Tips for surviving a mega conference call

In the business world, I quickly learned that large conference calls are often held with many constituents to a business to touch base on various projects.

Funny occurrences include people speaking over each other, forgetting to take your phone off of mute so no one can hear you respond, hearing background noise when people forget to mute themselves (ex: barking dogs, someone's keyboard, someone eating, etc) and having an actual meeting over the conference call by calling in with 3-5 people in a room, muting it and mocking those actually having the meeting.

So what are some tips to get by these crazy experiences as to not make them miserable wastes of your time?

• If you're listening on mute, pay enough attention to respond
• When you do respond, make sure you un-mute your phone so the call can hear you.
• If you're in an area with a lot of background noise (i.e. an airport), warn the call beforehand so they don't judge you. 
• Avoid being in settings like the airport mentioned above (and other public spaces) when possible. 
• When calling in from a large room, don't forget to ask questions and engage the remote audience - there is a reason you're including them. 
• It's sometimes awkward, but reach out by mentioning their names and asking if they have any questions and are following along.
• Pause every ~5-10 minutes and make sure everyone can see the presentation or Webinar. It assures that everyone is still on the call, still attentive and doesn't have a frozen sound or screen. 
• Don't trash talk the call or people on it ever; you'd be surprised at how often this happens and how often they forget to turn on mute. 

Good luck!