A couple of years ago, most of us were in-office. 

In many industries, remote work was rare — which means, if you did have hybrid meetings, it probably consisted of one lone remote worker popping up on a TV in a conference room like Big Brother. 

(Which, I’m guessing, also made pizza parties more awkward.) 
A couple years ago, we had one remote employee at our company.

But in 2025, the script has flipped. Now, you’re just as likely to see most of your team remote and only one person in-office.

We’re all skilled at virtual meetings, and we all know how to approach face-to-face, too.

But what about the combo? 

Here are five tips for running an efficient hybrid meeting that doesn’t make someone say, “Should we just take this at our desks?” 

What is a hybrid meeting? 

A hybrid meeting involves both in-person and virtual attendees. If your company allows for flexible work, you’ve likely been an attendee of a hybrid meeting yourself.

Simply put, it’s a meeting where some people are in-office or in a shared physical location, and others are joining the meeting virtually.

Hybrid meetings aren't going anywhere. With 73% of companies keeping their remote and hybrid policies unchanged this year, this is clearly the new normal. 

And while 69% of managers say hybrid work has made their teams more productive, the meeting experience itself still needs some work.

Hybrid meetings come with unique challenges. You need the technology to work efficiently between a conference room and a video platform. Otherwise, you’re at risk of calling a meeting that only some members can participate in.

Hybrid meetings are also more likely to create an unbalanced dynamic between virtual and in-person employees, where the in-person folks feel more comfortable chatting amongst each other, or the virtual attendees are less inclined to participate than they would if all employees were virtual. 

Strong hybrid meetings start with effective technology. Owl Labs’ 360-degree conferencing device is a great example — it automatically zooms in on the active speaker while offering a panoramic view of the room. The result: remote participants feel fully present and are able to follow the conversation as if they were actually in the room.

Next, let’s jump into some tips for creating an effective hybrid meeting environment. 

How to facilitate an effective hybrid meeting 

1. Make sure you actually need to host a meeting.

This one can feel a little obvious, but it’s worth stating before we go any further. What’s the purpose of your meeting? Can it be done async, or is it important to get people, whether physically or virtually, into a room together?

If it’s a general check-in on how a project is progressing, for instance, it might be just as easy to host an async Slack conversation where folks send status updates.

To host an effective hybrid meeting, you’ll want to have a clear goal that all participants are aware of before the meeting begins.

I’d suggest sharing the agenda with team members ahead of the meeting. Let them know what decisions you need made, and why those specific folks are involved. There’s no reason your meetings need to feel like a game of Guess Who?

2. Stop assuming the tech will "just work."

Alarmingly, employees lose an average of six minutes just getting hybrid meetings started, according to Owl Lab’s 2025 State of Hybrid Work.

And more than a quarter lose 10+ minutes just to set up the tech.

That wasted time adds up to a loss of productivity, and doesn’t set the stage for a constructive or rewarding meeting.

Before your meeting, do a tech check. And I don't mean "log in 30 seconds early." I mean, test the camera angles, check the audio, and make sure remote folks can actually see and hear what's happening in the room.

If you're not willing to show up five minutes early to verify the setup works, don't schedule a hybrid meeting. Just make it virtual for everyone.

3. Treat remote employees the same as in-person folks. 

We’ve all been the remote employee who feels a little like a weird spectator for a mostly in-person meeting, and that’s exactly what you want to avoid.

To combat this, make sure you’re using tools that are accessible to both virtual and in-person attendees. For instance, rather than using a physical whiteboard, consider using a digital one, like Whiteboard Owl.

Additionally, if you’re taking notes or brainstorming, use one shared Google Doc or Slide Deck that both in-person and virtual attendees can access and update in real-time.

If in-person folks are dominating the space, pause to explicitly ask virtual employees to unmute and share any ideas they have, as well. You might even assign a facilitator to keep track of who hasn’t spoken and to check-in with those employees to see if they have anything to add.

4. Warm up participants at the beginning of the meeting.

Icebreakers can feel weird and unnecessary, but it’s important to give people a chance to speak before jumping into the agenda. 

This allows your participants to “warm up” to speaking, and helps facilitate a more natural flow between virtual and in-person conversation.

Your icebreaker could be a prompt like “What show are you bingeing on Netflix right now?” or even a simple check-in on how team members are feeling that day. This doesn’t have to take long, but it will help you break down some of the barriers between virtual and in-person employees.

5. End meetings by 4 PM, and build in buffer time. 

To encourage higher participation and create a more engaging hybrid meeting, timing is everything.

Most (82%) employees don’t want to be sitting on meetings past 4 PM. They’d prefer to be wrapping up for the day or decompressing after hours of staring at a screen.

Similarly, no one wants to be in a hybrid meeting before their first coffee sinks in, which is why 70% of employees believe before 8 AM is too early.

If you’re in control of the scheduling, do so wisely. Choose a time between the hours of 8 AM and 4 PM, and make sure you’re building in buffer time (if possible) for people coming from other meetings. Make sure you adjust for time zones, too.

Give all participants the best chance of showing up fresh and engaged for your hybrid meeting.

6. Ask for feedback.

If you’re new to hosting hybrid meetings, it’s not going to go perfectly. That’s okay.

Ask your virtual and in-person employees to submit feedback (send out an anonymous form if you think that’s more likely to garner real responses) on what worked and what didn’t.

The quality of a hybrid meeting comes down to one thing: How deliberately you run it. You can have the fanciest video equipment or the most meticulous meeting agenda, but if you aren’t asking your team if they feel genuinely included — and doing something based on that feedback — none of it matters.