COVID-19 has changed the way we all work. Online meetings became the norm at the start of the pandemic and we are slowly adjusting to a situation where hybrid meetings (meaning face to face gatherings with a degree of online participation) are to become standard fare, moving forward. To pave the way for the new normal, IEC and ISO have jointly prepared a new guide on how to plan and run committee and working group meetings to ensure the highest level of participation (taking into account the different time zones), build the best consensus and speed up progress for the standardization projects.

The guide also provides guidance on what kind of decisions can be made between meetings to ensure the progress of standards and other actions and projects in the various technical committees.

Three new abbreviations were agreed upon:

• F2F – Face to face meetings

• HYM - Hybrid meetings

• VRM - Virtual meetings

The guide gives an overview of how and when announce meeting dates, send out the agenda and documents required before as well as the minutes after they have taken place. It also gives advice on how to network during virtual and hybrid events.

This is the first version of the guide. Both organizations will gather user experience as a basis to develop the guide further.

For more information: IEC and ISO guide