As with audio, you may find yourself in meetings where some people are together in a room while others join via video chat. Generally, that looks something like the meeting in figure 1:

Figure 1. A hybrid meeting.

State-of-the-art video conference rooms have cameras that can follow and focus on whoever is talking, which is great for keeping the flow going, although these cameras have been known to stop on an elbow or a notebook rather than a face. Video conference rooms like the one above have one or more fixed cameras that are angled to capture the entire table. This creates some distance compared with group chats where everyone has their own laptop camera. However, it also gives a better sense of the energy in the whole room, which can be helpful to those joining remotely.

In the event that you have only one person joining by video chat and/or they are joining on a laptop rather than a large conference screen, you may wish to assign an advocate as discussed in the reading on Audio Meetings to make sure that person isn’t forgotten and that they have a chance to participate fully in the meeting.

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