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When Remote Meetings are Better Than In-Person
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Many meetings are a waste of time and resources. Especially for companies with employees around the world.
Once, I flew from London in the UK to Calgary in Canada for 3 days of meetings.
It was supposed to be 4 days but my original flight got cancelled after an hour waiting on the runway and they had to put us up in a hotel overnight. I arrived a day late, with a 7 hour jet lag, just to sit in sleepy meeting rooms while people meandered through thoughts that would have been better off in an email. Perhaps a whiteboard was used, perhaps some printouts were stuck a glass wall, but it did not feel worth the effor.
It cost the company money, it was a pain for me, it wasn’t particularly productive and this is all before you count the environmental cost of needlessly burning fossil fuels.
The idea that an in-person meeting is always better than a remote meeting is not always true. It certainly wasn’t in this case.
If the company had invested in infrastructure for higher quality remote meetings, this whole mess could have been avoided.
I’m talking about microphones, cameras and the right software.
Mics make a difference
I remote-recorded a podcast with my friend Ivanka for several years, and we had great conversations when we were on our Rode NT USB microphones.
When she’d call me from her mobile, the difference in communication was palpable.
Her audio was muffled, glitchy, full of drop-outs. Our usual crystal-clear communication was compromised beyond recognition.
It’s really difficult to have a good conversation with a low quality microphone!
Cameras make a difference
When I spoke to my dad on Google Meet yesterday, he wanted to show off his new glasses, but because he was on his built-in FaceTime camera, I couldn’t tell.
Once he switched over to his phone’s camera, I was able to properly admire his new look!
Your internet connection makes a difference
Don’t forget about the network connection quality.
I remember trying a new therapist over Skype a few years ago whose style was to listen silently, without moving.
But sometimes her video would freeze.
So she missed something I just managed, with some difficulty, to articulate.
So I found myself with no idea if she could ever hear me, which undermined the whole thing.
If you find something difficult to say, the last thing you need is for it to be misheard, or not heard at all!
It’s bad in a therapy session, it’s bad in a team meeting, and it’s really bad in a client meeting.
Clarity matters. Bandwidth matters.
The blurrier your camera, the spottier your audio, the glitchier your network, the worse conversation you will have.
Don’t skimp on your network connection.
For everything else, we have CueCam Presenter.
CueCam Presenter transforms remote calls using the Apple products you already own
If you’re an Apple user, you might not need to buy any more hardware, you probably already have everything you need to take things to the next level.
CueCam Presenter makes it easy to do great things, like drawing on your webcam, sharing and zooming your screen, pasting up an image or sharing a video, friction-free.
It works so well, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered to travel for a meeting.
Today I’ll tell you how to set it up in Zoom or Teams, and give you three tricks that will make your meetings better, clearer and more fun.
What you need
- Mac, iPhone, iPad
- CueCam Presenter on the Mac - download from the website
- Video Pencil on the iPad, Shoot on the iPhone - download from the App Store
CueCam Presenter is Made for Companies
A CueCam license unlocks all three apps.
Seat based pricing makes it easy to give your whole team the same great tools.
What you really should have
- A decent mic
- Headphones (tiny ones even)
Three tips for better meetings with CueCam
Tip 1 - Use Shoot as your Camera and Second Screen
Once you’ve installed CueCam on your Mac, run Shoot Pro Webcam on your iPhone and place it on a stand.
Select Shoot as your camera in CueCam.
Select CueCam as your camera in your meeting software.
Select your meeting software as your Program Feed in CueCam. This will put your call on your iPhone screen.
Now you have a display dedicated to the person who you’re talking to, and they’ll see when you’re looking at them!
Tip 2 - Sketch on a Blank Board
In CueCam use the Share Bar to select “Blank Board”.
Do this in the main CueCam window or using the status bar menu.
Now you have a nice space to draw with your iPad.
Don’t forget you can pinch to zoom, or two-finger drag on your iPad to make more space for yourself.
Tip 3 - Instantly Share Images
There’s no easier way to share an image on a video call than with CueCam Presenter.
Just copy the image and paste it using CueCam’s Share Bar or right-click menu.
Or drag and image from your desktop into the CueCam window.
Zoom with your trackpad show different parts of the image or pinch to zoom in Video Pencil while you annotate.
That’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg!
The live camera instantly makes meetings more productive and more fun.
Once you start using CueCam’s smart scripting features, you’ll unlock whole new levels of power and efficiency.
Stay tuned!