A member kindly forwarded to us his corporate guidance regarding videoconferences. As I read it, it occurred to me that our focus in the cast was pretty narrow, and I may have assumed a couple of things that might be additional points for you to consider.

It reminded us to speak naturally. Maybe we implied that, but we weren’t as clear as we could have been. You don’t talk louder on a videoconference. That’s important.

“State your name and location before speaking.” I’ve seen it done both ways - with and without this. I think now that where I didn’t see it done, there was some connection already present. So, I think this is valuable for those vids where there are a lot of new faces. Please let us know your thoughts.

“Keep ‘mute’ activated when not speaking.” Boy, I didn’t like this one. This has, in my experience, led to too many situations where someone started talking and THEN de-activated the mute button. Frustrating. We just recommend you stay quiet… and remember that rustling papers CAN get picked up.

“Red and Black Bleed.” We talked about contrast, and I know red ties are fine, but I admit to completely forgetting that a female manager might very well wear a red suit. We’d recommend not for a vidconf. Red and black DO bleed.

It also had suggestions for visual aids. I urge you not to do this, but several folks have sent to me that their firm does. So, if you’re going to, here are some guidelines:

“Use bold 18 point or bigger, Arial or Times New Roman.”

I agree with the size, but not the typeface. Arial is a sans serif font - the characters don’t have the little feet on the bottom. Generally, sans serif is used for headlines, and serif fonts, like Times New Roman, is used for body text. (Check out a newspaper or a book). That said, when you get to 18 point type, you’re in headline country. Don’t use TNR…use Arial. (Or Verdana or Tahoma, if you want to be different).

“Use landscape format for printing.” This is QUITE good. When we read, we scan left to right, and generally longer lines of text are easier to read. If you have 18 point type, landscape is easier to read over a video connection.

This was helpful in several spots that we didn’t cover. Thanks for the input!

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 at 4:07 pm and is filed under general, meetings.

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