Remote work is more common than ever. Telecommuting has grown 216% since 2005, and many workplaces that transitioned to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic have made these changes permanent. Whether your virtual meeting is for a singular event or recurring team meeting, keeping the meeting fun and interactive will make it memorable.

Prepare to keep the meeting organized and structured
Create a strong foundation for your meeting through planning and preparation. Being stuck in a disorganized meeting can make participants feel like they’re wasting their time. No one wants to be in a meeting where the host can’t figure out how to turn their volume on or read Q&A questions. If the meeting host is going to be using technology that they’re unfamiliar with, they should do a run-through beforehand to ensure everything works as expected. 

The host should also practice muting participants ahead of time. You don’t want to be scrambling to find the mute button in case of distracting background noise coming from an unresponsive participant’s channel. 

Keep accessibility in mind
Ensuring accessibility is an important way to keep a meeting fun and interactive for all guests, especially in a situation where you might not know everyone in the audience. Virtual meeting hosting platforms offer multiple tools that can ensure accessibility, including adding captions to live streams and recording the meetings. 

Use creative icebreakers
Now for the fun stuff! Icebreakers can be a great tool to get participants interacting with each other and to get over the stage fright of talking during a virtual event. Cliched, overused icebreakers are a dreaded part of work events so make sure to keep icebreakers original to keep participants engaged. Some creative virtual icebreakers include a round of trivia, an interactive survey to get participants’ initial opinion on topics relevant to the meeting, or a funny team photo! As always, use your best judgment depending on the audience of the meeting. 

Utilize additional virtual features
Virtual meeting hosting services have added dozens of additional features to improve virtual meetings. The tools listed below are already at your disposal through most virtual meeting platforms to make your virtual meetings more interactive:
Breakout rooms 
Breakout rooms are used to divide participants into smaller groups. This can be a great way to facilitate brainstorming and focused conversation. When the group comes back together as a whole, breakout groups can share all of their great ideas. Since participants are often more comfortable speaking and engaging with a few colleagues than an intimidatingly large group, this is a great way to increase interactivity. 
Polls
Polls allow you to ask participants about their views on a topic. The host can use a poll at the beginning of a meeting to establish a baseline for how the group is feeling about a topic and then follow up with a second poll at the end to see how opinions have changed. Polls allow the entire group to gauge information in real time. 
Virtual hand raising
If meeting participants are reserved, encourage participants to raise their hand virtually when they want to speak. This takes stress off of participants by letting them know that they’re next in line for their ideas to be heard without having to wait for the perfect time to interject. 
Use a virtual whiteboard
Virtual whiteboards allow for visual collaboration between meeting participants in real time. Using a virtual whiteboard, participants can brainstorm ideas live with others by adding sticky notes, text boxes, and photos to replicate that in-person brainstorming experience. 

Ensuring a fun and interactive virtual meeting requires preparation, creativity, and understanding the audience. Utilizing virtual features, icebreakers, and ensuring accessibility will keep participants engaged and set your virtual meeting apart from others.