Blunders and Gaffs: Avoiding Embarrassing Online Meeting Moments

One of my worst meeting memories was not during an online event. Nope. It was during an in-person meeting. I would have paid good money to have been on WebEx instead.

I was asked to present my proposal during a lunch meeting. “Sure,” I said, “happy to.” That's the moment I want back. What was I thinking? I went, a lunch was passed out to each of us and I started presenting. I didn’t really look at what I had been “assigned” because I was pumped to pitch my proposal.

Mid-talk, one of the senior members at the table said, “Stop a minute and eat with us. Take a break.” And so I did and that’s when I realized someone had ordered a spinach salad for me. Spinach. One food that automatically triggers my gag reflex. (Bytheway, for those of you like me who have been yelled at for years for not eating your spinach, science has finally proved we aren’t nuts – check it out here!).

I sputtered, I vamped, but mostly I nearly ya know in front of my most important prospects at the time. I have never pushed more leafy vegetables around while hunting and pecking for croutons, walnuts and cranberries. Time stood still. Thankfully, I didn't get sick but I am pretty sure my cheeks were bright red for the next four hours. And I did get the job!

Has It Happened to You?

This is all to say, everyone makes mistakes or can be caught off guard. And just like any technology (who hasn’t “replied all” via email when that really what you wanted to do), WebEx users have reported some gems. So in the spirit of making sure this doesn’t happen to you, we thought we’d share a few! We have two examples for you today – come back tomorrow for a few more…

The Desktop “Over” Share
Desktop sharing rocks: it speeds communication and let’s everyone look at the same thing at the same time. But recently, on Twitter, we heard about one presenter that kind of forgot what he was doing: “Our presenter just started answering email during the @webex! We saw the whole thing! He forgot he was sharing!” Yikes. When you are desktop sharing everyone can see everything. If you don’t think you can stop your impulses, consider using application or document sharing. That limits what others can see.

“Is This Thing On?” or Learn to Mute
 I was in a meeting of about 30 people all listening to a presenter tell us how to improve our business skills. Suddenly, over his voice, the most adorable ring tone went off. And then, “Oh hi pookie,” said an adorable voice. “I didn’t want to wake you up this morning. You looked so cuddle-uggums in that bed. I know; the blankie was so soft.” Oh please, someone make it stop – what is she going to say next!?! WebEx provides a mute button if you don’t have one on your phone. It’s either that or make sure you cell phone is far, far away and officemates aren’t’ going to pop-in to chat.

Click here to get to part two, where I share a few more blunders that you can avoid. In the meantime, I want to hear your stories – from any type of meeting. Nothing makes people feel better than knowing they aren't the only one that has goofed up!

   

Comments

[Cisco_Channels]

Great tips. Thanks for sharing. One add to the mute discussion is that you can usually press *6 to mute if you're calling in and not using the desktop application.

Thankfully, I haven't had any major blunders, but I try to make sure I've closed down all bandwidth-sucking applications if I know I'll be sharing my apps or desktops on a call. It really slows down WebEx if other things are draining bandwidth. One time, I was uploading a video at the same time as I was leading a call and my sharing was very sloooow on WebEx.