For the penultimate session in our #GoSmarter webinar series, Data Science Apprentice Mia Hatton takes us through various tools for hosting online meetings, lessons and the like, which has become so much more relevant during the times of the pandemic. Our very own Productive Meetings tool is one of six automation tools that we are making available to SMEs through our GoSmarter project to support them through COVID-19.

What is automation for meetings?

You might be wondering where automation fits into meetings. If it's automated, do you still have to attend? As usual, when we talk about automation for business, we're not talking about taking all the work away from people. We're talking about filtering the boring and repetitive tasks that a computer can do instead, giving us more time for the stuff that requires deeper thought. Automated meetings just mean that we can use the time in meeting to get more done. So, yes, you still have to go!

As well as automation, we can incorporate AI into meetings. In this case, we're talking about natural language processing (NLP) that allows the tool to process what is being said and turn it into text, which can be used as captions to increase accessibility and later as a searchable record of the meeting.

The age of remote meetings

The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge effect on businesses by dispersing teams and changing the way they operate, in many cases, permanently. No doubt you have made use of some form of online meeting tool during lockdown, whether it's been for work, a quiz with friends or an exercise class. This is the same for many businesses across the UK trying to stay connected to teams and clients, and the following stats drive that point home.

• 56% of UK businesses are now working remotely
• 73% view video as a crucial part of collaboration
• Microsoft teams had 32 million active daily users in March and 75 million in April
• The global video conferencing market was worth $3.85 billion in 2019 and expected to jump to 50 billion in 2026

The GoSmarter Productive Meetings tool

For Mia's comparison of some of the top online meeting tools, click through the slides or play back the webinar below. She goes on to highlights why the GoSmarter Productive Meetings tool, which is based on Microsoft Teams, is such a good choice for small businesses. All of our tools are designed to help SMEs thrive in the age of COIVD-19 and we've tried to make them as simple as possible to easily integrate into their existing processes. Some of the benefits of the Productive Meetings tool include:

• Microsoft level security including multi-factor authentication
• Affordable from just £5/user per month or free if you already use Microsoft 365
• Access to many other collaboration tools with the subscription
• Meeting backups with searchable transcriptions to find a point in the video
• Boosts accessibility for the whole team, allowing more people to get involved

Check out the full webinar video to see the demo of the tool.

Get going with Productive Meetings

Get the slides

Full webinar video