If your company has a lot of video conferences, you might constantly be looking for ways to make these sessions more engaging for your staff. Some video conferences tend to be long and dull, but one way to make people excited about this regular occurrence is to occasionally have a catered lunch available. Your corporate catering service can set the food up at one end of the board room so that your employees can help themselves as they enter the room and munch away as the meeting goes on. Here are some topics to consider as you think about the food that you want to order.

Quiet Options

There's nothing wrong with employees eating during a video conference, but you don't want the food to be disruptive. Think about what options will be quiet for people to eat. Chips and dip might seem tantalizing, but the crunchiness of the chips will sound very loud to the people on the other end of the conference. While you'll encourage your staff members to mute themselves as they eat, you can count on some people forgetting to do so at times. Food that is softer — options such as mac and cheese, chili, and soup, for example — can be significantly quieter to eat.

One-Handed Options

You don't want people's catered lunch to get in the way of the video conference. One thing to think about is choosing food that people can eat with one hand. This means that they'll be able to keep one hand free to jot some notes or perhaps use a tablet in front of them. If someone needs both hands to eat — which could be the case if you were to order pasta dishes with long noodles — the person may be more focused on holding the food than paying attention. Options such as veggies and dip can be ideal because people can eat this fare with just one hand.

Tidy Options

You'll also want to consider the tidiness of your menu. The last thing that you need during your video conference is to have someone spill his or her lunch and make a scene. Some food choices can lead to a mess — fajitas or tacos, for example, aren't exactly tidy to eat. Someone who spills food during the session will have to get up and clean it, which can be a disruption for those around him or her and even those on the other end of the conference. Sandwiches, meanwhile, are easy to eat without a mess.