7 Essential Tools You Need for Your Online Meetings

Looking for ways to improve your online meetings? Here are some essential tools that will help you make your meetings more productive and engaging.

Online meetings have become indispensable in the workplace, whether you work from home or in an office. While they are undeniably convenient, as they connect people locally and globally, how often are they productive?

There are several challenges to overcome to ensure that online meetings are effective and worth your time. Fortunately, you can create a more collaborative meeting environment with the right combination of tools. Below, we'll cover some essential tools for productive online meetings.

A productive online meeting won't be possible without the best video conferencing software for remote work. With a vast range of virtual meeting tools offering various features and functions, Zoom stands out with its intuitive interface.

This is not to say that Zoom lacks powerful features, as it offers high-quality video and audio, recording, and screen-sharing capabilities.

That's not all; you can also use Zoom's Virtual Background feature to change your background, which can be beneficial if you have a cluttered workspace. Zoom also supports integrations with other popular productivity tools like Slack, Google Calendar, and Asana, making it easier to create a collaborative virtual environment.

What happens when you can't get everyone together at the same time for an online meeting? This is one of the most common remote work challenges faced by teams working across different time zones.

An effective solution to this problem would be to have asynchronous meetings, which do not require people to be online at the same time. In addition, asynchronous online meetings are typically more productive since you can provide more thought-out exchanges and have uninterrupted discussions.

Fortunately, there are several asynchronous video communication tools you can use for your virtual meetings. One of these is Loom, which allows you to record videos and share them with your teams at your convenience. This is ideal for creating step-by-step tutorials or sending feedback to team members without having to schedule a meeting.

Background noise hinders workplace productivity in several ways, especially during virtual meetings. Whether it's your dog barking, a crying baby, construction outside your window, or colleagues talking in the background, noise can be a distraction during virtual meetings.

Krisp is an amazing noise-canceling, AI-powered tool that can boost your online meeting productivity by eliminating unwanted background noise. You can use Krisp to ensure your voice is clear, minimizing distractions and creating a more productive work environment.

In addition, Krisp is compatible with some of the most popular online communication tools, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, and more.

Having solved an auditory challenge in the form of background noise, let's turn our attention to a common visual issue during virtual meetings. Most people use computers with subpar built-in webcams for video conferences. Camo is the perfect tool if you're looking to improve your video call quality and look more professional during online meetings.

If you're familiar with Apple's Continuity Camera, which enables Mac owners to use their iPhones as a webcam, Camo does the same for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android users. All you need to do is download Camo on your smartphone and computer and pair both devices using a USB cable or over a wireless connection by scanning a QR code.

Once you have paired your device, you can customize the settings based on your preferences and start using it with popular videoconferencing apps like Zoom for your online meetings.

So, how do you often get your colleagues or clients to join your online meetings? We bet you spend a lot of time sending emails or making calls to figure out the most suitable time for everybody. Calendly is an effective online meeting-scheduling tool that can help you automate the scheduling process, so you can focus on productive exchanges with your clients or colleagues.

Scheduling meetings and tasks using Calendly is simple. All you need to do is create an event type, from one-on-one to group meetings. Choose a name, location, description, duration, and date for the event.

After inputting all the necessary details, you can share the link via email with your invitees to let them pick the best time based on your availability. Here are some Calendly tips to help you get better at scheduling.

One of the best ways to ensure that your online meetings are productive is to record all the key points discussed during the session. However, manually taking notes during an active session can be challenging, especially during a long meeting or when listening to fast speakers. That’s where Otter.ai can be useful.

Otter is an AI-powered meeting assistant that records audio and transcribes speech into text in real-time. You can use Otter to record online meetings in your absence, generate summaries, capture slides into your notes, and find relevant information by searching for keywords.

With Otter, you can focus on making your virtual meetings more engaging and productive while it provides you with AI-generated notes and transcriptions.

Meetings serve as a platform for people to exchange ideas and discuss strategies and solutions. But what comes after the meeting is over? How do you ensure that all the plans and strategies discussed in the meeting are turned into actionable tasks? You can use Trello to organize your projects.

Trello is a Kanban-style project management tool that can help you organize your personal and professional tasks. It's an ideal tool for teams that want a visual overview of projects by creating Boards for each project and Cards for specific tasks within the project.

You can then set due dates, assign tasks to team members, and attach files related to the task. This turns your meeting notes into actionable tasks with ease.

Without the right tools, your online meetings can quickly become calendar clutter and time-wasting events. However, you can use these tools to automate repetitive tasks, record and summarize conversations, and turn meeting notes into actionable tasks, among others. All these will help you make the most of your virtual team meetings and ensure they are engaging and productive.

Loic is a freelance Productivity writer at MakeUseOf and a lifelong learner. He has been writing about technology since 2016 after leaving his job as a Social Media Consultant. Since then, he has written about everything from productivity tips to social media strategies and essential life hacks. When he's not writing or testing out new technology, Loic enjoys playing video games and exploring new places.