How to Run a Virtual Meeting — Best Practices

Running a virtual meeting sounds straightforward until you’re responsible for one that actually matters — an AGM, an enterprise agreement vote, or a member meeting where the outcome has legal weight. At that point, it stops being about “just jumping on Zoom” and becomes a governance exercise.

Done properly, a virtual meeting can be just as robust as an in-person one. Done poorly, it can be challenged, delayed, or even invalidated.

Here’s how to approach it in a way that stands up in the real world.

Planning a virtual meeting

Most issues with virtual meetings aren’t technical — they’re procedural.

Start with your governing rules. For companies, that means the Corporations Act 2001. For associations or unions, it may be your constitution or industrial framework.

The law in Australia now clearly allows virtual or hybrid meetings, provided members are given a reasonable opportunity to participate. That’s the key phrase.

You can check the current position here:

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2024C00036

In practice, “reasonable opportunity” means:

If any of those fall over, you’re exposed.

So before you even pick a platform, map out who is attending, what decisions are being made, and whether voting is required.

Platform selection

Not all platforms are equal — especially once voting or formal Q&A comes into play.

For simple meetings, standard tools like Teams or Zoom can work. But they weren’t built for governed decision-making.

You need to think about scalability, control, and auditability.

This is where purpose-built meeting and voting platforms come in. Systems like those used by Vero Voting layer governance controls over the meeting itself — things like structured voting, attendance tracking, and reporting.

It’s less about bells and whistles, more about defensibility.

Attendee verification

This is one area people underestimate.

In a physical meeting, you can see who’s in the room. Online, you can’t — unless you build that control in.

At a minimum, you should:

For formal votes (e.g. enterprise agreements), verification becomes critical.

The Fair Work Commission is clear that employees must have a genuine opportunity to vote:

https://www.fwc.gov.au/voting

If you can’t demonstrate that only eligible voters participated, the result can be questioned.

Managing Q&A and voting

This is where virtual meetings either run smoothly or fall apart.

Q&A

Open microphones don’t scale. They lead to interruptions, repetition, and lost time.

A better approach:

Voting

If there’s a vote, treat it as a formal process — not a quick show of hands.

That means:

For enterprise agreements, the Fair Work Act requires a genuine agreement process, which includes a valid vote:

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2025C00001

Recording and minutes

Always record the meeting.

A proper record should include:

Technical contingency planning

Things will go wrong at some point. The question is whether you’ve planned for it.

At a minimum, have:

Post-meeting follow-up

Once the meeting ends, the governance work isn’t over.

Final word

A virtual meeting doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to be deliberate.

If you’re preparing for a meeting where the outcome matters, it’s worth getting it right the first time.

You can reach out to Vero Voting for a straightforward discussion about your requirements