Conference meetings are a necessity for office collaborations. Moreover, presentations in sessions are invariably unengaging and employ an outdated approach. Luckily, new technology has emerged to pull team members and collaborators into learning: interactive whiteboards.
Interactive whiteboards open a new realm of communication. By being so memorable, accessible, and cooperative, these whiteboards encompass the functionality of their predecessors while employing modern technology for successful collaboration in the workplace.
What Can Interactive Whiteboards Do?
This collaboration tool caters to the difficulties a team may face thanks to its various useful features. Interactive whiteboards have numerous positive qualities, but these are some of the most notable ones.
1. Save Notes in an Instant
There’s no more need for scribbling words on a sticky note and hoping it will not get lost. Relying on a sheet of paper or even a mental note to remember something important is faulty – people forget, and papers get lost. Any note that needs saving can be marked up on the presentation itself with the annotations feature. Anybody who attempts to open the file afterward will see it.
The average American uses the equivalent of a 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree worth of paper each year – something of value is bound to get lost. Digital notes prevent paper clutter and forgetfulness.
2. Create Digital Handouts
For many presentations, the speaker hands out a packet of information that the team needs to know. 70% of office waste is attributed to paper alone. If that percentage were to decrease, an office would have a smaller carbon footprint.
Interactive whiteboards are one of the eco-friendliest collaboration tools – they can send handouts to a team without paper. Through the whiteboard, a speaker can send notes and documents directly to a team member’s email. Owning digital copies of handouts also cuts down on clutter, which can make an office space neater and more organized.
3. Improve Learning and Retention
Presentations with crucial information and topics team members need to memorize may prove difficult for some collaborators who are not visual learners. Interactive whiteboards are more engaging than their counterparts – both regular whiteboards and simple, one-way presentations.
With an interactive whiteboard, the learning comes alive. Interaction between workers can increase productivity at work by about 20%. Learning by directly participating and working with the interactive whiteboard and team members will lead to a more discussion-based meeting.
4. Provide Accessibility
If a key player cannot make it to a meeting, the team does not have to wait for them to show up. They can use the remote accessibility of the interactive whiteboard for a video conference with the absent team member. The person will be in the room without really being in the room, allowing the meeting to commence without a hitch. Furthermore, if a team member is remote or cannot make it to the meeting, they can enable screen sharing to share their computer with the rest of the team.
43% of employers report that they plan to allow employees to start working remotely more often. With the inclusion of screen-sharing and video conferencing, meetings can go just as smoothly as if everyone were physically present for the meeting. An interactive whiteboard’s remote capabilities, as well as its multi-device accessibility, could change the typical course of dry meetings.
5. Make Changes in Real-Time
While a group works together to complete a task, it’s inevitable to find something amiss. Instead of going back and fixing an error later, the group can correct the mistake from the interactive whiteboard itself. A document can be edited and adjusted from the whiteboard. Using this unique collaboration tool, team members can stay on the same page and avoid confusion over which document is the updated version – because they will have it right in front of their eyes.
Redefining Visual Communication and Collaboration
As with all technology, interactive whiteboards will have occasional mishaps, so it is best to run through a presentation before it is given to ensure everything is working correctly. It’s also necessary to have backups ready in case something goes awry.
Doing Better Business, as authorized dealers of Sharp products and experts on Ricoh technology, provides offices and lecture halls with interactive whiteboards that are the best fit for them. We strive to increase your engagement and drive productivity to allow teams to operate together seamlessly.
Interactive whiteboards are changing the way meetings are held. Fewer meetings can be called presentations. Instead, they are becoming discussions that involve every member of the team, contributing valuable information and ideas. Before long, interactive whiteboards will become a vital component of all collaboration strategies.
Contact Doing Better Business to learn more about the improvements an interactive whiteboard can afford your workspace.