What Your Participants Could Be Doing During Your Conferences

Here at ConferenceShopper, we have discussed an abundance of ways that you can make the most of your meetings. Our blogs have offered tips and tricks on how you can increase your participant's engagement as well as your meeting's productivity levels. This week, we're going to cover what your staff is likely doing during your web conference. Some of it you'd probably expect, but others may come as a surprise.

• Checking email - Radicati Group research shows that the average business person sends approximately 34 emails and receives 99 emails every day. While there's no doubt that the majority of those are coming in during the work day, chances are at least a few are being sent and received throughout the duration of your audio or web conference.
• Browsing the Internet - this includes researching work-related material, shopping, reading news articles or books, and going to social media websites (such as LinkedIn and FaceBook) which account for over 20% of American's time spent online.
• Texting - according to Pew Internet, the typical person sends around 40 text messages daily. Assuming those texts come in during a 15 hour day, that equates to three texts being sent by each of your participants during your conference.
• Private chats - no, we aren't talking about the handy chat and sub-chat features that come with most web conferencing services. We're talking about those participants that put their line on mute and then answer their cell phone during your meeting or converse with co-workers that stop by their desk.
• Eating - a late breakfast, snack, lunch, or even an early dinner.
• Exercising - while this is a good idea for your participant's health, there's an even better chance it'll keep them from focusing on your materials.
• Personal grooming - this includes participants brushing their hair or teeth (perhaps after grabbing a bite to eat), clipping/filing/painting their nails, shaving, putting on make-up, etc.
• Housework - this counts mainly for mobile workers and those who work from home, and includes cooking, cleaning, organizing, playing with/talking to/cleaning up after pets and children.

In accordance with a study that was conducted by Stanford University, people who multi-task would accomplish more if they did each task individually as opposed to simultaneously. So, while your participants might think they can multi-task successfully, research shows they would probably do even better by slowing down and directing more focus toward each task.

What's the craziest thing you've ever done during an audio or web conference?