planning to go online to host your AGM, this article discusses how you can make the most of it.

Define your Mission

Define a clear objective for your virtual AGM and decide your mission. Knowing your event goals is the best way to ensure effective and efficient planning. It also helps you improve the attendee experience by helping you identify their problems. Moreover, you will be able to identify the behaviour of your target audience and think about everything from their perspective. Think about what your target audience would like to hear. For instance, in the case of a virtual AGM, shareholders would probably want to know about your financial performance in the previous year and your plans for the future.

Choose a Meeting Platform

Security is a primary concern for any AGM. Other than this, networking among the attendees is also important. While exploring the various virtual AGM platforms, ensure they provide advanced security features like password protection. Keeping your meeting data confidential is of utmost importance, and you must select a virtual meeting platform that is capable of maintaining the required level of security. In addition to security, you must also take into account the networking and engagement features like Q&A sessions, live polls, live chat, and business card exchange.

Conduct a Rehearsal

Always include pre-event rehearsal while planning your virtual AGM. This will help check all the equipment and make everyone confident. Have a dedicated technical team to fix issues during the meeting and familiarize all the presenters and hosts with the virtual meeting platform. To ensure high audio and video quality, you must check the internet connection of each presenter. Conduct 2-3 rehearsals before the actual meeting to get everything right.

Have Q&A Sessions

Q&A sessions play a crucial role in establishing two-way communication. These are especially relevant in the case of the Virtual Annual General Meeting. The objective of holding an AGM is to connect with the shareholders and let them interact with the organization’s leadership. Q&A sessions are a perfect opportunity for the shareholders to ask questions and share their opinions. Get the experts and senior personnel of the company to take the shareholder’s questions. In addition to this, you can also use the Q&A sessions to ask the shareholder’s about their expectations.

Stick To the Timing

It is important to meet the timelines to complete any task on time. Staying on time requires dedication from the team members. Nothing can be more frustrating than an event that stretches beyond the scheduled time. For this, you must set a time limit for each speaker and each session. Ask the speakers to frame their speech according to the time limit and stick to the timelines. This will ensure that the meeting wraps up on time.

Create Compelling Content

Content is one of the most important ways to promote or market any product or event. However, creating compelling content requires a huge amount of effort. Create content that can compel the shareholders to attend the meeting. In addition to the written content, you must also work on your visual content. include more presentations, images and infographics in your meeting. You can also include facts, figures and statistics to provide a clearer view of the past performance. The main motive of an annual meeting is to review the past performance and make plans for the future. Therefore, charts and graphs must form part of your content.

Include Document Presentation Feature

As the organizer of an AGM, you will have to present multiple documents to the attendees. Therefore, it is necessary to select a platform that lets you present one or many documents at the same time. This will make it easier for you to communicate with the shareholders.

Track the Engagement

Tracking the engagement among attendees at the meeting will help you analyze the behaviour of your shareholders and get an insight into what worked and what did not. You must also keep a track of the number of attendees and the sessions that witnessed the highest engagement. This will help you identify the areas in which your shareholders are more interested. Not every shareholder will be able to attend the meeting live. Therefore, you can record the event to allow such shareholders to view it at a later date on-demand. This will help you generate more engagement.

Include Live Chat

Some people can be shy to speak their mind or ask their doubts in public. The live chat feature is a boon for such people as it provides them with an additional mode for interacting with the company’s leadership. The live chat feature lets the attendees interact and network with the organizers and other attendees in real-time. Therefore, it is a great idea to look for a virtual AGM platform that has a live chat feature.

Get the Right Technology

Getting your technology right is an integral step to making the most of a virtual annual meeting. Select the most appropriate online meeting platform according to your requirements. Before selecting the right software, you must identify the number of attendees and the features. Make sure that you get good quality microphones and all of them are working properly. Conduct a thorough sound check as it is the most important tech that you need to consider.

Take Feedback and Follow-up

Don’t forget to take feedback from the attendees both during and after the annual general meeting. Ask the shareholders about their experience while attending the event and give suggestions for improvement. Taking feedback makes the shareholders feel valued. This will help you figure out the performing and the non-performing sessions.

Takeaway

While you might think that Virtual Annual General Meeting cannot replace the experience provided by in-person events, they can do a great job if done correctly. By following the steps given in this article, you will be able to make the most of your AGM.