Despite that virtual meetings has been around for a while, its large-scale adoption in organizations is still relatively new. Hence, in most organizations, most employees are still trying to get a hang of how things work. Virtual meetings have significant advantages, that cannot be ignored. Since virtual meetings will only continue to grow in popularity, organizations and employees will need to figure ways to enhance their productivity.  Here are the 5 best tips: 1.     Set Clear Agenda Organizing a virtual meeting with no clear purpose often results in confusing the participants and wasting their time. It is important for the meeting host to create and share the agenda with all participants in advance, so that they can be prepared. There is nothing worse than meetings that are titled as ‘team meeting’ or ‘all-hands meeting’ without a proper agenda. 2.     Ensure Familiarity with Technology When participants are unfamiliar with the tools being used, a lot of time tends to get wasted. Hence, the meeting organizer should ensure that all participants are familiar with the conferencing platform being used for the meeting. If need be, the meeting organizer should share the usage instructions or even a tutorial video with the participants. 3.     Eliminate Distractions All distractions should be eliminated to ensure the productivity of the virtual meeting. The host should set the ground rules at the start and restricting use of phone, email, messenger, etc.. It is important to clearly define rules such as keeping oneself on mute when others are speaking or using the ‘hand signal’ when wanting to speak. This will help the participants to stay focused and ensure that the meeting is highly productive. 4.     Engage Participants Ensuring engagement of participants is important for the success of a virtual meeting. For this, the meeting host should pay attention to every participant and give them an opportunity to express their views. It is also important to pace the meeting properly, to cover the entire agenda and keep sessions animated and interesting. Otherwise, participants may get ‘switched off’ during the meeting and stop contributing to the discussion. 5.      Adhere to Schedule Setting, and adhering to the meeting schedule in the strictest manner is essential for maximizing the productivity of virtual meetings. All participants should join on time and get a reasonable time to speak. The meeting host should ensure adherence to timings and focus of the discussion on the agenda. Only then the meeting is likely to fulfill its objectives.