Have you considered using an online whiteboard for your next meeting? Don’t ditch your PowerPoint yet – but you may want to consider using a digital whiteboard for a fully engaged meeting.
Why use a digital whiteboard?
A study by Dr. Zakary Tormala of the Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that those who view a whiteboard-style story remember 14% more than those who watch a traditional PowerPoint presentation. In addition, whiteboard participants in the study scored an average of 10% higher in terms of perceived uniqueness, interest, credibility, and trustworthiness of the speaker.
PowerPoint is a valuable presentation tool that we all use regularly. However, to have an effective meeting, we do not want participants listening passively. Instead, we need them to actively engage. Collaborative whiteboards can add four key elements to your meeting:
- Visual
- Engaging
- Flexible
- Hybrid Whiteboard for hybrid work
1. Visual
Whether creating a new product, tracking a project, or articulating a strategy, you can express these on a whiteboard canvas using images, texts, stickers and hand annotations. PowerPoints are excellent in articulating concepts that fit into small presentation boxes, but online whiteboards provide a visual canvas that expands beyond the typical five PowerPoint bullets.
2. Don’t present, engage!
Let’s admit it, how often do you find yourself multi-tasking when someone else is presenting? How engaging and interesting was the last hour-long PowerPoint session you attended?
The meeting experience is completely transformed when the host uses an online whiteboard. A passive presentation quickly turns into an interactive learning session in which participants are encouraged to engage and even contribute. Throw in a quick Brainstorming session or live project tracking to get everyone in the room involved. Anyone with a voice can provide value. This way of working lets everyone engage and is a great way of getting others to buy-in.
3. Flexibility makes better meetings
PowerPoints are useful if everyone sticks to the script. But that’s rarely the case.
For example:
- Jumping ahead – A participant asks about a topic that is three pages ahead.
- Adding content during the presentation - Participants wish to add new content during the live presentation.
- Live feedback - How do we capture feedback during the presentation?
- Allow everyone to engage – During the presentation, we may want to break into a Brainstorming session.
- Outside the meeting - How can stakeholders contribute to the presentation before and after the meeting?
Online whiteboards such as the FlatFrog Board provide much better support for meetings that require flexibility. If you want to be prepared for any eventuality, keep your PowerPoint close, but your whiteboard closer.
4. Hybrid work requires a hybrid whiteboard
Improve in real-time: PowerPoints are typically used by one person at a time and are unsuitable for live edits during the meeting. By contrast, collaborative whiteboards are perfectly capable of serving local or remote users wishing to engage and improve the content in real-time.
In the office or remote: Hybrid work means that some employees work in the office and some work remotely. Meetings are no longer restricted to a physical location or time zone. Hybrid whiteboards work on an 86-inch meeting-room display as well as on your 13-inch laptop. Hosts can use prepared images or draw and add new files during the meeting. At the same time, participants a continent away engage with the whiteboard as though they were in the same room as the host.
PowerPoints are perfectly suited for structured presentations. However, collaborative whiteboards provide exceptional flexibility while turning an ordinary meeting into a fully engaged session.
FlatFrog
FlatFrog is a provider of free online whiteboards (app.flatfrog.com).
FlatFrog has also designed patented InGlass™ touch display technology from the ground up, providing the best pen and touch input to mimic the intuitive feeling of a dry-erase board. InGlass™ touch displays are available through our partners, including Dell, Google, Samsung, SMART, Sharp, Ricoh, Avocor, CTOUCH and more (www.flatfrog.com/partners).
