Zoom has become a household brand since the onset of Covid-19, when everybody – students, teachers, public officers, law makers and the entire families – were confined to their homes. At one click you can enter into an inclusive space to meet, talk and laugh or present, learn and discuss.

Anybody with a free Zoom account can host a Zoom meeting with limited duration and features. And if you are looking for a longer and richer experience, you buy one of their subscription packages on a monthly or yearly basis.

However, hosting professional Zoom meetings require a deeper understanding of Zoom’s features including but not limited to:

  • Microphone control mute – unmute settings (which can be tiresome and annoying at times)
  • Waiting room customization: adding custom videos, avatars, images, messages for your audience to view before entering the room
  • External camera and sound system setup: or in other words a hybrid meeting configuration
  • Background video / image generation and usage
  • Spotlighting speakers so that they can stick out of the crowd
  • Screen sharing: in one language or multiple languages
  • Automated captions and translated captions
  • Live human interpretation (language interpretation)
  • Creating and monitoring language channels
  • Adding and re-adding (if their connection drops) interpreters
  • Breakout rooms management
  • Recording in different screen capture modes and multiple languages
  • Reporting attendees, chat, Q&A and more.

Do not assume that you as the host can master all and control all settings yourself while engaging with your guests, students or clients. This is a job for a technical support person. That technical person can be one of your team members or you may choose a company like us – Dragoman – to take care of all those settings. We create Zoom meetings that meet your requirements, customize all settings and assign a Zoom technician to monitor your meeting live, from start till the end. We take care of recording in multiple languages and generate your meeting attendee resports in the end.

Support for Zoom webinars, webinar plus and Zoom events

Meetings are for everyone, webinars and events are for professionals. They have more sophisticated settings starting with the webinar link. Attendees have a common “join link” while panelists and moderators have their unique, personal links. A Zoom support person needs to create all links / invites one by one.

Do not share your personal webinar link with other panelists. Some webinars allow a panelist link to be used only once. Some webinars allow multiple users to share the same link, but in that case everybody sharing the link appear as the same person on the screen and also in reports. It becomes difficult to monitor who does what. And also, if you need to cancel that link for any reason, or have to jump to another Zoom meeting, others lose their access as well.

Make sure to create your webinar with a practice sessions. That will allow you to run all tests before starting the actual webinar and allowing attendees to enter.

More professional features come with Webinar plus and Zoom events

Webinar plus and Zoom events offer backstage option which is basically a seperate room where panelists can wait or retire when they are not actively speaking. This is where you can continue testing their camera, microphone, screen sharing and more without interrupting the actual webinar. And it is exactly what you need when you are planning a long day with many panelists who will speak later in the day. Allowing them to present without any tests would be too risky.

Furthermore, Zoom events allow you to to create a lobby where participants can network, have a private booth and more. Also with Zoom events, you can create multiple concurrent or consecutive sessions. People can preview what is being discussed in a particular session and then choose to enter to that specific segment. They can leave and join to another session when they want unless you grant them limited access.

A Zoom event is a virtualized format of an onsite conference running in multiple rooms.

AI features on Zoom

Zoom AI is pretty successfull in automated transcription for English language. Success in other language depends. You may upload your own glossaries for accurate technical terminology.

When enabled Zoom AI offers new participants to catch-up and get a summary of earlier discussions.

Same AI sends a summary of speeches accompanied with actionable items and assigned team members after the meeting. You do not need to bring in additional note taking apps. But if you have your favorite note taking app, you may still join with it, if the host allows.

Zoom AI also identifies key discussion points and marks it on meeting video recording. You may also create custom clips using these AI detected marks.

Another fun feature is Zoom’s meeting coach. It shows you your speed and usage of filler words. Good to know before the next presentation.

Enabling Additional Apps

Zoom has its own timer, survey and quiz features but you may want to use third party apps like kahoot or others. In that case, the host needs to add / enable such apps using their admin portal.

Third party apps enrich user experience and may take your Zoom webinar to the next level.

Managing risks

Virtual events have several risks, number one being the internet connectivity. Make sure to have multiple hosts connecting from different locations for large and/or important meetings. If one host drops, the other colleague will continue.

Hire two interpreters for each language combination even for short events, so that you do not lose language access because the interpreter is no longer online. On a further note, conference interpreters always work in pairs to avoid fatigue and brain-drain.

Muting/unmuting microphones can become very disturbing during a meeting. Every now and then a careless participant opens their microphone and just forgets it on and keeps talking in the background. This is very unprofessional and is possible to avoid with proper microphone access settings. We recommend using webinar format when most of the attendees will remain passive and only ask questions via a Q&A box.

If you must use a meeting format for a more friendly or inclusive experience, it is still possible or the hosts to control all microphones and videos. You can disable all microphones except from hosts and interpreters and only allow people to talk when they have a comment or question.

It is also possible to lock or freeze a Zoom meeting if a rogue attendee trolls the meeting with nonsense text or graphic images/videos.

This article is only a summary of key content. For more information please access to Zoom’s official support content. And when you decide to hire professionals, contact Dragoman.

What you get with Dragoman Language Solutions:

  • Experience: We have hosted thousands of Zoom meetings, webinars and events in all corners and most languages of the world.
  • UN level quality: Dragoman is a level 2 provider of languages, translation and interpreting for the United Nations.
  • Peace of mind: We manage all features and risks from end to end.
  • Team work: We act as part of your team; listen and understand your needs, and respond in a timely manner.
  • Languages: Our interpreters are located in different countries and cities. We have interpreters in over 150 languages.
  • Sign language: We also have sign language interpreters for a more inclusive Zoom experience.
  • Artificial intelligence: Our AI masters make sure that you get most out of latest technology in AI.
  • Ease of payment: You can pay us via bank, paypal or credit card in Euros, US dollars, British pounds or Turkish lira.
  • ISO certification: Dragoman has multiple ISO certifications for translation and interpeting services.
  • Sustainability: Dragoman is a member of UN Global Compact and we support UN Sustainable Development Goals for a better planet.