Understanding The Different Facets Of Virtual Meetings In 2021

2020 became not just the year of the pandemic but also the year of screen conversations, muted participants, disrupted calls, unclear images, weak Wi-Fi networks, etc. From Monday meetings, weekly reviews to quarterly plans everything was planned and executed right there with the virtual tools in the rapidly operating corporate world. Virtual meeting perceived as an alternative in the pre-Covid times became the means to an end as soon as the world entered into a lockdown.

The magnanimity of the virus was completely realized when the lockdown was extended repeatedly due to the spike in number of infections. The enigma to remain fit physically and sustain strongly in the career got real and intense. A companion that stood throughout with each working and non-working individual in these adverse times was the virtual meeting platform/application. Tools like Zoom, VideoMeet, WebEx became very handy for people to host their virtual meetings.

As time passed by, many MNCs declared remote working as a permanent working pattern for a set of their employees. This aggravated the utility of virtual meeting tools more in the traditional based industries, start-ups, home-based businesses, etc. As per a report by Naukri.com, employers hiring people to work from homes has increased by three times compared to the time prior to the lockdown.

IT-Software, education/teaching, and Internet/ecommerce contribute to another quarter of work from home jobs. Work from home jobs have also risen in sectors like publishing, BFSI, healthcare, consultancy, and education/teaching. This has led to a trend of new facets in videoconferencing for the upcoming year. Some of the major ones will be:

Customer Experience Will Be The Key

Applications around the world are introducing breakout rooms, custom backgrounds, in-built graphics to make the video meeting experience more fun and engaging. Attending back to back meetings can bring a great deal of fatigue and monotony. 2021 will be a year to encash on the customer experience and build the way forward on it. As many companies will continue adopting the remote working route, it is essential for the virtual meeting platforms to accommodate utility-based tools that increase the productivity levels such as attendance sheets, user verification, playback feature, support for large meeting participants, etc.

Video Resolution Will Be Redefined

With professionals operating from different corners of the world, the bandwidth and data speed differs for each user. This might create unnecessary interruptions during virtual meetings. Therefore, it is important for applications to address the issue and provide multiple resolutions viewing based on the data speed of each user for a smooth real-time experience.

More Engaging Tools

Virtual meeting applications are also rolling out features that make them more engaging for every demography. There has been an increased tendency among students to move between multiple tabs during their classes, which can be controlled by bringing in interactive features, such as customized backgrounds, AI-enabled experiences, etc.

The human mind has a limited span of attention, and the ability to switch between different tabs is similar in the professionals as well. This makes upcoming year challenging for apps looking to host webinars and meetings without losing their user base.

Security And Privacy: The Major Concerns

As the virtual meeting trend becomes widespread in highly crucial sectors such as law, healthcare, corporate and government affairs, etc. The information and official document exchanged in the meetings here will be of highly sensitive nature. This elevates the need to have a strong firewall to prevent any data breach or interception. Applications offering end-to-end encryption, authentication level, monitoring would become prime choices for reputed organizations to host their formal and informal meetings.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.