I had several conference calls this week. Blissfully, all stayed within their allotted time slot and a few even ran under. Professionally, there’s nothing I love more than a well-run meeting where we leave with actionable items – like a good communications plan, for example. (Which I also love.)
I was trained as a journalist, where brevity is key. That’s carried into my work as a communications consultant, and it’s a great skill to have in general when you’re working with others, regardless of the field. This article from Fast Company, “Mastering the fine art of getting to the point,” offers some great suggestions on how to do just that.
But even a well-run conference call can’t make up for the challenges of time zones, bad connections and spotty phone service. If you didn’t see this hilarious video yet of a conference call in real life, check it out. Nearly everything that happened in this video happened on one of my calls.
The only thing the video doesn’t capture is the introductory small talk about the weather as we waited for others to join. Drifts of snow in Connecticut, brutal cold in Virginia, more bitter cold here in Milwaukee, and I’m not even going to talk about California.
Stay warm and keep it short, everybody.
Kate Venne is the Director of Public Relations at Capstone National Partners. If you’re interested in media training, contact Kate to find out more.
Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
The views in this blog post represent the viewpoints of individual team members, not Capstone National Partners as a whole.
