We're a camera-on company when possible - something I know that no everyone will agree with. We understand that at times people's internet connections may become unstable and can't support video. But otherwise, the recommendation is to have your camera on, especially for external calls with clients and other partners.
Today was the first day of my two-day seminar. It's a whole-day affair on Zoom and I wasn't sure what the protocol would be like, so I prepared for it like any other client meeting. I joined the call with my camera on and a few other people had their cameras on for a time. But once the seminar proper began, everyone started turning their cameras off and kept them off for most of the day. I ended up following suit when I was the only person with their camera still on apart from the speaker.
I honestly felt pretty bad for today's facilitators. It's never easy to conduct training over video conference - what more when everyone has their cameras off, so you're just talking to empty space. But it's not like they tried asking us participants to turn cameras on and they probably could have introduced better points for potential interaction apart from just periodically asking if we had any questions. Maybe it's really like this in the Zoom webinar circuit or something. But I really don't like it.
I think I'll try starting tomorrow's call with my camera on again and then see how things go from there. Maybe I'll try to encourage the speaker indirectly by giving them a face to respond to and interact with.
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