As the world returns to some normalcy amidst the pandemic that is still ongoing, we've had to change the way we do certain things. One example that I've experienced recently is with meetings. Over the past month I've attended two online meetings for an online conference my faculty is hosting in just under two weeks time. Online meetings aren't necessarily something new as I'm sure many people have attended them in the past, especially when dealing with remote colleagues or clients, but due to the pandemic even local meetings within a faculty for example are encouraged to be done online. So for those who have experienced both traditional meetings where everyone gathers together face-to-face as well as online meetings, which do you prefer and why?

Being the techie that I am, I think it's unsurprising that I prefer online meetings. The main reason I prefer online meetings is that we can attend a meeting without having to physically be at a specified venue. For my first meeting I had just finished having breakfast at a cafe and just joined the meeting from the cafe itself. The second time I was at a friend's house assembling some furniture, which is another advantage of online meetings, being able to multitask on other things as well. Being able to share what's on your computer screen is also great, as some smaller meeting rooms might not have projectors or large wall-mounted PCs.

Does anyone else also prefer online meetings? Or do you want that face-to-face interaction?

I’ve gone through a major change. When we started Cake and I started working from home for the first time, I was so unhappy with the loss of face time with my friends. I was jealous of the workers at Google and Apple who got to go be with people every day.

And then they couldn’t do it. And we all started Zooming. And we had shared comraderie as people stuck at home. And we learned how to Zoom better.

And now I sense most of us are thinking “Hey, these aren’t just bad substitutes for real meetings, they are often better. You don’t get stuck in a meeting you can’t gracefully exit. You don’t have to fake like you’re interested in everything covered in the meeting. You can glance at your phone. You don’t have all the overhead of traveling to the meeting.”

So yeah, now I like them much more than in-person meetings. I never used to.

I prefer in person. Why? I just don’t like online meetings and I’ve done a lot of them. Impersonal, don’t get a sense of how the audience or those in attendance feel, impersonal, tech issues but most importantly I just don’t like being remote. Remote meetings do have their place though.

It depends...

I prefer online meetings to get everyone informed or up to date. Online meeting that could also be an email, but with visual confirmation.

For brainstorming or back and forth, collaboration - in person is best. Showing something in person on the phone or drawing on a whiteboard gets the point across much faster. Also, waving hands and articulating your points doesn't translate well through a webcam. It is tough to judge if the person on the other side of the camera pays attention to what you're saying.