What Are Silent Meetings & How Can I Create Virtual Meeting Rooms?

Silent meetings are an incredibly dynamic solution. The idea is simple:

Instead of amplifying presenters over a PA system, attendees at silent meetings use wireless receivers and headphones to listen to their speakers of choice.

This means large spaces could be split into smaller, more functional “virtual rooms.”

Why Would I Need Silent Meetings?

The concept of silent meetings was born out of necessity.  As event budgets shrunk, meeting and event planners were forced to do more with less.  The ideal venues were often out of reach, and event professionals had to think outside the box.  Here were just some of the challenges they were facing:

1. Not having enough breakout rooms for concurrent sessions

2. Tight or restricted budgets dictating venue and layout options

3. Using large single-room venues, such as banquet halls or in-house conference rooms, for cost-efficiency

4. Trends pointing towards more flexibility for attendees

5. Non-traditional venue for meeting setup

6. International guests needing interpreting services

It was in this last point that the idea for silent meetings was born.  Using technologies that were originally developed for simultaneous event interpreting, event and meeting planners discovered that they didn’t necessarily need separate physical spaces to accommodate multiple speakers and presentations.  By removing the element of amplified sound, the planners could use non-traditional spaces as virtual breakout rooms.

How Do Silent Meetings Work?

Similar to a normal meeting or conference, silent meetings still have a presenter(s) and an audience.  The presenter may still use visual aids, like PowerPoint presentations or videos on a screen.  However, there’s one big difference.  Instead of the speaker’s microphone projecting his or her voice across the room, it broadcasts the sound through an RF transmission system and the attendees listen to the feed with a wireless receiver and headphones.  What was once a noisy scenario is now transformed to an effective presentation with the sound level of a private conversation.

Using pipe and drape separations, rooms can easily be divided into separate sections.  Alternatively, the event can be designed for an open layout, encouraging attendees to move around and changing channels on their receivers to hear the feed from their preferred speaker.  It’s all about what’s best for your event and your audience.

What Rental Equipment Would I need?

1. RF (Radio Frequency) or IR (Infrared) transmission system for each virtual room.

2. Headphone and wireless receiver (headset) for each listening attendee.

3. If needed, language interpretation can also be provided with interpreters and booths.

4. Additional features allow attendees to use smartphone as a listening device.

Explore the Benefits of Silent Meetings with Continental Interpreting Services

For more than 20 years, Continental Interpreting Services has provided language solutions that bridge communication gaps and transcend cultural barriers. With a worldwide network of certified and qualified interpreters and translators, CIS brings you the highest quality interpreting and translation services—quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.

Call us at (800) 201-7121 or click here to request a quote.