Create an inclusive Teams meeting experience for all participants

• Applies to:

  Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams meetings are a place where people come together to exchange ideas and work on hard problems. In a time when workplace environments are undergoing significant change, it can be challenging to bring people together and enable effective meetings. This solution shows you how can bring together Microsoft Teams, Teams Rooms devices, room design, meeting principles, and business practices, to create an inclusive meeting environment. An inclusive environment enables communication and collaboration between all recipients, regardless of whether they're in the room, remote, or have a disability.

Microsoft Teams is the center of hybrid work across Microsoft. To see how to incorporate the hybrid work mindset across your organization with Teams, Microsoft 365, Azure, and other Microsoft products, visit the Microsoft Hybrid Work Center.

This short video shares Microsoft's vision for hybrid meetings with Teams Rooms. Many of the features, such as front row, are available today and are discussed in this solution.

For information about how to get your infrastructure ready to support a hybrid work environment, see Set up your infrastructure for hybrid work with Microsoft 365.

Before you start designing and setting up your Teams meeting experience, check out Teams hybrid meeting principles. Use these principles to help create an inclusive meeting environment where all participants, regardless of presence or location, can participate equally.

Audiences

There are three different groups of people who need to perform steps in this solution. To see which group needs to perform steps, look for the following identifiers in the coming articles:

Identifier	Group responsibilities
	The audio visual group: Obtains, sets up, and configures cameras, speakers, microphones, and displays, in the meeting space. Responds to support requests from meeting participants post-deployment.
	The facilities group: Selects and, if necessary, constructs or modifies the meeting space to the specifications determined in consultation with the audio visual group. Obtains and sets up furniture such as tables, chairs, whiteboards, and projection screens. Runs cabling between the various Teams Rooms components and installs network and audio visual ports. Installs power points for all Teams Rooms components.
	The IT Pro group: Determines, in consultation with company or department leaders, the type of meeting space to create along with its functional requirements. In consultation with the audio visual group, selects and obtains the Teams Rooms components that will be used in the meeting space. Evangelizes Teams and Teams Rooms features, principles, and best practices. Configures Teams and Teams Rooms functionality and policies. Manages and monitors Teams and Teams Rooms health post-deployment.

The following sections outline the key steps in this scenario.

Step 1 - Get familiar with Teams meeting features

This step helps you understand what features are available in Teams to help make meetings more inclusive and effective.

Step 2 - Evangelize meeting best practices

Meetings of the past were typically held in conference rooms with remote participants periodically calling in via a conference phone. Conversations were primarily between those in the room with remote participants listening in. If meetings were online, content may be shared with remote participants, but discussions were still heavily dominated by those in the room. There was a significant imbalance between remote and in-room participants.

Equality and inclusivity in meetings means ensuring that all participants, regardless of location or ability, are able to contribute to meetings. Do to this, all participants whether they're organizers, presenters, remote, or in the room, need to be aware how they "come to the meeting" and interact with others. This step provides best practices for each of these groups to help them become better participants.

Step 3 - Design or enhance a meeting space

You might be looking to create a new meeting space, or just enhance an existing one. This step helps you design a meeting space that will support meetings with approximately 6-10 in-room participants and any number of remote participants. Things like what furniture is best and where it should be placed to support participants and the devices you want to use.

Step 4 - Select devices for your space

Choosing the right devices for your space can be a little overwhelming because of the options available to you. This step steps you through the process of selecting the right devices to meet the needs of your space and participants.

Step 5 - Build your meeting space

After you've designed your space and selected your devices, it's time to put everything together. This step helps you decide where your devices and furniture should be placed to give you and your participants a great meeting experience.

Step 6 - Set up your devices

After you've built out your space, you need to set up your devices. This step helps you configure your devices and get your space ready for its first meeting.

Step 7 - Manage and monitor your space and its devices

After everything's set up, you need to set up policies for how the meeting space and its devices should be used, and set up monitoring so that you can stay on top of device health and meeting experiences. This step helps you configure meeting and device policies and shows you how to use Teams monitoring tools to monitor call quality.

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