For remote work teams, daily stand-ups are often essential. They keep everybody updated on what\u2019s going on and allow team members to pivot their daily tasks when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, they\u2019re usually also boring and inefficient\u2014whether it\u2019s because your boss drones on forever<\/em> or because the meeting that was supposed to take 5 minutes turns into an hour-long discussion of an unrelated issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Waitroom<\/a>\u2014a new video-conferencing platform\u2014aims to change all that. Founded by Vinny Lingham, Margaret Grobler and Michael Gaylord, the platform originally allowed fans to watch their favorite people. But it soon morphed into team meeting software with three unusual new features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Timed Queues: <\/strong>Want to make a point? Better get in line! Waitroom allows participants to talk only if they join a queue\u2014and then makes them get to the point within a predetermined amount of time. (The platform does have a feature that allows you to chime in as long as you receive permission.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Limited Video: <\/strong>If you\u2019re not the main speaker, your video is automatically turned off. This is supposed to minimize distractions and improve efficiency. (Although honestly, this seems like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I won\u2019t be distracted by my coworkers\u2019 cats; on the other hand, it\u2019s much harder to pay attention to boring meetings if I know nobody\u2019s watching me scroll through my phone.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI-Assisted Summaries:<\/strong> Always wanted to work with robots? Now\u2019s your chance. Waitroom now automatically creates meeting summaries and analyses with their recent GPT-4 integration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Waitroom might be particularly helpful for global teams. They\u2019re currently working on Summa, an AI assistant who can translate in real time and provide background information from other sources, like Slack<\/a> and Notion. Summa will also summarize any portion of the meeting that you missed if you arrive late (or leave early). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interested? You can watch Waitroom in action here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n