Virtual Town Hall Meetings - The Benefits, and How to Reduce Risk

Town Hall Meetings are all about communication and participation. Think All-Hands meetings where your teams can gather together and share updates and company wins - but virtually! Suddenly, you’ve connected with global employees and have a huge opportunity to boost staff morale and communicate like never before.

Globally, Marketing and Comms Teams have discovered the positive impact Town Hall events can also have on organisational alignment. Bringing everyone together on the same page regularly is essential to keep everyone on track.

‍Globally, Marketing and Comms Teams have discovered the positive impact Town Hall events can have on organisational alignment.

‍Many startups or working in fast-growing sectors may have enough updates to fill a weekly or fortnightly all-staff update. Otherwise, monthly or quarterly is generally a good option.If your communications calendar is already crowded with results briefings, announcements, investor updates, and other events, you may wish to consider the following timings:

- End of calendar year

- End of fiscal year

- Special anniversary date (eg. the date the company was founded)

- Timed around a major announcement.

‍The Key Benefits of Town Halls/Staff Updates‍

‍Provide, Share and Disseminate Information - Provide, Share and Disseminate InformationEliminate misinformation being shared or emails going unnoticed
‍Increase Employee Morale - We all love to be appreciated! Share success stories and wins to keep everyone engaged
‍Enhance Alignment - Keep staff focused on the right things to help achieve your corporate objectives
‍Foster Accountability - Use this opportunity to share how teams are meeting their objectives and contributing to the big picture
‍Unify and Motivate - Go beyond emails and small team meetings and get everyone unified and motivated to succeed.

Making Virtual Town Halls work for you with any virtual communications channel, there are some risks to be managed when it comes to running your Town Hall meetings virtually. Here are some tips on managing technology and logistics.

‍Manage Capacity

‍Some Town Halls need to bring tens of thousands of employees online at once across various locations. Large-scale online meetings can disrupt network capacity, so ensuring your event won’t disrupt regular services is essential.Ensure your conferencing platform can handle the volume you require without blowing out your network capacity and causing an outage. Choose one that provides technical support to all of your attendees so that you don’t have to deal with support calls coming in on the day.Ensure your conferencing platform can handle the volume you require without blowing out your network capacity and causing an outage.Manage Logistics

‍Time zones and internationally-based employees can make managing large Town Hall meetings challenging. It's essential that everyone can access the meeting easily and can ask questions and share feedback.Choose a technology platform that can deliver against all your logistical requirements. This includes an on-demand hosting platform and access from mobile devices. It’s important to ensure your audience can watch your Town Hall once it is over and can access it from wherever, whenever.Remember... you only get one opportunity to make an impression. Choose a Technology Provider that:Can handle the volume you requireProvides global technical supportAllows for interaction and the ability to ask questionsCan host your recordings online for easy accessFind out more about how Streamlined Communications can help bring your next Town Hall to life, virtually!